Destiny's Drum

L. Ron Hubbard

May 2010 · Galaxy Press LLC

About this ebook

Soldier, adventurer, and man of the world--with a touch of con man thrown in for good measure--Phil Sheridan is a perfect role for a young Steve McQueen. But Sheridan's world-wandering ways may soon come to a very abrupt--and violent--end . . . on the long-forgotten Indonesian island of Kamling.

Falling into the hands of a bloodthirsty tribe led by the notorious slave trader known as Portuguese Joe, Sheridan discovers that there's not enough room on the island for the two of them. And Portuguese Joe has the perfect solution: dispatch Sheridan to another world . . . with the help of a firing squad.

But Sheridan has other plans. The island is home to a hidden fortune in gold--and a gold miner's beautiful daughter--and he means to get his hands on both of them. If he can avoid the exotic dangers lurking at every turn . . .

By the age of eighteen Hubbard had already traveled via steamboat to the Far East and served as a helmsman on a twin-masted schooner off the coast of China. On those voyages he had the opportunity to explore and investigate life on the islands of the South Pacific. His insights into the people and culture gained on those journeys inform stories like Destiny's Drum.

About the author

L. Ron Hubbard was born in Tilden, Nebraska on March 13, 1911. He attended George Washington University and Princeton University. He began his career as a writer for pulp magazines and later as a science fiction writer. His science fiction works include the Buckskin Brigades, Final Blackout, Fear, The Kingslayer, and Black Towers to Danger. His book, Dianetics, was published in 1950. He spent the next 30 years devoting himself to the development of Dianetics and Scientology. In 1954, he founded the Church of Scientology. In the 1980s, he published his final fiction works Battlefield Earth and the Mission Earth series, which won the Cosmos 2000 Award from French readers and the Nova Science Fiction Award from Italy's Perseo Libri. He died on January 24, 1986.