Pulp sci-fi hits best-seller list

It’s the year 3000 and things aren’t going well on Earth. There are only about 35,000 human beings left on the planet. The rest were wiped out by a deadly gas spread a thousand years earlier by the fierce Psychlos who conquered Earth (as they did many other planets in many universes) so they could mine its mineral resources.

The Psychlos allow the few humans (they call them animals) to live in isolated spots because they seem harmless – they’re much smaller than the Psychlos and lack the hair and claws that make their conquerors look so formidable. Also, the Psychlos like to hunt them for sport – there is no word for "cruel" in the Psychlo language.

Finally, after 10 centuries of domination, one lone man comes riding out of the Colorado mountains and takes on the dreaded Psychlos. His name is Jonnie Goodboy Tyler. He undergoes immense hardships and escapes death countless times as he strives to overcome the most evil creatures who ever existed.

Eventually other planets from other universes become involved, and Earth becomes a pawn in an interplanetary struggle.

If all this sounds like pulp science-fiction of the highest order, you’re exactly right. Hubbard, one of the early sci-fi authors, wrote this massive novel to celebrate his golden anniversary as a writer. And it’s quite a birthday present – 819 pages filled with the kind of adventures that used to show up in the great pulp magazines of the past decades.

It’s a rousing tale, and (dare I use the word?) an uplifting one as well, a saga of man’s struggle and triumph.

And if Hubbard’s written a big book – well, he tells a big story. After all, do you expect him to deal with the possible end of humanity in a novella?