An officer who meets an old nemesis, an enlisted man who
hates to walk, and a temporary officer who is always losing things. These are some
of the characters you will meet in this collection of three short stories from
L. Ron Hubbard.
In "Trick Soldier" a spit and polish captain
stationed in Haiti gets a new lieutenant only to discover that it is his old
nemesis from his early years in the Corps. Now they are thrown together with a
mutinous group of native soldiers on their hands. In "He Walked To
War" we are introduced to Sergeant Egbert Zacharia Golingame, known as EZ
Go to his comrades. All he wants is to get out of the infantry and into the air
corps because he doesn’t like to walk. He gets his transfer and more than he
bargained for. Finally in “Machine Gun 21,000” we meet Captain Blake who seems
to have a knack for losing things. This time it is a machine gun. And the enemy
has found it.
L. Ron Hubbard was one a very prolific author during the heyday
of pulp fiction. Trick Soldier
collects three of his action stories set in the jungles of Haiti and Central
America. Hubbard’s writing was of his time, but he is not unsympathetic towards
the natives that his characters face. The soldier’s are not gung-ho types.
Instead they are realistic ideas of the type of men who served in the Marine
Corps and went where they were sent and did their best in bad situations. This
is a very good collection, though a little short. It is well worth the time to pick up some
old, classic short stories from the golden age of pulps and lose yourself in
the fun.
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