Mission Earth, Volume 5: Fortune of Fear »

The riveting intrigue of two alien invaders' misadventures on Earth continues as Soltan Gris, fleeing a hoard of enraged women, weaves a jagged trail of destruction from Turkey to New York. There, armed with 250 million in gold, he is determined to stop Jettero Heller's plan to save Earth from its own pollution. Heller, meanwhile, is using a bit of alien technology to raise his own fortunes in the futures market, shooting it out with the Mafia for control of an Atlantic City casino, and fending off the suspicions of the beautifully deadly Countess Krak as to the girls of the Gracious Palms brothel. That's just the beginning of the brilliantly original Fortune of Fear, Mission Earth 5.

Publishers Weekly

The farce continues in this fifth installment of Hubbard's 10-series, Mission Earth. Soltan Gris, the focus here, is the Voltarian Empire's spy chief on Earth. Forever plotting, peeping and trying to manipulate others, double agent Gris is himself the eternal dupe. His crazed schemes to subvert his own agent in the field, virtuous Jettero Heller, keep blowing up in his face. The new chapter, a spoof of free market economics, opens with Gris smuggling 12 tons of goldto pay his credit card bills. Fast-talking bankers soon relieve him of the lucre and he fumes to see Heller raising money for his good deeds from mob-run Atlantic City casinos and commodities trading. This leaden satire gets more outrageous in its sexual aspects, which sound suspiciously like a parody of Scientology (e.g. lesbians who are ``cured'' by being raped). (October)