The Black Sultan
4/5
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About this ebook
Meet Eddie Moran, a slightly disreputable American cooling his heels in French Morocco. And don’t be surprised if the young Cary Grant comes to mind, because Eddie’s as smooth as they come, one step ahead of the game…and of the police.
Who’s after him? Just about everybody. What’s he done? A bit of everything—smuggler, revolutionary, whatever crooked little scheme will pay for his next meal or next drink. But Eddie’s latest caper is one he may not be able to escape…even if he wants to.
Stumbling into a fight between a couple of Berber chieftains, Eddie lands in a prison run by The Black Sultan. He may be a captive of the Sultan, but he’s captivated by a stunning young woman the Sultan means to add to his harem. For her, Eddie might just go straight—if he can get them out of this hellhole alive.
When The Black Sultan was originally published, Hubbard said that writers too often “forget a great deal of the languorous quality which made the Arabian Nights so pleasing. Jewels, beautiful women, towering cities filled with mysterious shadows, sultans equally handy with robes of honor and the beheading sword.… These things still exist, undimmed, losing no luster to the permeating Occidental flavor which reaches even the far corners of the earth today.” Hubbard brings this unique insight to his stories of North Africa and the Legionnaires, investing them with an authenticity of time, place and character that kept his readers asking for more.
Also includes the adventure story, “Escape for Three,” in which a bold trio of French Legionnaires come to the rescue of their great leader—only to decide he may not be so great after all.
“Action, strong characters, suspense, snappy dialogue, and titillating romance.” —Publishers Weekly
L. Ron Hubbard
With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 350 million copies of his works in circulation, L. Ron Hubbard is among the most enduring and widely read authors of our time. As a leading light of American Pulp Fiction through the 1930s and '40s, he is further among the most influential authors of the modern age. Indeed, from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, there is scarcely a master of imaginative tales who has not paid tribute to L. Ron Hubbard. Then too, of course, there is all L. Ron Hubbard represents as the Founder of Dianetics and Scientology and thus the only major religion born in the 20th century.
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Reviews for The Black Sultan
31 ratings11 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excellent production and acting make for a fun listen. Questionable content for younger listeners. Content is not edited for current political correctness, so overly sensative listeners may balk. No Scientology within.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I received several of these Hubbard audio books from librarything.com. Eddie Moran is an adventurer who has returned to Morocco after several exciting years in French Indochina. He is promptly arrested by the Légion étrangère for crimes committed in Asia but is reprieved by Sheik el'Zidan, a blond, Oxford-educated, horse thief. Moran is broke and accepts a job with el'Zidan but on his way to el'Zidan's HQ he is intercepted by the Black Sultan, el'Zidan's arch enemy and pretender to his throne. Moran escapes and manages to rescue Sheila Gordon, a captive in the Black Sultan's harem. Hubbard's descriptions are colorful and exciting and feel accurate within the context of the pulp tradition. It's a good story but the book's production shortfalls lower its rating. The most damaging of these are the poorly managed edits that leave dead spots in the dialogue. The multicast presentation is good, although Christine Huntington, as Sheila Gordon, does not have a pleasant voice and her accent is peculiar. She puts the emphasis on the wrong word in many of her lines.As expected in this series, the background effects are quite good, but this book is not as well produced as the others. In addition to the dead spots in the dialogue, track one on each disc is poorly recorded and the introductory music is scratchy. The slip cover illustration is not a good one. The hero looks more like a gaucho riding an appaloosa than an American, dressed in a silk Berber jellaba, riding a white Arab stallion. Galaxy Press might have an excuse if this illustration is taken from the cover art for the original publication. This recording also includes the Short Story "Escape for Three." I wonder at the choice as the American in the story is "Lieutenant Marain" which sounds too much like Eddie Moran of the companion story. The story is brutal and the trick at the end harks from an era with different myths.We can imagine that Galaxy Press, publishers of these audiobooks, is a Scientologist outfit, but there is nothing that points directly to a link.You need to save the cast list that comes in the mailer because there seems to be no other list online or in the main packaging of these Galaxy Press audio books.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I received this as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.Despite my misgivings about L.Ron Hubbard and Scientology, I love his pulp fiction.This story is fast paced and had enough twists and turns to keep you turning the page.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great audio book I'm truly enjoying listing to each of the different stories it's different to listen to a book instead of reading it from a book, it's so intense listen to these books with music that play's into them can't wait to listen to the next set of audio book's great author and narrators will listen to the rest looking forward to it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I received 'The Black Sultan" by L. Ron Hubbard from Galaxy Press as a review copy for Library Thing Member giveaways. The Black Sultan is about Eddie Moran who is about to be captured in Morocco by the French Foreign Legion. He sees bullets flying at two gentlemen who turn out to be the American vice consul and the other is the recently deposed Berber leader El Zidan. The Black Sultan is full of action and suspense. Plus it also has a little romance. Corey Burton gives an awesome audio performance! I love and enjoy these stories from The Golden Age! To call these stories "audio books" is not giving them enough credit. They are more like an audio play. They are just like listening to the old radio broadcast shows of the 1930's and 1940's. Stories from The Golden Age brings back the magic of the pulp stories.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eddie Moran is an American in Morocco. Unwittingly he involves himself in a war between El Zidan, Berber leader, and the Black Sultan, usurper to the throne.This is part of the "Stories from the Golden Age" series. They are multicast audiobooks. It really has the feel of an old time radio broadcast.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reviewed for LibraryThing as an early reviewer.Story synopsis: The Black Sultan - Danger and romance find American Eddie Moran in mysterious Morocco. Here he meets British educated Berber leader El Zidan, as well as Shelia Gordon, a damsel in distress. Both the evil Black Sultan and the French Foreign Legion seem determined to bury Eddie under the Atlas Mountains in which they battle.Escape for Three – Three French Foreign Legionnaires plot to rescue/kidnap their Lieutenant from a Berber stronghold. They then plan to whisk him to Morocco and demand payment for their actions. Review: The Black Sultan - The story and setting are typical of pre-World War II adventure fiction ~ the bad guys lose and the hero gets the girl. Chapters end in ‘cliff hangers’ amidst gun battles, knife fights and daring escapes. The story is well read by the actors, and the sound effects are appropriate and well done; the sound quality is good. This fast-paced thriller is as enjoyable as it is predictable. The plot is well crafted, and for the time it was written, a bit racy. If you enjoy ‘old time radio’, you will get so involved in the telling of the tale that you will be surprised that ninety minutes have passed.Escape for Three – The actors ‘chew the scenery’ a bit in this rendition. Some of the accents are difficult to understand, but overall the presentation works well. The plot is in the O’Henry style, providing an unexpected ending.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Received this as an audiobook to review. It is an excellent example of the pulp fiction genre of the American in the Morrocan desert. Main character is on the run from the French foriegn legion and saves the life of a rich sultan. Proceeds to get on the bad side of another sultan (enemy of the first one), falls in love with a damsel in distress, rescues her, escapes the bad guys and wins the girl and gets a job with the "good" sultan. Happily ever after. Only weirdness is the occaisional britishisms coming from supposed Americans. The audiobook is voice acted so easy to get caught up in the action. I prefer voice acted books to ones just read aloud by a single person.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved it so much
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I don't recommend this book, because philosophy is always woven into a writers works, and this author's philosophy is strange. This is good production for an audio book, but it is the content that I dislike from a philosophical perspective.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the first time I read anything from L. Ron Hubbard. I was very pleased with the two stories that were in this book. The Black Sultan is the main story and was great. Escape for Three was the second story and it also was great. I won this book in a giveaway on goodreads for an honest review. Hubbard was a genius of his time and I look forward to reading more of his work.
Book preview
The Black Sultan - L. Ron Hubbard
SELECTED FICTION WORKS
BY L. RON HUBBARD
FANTASY
The Case of the Friendly Corpse
Death’s Deputy
Fear
The Ghoul
The Indigestible Triton
Slaves of Sleep & The Masters of Sleep
Typewriter in the Sky
The Ultimate Adventure
SCIENCE FICTION
Battlefield Earth
The Conquest of Space
The End Is Not Yet
Final Blackout
The Kilkenny Cats
The Kingslayer
The Mission Earth Dekalogy*
Ole Doc Methuselah
To the Stars
ADVENTURE
The Hell Job series
WESTERN
Buckskin Brigades
Empty Saddles
Guns of Mark Jardine
Hot Lead Payoff
A full list of L. Ron Hubbard’s
novellas and short stories is provided at the back.
*Dekalogy: a group of ten volumes
Title Page art from the cover of the bookPublished by
Galaxy Press, LLC
7051 Hollywood Boulevard, Suite 200
Hollywood, CA 90028
© 2013 L. Ron Hubbard Library. All Rights Reserved.
Any unauthorized copying, translation, duplication, importation or distribution, in whole or in part, by any means, including electronic copying, storage or transmission, is a violation of applicable laws.
Mission Earth is a trademark owned by L. Ron Hubbard Library and is used with permission. Battlefield Earth is a trademark owned by Author Services, Inc. and is used with permission.
Escape for Three story illustration: © 1936 Metropolitan Magazines, Inc. Reprinted with permission of Hachette Filipacchi Media. Story Preview cover art from Top-Notch Magazine and horsemen illustration from Western Story Magazine are © and ™ Condé Nast Publications and are used with their permission. Fantasy, Far-Flung Adventure and Science Fiction illustrations: Unknown and Astounding Science Fiction copyright © by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of Penny Publications, LLC.
ISBN 978-1-59212-489-3 ePub version
ISBN 978-1-59212-353-7 print version
ISBN 978-1-59212-145-8 audiobook version
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007903605
Contents
FOREWORD
THE BLACK SULTAN
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
ESCAPE FOR THREE
STORY PREVIEW:
TRICK SOLDIER
L. RON HUBBARD
IN THE GOLDEN AGE
OF PULP FICTION
THE STORIES FROM THE
GOLDEN AGE
GLOSSARY
FOREWORD
Stories from
Pulp Fiction’s
Golden Age
AND it was a golden age.
The 1930s and 1940s were a vibrant, seminal time for a gigantic audience of eager readers, probably the largest per capita audience of readers in American history. The magazine racks were chock-full of publications with ragged trims, garish cover art, cheap brown pulp paper, low cover prices—and the most excitement you could hold in your hands.
Pulp
magazines, named for their rough-cut, pulpwood paper, were a vehicle for more amazing tales than Scheherazade could have told in a million and one nights. Set apart from higher-class slick
magazines, printed on fancy glossy paper with quality artwork and superior production values, the pulps were for the rest of us,
adventure story after adventure story for people who liked to read. Pulp fiction authors were no-holds-barred entertainers—real storytellers. They were more interested in a thrilling plot twist, a horrific villain or a white-knuckle adventure than they were in lavish prose or convoluted metaphors.
The sheer volume of tales released during this wondrous golden age remains unmatched in any other period of literary history—hundreds of thousands of published stories in over nine hundred different magazines. Some titles lasted only an issue or two; many magazines succumbed to paper shortages during World War II, while others endured for decades yet. Pulp fiction remains as a treasure trove of stories you can read, stories you can love, stories you can remember. The stories were driven by plot and character, with grand heroes, terrible villains, beautiful damsels (often in distress), diabolical plots, amazing places, breathless romances. The readers wanted to be taken beyond the mundane, to live adventures far removed from their ordinary lives—and the pulps rarely failed to deliver.
In that regard, pulp fiction stands in the tradition of all memorable literature. For as history has shown, good stories are much more than fancy prose. William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas—many of the greatest literary figures wrote their fiction for the readers, not simply literary colleagues and academic admirers. And writers for pulp magazines were no exception. These publications reached an audience that dwarfed the circulations of today’s short story magazines. Issues of the pulps were scooped up and read by over thirty million avid readers each month.
Because pulp fiction writers were often paid no more than a cent a word, they had to become prolific or starve. They also had to write aggressively. As Richard Kyle, publisher and editor of Argosy, the first and most long-lived of the pulps, so pointedly explained: The pulp magazine writers, the best of them, worked for markets that did not write for critics or attempt to satisfy timid advertisers. Not having to answer to anyone other than their readers, they wrote about human beings on the edges of the unknown, in those new lands the future would explore. They wrote for what we would become, not for what we had already been.
Some of the more lasting names that graced the pulps include H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Max Brand, Louis L’Amour, Elmore Leonard, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, John D. MacDonald, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein—and, of course, L. Ron Hubbard.
In a word, he was among the most prolific and popular writers of the era. He was also the most enduring—hence this series—and certainly among the most legendary. It all began only months after he first tried his hand at fiction, with L. Ron Hubbard tales appearing in Thrilling Adventures, Argosy, Five-Novels Monthly, Detective Fiction Weekly, Top-Notch, Texas Ranger, War Birds, Western Stories, even Romantic Range. He could write on any subject, in any genre, from jungle explorers to deep-sea divers, from G-men and gangsters, cowboys and flying aces to mountain climbers, hard-boiled detectives and spies. But he really began to shine when he turned his talent to science fiction and fantasy of which he authored nearly fifty novels or novelettes to forever change the shape of those genres.
Following in the tradition of such famed authors as Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Jack London and Ernest Hemingway, Ron Hubbard actually lived adventures that his own characters would have admired—as an ethnologist among primitive tribes, as prospector and engineer in hostile climes, as a captain of vessels on four oceans. He even wrote a series of articles for Argosy, called Hell Job,
in which he lived and told of the most dangerous professions a man could put his hand to.
Finally, and just for good measure, he was also an accomplished photographer, artist, filmmaker, musician and educator. But he was first and foremost a writer, and that’s the L. Ron Hubbard we come to know through the pages of this volume.
This library of Stories from the Golden Age presents the best of L. Ron Hubbard’s fiction from the heyday of storytelling, the Golden Age of the pulp magazines. In these eighty volumes, readers are treated to a full banquet of 153 stories, a kaleidoscope of tales representing every imaginable genre: science fiction, fantasy, western, mystery, thriller, horror, even romance—action of all kinds and in all places.
Because the pulps themselves were printed on such inexpensive paper with high acid content, issues were not meant to endure. As the years go by, the original issues of every pulp from Argosy through Zeppelin Stories continue crumbling into brittle, brown dust. This library preserves the L. Ron Hubbard tales from that era, presented with a distinctive look that brings back the nostalgic flavor of those times.
L. Ron Hubbard’s Stories from the Golden Age has something for every taste, every reader. These tales will return you to a time when fiction was good clean entertainment and the most fun a kid could have on a rainy afternoon or the best thing an adult could enjoy after a long day at work.
Pick up a volume, and remember what reading is supposed to be all about. Remember curling up with a great story.
—Kevin J. Anderson
KEVIN J. ANDERSON is the author of more than ninety critically acclaimed works of speculative fiction, including The Saga of Seven Suns, the continuation of the Dune Chronicles with Brian Herbert, and his New York Times bestselling novelization of L. Ron Hubbard’s Ai! Pedrito!
The Black Sultan
CHAPTER ONE
El Zidan
THEIR medals were clinking, their rowels spun on the upward-curving pavement, their scarlet breeches put to shame the tropical brilliance of the Moroccan town. Encased in shining leather were their revolvers, gold lanyards attached.