Black Genesis

Product Description Drugs. Sex. Murder. Taxes. Welcome to planet Earth. The Voltarian scouting party has arrived, led by one Jettero Heller. His mission: rescue the planet and prepare it for invasion. His problem: Earth may not want to be saved-and the invasion may be one big put-on. One way or another, Heller's about to undertake a journey of discovery ...and find out what really makes this world go around. And before it's all over, Heller will break loose. From Publishers Weekly With this second volume, the direction and shape of Hubbard's proposed 10-book sequence, Mission Earth, are becoming clear. Instead of concentrating on the overall theme (will Earth destroy itself before the aliens can conquer it?), Hubbard emphasizes a great amount of seemingly extraneous incident to stretch out his tale into a dekalogy. In place of an epic, he offers a mock epic. This second book is a modern Candide in which alien secret agent Jettero Heller is introduced to the contemporary world in satirical strokes so broad they recall vaudeville sketches. When Heller arrives in New York City, he innocently lands a job with the Mafia, takes a room in a brothel and is taught to drive by a cabbie. Apart from one funny sequence in which FBI agents' praise of J. Edgar Hoover makes him out to be a greater con man and criminal than his targets, most of the attacks (especially on the IRS) are vengeful and humorless. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the Author With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 320 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. Review "Ironic, exciting, romantic and hilarious." -Orson Scott Card