Stories from the Golden Age

Stories from the Golden Age gave me an audio recording of Spy Killer by L. Ron Hubbard, but all opinions are my own.


First, yes it's that L. Ron Hubbard of Scientology and Dianetics. Before all of that, he wrote many stories for pulp magazines in the 1930's and 1940's. I am an avid reader, yet had never read any of his works. L. Ron Hubbard didn't just stick to one genre, instead choosing to write Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Western, Military, Action, and others. When given the choice I selected Spy Killer because it was the most intriguing of the Mystery & Suspense titles.

I haven't listened to an audio book in years. I believe the last one was a book on tape, so the upgrade to listening to a book on CD was a huge improvement. That would have been enough to impress most people, but Stories from the Golden Age didn't just hire someone to read the books. They hired an entire cast including Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson), Jim Meskimem (Martin Housely on Parks and Rec), and Martin Kove (John Kreese in The Karate Kid). Then they added sound effects and original music.

I typically read 2-3 books at a time (I'm not counting kids books obviously). I try to keep them different genres since I jump back and forth so much. So adding in an audio story in another genre worked well for me. I was able to listen to it while sorting laundry and ironing clothes. It would be great to listen to on the way to work or on a car trip, but make sure the content is appropriate if young kids are listening. While most of these books are set on reading levels for 4th-7th graders, the content is better for middle school or higher. I don't want my young children listening to people being killed, but of course that is up to you.

They do have Accelerated Reader points (3 per book) for those who want to read them. These would also be great for ESL students because the audio recordings are unabridged, thus making it easy to follow along in the book as you listen to the CD.

The Stories from the Golden Age are available for most eBook eReaders and the audio books are on iTunes and Audible.