In the Thirties and Forties of the 20th Century Pulp Fiction (and the capitals are intended) was king. Short, well written, filled with adventure, and best of all, spanned almost every genre imaginable. It suffered from sneers of the literati who wanted their books to be lengthy, dense and unapproachable by the “masses.” Fortunately Pulp Fiction did not suffer fools gladly and continued providing wonderful entertainment to millions of all ages. It was, at the basic level, the short story format, which in itself has frequently been said to “be lost to this generation.” Another fleering comment and was untrue then and is now. In fact, in this day and age of the Ebook read on your smart phone and YouTube shorts watched on your tablet the short story format is alive and well.
And The Iron Duke is a great way to become acquainted with those wonderful stories from the golden age of Pulp Fiction. Just 77 pages long and set in the 1930's, it captures the adventures of a delightful rascal, Blackie Lee, running from the Nazi’s. Escaping to the kingdom of Aldoria he discovers that he has a pronounced resemblance to the ruler of that little country. I am sure many of you are now thinking of that wonderful story “The Prisoner of Zenda” as well you should. Mix in the evil genius named Balchard, a lovely Countess Zita, and of course, a bumbling sidekick named Stub the plot whirls along. Blackie has his work cut out for him what with undermining a Communist plot (yes, the communists were a threat even back then) to rig elections, prevent the real Iron Duke (a drunk dissolute sort of fellow) from ruining lovely Aldoria and, as is essential in such stories, win the Countess’ heart but perhaps not her hand. All of this in 77 pages!
The book also has a very good biography of L. Ron Hubbard who, in my mind, is a true polymath. I have not seen the other books in the series but I suspect that each of them will contain the same information so I will not bore you with details except to say even this is fascinating reading.
So how can you not buy this book? Well if you hate adventure stories, want your reading material to be lengthy and verbose and find romance to be beneath you don’t buy it. Otherwise join us in celebrating the return of the short story and dive in. I mut warn you though: it is addictive!
