"Ai! Pedrito! -When Intelligence Goes Wrong " by L. Ron Hubbard and Kevin J. Anderson

"Ai! Pedrito! -When Intelligence Goes Wrong "
by L. Ron Hubbard and Kevin J. Anderson
Multicast performance
Produced by Galaxy Audio
Approx 9 hours

Holy cow!  I have just finished a super fun action/adventure/comedy and I can't tell if I'm tired from laughing or the suspense, probably both.  "Ai! Pedrito!" is a great romp through the spy world mixing in the United States, the Russians, the Cubans, and the  small South American country Colodor .  This book is a parody of that spy world mixing up spies, double agents, lovers and enemies as seen through a nerdy very straight edged Naval Intelligence officer and sometimes through his doppleganger, a revolutionary, womanizer and heavy drinker.

"Ai! Pedrito!" was originally written as a screenplay by L. Ron Hubbard who said the events were based on an incident that happend to him in real life.  The screenplay was then novelized by Kevin J. Anderson.  Anderson whose works include the collaboration with Brian Herbert on the "Dune" series of books written and pieced together from material found after Frank Herbert's death.  Anderson is not a stranger to turning "found" material into great books, but most of his stuff is Science-Fiction, while this story has a very small piece of sci-fi to add to the fun, Anderson proved he can also work on comedy and adventure with this one.

The Russians and Cubans have developed a plan to steal secrets from the U.S. military by placing a revolutionary, by the name of Pedrito Miraflores into the office of U.S. Naval intelligence and in turn send Lt. J.G. Tom Smith to the small country of Colodor, while Pedrito steals the secrets.  What makes this the perfect plan is that Smith and Miraflores are mirror images of each other, in looks only.  While Smith spends his spare time reading history books and his drink of choice is milk, Miraflores' pasttime is womanizing and drinking tequila, oh, and starting revolutions in South America.   But these two redheads will be switching places and the mayhem begins.

Tom Smith is told he has won a free trip to the beautiful South American country of Colodor.  When he tells the representative from the sweepstakes he can't find Colodor on the map the rep tells him it's all due to a strike by the Mapmakers Union.  Tom takes the vacation as a chance to relax and get his mind away from the numerous blueprints of secret weapons and get a chance to read his book on great Naval battles.  When he arrives at the Colodor Airport he is accosted by a man that greets him with, "Ai! Pedrito!" and proceeds to shuffle Tom into the Airport bar insisting on buying him a drink.  When Tom insists he's not Pedrito, the man thinks Pedrito is undercover and says, "Don't worry Pedrito, your secret is safe with me."  This is how Lt. J.G. begins his life as Pedrito Miraflores.

Meanwhile, Pedrito begins stealing secrets and, when Smith's boss insists Pedrito date his daughter Pedrito cannot resist the chance to be with a beautiful woman.  But alas, this begins Pedrito's demise in America.

With each person beginning to absorb the other more and more as they are forced to live as each other until the mission is finished they both begin to realize that womanizing gets you nowhere (especially when the women can think of only getting married).  Smith seems to be doing more damage as Pedrito, when he blows up the US Embassy, by proxy, a secret CIA communications center and gets the US to bomb secret Cuban Missile silos.  All this is done under the constant watch of a mysterious master of disguise by the name of Bolo. 

With some funny constant running gags, such as the shout of "Ai! Pedrito!", Smith nearly recognizing Bolo each time, and the mapmaker's strike, this book will have you laughing out loud while on the edge of your seat wondering how it all turns out.  I will say that not until the very end will you know.  Hubbard had a knack for twists in a story and this one, I think, used every twist he could think of. 

This audio book is yet another superb production from Galaxy Audio.  Galaxy Audio has been turning all of Hubbard's pulp fiction stories into audio books and this latest release shows they are working on more of Hubbard's works I hope they keep on producing more of these excellent audio dramas, because I can't wait to listen to some of his sci-fi novels.  Galaxy Audio shows how an audiobook should be done, with excellent voice actors, special sound effects that are comparable to any major motion picture.  The incidental music through the book and especially between chapters perfectly represent the feel of the audio book, making the entire production a classic work of art.

Mixing in a comedy of errors, mistaken identity, espionage, and blundering officials, "Ai! Pedrito!.." is  a fun audiobook that will keep you on the edge of your seat with action and laughing out loud with great humor.

"Spy Killer" by L. Ron Hubbard

"Spy Killer"
by L. Ron Hubbard
Multicast performance
Produced by Galaxy Audio
approx 2 hours

Once again I dive into a Story from the Golden Age, with another pulp fiction classic from the master Storyteller, L. Ron Hubbard. This time we go on another adventure with at tale from the Orient.

Each one of these stories by Hubbard from the Mid-20th century launch me into a new adventure. Galaxy Audio makes these stories transition to audio books in a phenomenal way. Each one of these books is transformed into an audio drama that closely resembles an old fashioned radio drama. With great music, perfect sound effects and vocal acting that not only blows away the listener but makes the over the top characters created by Hubbard come to life.

Originally published in the April 1936 issue of "Five Novels Monthly," "Spy Killer" is one of the most violent and darker stories from this era of Hubbard's book. Kurt Reid has just escaped from the S.S. Rangoon and is on the run from those that want to charge him with murder. He flees to pre-Communist Shanghai, China and finds himself hunted by the most vile of persons, Lin Wang. Wang, a vile disgusting figure, wants Reid to kill a spy, in return he will give Wang a written confession to the murder Reid is being charged with. The confession is from another member of the crew of the Rangoon who Reid watched Wang torture the confession from.

Reid finds a woman from his past, Anne Carsten, is friends with a White Russian Spy, Varinka Savischna and both are in Shanghai. Reid seeks out the spy he is ordered to kill and it turns out to be Varinka. They then both conspire to kill Wang and try to escape with their lives.

In a story that is non-stop twists and turns, and secret identities as well as identity changes, Hubbard keeps you wondering what will happen next in this constant thriller.

"Sabotage in the Sky" by L. Ron Hubbard

"Sabotage in the Sky"
by L. Ron Hubbard
Multi-cast performance
produced by Galaxy Audio
2009
Approx 2 hours

It's time once again to go on an air adventure with the master of story-telling, L. Ron Hubbard. As always make sure you're strapped in because this one will keep you on th edge of your seat. (Or as the the old monster truck rally commercials used to say, "You'll pay for the whole seat but you'll only need the edge, edge, edge.")

Hubbard wrote many stories for the pulps in the mid 20th century and every one was meant to captivate the reader in only a few pages. His writing achieved this but Galaxy Audio's production of these stories into audiobooks pushes this audience captivation further. Each of these books released by Galaxy Press and Galaxy Audio are produced with excellent character acting, realistic sound effects and original music to fit the genre to transition between chapters.

This time around I listened to "Sabotage in the Sky." This story was originally published in "Five Novels Monthly" August, 1940 and tells the story of test pilot Bill Trevillian. None of the fighter planes test pilot Bill Trevillian flies are hotter than the BCA 41 pursuit ship, so he takes it up. But someone has deliberately rigged it for failure and destruction—and for Trevillian's death.
France and Great Britain are looking for the best fighters to use in the war against the Nazis and they must choose between different American plane designs to outfly the newest and deadliest Nazi fighters, the competing companies send their two best test pilots . . . Kip and Bill. Kip turns out to be an old friend of Bill's but not one he remembers at first. Kip is a dame, and according to Bill, "Dames can't fly." But Kip is out to set him straight.

Kip and Bill grew up together, Bill was always the best pilot, and Kip looked up to him. But when Bill ridicules her on her crash landing she sets out to get back at him. But what is worse is that the Nazis have sent a saboteur to Bill's crew in order to keep the Europeans from gaining the air advantage.

Soon Kip and Bill suspect the other of sabotage, problem that not only threatens their already electric relationship but their very lives. The contract is to be decided in a mock air battle, but soon turns deadly when the Nazis sneak a saboteur onto each plane and plan to highjack the planes for their own use. What soon turns out to be a sea and air battle the two pilots' skills are put to the test.

"Dimiter" by William Peter Blatty

"Dimiter"
by William Peter Blatty
Read by the author
Produced by Macmillan audio
approx 8 hours



The author of "The Exorcist" has a new book out, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's a horror novel. While this book does dwell into some mysticism, it is pretty much a spy thriller. When I first received the audio book I noticed it was read by the author. In audio books this can be a hit or miss situation. In this case I think the jury is still out. The hit is that the author knows what he wrote and what he intended and can impress upon the listener the ideas that are most important in the story. The miss is that while William Peter Blatty has a very interesting voice, at times it is very monotonous and lulls the listener. Also Blatty is not a voice actor and does not distinguish the separate voices within character dialogue. I became very confused as to who was saying what and many times in this book I was lost.

Some of that being lost may also be attributed to the twists and turns Blatty wrote into this tale. In fact, not until the very end is it all explained, and even then there's a bit of mystery to the ending. The story opens in the 1970s in Albania, when a prisoner suspected of being an enemy agent is capture and subjected to horrendous torture. The prisoner is subjected to severe pain but at no time shows pain in either voice or action, in fact he maintains an eerie silence and at times by a simple glance changes the mood of his torturers. The prisoner escapes and completes the mission.

The prisoner is known as Dimiter the American "agent from Hell." Dimiter is notorious for taking on the harder missions and completing them with no error.

The story then jumps to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital and a series of unexplained deaths encapsulate the a strange mix of personnel. They are all intertwined in the story as the deaths are unfolded and Dimiter's final mission is exposed. The confusion in deaths is mainly the identities of who dies, when one person is discovered dead they name on their papers is not the name of the who the person is. Many times it seems as though the body is Dimiter. But not until the final briefing between American CIA and Israeli forces does the body count begin to make sense. But then after it is all figured out, Blatty throws a final curve ball and the story may not be over.

All in all a very interesting book covering the issues of vengeance, soul searching, loss and love.