Hurtling Wings

October 25, 2010
Death-defying aerial feats, prophetic dreams, and common thugs come together in this pulp tale by Hubbard. Cal Bradley meets with a series of self-destructing airplanes as he competes to win in the National Air Meet, which could gain him fame and lucrative contracts for his company. As he barely escapes death with each flight, Bradley discovers who is behind his technical failures. Though the story is antiquated, the audio production brings it to life through a full cast, sound effects, and musical score. As narrator, R.F. Daley provides a deep, hammy voice that embodies the nostalgic mood of most pulp fiction, and his emphatic delivery brims with energy. A Galaxy hardcover.

November 15, 2010

These four latest entries in Galaxy Press's "Stories from the Golden Age" series, a line of multicast audiobooks and trade pbs based on short stories by Hubbard published in pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, follow The Baron of Coyote River, Dead Men Kill, Golden Hell, and Yukon Madness (all reviewed in LJ Audio 3/15/10). The settings are exotic and romantic: a railway construction site in Sudan (All Frontiers Are Jealous), a Montana cattle ranch (Cattle King for a Day), the Mongolian plains (in bonus story "Hurricane's Roar"), and a Buddhist monastery in Tibet (The Trail of the Red Diamonds). The characters are unabashedly stereotyped: the good guys are heroes, the bad guys are nasty warlords, greedy bankers, or black-hearted rustlers, and the women are plucky and beautiful. Two of the four discs contain an extra story. A male narrator reads the text and a full cast of actors--ranging from three to five--voice the various characters. The dialog-to-narrative transitions can be awkward, but the stories' fast-moving pace is sure to keep listeners enthralled. Great fun for nostalgia buffs; recommended for tweens and up. [More at www.goldenagestories.com.--Ed.]--Nann Blaine Hilyard, Zion-Benton P.L., IL

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.