Seven Steps to the Arbiter aka The Kingslayer

by L. Ron Hubbard

Very good (usual tanning to the pages, minor wear to the covers, but overall a tight, straight copy.) First edition - First edition - Paperback original. #3018. Includes "The Kingslayer," "The Beast" and "The Invaders", novellas originally published in magazines in the 40's. Currey, p. 256.

Genres: Science Fiction

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 350 million copies of his works in circulation, L. Ron Hubbard is among the most enduring and widely read authors of our time. As a leading light of American Pulp Fiction through the 1930s and '40s, he is further among the most influential authors of the modern age. Indeed, from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, there is scarcely a master of imaginative tales who has not paid tribute to L. Ron Hubbard. Then too, of course, there is all L. Ron Hubbard represents as the Founder of Dianetics and Scientology and thus the only major religion born in the 20th century.

source: Amazon

Reviews

[Craig]

This is a collection of two novelettes and a novella that was published under the title The Kingslayer in hardback by the Fantasy Publishing Company in 1949. The titular novella was original to that collection and the two other stories, The Beast and The Invaders, first appeared in John W. Campbell's Astounding SF magazine in 1942. A mass market edition didn't follow until 1975. It was the first genre book printed by Major Books, a second-tier paperback house that was extant until 1980. It has a very good cover by Gerald Powell, and the copyright page lists it as a "First Edition," which is obviously erroneous. All three stories are good Golden Age era space operas, typically dated but still fun. The Kingslayer is about Kit Kellan opposing the iron rule of the Arbiter, who controls known space, and it ends with a neat twist. The Beast is about big game hunting on Venus, and The Invaders is set on a prison colony mining camp with a remarkable protagonist named Gedso Ion Brown.

[Read1000books]

Let's begin by dealing with the elephant in the room, shall we. This book was written by L. Ron Hubbard. Yes, L. Ron Hubbard was the founder of Scientology and No, everything he wrote was not about Scientology. As I recall, L. Ron came up with Scientology sometime in the 1950's; he was writing pulp fiction, sci-fi, westerns, etc., etc., for two decades before that (the featured novel in this book was written in 1949). Just for the record, I am not a Scientologist and am not promoting that philosophy in this review. As with any author, where L. Ron disagrees with the Bible, I disagree with L. Ron. All that said, the guy could write a good story. Now, to the review...
"Seven Steps..." is a classic sci-fi novel with an unpredictable protagonist and an ending I didn't see coming (3 stars). This edition includes two bonus short stories: "The Beast", which is basically a safari tale, only qualifying as sci-fi because it takes place on Venus (2 stars), and "The Invaders", which I really liked (4 stars) because of the brilliant but humble, gentle-giant hero Gedso Ion Brown. I hope I come across more stories with this character.

[Kaj Samuelsson]

Now it was a few years since I read it last time, but it is still good, with its twists and turns. I will definitely read it again.

[Shawn Deal]

Enjoyable enough for what it is. Action packed as you would expect from Hubbard. It is not anywhere close to his best work or best writing. A nice twist at the end. But too much story in such a short amount of time. Could have easily been expanded to really flesh out the characters and plot.

[Phillip Marashian]

I've listened to this more times than I can count. It's always fun to listen to and never gets old.

[Sarah]

3.5

[Dan]

Maybe 2.5 stars at best, but the story was just ok for me, although the full cast dramatized audio book was very well done. Christopher "Kit" Kellan is a red-headed genius (evidently in Hubbard's world the two go together) who has been recruited by a secret organization to overthrow and assassinate The Arbiter (the evil over-lord of the Galaxy). One of the big things that bugged me is that the sub-title of this book is "Seven Steps to Arbiter" (alluding to a 7 step hero process, a la Hercules) but Kit manages to bypass 6 steps and get there after just one mission.

SPOILER ALERT!

The big surprise twist ending is that Kit turns out to be the son of the Arbiter, who was once red-headed, and is now very old and frail and needs a successor. It also turns out that the Arbiter is not an evil over-lord, but a wise and benevolent ruler and the secret organization bent on assassinating the Arbiter was actually orchestrated by him to test Kit. It ends with Kit's instant coronation and everyone beaming at him with pride and respect and applause.

[Stewart]

The kind folks at Galaxy Press have given me a few copies of their audiobooks over the years at semiannual ALA conferences. I promised one of their booth reps this summer that I'd post reviews of them on Goodreads to repay their generosity.

I'm sorry to say that this book was dreadful. When it was published I imagine it was considered on par with the ideas in one of Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile novels, but for a writer as talented as L. Ron Hubbard, this represents a complete misfire, and probably should've been left to antiquity rather than recorded as an admittedly well-done audiobook.

The story is ridiculous. Its execution is clumsy. Its characters are awful and some are borderline racist by today's standards. The "twist" at the end, while it closes some of the gaping plot holes, is just ludicrous.

Avoid at all costs.

[Dennis]

In many ways this could have been written more recently, but a couple oddities popped up - a couple racial references along the way show it was clearly written long ago, and one piece of technology just sticks out as being an idea that must be from the distant past.

A classic pulp SF book though, which I suppose is another way to show it wasn't written recently :-)

[Kelly]

I thought this was a cute book with a good twist.

[Andrew Obrigewitsch]

I listened to this years ago, but from what I can remember it was a fun short story.

[Bryan457]

A fun romp with a larger than life protagonist (almost too similar to Jettero Heller, the protagonist of his 10 volume Mission Earth series). It has a great ending.