The Great Secret (Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Stories Collection) ((Science Fiction Short Stories Collection))
by By Hubbard, L. Ron
Category: Fiction , Romance , Collections & Anthologies

Women.  Liquor.  Power.  Women.  Liquor.  Power.  That  is Fanner Marston’s mantra—his reason for being—and while he knows a  little about the first and a lot about the second, he may well be on the  verge of learning everything there is to know about the third.  Power.   He may, in fact, be about to uncover the key to gaining absolute  control over the entire universe.  The only problem is, Fanner is  certifiably insane—a crazed Peter Lorre on a power trip….His  starship has crash-landed, and he’s the sole survivor, which doesn’t  matter to him.  Driven by greed and lust for power, wracked by thirst,  hunger and pain, all he cares about is reaching the ancient city of  Parva and making himself at home.  Because there lies The Great Secret  to universal domination—and what’s a little suffering on the road to  becoming God?Does Fanner have a prayer?  The writing’s on the walls of Parva—and you won’t believe what it says. . . .By   the spring of 1938, Hubbard’s stature as a writer was well  established.  As author and critic Robert Silverberg puts it: he had  become a “master  of the art of narrative.” Hubbard’s editors urged him  to apply his gift  for succinct characterization, original plot, deft  pacing and  imaginative action to genres that were new, and essentially  foreign, to  him—science fiction and fantasy. The rest is SciFi history.Also   includes the Science Fiction adventures, The Space Can, in which a   decrepit space battleship is a civilian fleet’s only defense; The Beast,   the tale of a hunter in the jungles of Venus, chasing an immoral  beast;  and The Slaver, in which an alien race has enslaved the human  race, but  can’t repress the power of human love.“Serves as a wonderful introduction to the breadth of Hubbard’s output.”  —Comic Buyers Guide