Review - The Sky Devil

The Sky Devil
By L. Ron Hubbard
Director: Jim Meskimen and Tait Ruppert
Voice Cast: Yasmine Hanani, Corey Burton, R.F. Daley, John Mariano, Jim Meskimen, Tait Ruppert,Fred Tatasciore, Josh R. Thompson and Michael Yurchak
Studio: Galaxy Audio
Release Date: October 21, 2013
ISBN: 978-1592123292
Running Time: 2hrs 38mins.

Review:

Galaxy Press has been releasing L. Ron Hubbard's short stories onto audiobooks, featuring a talented voice-cast and outstanding sound effects. All the short stories used come form the Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s, a time when the newsstands were covered with pulp magazines containing great adventures from well-known authors to amateur writers.

Coming out tomorrow is "The Sky Devil" by L. Ron Hubbard, which originally appeared in the September 1935 issue of Top-Notch. At a running time of over an hour, the story centers on the American pilot Vic Kennedy, who happens to find himself on the wrong side of the Greek war after he had personally brought in the rebel leader to the ancient city of Alexandria, but he now finds himself as an outsider. He has nowhere to go as the British won't let him stay, the French don't want him and the Greek wants him dead!

Wounded and with his plane running low on fuel, Vic makes the decision to land in the Sahara oasis, heal his wound and get more fuel. At least that was his original plan until he crosses path with a beautiful captive princess. Her father (the King) is forcing her to marry an ugly man, whom she doesn't love. When she meets Vic, she mistakes him for a genie known as The Sky Devil. Vic will be praying for a real genie or a miracle if he is going to survive the Sahara and save the princess.

There are two more stories on the two-disc audiobook, Buckley Plays A Hunch and Medals For Mahoney. In Bucky Plays A Hunch, a boat captain goes to the Marianas Islands to search for a missing exploratory team, only to find out that the team doesn't want to leave. In Medals For Mahoney, an American solider guarding a warehouse on the Kamling Island gets more than he bargained for when there is a standoff between a general manager and the a tribe of headhunters.

After reviewing several audiobooks Stories From the Golden Age, The Sky Devil happens to be the longest, but it didn't actually feel like it was that long as all three adventure stories caught my interest from the very beginning and time flew by quickly. Though The Sky Devil isn't the best of L. Ron Hubbard's short stories, it is still entertaining. I only wish other short stories by the countless authors from the golden age would be reprinted or brought out as an audiobook for new generations of readers.

*Disclaimer - I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.