Enthetan
Master of Disaster
I agree pretty much with you Enthetan but I thought a few science fiction books by Hubbard were pretty good. I liked the series he wrote called "Ole Doc Methusela", a series sort of like a movie serial - maybe that's what he was hoping for but it never happened. Another story, more of a psychological thriller than pure sci-fi was called "Fear", I believe, and Stephen King the big time author was quoted as saying that he liked and recommended it. The other one I thought was pretty good was Battlefield Earth. Now, mind you, I am talking about the book and not the movie. That movie was absolutely horrible!
I agree that Heinlein, Azimov and also Ray Bradbury were writing at the time LRH was pumping out Sci-Fi and all 3 of those authors wrote better sci-fi than he did as a rule, although the 3 I mentioned may have approached the quality level of those authors.
BTW, Hubbard kept in touch with Heinlein from their writing days until just before Hubbard died. I'm sure that you know that but probably not to many on ESMB are aware of that.
Lakey
I was aware of the closeness between them. Heinlein was a bit protective of LRH back in the Navy days, judging from references about him from Heinlein's collected letters ("Grumbles from the Grave", compiled by his wife). When I was at Flag, a guy from External Comm had mentioned that, at a time when LRH was under threat of subpoena, Heinlein had sent word that LRH was welcome to hide out at Heinlein's place.