The Professor Was a Thief - Fantasy Short Stories Collection | Sci-Fi Adventure Book for Adults | Perfect for Commute Reading & Bedtime Stories

The reprint series from Galaxy Press continues where they are publishing all pulp fiction stories from L. Ron Hubbard, who later became founder of the Scientology organization. I prefer the science fiction stories, though critics and even people in the street think he only wrote sci-fi.He wrote a lot of spy adventure and westerns as well, but these are not my cup of tea.I borrowed from my local library the volume called The Professor Was a Thief, which is actually an anthology of three stories printed in the 1940s. Why pay $20 a piece for the originals when they are all right here?By the way, the book is easily carried and in hardcover. It is complete with a glossary which comes in handy as I'm not that familiar with pre-World War II slang! These stories are written in pulp style, imaginative and silly. They were always meant to be throwaway mags at the time.The Professor Was a Thief, purported to be Hubbard's favorite pulp fiction tale, is about a disgruntled professor who has somehow invented a way of shrinking buildings and things at the atomic level so that they are very tiny. The story is also about a newspaper man who, at age 53, is being put out to pasture by a young punk kid, which kid became his boss due to the good graces of the managing editor and not about skill. It's a fun story because we see Pop as he takes the reins of the paper and gets out the story, and see how he's happiest when he's running and organizing the big story of the Penn Railroad Station suddenly disappearing. The professor though is a pretty dishonest if brilliant scientist who is used as a foil by Hubbard to show how a person who loves his work can make anything happen. Cute story.The Battle of Wizards is the weaker of the stories; about a scientific group that lands on a savage planet where magic is king. The captain sees these people as starving and having no agricultural methods and use infanticide and killing off their older populations to keep food on the table. He is challenged to show that science is greater than magic or vice versa and have a contest to the death. The ending was abrupt, but the story entertaining nonetheless.Finally, The Dangerous Dimension, Hubbard's first published sci-fi work (I used to have the original pulp, oh well). This tale is about a little nerd who is henpecked by his maid, and is the typical absent-minded professor. He develops an equation that enables him to transport himself (mind over matter) just by thinking of the place or it being suggested to him. The trouble is, he has not yet figured out the other equation that would give him some control over the situation. So when he thinks "Paris", he is in Paris. When someone says jump in the Martian canals, he then appears on Mars trying not to drown! It's humorous when he tells people to shut up when they are about to suggest where he can go next. As with most pulps, a silly ending.Hubbard's stories often involve men who don't seem to have a lot going for them but find that with a little effort and persistence make things happen in their lives and these three stories are certainly evidence of that.I do suggest reading all of these Galaxy Press stories. Who knows, maybe I'll check out some westerns!The Great Secret (Stories from the Golden Age)Under the Black EnsignBranded Outlaw (Stories from the Golden Age)