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| Page from Salamandres - Axolotls by Philippe Caza |
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| Page from Logiciel - Coup D'Etat by Philippe Gauckler and Charles Imbert. |
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| Cover for Metal Hurlant 79 by Ralph Reese. |
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| Page from Richard Corben's Den II. |
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| NEL paperback, June 1978. Illustration by Joe Petagno. |
"French science fiction has a distinguished and impressive a history as our own, dating back to the seventeenth century and beyond. Here is an anthology of some of its best short stories, edited and introduced by Maxim Jakubowski, who is himself an acknowledged master of the art. There is Delta, a love story set on a planet where there are three sexes ; The Gunboat Dread, a grotesque piece of science fantasy ; How's Business?, the story of an interplanetary soap company ; and others, all masterpieces in their own right."
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| Ace Double paperback, 1963. Cover by Ed Emshwiller ("Emsh"). |
"Twenty-five degrees north of the equator on the planet Krishna lies the Banjao sea, the largest body of water on this planet. And in this sea is found the Sunqar, home of legend and mystery.
"Here under the scorching rays of the hot high sun, the beaked galleys of Dur and the tubby round ships of Jazmurian slowly rot in the unbreakable grip of a vast floating continent of sea vine. Even the violent storms of the Krishnan sub-tropics no more than ruffle the surface of the immense floating swamp. Nothing, once caught in this web of weed, can escape..."
Barely had Dick Barnevelt written these words as part of a publicity campaign for his boss, than he learned that he would shortly find himself isolated in the middle of this terrible place on a barbaric planet without the aid of scientific equipment, surrounded by deadly dangers, with an unfulfilled mission and the dire necessity of making an escape he had just declared impossible."
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| Ace Double paperback, 1963. Cover by Ed Emshwiller ("Emsh"). |
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| Lancer paperback, 1964. Artwork by Ed Emshwiller ("Emsh"). |
"Au / 79 / 197.2
Chemical symbol...Atomic number...Atomic weight...
Scientific terms for gold...But science can't begin to explain the mystery and magic of gold.
It was gold that lured the "Secret Legion" - as oddly mixed a group of adventurers as any in song or story - into the world's most treacherous desert.
And gold they found - a golden man, an exotic golden woman, a huge golden tiger, and an eerie golden snake.
Gold brought them together ... Gold made them enemies in a battle to the death...Gold held the key to the mysterious forces that assailed them.
Jack Williamson, alchemist with words, spins a rare web of adventure, fantasy and science...a gem from the golden age of Weird Tales, now available in book form for the first time."
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| NEL hardcover, 1975. Cover illustration by Josh Kirby. |
"Part 1 of this history of the science fiction magazine traced the earliest development of pulp and science fiction magazines in the period 1926-35.
Part II takes up the story after the depression during which period, perhaps surprisingly, these magazines continued to flourish. By 1936 America, the home of science fiction publications, was feeling secure again, and people tended to ignore the gathering clouds of war. The science fiction magazine market became big business, reaching the first of its peaks, only to be matched again in the fifties. The leading magazines were still Amazing, Thrilling Wonder and Astounding, but there were countless others, such as Astonishing Stories, Cosmic Stories, Fanciful Tales, Flash Gordon's Strange Adventures, Stardust, Stirring Science Stories and many more. Magazine publishing in the late thirties also saw the expansion of science fiction into new markets in Britain and other countries outside the United States.
The main trend in the magazines' content was influenced by the adventure and other pulp creations, so that emphasis was towards action, and less 'thinking' sf. Series were particularly popular such as the brain stealers by John W. Campbell, written under the pen-name of Don Stuart. Many authors who were to become big names appeared regularly in print for the first time, among them A. E. Van Vogt and Robert Heinlein. The juvenilia sf magazines also burgeoned, especially the 'bug-eyed monster- variety. But this high time was interrupted by the second world war, and nearly all the magazines, apart from the old stalwarts such as Amazing, collapsed.
Included in this volume are extensive appendices covering the frequency of publication of various magazines; magazine editors and cover artists. Also reprinted are ten stories most representative of the writing of the period. These include an early Eric Frank Russell collaboration, Seeker Of Tomorrow; a classic Stanley G. Weinbaum tale, The Circle Of Zero; and a grim piece by Robert Bloch, Almost Human, plus many other delights."
