Publisher Description
A blind obsession. A driving ambition. A relentless, unrestrained, single-minded pursuit of a shiny metal. These are the symptoms of a condition known as gold fever, and American mining engineer Captain Humbert Reynolds has got it bad. Possible side effects include: temporary insanity, a propensity for violence and death. The search for gold has taken Reynolds from the ruins of the Yucatan to the mountains of Ecuador to the wilderness of northern Canada. Now, his search for a yellow brick bonanza has brought him halfway around the world, to the Gobi desert. But the lure of the precious metal is about to lead Reynolds into a Golden Hell, as he plunges into an inferno-a mountain of horrors run by an unspeakably evil gang. And if he doesn't find a way out, a path to redemption, he may find that instead of snatching the ultimate prize he will have to pay the ultimate price. Also includes the adventure, "Pearl Pirate," a story of betrayal and deceit in which an American captain loses his ship to a money-lender, and the only way to get it back is to outfight and outfox a ruthless pirate and bring home a fortune in black pearls. Join the race and feel the heat of gold fever as Golden Hell leads you into a mountain of unimaginable danger and unexpected twists and turns.
"Swashbuckling adventure ... thoroughly satisfying." - Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Some may wonder who the intended audience is for these two undistinguished pulp-era action novellas from Hubbard (1911-1986). The title story concerns the travails of a mining engineer who risks his life in pursuit of gold and finds himself trapped in a hellish cavern in the Gobi desert. Readers should be prepared for racial stereotypes: Mongols are "yellow-fanged demons"; a Chinese moneylender in the second novella, "Pearl Pirate," is described as "the greasy fat Chinaman." Occasionally nonsensical prose ("If ever Ichabod Crane fled from the Headless Horseman, he would have had to travel very fast to even keep up with me") doesn't help. Those looking for thrills and brushes with death have plenty of modern authors better able to keep the pages turning. Extras include an excerpt from another, similar adventure story, and a glossary aimed at helping readers with "uncommon words or expressions of the era" (such as Dante Alighieri, Sir Francis Drake, and G-men).
