FIVE GENRES. ONE STORYTELLER.

Mention Arthur Conan Doyle, and Sherlock Holmes immediately comes to mind. Yet Doyle also wrote historical adventures and science fiction. Ray Bradbury is remembered for Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, but his imagination also extended into fantasy, horror, and mystery.

Some writers are remembered for a particular genre, while others ventured into several.

L. Ron Hubbard made versatility a defining feature of his writing career, moving across an unusually broad range of genres, from Westerns and mysteries to historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, romance, and adventure.

During the Golden Age of pulp fiction, when magazines specialized in particular genres, he wrote for publications across the literary spectrum. And he did so deliberately.

“My one passion is to build a name for variety.… I like my freedom,” he wrote.

From his first published novel in 1937 to the epic science fiction of Battlefield Earth and the posthumous publication of Ai! Pedrito!, his stories took readers into remarkably different worlds.

Here are five books, spanning five genres, that demonstrate the breadth of his storytelling.

Buckskin Brigades (1937)

Historical Fiction: The American West Through Different Eyes

If you enjoy historical fiction that challenges familiar perspectives on the American West, Buckskin Brigades takes you into the world of the Blackfeet during the early nineteenth century.

When Hubbard’s first hardcover novel appeared in 1937, Western fiction was enjoying enormous popularity. But this was a story told from an unusual perspective.

Set against the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the fur trade, the novel follows Michael Kirk, known as Yellow Hair, a white man raised among the Blackfeet people.

Rather than presenting the familiar Western narrative of settlers confronting hostile tribes, the story explores frontier conflicts largely through the experiences and perspectives of the Blackfeet.

The approach attracted the attention of contemporary reviewers. The New York Times Book Review observed that Hubbard had reversed a traditional formula, turning the usual roles of hero and adversary around.

Drawing upon his youthful experiences in Montana and familiarity with Blackfeet culture, Hubbard created a novel that continues to offer a different literary perspective on the American frontier.

With November designated Native American Heritage Month, it is a particularly timely selection.

Typewriter in the Sky (1940)

Fantasy: What If You Were Trapped Inside a Novel?

Ever wondered what would happen if you discovered you were a character in a novel, and the author had decided to kill you off?

That is the imaginative premise of Typewriter in the Sky, which first appeared in the November and December 1940 issues of Unknown, the influential fantasy magazine edited by John W. Campbell Jr.

Musician Mike de Wolf suddenly finds himself transported into an adventure novel being written by his friend, Horace Hackett. He can hear the typewriter hammering away as his fate unfolds, and soon realizes that his survival depends upon a writer who has little regard for the wishes of his characters.

The result is a combination of fantasy, adventure, humor, and literary satire.

Decades before contemporary films and novels explored characters who become aware that they are fictional creations, Hubbard was already playing with the relationship between authors, characters, and their imaginary worlds.

Science fiction authors Mike Resnick and S. M. Stirling have both written about the novel and its place in imaginative fiction.

The Chee-Chalker (1947)

Mystery: Murder in the Rain-Soaked Wilderness of Alaska

In the mood for a mystery where the rain never seems to stop, the suspects are as unpredictable as the weather, and danger lurks around every corner? Welcome to Ketchikan, Alaska.

Situated in the temperate rainforest of southeastern Alaska, Ketchikan, receives well over one hundred inches of precipitation annually. Mist hangs over the mountains, rain sweeps through the streets, and the surrounding wilderness can be as forbidding as it is beautiful.

What better setting for a murder mystery?

Published in July 1947 in Five Novels Monthly, The Chee-Chalker follows a lawman named Norton as he investigates unexplained deaths and encounters a world of criminal activity, hidden motives, and intrigue.

The relentless Alaskan rain creates atmosphere, heightens tension, and reflects the emotional burden carried by the protagonist.

In murder mysteries, weather can become far more than background scenery. In the hands of a skilled storyteller, it can influence the entire mood of a narrative.

There is also an interesting bit of Alaskan terminology behind the title. A “chee-chalker” is a newcomer to Alaska, someone unfamiliar with the territory and its ways.

For readers experiencing November’s rainy days, this may be the most seasonally appropriate selection of the five.

Battlefield Earth (1982)

Science Fiction: A Return to the Stars

If you enjoy epic science fiction, alien civilizations, and an apparently impossible struggle for humanity’s survival, Battlefield Earth is your next adventure.

Published in October 1982, more than four decades after Hubbard helped shape the Golden Age of science fiction, Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 marked his return to the genre.

The novel imagines a future in which Earth has been conquered by an alien civilization and humanity has been reduced to scattered remnants struggling for survival.

At the center is Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, a young man whose determination sets in motion an extraordinary struggle to reclaim the planet.

The original hardcover ran 832 pages, an epic undertaking by any measure.

In a February 1983 interview with the Rocky Mountain News, Hubbard explained that he had returned to science fiction to celebrate his fiftieth anniversary as a professional writer. He also explained that Battlefield Earth had been an idea he had carried with him for years.

Among those who read the completed novel was his longtime friend and fellow science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein.

In a letter dated December 16, 1982, Heinlein praised the novel’s complexity, characters, and the range of subjects explored within its enormous canvas.

The correspondence offers a glimpse into the friendship between two writers who helped establish science fiction as a major literary genre.

AI! Pedrito! (1998)

Humorous Action Adventure: From Screenplay to South American Expedition

Sometimes you just want a story that makes you laugh while taking you on a wild adventure. Ai! Pedrito! delivers mistaken identities, international intrigue, and plenty of unexpected complications.

Originally written as a screenplay by L. Ron Hubbard, the story was later adapted into a novel by bestselling author and Writers of the Future judge Kevin J. Anderson.

Before his passing, Hubbard had suggested that a Writers of the Future judge be selected to turn the screenplay into a novel. Anderson was chosen for the assignment.

While adapting the story, Anderson wanted to capture the atmosphere of Colodor, the fictional South American country where much of the adventure takes place.

He traveled to Ecuador with his wife and two Author Services staff members, exploring cloud forests, mountains, banana plantations, and the Amazon basin. He concluded that Hubbard’s fictional Colodor drew upon the geography and cultures of Colombia and Ecuador.

And then came the canoe.

Attempting to recreate an adventure from the screenplay, Anderson climbed into a dugout canoe beside the Amazon River and promptly fell into the water.

The experience gave him a rather personal understanding of what his fictional characters might endure.

The research trip helped Anderson enrich the novel with the sights, sounds, and atmosphere of South America. He described the collaboration as two generations of writing enthusiasm coming together.

One Author. Many Worlds.

From the American frontier of 1806 to an Earth of the year 3000, from the rain-soaked wilderness of Alaska to the mountains and jungles of South America, these five books demonstrate the range of L. Ron Hubbard’s storytelling.

Historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, and humorous adventure. Five genres, each with its own conventions, challenges, and possibilities.

Yet throughout his career, Hubbard maintained a consistent interest in the human experience: the courage to confront adversity, the ingenuity to overcome impossible circumstances, and the unpredictable ways people respond when their world changes.

For readers discovering his fiction for the first time, these five selections offer five very different places to begin.

And for longtime readers, they are a reminder that there are always more stories waiting to be discovered.