Product Description

Product Description
AUDIO BOOK. 2 CASSETTES ABRIDGED DIGAL RECORDING. SET IN EUROPE DEVASTATED BY 30 YEARS OF INCESSANT WARFARE, fINAL bLACKOUT IS THE STORY OF A SMALL BAND OF SOLDIERS AND THEIR COURAGEOUS AND CHARISMATIC LEADER, KNOWN SIMPLY AS "THE LIEUTENANT" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Short
I was pleasntly suprised to find good short mystries. However I was not pleased with cassete tapes. they gest worn-out too quickley. Bur to listen to one time through there good stories. ... Read more

Product Description
A member of the soldiers of Light, the most elite organization in the universe, Ole Doc Methuselah battles disease, plague, mutation, slavery, and old age with the assistance of his alien servant, Hippocrates.National ad/promo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

A Medical Space Opera
The Ole Doc Methuselah stories are a series of seven novelettes that L. Ron Hubbard wrote for _Astounding_ between 1947 and 1950 under the pseudonym of Rene Lafayette. They remained uncollected for twenty years but were finally assembled as _Ole Doc Methuselah_ (1970), complete with a page explaining why L. Ron Hubbard was a Benifactor to Humanity. I do not have all of the stories in their original magazine form, but I have a few of them. It looks as if few changes were made from magazine to book form.

The stories are about a human medical man with an alien sidekick who flies about space solving medical problems that are usually linked with skulduggery and social troubles. Science fiction readers may notice a faint resemblance to Murray Leinster's later Med Service stories about a human medical man with an alien sidekick who flies about space solving medical problems that are usually linked with skulduggery and social troubles.

There are some differences between the series. Leinster's stories are better crafted, more logical, and more scientifically savvy. But Hubbard's tales have a splash, color, and flamboyance that is lacking in the Med Service stories. My favorite stories are the title story, in which a fishing trip on an alien planet lands Doc in the middle of a real estate [...]; "Her Majesty's Aberration," in which a moment of absent-mindedness leads Doc off-course to a planet most of us would rather avoid; and "Plague," about an old-fashioned solution to a new-fangled problem.

But there are moments of unintended irony for me:

"My man," said Ole Doc, "your precious bombs were one of the oldest known buncombes in medical history. A Propellant and ephidrine, that's all. Ephidrine barely permits the allergy patient to breathe. It wasn't 'air' you were selling but a phony second rate drug that costs about a dollar a barrel. They'd take a little and needed more. You were clear back in the dark ages of medical history-- about a century after they'd stopped using witches for doctors. Ragweed, ephidrine-- but they were enough to wreck the lives of nearly everyone on this planet." (108)

Several months after he published the last of the Doc Methuselah stories, Hubbard published the first of his Dianetics articles in the pages of _Astounding_. Now I wonder... What would Ole Doc Methuselah say about that?

Ole Doc Methuselah
This is one of my all time favorite stories and one of the earliest Science-Fiction/Fastasy tales I ever read. The style is classic early Sci-fi and the humor is rollicking and delightful. The material is a bit dated but it is still a great fun read!

Lance Whalin

Fantastic Sci-fi
This old mini-series of stories is wonderful and should be rewritten into a mini-series of either made for TV or Movies.Full of original ideas and characters.I wish Cutting Audio got the rights and did a graphic audio novel(s) of this excellent story.

Not brain food - but heaps of fun if read in context
It's interesting to see either complete hatred or unreserved praise for this, or all of Hubbard's book for that matter.In my opinion, neither are quite deserved.Quick disclaimer: unlike one of the reviewers below, all I know about Hubbard was that he founded Scientology which is really quite silly.I am really just reviewing the book.

Ole Doc Methuselah is a space-western.It is not sophiscated 'hard science fiction' and if read as such will generate a lot of frustration.For the most part, the author has his tongue firmly in the cheek and this shows.I mean - how can you take a hero (or the universe he inhabits) that fixes a planetary system's entire socio-political problems by 3 hours of plastic surgery seriously?!?!?There is some science though - for example Hubbard's description of TB sounds very much first hand; the use of omnipotent germ-cells to help regenerate tissue is a serious research discipline today; and the use of 'rays' much unheard of in the 30s & 40s for medical care is now reflected in the well-developed specialty of radiation oncology.What people need to remember is that this book, like many of the 'golden age' stories was written in the 40s and some parts are unavoidably dated.

But the series of short stories do manage to entertain very well.The style is unsophisticated but clear, with the occasional laugh-out-loud passages.The plots are fun and with some completely unlooked for and often improbable twists.The main characters - that is Ole Doc and Hippocrates, are vividly drawn and their conversation really flows.In my opinion, a book that entertained me and made me laugh is worth at least 3 stars - even if it is by a controversial author and will never win the Nobel Prize for literature.

hack work
Not only was L. Ron Hubbard a hack but he was a lousy hack. The character of Ole Doc is a medical Lone Ranger of outer space, and the stories are Westerns of the type one heard on afternoon radio in the 1930s and 40s. Without actors to vivify the situations, they and the characters fall flat. However, the recent audio adaptation by 2000x (available from Audible.com) has a great deal of OTR charm. It is far better than the original. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not a typical Wallace effort
An immensely disappointing novel, especially from an author like Wallace.The plot was thin.I now know exactly what people refer to when calling characters cardboard- there was little to no character development.And realism?The 6-year old son of Noy speaks of his various classes in school:arithmetic, geography, history- a 6 year old?And he complains how lame one arithmetic class is.Also, President Underwood demands that the secret service not cover him while he confronts "the bad guy".Not to worry- they outfit him with a gun! Not realistic at all, in my opinion.

I've read a number of Wallace's books:The 3 Sirens, The Plot, The Second Lady, and The Almighty.These were excellent, riveting books.Perhaps Wallace was not well at this time, because this novel is a shadow of the others.

The presidency, an international affair ... riveting
In this book the main character is Matt Underwood -- President of the United States.He has an affair with Noy Sang -- ruler of a small asian country.Ultimately they fall in love.This is the intricate story of his wife finding out, the CIA entering the deadly game, and how their love affair ultimately threatens world peace.Excellent storytelling by a great author! ... Read more

Product Description
In 1976, Albert Spaggiari robbed a bank in Nice by digging a tunnel from the city sewer system into the bank. He and his gang cleared out $8-10 million in gold, jewelry, gems and cash reserves. Spaggieri, after escaping from the French police, retired to a ranch in Argentina. In 1989, Spaggiari again made the international headlines when he died mysteriously, never revealing the location of the loot. Follett and Maurice deliver the breathtakingly compelling story of Spaggiari and the most outrageous theft of the century. 4 cassettes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

It is what it is
"Under the Streets of Nice" is an account of a bank heist of about $8-$10 million in cash, gold, and jewlry which occurred in Nice France, in 1976.The burglary was accomplished by a gang of by a 20 led by Albert Spaggiari.Perhaps the most interesting point is that Spaggiari did not evade arrest, but subsequently successfully escaped, and thereafter openly and flamboyantly lived in Paraguay.

This is not a novel, nor historical fiction, the account is almost entirely documentary style, although the description of breaking into the vault is clearly fictionalized.At points it seems that every other sentence begins with "And", or "But", and the French narrator of the audio version hits each one of these as though led by a drum roll.

It is what it is:An interesting account of a real event which is "stranger than fiction"--if not so well written as fiction.If you like non-fiction accounts of real events, this is pretty good.

Nice little mystery
I don't know why Follett would "disavow" this book. It may not be great fiction or even fiction, but it's a nice little thriller or mystery.

This was written many, many years ago based on a true crime, and you should put yourself in 1973 or whenever this was written when you read it.

Fans of Ken Follett should get this book.

Fascinating True Crime Caper
Rather confusingly, this brief and engaging true crime chronicle (it is NOT a novel) has appeared in English under three different titles over the years: The Heist of the Century, Under the Streets of Nice, and The Gentleman of 16 July. To make things even more confusing, although the book was largely the work of French journalists writing under the pseudonym Rene Maurice, some editions prominently bear the name of bestselling thriller-writer Ken Follett on the cover. As Follett explains on his web site, the original translated manuscript was a mess, and he was hired (before he was an established brand) to "fix" it. He spent about two weeks on it and since then has more or less disavowed it: " Not only was it not my best effort, it was well below what I could do.... It's still not a good book, but I turned a completely unpublishable manuscript into something more or less respectable."

More or less respectable is more or less accurate, the prose is far from great, but the story itself is absolutely fascinating. It tells of an astounding bank heist in Nice, France in the summer of 1976. A gang of twenty criminals, under the direction of a self-mythologizing right-wing dreamer named Albert Spaggiari spent two months digging a 25-foot tunnel from the city sewer system into a bank vault. Once in, they proceeded to spend the weekend breaking into safe deposit boxes before leaving with some $8 to $10 million in cash, gold, and jewelry and daubing the phrase "sans haine, sans violence et sans arme" on the wall! The book focuses on the heist and the small details that led to Spaggiari's eventual capture. He's a fascinating figure, an ex-paratrooper, OAS member who came within a phone call of assassinating President de Gaulle, but also a photographer who rubbed shoulders with the city elite and had connections with the underworld. The improbable end to the story includes his escape from imprisonment and subsequent flight to Paraguay, where he lived a life of high style and luxury.

The book speaks frequently about how Spaggiari heist and escape was received with general applause by the European public, and how he became a kind of folk hero. Much of this can be attributed to the general human affection for those who poke fun at the authorities (Spaggiari granted numerous magazine interviews until his death in 1989, always taunting the police) without causing any violence. But this obscures the rather darker question surrounding his connection to underground far-right organizations. The book is a little frustrating due to murkiness surrounding the affair. There are some disturbing mistakes made by the police and several indications that Spaggiari was well-connected to France's right-wind elite. In the following years, there were several similar heists elsewhere in France and Europe, including one executed only a month after the Nice job and thus could not possibly be a copycat. There's even an appearance by the CIA!

It would be interesting to know if any further details have come to light in subsequent years. Spaggiari has written at least one memoir of his own (Fric-frac: The Great Riviera Bank Robbery) but this is not likely to be very truthful. The entire affairs is perfectly suited to the movies, and indeed, a French film called Les égouts du paradis (The Sewers of Paradise) was released in 1979. More recently, there are some indications that Warner Bros. is developing a new version with the title "Under the Streets of Nice".

Even the author doesn't recommend it
This novel is a translation from a book originally written in French. Ken is the third author that attempted to translate this book into English.Visit the Ken Follett web site and learn the story behind this book. It'salso titled The Heist of the Century and The Gentlemen of 16 July. Kenconsiders this book "a nightmare" that won't go away and hedoesn't even recommend buying it.

READ IT
It's fun, it's brilliant, the author as the main person are both geniuses and it's a true story ... Read more