BRANDED OUTLAW - L. Ron Hubbard

Lee Weston has been summoned, by his father, to hurry back to his family ranch in New Mexico. But when Lee arrives, he finds that his father has been killed and the ranch has been burned down. There's no doubt in Lee's mind that Harvey Dodge - owner of the largest ranch in the territory - is responsible. Determined to get his vengeance, Lee heads into town and ends up in a gunfight with several of Dodge's hired hands.

Wounded and now finding himself on the wrong side of the law, Lee goes on the lam to tend to his wounds. While hiding out, he is discovered by a beautiful woman who nurses him back to health. In addition to being quite beautiful, the woman is also strong-minded, a quality Lee finds very attractive. They quickly fall in love with one another but Lee later learns that she's the daughter of Harvey Dodge. Can he kill the man who killed his father, and still get the girl?

I quite enjoyed this story. It's no secret that I enjoy reading westerns and fiction from the pulp era.  This, having first been published in 1938, fits both categories.

I have been familiar with author L. Ron Hubbard for many years, but my familiarity has been with either his science fiction work or his personal/religious affiliation with Scientology (more on that in just a moment). I was not aware that Hubbard had such a strong background in writing pulp westerns, but based on this quick read, I'm definitely interested in reading more. We've got a lot of classic tropes here - good guy vs bad guy (and it's easy to know which is which), beautiful girl with a complication as to why the two can't be together (yeah, it's a Romeo & Juliet story). But what makes it all work is the pacing of the story - it's fast. It's gunfighter fast. 

Hubbard doesn't waste time trying to make a deep story - he recognizes that readers for this want gunslinger action with the obstacle for the hero not too difficult.

There's a nice, final obstacle (I don't want to give it away) and while I assumed it would be resolved nicely, I really thought the story could have just as easily gone in another direction, which added to the enjoyment.

It is sometimes challenging for me to read works by authors whose political and/or religious views conflict with my own. Hubbard, for those who don't already know, was the founder of Scientology. I would encourage readers to check out Hubbard's Wikipedia page. Why? Because the publisher of this, Galaxy Press, is owned by the Church of Scientology - meaning profits from the sale of the book go to support the Church of Scientology and, yeah, sometimes it's important to know who you are supporting.

For me, this is a complicated issue. I enjoyed the writing. I think Hubbard's early work was very good and under-rated. But it's hard to separate the man, the author, from the man, the founder of Scientology. 

There are other authors who's personal beliefs I disagree with but I like their writing (one is easily in my top ten favorite authors list), and I chose to read or not read them based on their work, knowing that buying their work supports them in their livelihood.  Hubbard passed away in 1986 so buying his work doesn't support him. His work is controlled by, and all profits go to, a church I don't believe in (and just for the record, I do have more than just a passing familiarity with Scientology).

I leave the reader to make their own decision, but I do think it's fair to at least make the potential reader aware of this.

On another note - I'm not sure why the Goodreads page for this book lists it as 1008 pages. This is more likely to be 108 pages.

The book includes a reference section for some of the more obscure slang and colloquial words and terms in the story. I appreciated this and made use of it on my Kindle. 

I was slightly amused by the brief biography of Hubbard, included at the back of the book. It read a lot like many of Louis L'Amour's biographies - a little bit like the adventurous fiction the men wrote.

Looking for a good book? Lovers of westerns and pulp fiction may be surprised to find that L. Ron Hubbard writes a ripping good yarn, as evidenced in Branded Outlaw.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss (and again directly from the publisher) in exchange for an honest review. (And honestly, the story is quite good.)

4 - stars 

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Branded Outlaw

author: L. Ron Hubbard

publisher: Galaxy Press

ISBN:  9781592122585

paperback,  108 pages