Customer Reviews

If I Were You (Stories from the Golden Age) (English and English Edition)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story was fun, well-written and gives a personal flavor to each of the characters so that you feel like you're right there in the big-top with them as their whole world gets turned upside down.

The audio version of L. Ron Hubbard's "If I Were You" is an absolute top-notch production all the way. The music, sound effects, and multi-voice cast work beautifully together, and the slipcase packaging complete with a colorful, substantial booklet on the author adds further heft to the proceedings. I just wish the two dramatized stories were a little more involving. I guess I'm just not into circus settings (the first story) and whimsical gangsters (the second one). I will keep an eye out for other installments in this audio series, however. If the same excellent production and packaging is applied to a couple of Mr. Hubbard's better stories from the Golden Age of pulps, that would be some audio.

This was a great audio book. I felt like I was in a movie listening to this. Really high quality sound. I also really enjoyed the story and seeing the main character learn that "trying to be something other than who he was" didn't bring him happiness! Really good story, entertaining and just good, clean fantasy! I can't wait till the next Fantasy in the series comes out! I'm searching for it already!

"If I Were You"
by L. Ron Hubbard
Multicast Performance
produced by Galaxy Audio
approx 2 hours.

It's time once again to jump back in time when authors were paid around three cents a word and pulp magazines in every genre carried thrilling and fun stories. This time we are going to go to the fantasy genre with a couple of stories from the golden age, by L. Ron Hubbard.

Galaxy Audio and Galaxy Press have been re-issuing the short stories from L. Ron Hubbard's writing career of the mid 20th century. Hubbard wrote many stories spanning genres such as Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Sea and Air Adventures, Tales from the Orient, Westerns and more. In this audio book Galaxy Audio has put together 2 stories from the Fantasy genre to create an audio pulp magazine to rival all other pulps.

One of the key features of the Galaxy Audio releases is their super production quality. With original music, and subtle yet effective sound effects these audio books are like a great trip back to the days of radio dramas. The biggest factor in these productions is the superb vocal talents. All the books have a general cast of very talented voice actors that capture the larger than life characters that Hubbard created. In some of the audio books they feature some actors that offer a little more. In this audio book the lead character, circus midget, Little Tom Little, is portrayed by Nancy Cartwright, yes the same one that voices Bart Simpson. It's pretty cool to hear her voice, you recognize her, but as can be expected she can change it up enough to where she can still portray a circus midget without you having to say, "Hey, that's Bart Simpson." At first it does grab your attention but just like all the other voice talent in these audio books by Galaxy Audio it blends in and fits perfectly with the character in the story.

This audio book contains the following two stories.

"If I Were You" originally published in the February 1940 issue Five-Novels Monthly, turns out to be a morality tale of what truly makes a person, soul or stature. Circus attraction and King of the midgets, Little Tom Little is not happy with being a sideshow attraction. Tom wants to be the Ringleader. When the mysterious Professor calls Tom to his deathbed, Tom is amazed, the Professor never really liked him. But the Professor leaves Tom his entire collection of magical books. He tells Tom it's because he had the courage to make fun of the Professor with no fear of retaliation. Tom then goes back to his wife Maisy and tells here it is all about to change. Within the magical tomes is a spell marked specifically for Tom that allows him to jump from body to body.

Tom immediately wants to take advantage of this newfound power and become the circus' ringleader. The problem is that the ringleader Hermann Schmidt is a corrupt person and has been skimming off the top of the profits. This leads to Tom jumping from body to body and eventually landing in the body of the big cat tamer, Tom has a fear of the big cats, and Tom finds himself in giant-sized danger. The fun with this story is the unexpected twists Hubbard is able to throw in that keeps you guessing as to what will happen next.

"The Last Drop" was originally published in Astonishing Stories, November 1941 and is another story of big becoming little or big becoming small, therefore making a great story to accompany the main story. Euclid O'Brien and Harry McCloud are partners in bar ownership in New York. Euclid's Brother Aristotle has sent a bottle of some strange liquid which the natives call "swello." Mac (McCloud) takes the bottle as a dare and mixes an interesting concoction and gulps it down. Euclid warns him that it could mean trouble. Mac says nonsense and walks out the bar with no ill-effects, at least not yet. Soon a fly lands on the concoction and after feasting on the mixture begins to grow. The fly grows to the size of a dog and the patrons, along with Euclid immediately think of Mac. They put together the idea behind the mixture and realize they must mix up something to counter act the growing. After a while they mix up the swello with some other drink items and after testing on a fly have created a drink to reverse the process.

Before they can go after Mac, the local mob boss stops in for his monthly "protection" fee. Euclid is more worried about Mac and tries to get rid of the boss. Well the Boss drinks down the reverse formula and says that Euclid will be sorry, as he leaves. But before he leaves they notice the Boss Shrinking down.

The fun begins as the boss's henchmen demand a fight between Euclid (after being shrunk down) to settle the score. All this while Mac grows to super-size and becomes a threat to New York City.

With some humorous scenes and antics by all the characters this story is a fun one from the Golden Age of Stories.
http://gilwilson.wordpress.com

This was the first Hubbard pulp fiction book I managed to read so I went in not really knowing what to expect. The title story is a quick read and the story is definitely pulpy and fun. It isn't one that would really stick with me however, and I was continually reminded of Tod Browning's 'Freaks', although the two stories are vastly dissimilar. It just lacked the means to really engage me. The second story 'The Last Drop', was much more comedic and somewhat anti-climatic. Nevertheless, I was happy I got to read this book, and I'll probably read his other pulp fiction stories that are being released.

That being said, I was a little annoyed by how much space is used in the book to outline Hubbard's career, as well as a bibliography of his pulp fiction. I think that there is an excessive amount of advertising tied to Hubbard, and for some reason, that bothers me as I'm trying to approach Hubbard as a writer of pulp and fantastic fiction, rather than a writer for he is most well-known for it seems.

Three stars for the content and minus two for the excessive Hubbardism that populates the pages.

Published in 2008 by Galaxy Audio
Multicast performance with music and sound effects
Duration: approximately 2 hours.

This audiobook is actually two very entertaining short stories written by L. Ron Hubbard when he first began his writing career writing for class pulp fiction magazines. The stories are performed by multiple actors and include music and sound effects to help the story move along.

The first story ("If I Were You") has a celebrity voice, Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson for the last 23 years. She portrays Little Tom Little, a midget in a traveling circus who, despite his great success, wants to be big more than anything else. A mysterious circus magician (who really dislikes Tom) leaves Little Tom Little his magic books when he dies with instructions for Tom to look for a certain spell - a spell that allows someone to change bodies with another person. Tom finds the spell, follows the instructions and begins to understand that this blessing may well have been a curse from his old enemy.

The second story ("The Last Drop") is the more fun of the two. It involves a bartender who is sent a secret ingredient from his brother in Borneo. The ingredient causes people to shrink or to grow, depending on the amount they consume. The characters don't realize this before they consume it as part of an experimental new drink at the bar, though!

"If I were you" is a pair of short stories originally published in Pulp magazine. The first is "If I were You," about Little Tom Little, midget performer in the circus. The second is about a bartender who doesn't head the warnings on a bottle of syrup from Borneo. Also included is a short biography of L.Ron Hubbard. There is also a short teaser for another book.

This is the best formatted kindle book I have read before, the glossary has links to all the terms in the books, making it easy to look up 1930's colloquialisms. The stories are very good and quick to read. The character development of Little Tom Little is very good, and it drives the plot towards a great moral lesson. The biography is interesting and tastefully glosses over any controversial parts of L. Ron Hubbard's life, focusing solely on his literary credentials.

The teaser for another book is annoying, it is at the final 2/3s mark and is followed by the much longer biography leaving it to feel out of place. The second story is not as good, which is not much of a complaint, but, it would be nice to have a stronger follow up to "If I Were You," given the large number of titles Mr. Hubbard produced.

"If I were You" is a good short story and for free it is a great investment. I hope other publishers will notice the excellent use of the abilities of the kindle and learn to make more links that lead to footnotes or glossaries.

I only read the first story about little tom little but it was good. Tom little discovers truth by the end of the story and makes him a better him which makes the story a good one!

I don't know why, but I really liked the main character, Tom Little. Reminded me a bit of Miles Vorkosigan, and not just because they're both short. A bit of the 'refuse-to-lose' attitude without being cocky about it.
Great adventure, and with enough plot twists to keep you going. It'd make a great short film script for art students to use.

This was an awesome book. I just love it so much. L ron hubbard is my favorite fiction author of all time and this is because he is able to write a book that absolutely pulls you into the story and supercharges your imagination. This book was just compelling!!