Yukon Madness

by L. Ron Hubbard

There are all kinds of crazy, but there’s only one Yukon Madness. And Royal Mountie Tommy McKenna—a role made for Canadian-born Glenn Ford—has seen first-hand the terror that follows in its wake … his partner murdered and fed to a pack of wolves. But that’s only a taste of the horrors to come. Bent on revenge, McKenna sets out to find the madman himself—a monster who goes by the name Itauk. He quickly finds, however, that there’s only one way to get to the beast—through the man’s raven-haired beauty of a girlfriend, Raja. But whose side is Raja on? Can McKenna win her over? Or will he too end up dead meat? The bait has been cast, the scent has been taken, and the trap has been set. The only question is, who is the predator and who is the prey? Hubbard never wrote a word, conceived a character, or described a setting without first finding out all he could about the people and places that drove his stories. He “I began to search for research on the theory that if I could get a glimmering of anything lying beyond a certain horizon, I could go deep enough to find an excellent story ... I began to read exhaustively … I wanted information and nothing else.” His exhaustive research—and search for the excellent story comes through in this book three times over. Also includes the adventures The Cossack which takes place in revolutionary Russia and explores the high price one man pays for refusing to kiss a Duchess, and The Small Boss of Nunaloha, the exotic story of a man who may be short, but who stands tall when it comes to defending his turf—an island in the Pacific.

Genres: Adventure

120 pages, 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

[Alf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hubbard is always a good read. His stories move faster than any other author. For anyone who has ever said it gets really good after a 100 pages or so, you should pick up an a L Ron Hubbard novel they get really good after 100 words or so. This is a book of short stories.

[Joe Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook

Three stories. I really enjoyed the first two and the third one is good. The first are rather brutal endings.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent pulp! Thrilling tales of manly men and dames that done 'em wrong. Just...don't expect the author to have done, like, /any/ research at all.

[Krycek · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading Spy Killer, another in this series of L. Ron Hubbard's pulp writings and one I won in a GR giveaway, I wasn't sure if reading another was going to be worth my time. Blatantly racist and over-the-top corny, still there was a certain amount of fun to reading it. Awful by any reasonable standards, it was like watching a B-movie. So I thought I'd give a go at a couple of others. They are quick reads so what the hell. Despite the fact that these books are bound pretty well, have nice artwork and are generally pretty nice looking paper bound volumes, I'm not going to pay $9.95 for a hundred or so pages of story. Fortunately, my local library had a few titles.

Yukon Madness (hilarious title, by the way) is a collection of three short stories: "Yukon Madness," "The Cossack" and "The Small Boss of Nunaloha." Also there's a short biography of LRH at the end, the same one in the other book and I imagine it's the same for all the books. The first story met my expectations-- meaning it wasn't very good. The other two somewhat exceeded my expectations.

The first story, "Yukon Madness," is a fairly simple affair about RCMP Tommy McKenna's pursuit of an Eskimo dubbed "Itauk the Madman." From the start I know we are in for a racially offensive treat as we read about Itauk "squinting with slanted eyes" across the icy Northern wastes. During his pursuit, Tommy encounters the token love interest, the half-white half-Eskimo Kaja. She is described thusly:

Her face was not that of an ordinary Eskimo woman. It was finer, more delicate. Nor were the eyes slanted. Her figure was slight and although it was almost hidden under the bulk of her furs, Tommy caught an impression of a slender body, small hands, a high, firm breast.

Anyway, Tommy and Kaja instantly fall in love and together defeat the mad Itauk in high cornball style.

"The Cossack" is the second story, in two parts, the first of which is enticingly titled "Sex Lure." It's about a lieutenant in tsarist Russia who gets sexually harassed by a hot-to-trot Duchess. He never gives in, though, and the reader is left bereft of any sexy shenanigans. What we do get is a revenge at the end and a good bit of misogyny. While misogyny, as well as racism, is something I find repellent as a rule, the premise of the story was at least interesting and the outcome unexpected.

"The Small Boss of Nunaloha," the final story, was the best of the bunch and surprisingly well done. In fact, if I were to rate these stories individually it would get three stars. It's about a small-statured merchant on an island in the Pacific who's tough as hell and manages to defeat a bunch of pirates come along to cause trouble. Refreshingly, there wasn't much here in the way of blatant racism and the action wasn't that corny. It was actually a pretty kick-ass story.

These pulp era stories were written in a time when racism was a norm and were written for boys and young men who wanted cheap thrills and excitement. You know, we aren't expecting lit'rachure here and some offensiveness is to be expected. Still, though, I don't think a lot of these stories are worth celebrating because some are blatantly offensive and I find it strange that so many of these LRH pulp stories are being reprinted like this and branded as "good old-fashioned fun." They are by no means good and surely should not elicit pride. But they can be fun, in a B-movie sort of way. MST3K for readers.

The Carnival of Death is next on deck.

[James Mourgos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yukon Madness

[Review of the Kindle Version]

This volume has three stories that are very enjoyable, adventurous and at times shocking!

Yukon Madness, the lead story, about a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman Tommy, whose partner has just been chewed up by wolves – owned by the evil bully, Itauk The Madman. You chill to the cold of the Canadian North as we follow Tommy on his hunt for revenge. He meets a woman who we are not sure whose side she’s on.

Especially amazing is the escape scene and the task that a belt full of bullets plays, but do read on!

The second tale is a two-parter – about a Russian soldier before the Russian Revolution who gets chosen by the Duchess as her amour – but he refuses her a kiss, preferring not to cheat on his fiancé. Lots of tension in this one – not your usual boy meets girl, and both boy and girl get their revenge, which leads to the ultimate sacrifice.

The Small Boss of Nunaloha, a certain Jim Lanridge runs a trader outpost, and considers himself the boss of the island. A wise guy pirate comes up and demands and takes what he wants. Even though Jim is a little guy, he comes up and constantly gets punched, kicked, slapped, beaten to a pulp but he never gives up. He always gets up, comes back to the pirate and tells him he’ll never get away with it.

Amazing story of perseverance and sticking up for what you think is right, despite the odds against one.

Final Words:

Overall, a fun set of stories. The metaphorical writing is typical of pulps of the era, so the style of writing may take some getting used to. But do read them! Here’s to the Kindle version.

Recommended.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of three short works from pulp magazines, none of them remarkable nor among Hubbard's best, but representative adventures for their time. The title story, from the August 1935 issue of Mystery Adventures, shows us that the Royal Mountie always gets his man, and, in this case at least, a woman as well. The middle story, The Cossack, from New Mystery Adventures' May/June 1935 issue, is a terribly Russian tale of passion and politics and patriotism and love and heroism and loyalty; predictably (spoiler alert!), everybody dies. These first two stories had much more of a sexual content than was normal for the time. The final tale, The Small Boss of Nunaloha, originally appeared in the February, 1940, issue of South Sea Stories. It concerns a very short man who's very big with spirit and courage. I think it's interesting to note that Hubbard's short novel If I Were You also appeared in February of 1940 (in Five Novels Monthly), in which the main character is a circus midget. As always, the Galaxy Press books are of high quality with original artwork, a glossary, and sturdy binding.

[Andrew Obrigewitsch · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is 3 stories. The first one is Yukon Madness, which I didn't like so much.

The second was The Cossacks, which I thought was pretty good.

The third I don't recall the name but it was alright.

[Jeff J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I don't think this is one of Hubbard's better stories, it is a textbook example of a pulp adventure: dispense with such tropes as characterization, setting, or introspective navel-gazing in favor of non-stop action.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it.

[Kaj Samuelsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have rated the first story 3 stars, seemed too short, but the next 2 stories in the book made it a definite 4 stars.

[E. M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short sharp lesson in dramatic storytelling.