Book Review: The Professor Was a Thief (L Ron Hubbard)

"'It's gone.'

'Well!' said Sergeant Kelly. 'Don't just stand there like a jackanapes! Speak up! What's gone?'

'The Empire State Building,' said Patrolman O'Rourke." - L Ron Hubbard

First of all, don't panic:  there is no Scientology involved with this set of short stories.  At least, I didn't pick up on any blatant pushing of Scientology; this is simply a small handful of good old fashioned sci-fi fun (and I think L Ron Hubbard gets too much of a bad rap for the whole Scientology thing; the man makes fun stories, and that all I care about).

First in this line up is the Professor Was a Thief, which is a pretty weird little noir-style mystery, featuring a reporter going out and finding a number of New York buildings being shrunk down to toy-sized trinkets.  It's pretty amusing at times, pretty intriguing overall, and it is a pretty fun read.

Afterward, the Battle of Wizards is presented.  This is a pretty clever story about humans wanting to take control of some alien planet, and needed to drive away some natives (not too dissimilar from the movie Avatar).  So, they demonstrate the power of science, in direct opposition to the natives' shaman magic.  It's a pretty fascinating look at the clash between the power of human progress, and primitive instinct (mmmmm...maybe there's a bit of Scientology in that...).

Lastly, this collection features The Dangerous Dimension.  In this tale, a professor is able to will himself to any place in the universe he wants, and winds up jumping around all over the place without being able to stop.  Hilarity ensues.

Each of these stories are very light-weight, very fast and easy to read, and quite fun overall.  They don't spend much time on character depth or building great plotlines, but they offer a quick burst of amusing sci-fi adventure.

The author use a very spartan style, presenting these stories with as little fluff as possible.  He uses just enough description to set the scene, leaving the dialogue and action to drive the stories.  The style tends to be very simple, perhaps even unsophisticated, but it is one of the things that makes this a very fast and easy read.

These stories were pretty fun, and may satisfy sci-fi fans wanting something fast and easy.  If you're looking for something with more meat to it, there are better tales to be found.

4/5 (Entertainment:  Perfect | Stories:  Pretty Good | Book:  Average)