Ski-Ffy

ANYTHING YOU CAN DO

2012-01-29T12:19:00.001Z

Artist uncredited.

[THAT THE NIPE HAD EMBARKED ON ITS INCREDIBLE CAREER OF ROBBERY AND MURDER HAD BEEN, MORE OR LESS, AN ACCIDENT. AFTER ALL, IT WAS A CIVILISED BEING OF HIGH INTELLIGENCE, INTENT ONLY ON ESTABLISHING CONTACT WITH THE EARTH'S REAL PEOPLE. THESE PITIFUL CREATURES WITH ONLY TWO EYES AND FOUR LIMBS, WITH THEIR VERY SLOW REFLEXES AND THEIR SAVAGE WEAPONS, COULDN'T BE THE RULING LIFE FORM! WHY, THEY DIDN'T EVEN KEEP THE CUSTOMS - AND ANY CIVILISED SPECIES MUST SURELY ADHERE TO RITUAL.]

Darrel T. Langart was a pseudonym (and anagram) of Randall Garrett. There is an illustrated EBook version on Project Gutenberg, as presented in Analog, June 1962.

EIGHT KEYS TO EDEN

2012-01-29T12:13:00.001Z

Artist uncredited.

[EDEN, THE EARTH COLONY ELEVEN LIGHT YEARS AWAY IN THE BLACK VOID OF SPACE, HAS FAILED TO ANSWER THE ANXIOUS SIGNALS OF THE COMMUNICATIONS OPERATOR ON EARTH.

EVENTUALLY THE E-S, THE KEY SCIENTISTS - THE MASTER BRAINS IN THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE - DECIDE TO SEND A JUNIOR E TO INVESTIGATE.]

SEVEN DOORS TO SEVEN ROOMS OF THOUGHT

1 Accept the statement of Eminent Authority without basis, without question.

2 Disagree with the statement without basis, out of general contriteness.

3 Perhaps the statement is true, but what if it isn't? How then to account for the phenomenon?

4 How much of the statement rationalizes to suit man's purpose that he and his shall be ascendant at the centre of things?

5 What if the minor should become major, the recessive dominant, the obscure prevalent?

6 What if the statement were reversible, that which is considered effect is really cause?

7 What if the natural law perceived in one field also operates unperceived in all other phases of science. What if there be only one law manifesting itself, as yet, to us in many facets because we cannot apperceive the whole, of which we have gained only the most elementary glimpses, which which we can cope only at the crudest level?

And are those still other doors, yet undefined, on down the corridor?

WATERS OF DEATH

2012-01-29T12:02:00.001Z

Artist uncredited.

[FOOD. IN THE YEAR 2160, IT WAS MAN'S GREATEST PROBLEM. WITH THE ENORMOUS INCREASE IN POPULATION AND THE EXTENSION OF LONGEVITY, THERE SIMPLY WASN'T ENOUGH TO GO AROUND. THE SEA FARMS WERE THE ONLY SOLUTION - BUT THEY WERE IN THEMSELVES A POTENTIAL THREAT TO MAN'S FUTURE. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HAD ADVANCED FANTASTICALLY, OF COURSE. THE REAL TROUBLE WAS...PEOPLE. HUMAN BEINGS HAD NOT CHANGED. THE SEA FARMERS HAD GOOD REASONS FOR BEING REBELLIOUS; THEIR WORK WAS HARD AND DANGEROUS AND THE REWARDS SMALL. AND THE REST OF THE POPULATION WAS RAPIDLY BECOMING A TOTAL POLICE STATE, BUT ONE WHICH MIGHT REVOLT AT ANY MOMENT. THEN THE HARVESTS FROM THE SEA BEGAN TO DROP OFF...AND THE GOVERNMENT DECIDED TO HAND THE WHOLE PROBLEM TO JUST ONE MAN. DR. ROBERT WILDE FOUND HIMSELF AS NO MAN HAD EVER BEFORE: WITH A CLOUDED PAST, HATED BY THOSE HE WAS TRYING TO HELP, HARASSED BY POWERFUL MEN SEEKING MORE POWER....DID HE HAVE ANY FUTURE? DID THE WORLD?]

ODYSSEY TO EARTHDEATH

2012-01-28T12:21:00.003Z

Artist uncredited (looks like Jack Gaughan?)

[PSYCH-SICKNESS IS THE TERM THEY USED WHEN A CITIZEN OF CITYSIDE REBELLED AGAINST THE WHOLESALE MANUFACTURE OF DEATH...AGAINST THE FACT-CLOCK WHICH VOICED THE CONQUER-KILL COUNT EACH MINUTE...AGAINST THE DAILY LAUNCHING OF BIO-BOMBS INTO LANDSEND, TO "KEEP THE PEACE." STRANGELY, NOT ONE CITIZEN OF CITYSIDE HAD BEEN KILLED BY A LANDSENDER. BUT THE CITYSIDERS WERE BEING LOST IN DROVES TO PSYCH-SICKNESS. CIRCUS WAS TEH ANSWER. THE PLAN OF THE BRUTAL SUPREME PRIESTMAN PUME WAS TO ALLEVIATE THE PSYCH-SICKNESS. OR DID HE INTEND TO CREATE A GREATER EVIL?]

Time 10:31. Cityside released rockets and biobombs scheduled against Landsend from Sector Seven this morning. Conquer-kill count up from yesterday it is believed. Work hard. Work wins. Work hard. Work wins.

The factclock fell silent.

Villane picked up his Production Report and recited into the datafix. "Virulence of new strain point four hundred two. Room for improvement. Succeeding generations expected to increase in kill capacity. Recommend airborne delivery and dispersal to insure sufficient decimation and to-"

Villane vomited. It happened suddenly and without warning. His chest heaved once, twice, calmed. The sudden storm that had buffeted his body billowed away in dark silence, leaving him befouled of body but incredibly clear of mind. He looked around him at the laboratory as if seeing it for the first time, remembered the inhuman voiced of the factclock ticking off the conquer-kill count and heard the ominous silence that swirled up from the innocent looking test tubes where painful death lurked waiting.

THE GREKS BRING GIFTS

2012-01-28T12:12:00.000Z

Artist uncredited.

[THEY CAME TO EARTH IN THEIR SPACE SHIP, BEARING FABULOUS GIFTS - SUCH AS MACHINES THAT DID ANY DAY JOB AUTOMATICALLY, AND FERTILIZER THAT MADE PLANTS SHOOT UP OVERNIGHT. BUT THEY PRESENTED THEIR GIFTS WITH CONTEMPT, AND WITH A LOOK IN THEIR EYES THAT MADE PEOPLE FEEL "CREEPY". STILL, BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE NEW WORLD THEY PROMISED, THEY GREKS COULD BE FORGIVEN ANYTHING - UNTIL THEY LEFT AND PEOPLE DISCOVERED THE MACHINES WERE BREAKING DOWN. THEN THEIR ONLY CHOICE WAS TO BEG THE GREKS TO COME BACK, ON THEIR OWN TERMS. AND THEY KNEW THE TERMS WOULD BE HARD...]

In the wonderful world the Greks had given us unemployment was rising, but no one cared about that. Soon the Grek machines would take over all labor and nobody would need to work. People were hungry, but they tightened their belts and waited for the Greks' advanced method of fertilization to produce enough food for all. A few people were beginning to look with horror at the new Grek-made world. They saw how the Greks' promises had destroyed ambition and incentive. They saw Earthmen, with their eyes fixed on the future, refusing to work enough to supply the needs of the planet. These doubting few banded together to resist the Greks' scheme of conquest by generosity. But they knew that even a united Earth would have a hard time fighting the advanced technology of the Greks. What chance was there for a handful of people, with no army and no weapons?

CYCLE OF FIRE

2012-01-28T12:03:00.000Z

Artist uncredited.

[THE PLANET HAD TWO SUNS - A RED DWARF AND A BLUE GIANT. AND WHEN THE RED DWARF ASCENDED, THE PLANET BOILED AND THE ICE CAPS MELTED.

DAR LANG AHN HAD ONLY A SHORT TIME IN WHICH HE AND HIS GENERATION MUST PREPARE FOR THE CYCLE OF DEATH. THE DEATH THAT MEANT LIFE TO THE NEXT CIVILISATION OF ABYORMEN.]

Again and again Aborymen swung around its almost cometary orbit, and closer and closer Theer drew to its blazing primary. Aborymen, very slowly, grew hotter. To its natives this was a matter of little moment; the temperature had not yet reached the value which would activate the bacteria whose life processes would load the atmosphere with oxides of nitrogen. Until that happened Dar's people cared little whether the oceans of their planet were freezing or boiling.The temperature did not bother the human scientists, either. Most of them had from the beginning had been wearing complex protective garments which virtually air-conditioned them. Nevertheless they knew that more protection would be needed soon. Experiments with the native life, using not only bacteria but animals and plants large enough to be observed directly, had told them what to expect.

-Chapter XIV - Biology; Sociology

MINDSWAP

2012-01-28T11:54:00.002Z

Artist uncredited.

[INTER-STELLAR TRAVEL IS ONLY FOR THE RICH, THE COLONISTS, THE ADMINISTRATORS. BUT MARVIN FLYNN, TUCKED AWAY IN THE SLEEPY TOWN OF STANHOPE, LONGS TO TRAVEL IN SPACE.

SO HE ANSWERS THE ADVERTISEMENT TO SWAP BODIES WITH A MARTIAN.]

Marvin Flynn read the following advertisement in the classified section of the Stanhope Gazette:

Gentleman from Mars, age 43, quiet, studious, cultured, wishes to exchange bodies with similarly inclined Earth gentleman. August 1-September 1. References exchanged. Brokers protected.

This commonplace announcement was enough to set Flynn's pulse racing. He could...he would...swap bodies with a Martian...

CHILDREN OF THE VOID

2012-01-27T12:11:00.001Z

Artist uncredited.

[THE EARTH IS ANNIHILATED BY A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION AND A HANDFUL OF SURVIVORS ARE ISOLATED ON A PLANET SHIFTEN FROM ITS ROTATION AROUND THE SUN AND VEERING OFF ITS AXIS TO DRIFT AIMLESSLY IN THE VOID OF SPACE TO A DESTINY UNKNOWN. IN THIS SEQUEL TO WORLD IN ECLIPSE, WILLIAM DEXTER CREATES A HORRIFYING GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE. THE BEWILDERED AND TERRIFIED REFUGEES DRIFT TO THE MOONS OF JUPITER, MEET THE BEAST MEN OF VARANG-VARANG AND HEAR THE NOISES OF THE WISE ONES WHO SPEAK IN EVERY KNOWN LANGUAGE. PERHAPS ONLY THEY CAN HELP THE DESTITUTE COLONY, GROPING HELPLESSLY IN AN EVERIONMENT SO FEARFUL AS TO SCAR THE IMAGINATION.]

Cover artist is uncredited.

JOURNEY BEYOND TOMORROW

2012-01-27T12:07:00.001Z

Artist uncredited.

[JOENES WAS A MAN OF THE FABULOUS TWENTIETH CENTURY, THAT REMOTE AND MISTY PERIOD OF TIME ABOUT WHICH VERY LITTLE IS KNOWN.

MANY TALES ARE TOLD OF JOENES AND HIS TRAVELS THROUGH THE LAST YEARS OF THE OLD ERA AND THE FIRST YEARS OF THE NEW BUT NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE STORIES OF JOENES HAVE BEEN CAREFULLY COLLECTED AND TOGETHER THEY PRESENT A FASCINATING PICTURE OF THAT MYTHICAL PERIOD OF TIME KNOWN AS THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.]

SINISTER BARRIER

2012-01-27T12:02:00.002Z

Artist uncredited.

[TIME - 21ST CENTURY. PLACE - AMERICA. CRISIS - A WORLD GONE MAD.

PRESIDENT'S WARNING - DESTROY THE VITON MENACE - OR EARTH HAS ONLY 80 HOURS TO LIVE! BILL GRAHAM WAS AMONG THE SCIENTISTS AND GOVERNMENT LEADERS LEFT WHO HEARD THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. HE SHUDDERED AT THE THOUGHT OF THE LAST VITON RAMPAGE OF KIDNAPPING, GHASTLY MURDER AND MADNESS. HIDDEN SOMEWHERE IN THE VASTNESS OF THE GALAXY, THE HIDEOUS BLOBS OF VITON, THAT FED ON MEN'S FEARS AND EMOTIONS, PLANNED A LAST-DITCH ATTACK TO DESTROY THE UNIVERSE. ONLY BILL GRAHAM HAD A ONE-IN-A-MILLION CHANCE TO STOP THEM. BUT THE VITONS WERE SO DEADLY THAT EVEN TO THINK ABOUT THEM RISKED INSTANT ANNIHILATION.]

BRING THE JUBILEE

2012-01-27T11:56:00.000Z

Artist uncredited.

[NEW YORK CONTAINED A POPULATION OF NEARLY A MILLION, REPRESENTING THE GREATEST CONCENTRATION OF PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES THOUGH, OF COURSE, IT DID NOT COMPARE WITH THE GREAT CITIES OF THE CONFEDERACY, WASHINGTON (NOW SPREADING TO BALTIMORE), AND LEESBURG (ONCE MEXICO CITY). IN THIS NEW YORK: BUILDINGS SOMETIMES REACHED MORE THAN TEN STORIES. BALLOONS MOVED GRACEFULLY THROUGH THE AIR. TELEGRAPH WIRES JOINED HOUSES AND NEARLY EVERYONE KNEW MORSE CODE. BICYCLES WERE THICK AS FLIES. AND WHEN DARKNESS FELL, GAS-LAMPS - LIT SIMULTANEOUSLY BY TELEGRAPHIC SPARKS - GLOWED AT SPARKED ON EVERY STREET CORNER. A YOUNG MAN FROM THE COUNTRY, IN THE CITY FOR THE FIRST TIME, WAS KNOCKED OUT AND ROBBED. AND THUS STARTED A CHAIN OF EVENTS THAT WAS TO MEAN THE RE-WRITING OF HISTORY, THE CREATION OF ANOTHER, ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE, WORLD - WHERE THE CONFEDERATE STATES HAD NOT WON THEIR INDEPENDENCE!]

What he will he does, and does so much

That proof is call'd impossibility.

- Troilus And Cressida

It is always the puzzle of the nature of time that brings our thoughts to a standstill. And if time is so fundamental that an understanding of its true nature is forever beyond our reach, then so also in all probability is a decision in the age-long controversy between determination and free will.

- The Mysterious Universe by James Jeans

THE SHORES OF SPACE

2012-01-26T19:31:00.000Z

Artist uncredited.

[BEING - IT WAS GETTING DARK AND HE COULDN'T BE SURE OF WHAT HE SAW. HE STOOD PARALYSED AND NUMB, STARING WITH BLOOD-DRAINED FACE AT THE THING THAT MOVED ACROSS THE GROUND TOWARDS THE MAN'S BODY; THE THING THAT HAD A SHAPE, YET NOT SHAPE, THAT CREPT LIKE A CURRENT OF SHIMMERING JELLIES. A TERRIFIED GAGGING FILLED HIS THROAT. HE TRIED TO MOVE, BUT COULDN'T. HE DIDN'T WANT TO HEAR THE HIDEOUS GURGLING SOUND, THE TURBID BUBBLING THAT WAS LIKE VATS OF BOILING TALLOW. THEN THE MAN WAS GONE FROM THE EARTH. LES STARED AT THE PLACE WHERE HE HAD BEEN, STARED AT THE LUMINOUS MASS THAT PULSATED THERE. HE STARED AT IT UNTIL THE MAN HAD BEEN COMPLETELY EATEN...]

CONTENTS: Being, Pattern For Survival, Steel, The Test, Clothes Make The Man, Blood Son, Trespass, When Day Is Dun, The Curious Child, The Funeral, The Last Day, Little Girl Lost, The Doll That Does Everything.

GIANT OF WORLD'S END

2012-01-26T19:24:00.003Z

Illustration: Jeff Jones.

[AN UNLIKELY BAND OF HEROES - A WOMAN WHO LOVED IN VAIN, A MAGICIAN WHO LOVED ONLY WISDOM, AND A WARRIOR TO WHOM LOVE WAS A GENETIC IMPOSSIBILITY - FOUGHT THE DOOM THAT FILLED THE SKIES OF THEIR STRANGE WORLD. AND IT CAME TO PASS THAT ZOLOBION THE MAGICIAN AND GANELON SILVERMANE SET FORTH FROM THE LAND OF THE GREAT STONE FACE AND TOOK THE FIRST STEPS OF THEIR GIGANTIC JOURNEY ACROSS THE WORLD, A JOURNEY SO LONG AND FEARFUL AND SO FILLED WITH WONDERS THAT NO MAN SINCE TIME BEGAN UNTIL THAT HOUR HAD UNDERTAKEN A LIKE ADVENTURE.

BUT THEIR MISSION WAS A LOGICAL IMPOSSIBILITY. HENCE WHAT PURPOSE IS UNDERTAKING IT? ONLY THAT THE MOON WAS FALLING.]

It was an old Piomazian custom to force foreign travelers to sell themselves into slavery to avoid starvation - then feed them to slavering beasts in the arena, for the amusement of fat merchants, eh?Fury rose to white heat within Ganelon Silvermane as he saw the tentacles crawling along the rail toward Zelobion. The huge Myriapod was questing for juicy manflesh, the flesh of his friend. Ganelon vowed to teach the Piomazians a new custom: Revenge!

Is it me or does the last paragraph of bumf from the back cover make no sense?

THE NIGHT OF PUUDLY

2012-01-26T19:17:00.003Z

Artist uncredited.

[THE PUUDLY WAS A DANGEROUS THING, NOT ONLY BECAUSE IT WAS STRONG AND QUICK, BUT BECAUSE IT WAS INTELLIGENT. IT REASONED AND IT PLANNED AND SCHEMED. IT COULD TALK, THOUGH NOT AS A HUMAN TALKS...PROBABLY BETTER THAN A HUMAN EVER COULD. FOR IT COULD NOT ONLY TALK WORDS, BUT IT COULD TALK EMOTIONS. IT LURED ITS VICTIMS TO IT BY THE THOUGHTS IT PUT IN THEIR MINDS; IT HELD THEM ENTRANCED WITH DREAMS AND VISIONS UNTIL IT SLIT THEIR THROATS. IT WOULD NOT HUNT FOR HUNGER, NOT THE SHEER MADNESS OF THE KILL, BUT BECAUSE OF THE COMPELLING CONVICTION THAT NO PUUDLY WOULD BE SAFE UNTIL EARTH WAS WIPED CLEAN OF LIFE.]

CONTENTS: The Night Of The Puudly, Crying Jag, Instalment Plan, Condition Of Employment and Project Mastodon.

SPACE TUG

2012-01-26T19:09:00.001Z

Illustration by Jack Gaughan.

["THERE HAD BEEN TWO ATTEMPTS TO BLAST IT WITH ATOMIC BOMBS, BUT IT WAS ALOFT NOW, FLOATING GRANDLY AROUND THE EARTH." - THIS WAS THE SPACE PLATFORM. THE CREW BADLY NEEDED FOOD, AIR, WATER AND MEANS OF SELF-DEFENSE. IT WAS UP TO JOE KENNMORE TO MAKE THE FIRST FLIGHT TO CARRY A CARGO INTO OUTER SPACE; BUT THE OPPONENTS OF THE PLATFORM HADN'T GIVEN UP...]

FROOMB!

2012-01-26T19:00:00.002Z

Artist uncredited.

[WHEN EXPLORER JOHN BRUNT, A TOUGH, WOMANISING ADVENTURER AGREES TO MAKE THE LAST EXPLORATION LEFT TO MAN, HE CANNOT CALCULATE THE SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL TERRORS THAT AWAIT HIM. THIS IS A STORY OF THE FUTURE AND OF NOW. BRUNT FINDS THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM EITHER. HE FINDS HE CANNOT SHAKE OFF THE SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION HE TAKES WITH HIM TO THE YEARS BEYOND NOW. BUT DOES DESTRUCTION COME? THERE MUST BE ESCAPE SOMEWHERE, SOMEHOW. BUT WHERE? HOW?]

THE AMAZING MR. LUTTERWORTH

2012-01-26T18:56:00.000Z

Artist uncredited.

[A MAN ON THE RUN - A MAN WITH NO MEMORY - A MAN WITH A SECRET. TIME RUNNING OUT. ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT FOR HIM TO REMEMBER WHAT HE HAS TO DO TO SAVE THE WORLD. WHO IS MR. LUTTERWORTH? HE DOESN'T KNOW. WHAT IS HIS SECRET? HE CANNOT REMEMBER. YET A MAJOR OIL COMPANY IS READY TO PAY HIM A MILLION, OR KILL HIM, FOR IT. FOREIGN AGENTS WOULD STOP AT NOTHING FOR ITS POSSESSION...]

DOOMSTAR

2012-01-25T17:21:00.001Z

Artist uncredited.

[THE SUN SHONE BRIGHTLY ON THIS FATEFUL MORNING, BRINGING TO ITS PLANETS WARMTH AND LIFE-GIVING RAYS. THE BRIGHTNESS INCREASED SHARPLY AS THE MORNING GREW OLDER. THE GLARE WAS BLINDING; THE RADIATION NOT LIFE-GIVING, BUT DEADLY. BY MID-AFTERNOON THE BRILLIANT, INTENSE SUN SHONE ON BARREN SPACE. IT HAD BLASTED EACH OF ITS FOUR PLANETS OUT OF EXISTENCE. SOMEONE HAD FOUND A WAY TO POISON A STAR. AND SOMEONE HAD TO BE FOUND WHO COULD PREVENT THE TAKEOVER - OR DESTRUCTION - OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. WHO? JOHNNY KETTRICK, AS IMPROBABLY A HERO AS THERE NEVER WAS. JOHNNY KETTRICK WAS BANNED FROM THE CLUSTER WORLD FOR HIS NOT-TOO-HONEST DEALINGS WAS SENT BACK THERE WITH HIS THREE EQUALLY UNHOLY PARTNERS TO SEARCH OUT THE DOOMSTAR...TO FIND THE DOOMSTAR BEFORE IT BURNED OUT ANOTHER WORLD.]

SUNDOG

2012-01-25T17:15:00.001Z

Artist uncredited.

[THE SOLAR SYSTEM WAS IMPRISONED. LOCKED IN A VAST, INVISIBLE SCREEN. SET THERE BY SOMETHING - OR SOMEONE - BUT NO ONE KNEW WHY...AND MAN, BANNED FROM THE STARS, TURNED INWARD TO HIMSELF, TO A WORLD OF CAREFULLY CONTROLLED THOUGHTS AND IDEAS, A WORLD WHERE IT WAS FORBIDDEN TO DREAM...]

NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR

2012-01-25T17:09:00.002Z

Artist uncredited.

[ONLY ONE MAN COULD SAVE THE WORLD, AND HE WAS DEAD - AGAIN. ONCE HE HAD BEEN ASSASSINATED BY A POLITICAL RIVAL. THE SECOND TIME HE HAD A HEART ATTACK WHILE NEGOTIATING A SURRENDER TO THE ENEMY. NOW HE WAS BACK, YOUNGER AND MORE VIGOROUS THAN BEFORE, GIVING NEW HOPE TO THE TERRANS IN THEIR BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL. HAD HE REALLY DIED ONCE - OR MORE THAN ONCE - LEAVING A ROBANT* IN HIS PLACE? OR HAD HE LEARNED TO MANIPULATE TIME SO HE COULD USE ALL OF HIS SEVERAL POSSIBLE FUTURES?]

*Robotic servant, PKD also wrote about Robants in The Impossible Planet.

THE TIME OF INFINITY

2012-01-25T11:25:00.000Z

Artist uncredited, signature 'Adams' visible.

[COMPLIMENTARY TO THE OUTER REACHES IS AUGUST DERLETH'S THE TIME OF INFINITY. AS IN THE COMPANION BOOK, MR. DERLETH HAS USED ALL HIS EXPERIENCE AS AN EDITOR TO PRODUCE AN ANTHOLOGY OF SCIENCE FICTION WHICH WILL PROVE DEEPLY SATISFYING TO MANY THOUSANDS WHO FIND THEIR READING PLEASURE WITH SCI-FI.]

CONTENTS: The Ship Sails At Midnight by Fritz Leiber, The Power by Murray Leinster, The Critters by Frank Belknap Long, Pardon My Mistake by Fletcher Pratt, Good night, Mr. James by Clifford Simak, The Plutonian Drug by Clark Ashton Smith, Farewell To Eden by Theodore Sturgeon, Co-operate - Or Else! by A. E. Van Vogt and Finality Unlimited by Donald Wandrei.

THE OUTER REACHES

2012-01-25T11:17:00.000Z

Artist uncredited.

CONTENTS: Interloper by Poul Anderson, Death Sentence by Isaac Asimov, This Is The Land by Nelson Bond, Ylla by Ray Bradbury, The Green Cat by Cleve Cartmill, Git Along! by L. Sprague De Camp, Service First by David H. Kellner and Shock by Henry Kuttner.

THE LEGION OF SPACE

2012-01-25T11:08:00.002Z

Cover: Paul Lehr.

[THEY WERE THE MOST FABULOUS TRIO OF SWASHBUCKLERS EVER TO SHIP OUT TO DEEP SPACE - THE GIANT HAL SAMDU, THE INSCRUTABLE JAY KALAM, AND THAT MARVEL OF GREED, TRICKERY AND DECEIT, THE INCOMPARABLY DISHONEST GILES HABIBULA! TOGETHER THEY THUNDERED ACROSS THE STARS SEARCHING FOR THE ULTIMATE PRIZE - THE MOST IMPORTANT FEMALE IN THE GALAXY. TOGETHER THEY HURLED THEMSELVES INTO THE WILDEST ADVENTURE OF THEIR STRANGE LIVES. AND TOGETHER THEY FACED INCREDIBLE EVIL AND HOWLING DESTRUCTION - WITH A KNOWN TRAITOR AS THEIR ONLY GUIDE!]

A fearful reward it is, in dear life's name, mortal fearful, for twenty years of loyal service to the Legion. Accused for a precious pirate, imprisoned and starved and tortured. Ah, yes, driven out of his own native System, to this hideous world of frightful horror!Poisoned by the very mortal air, doomed to howling insanity and death by slow green rot. Hunted by a million mortal monsters. Driven like a miserable rat to drown in the stinking sewers. Now face to face with a fearful death, in the cold of the dreadful night. And the one bottle of wine on the whole black continent smashed before he'd had a taste of it!

FOUR FOR TOMORROW

2012-01-25T11:01:00.000Z

Artwork by Jack Gaughan.

[THE STRANGEST MANHUNT IN INTERSTELLAR HISTORY: WHEN THE THREE MUTATED MEN KNOWN AS THE FURIES SEARCHED ACROSS THE GALAXY FOR VICTOR CORGO, CAPTAIN OF THE WALLABY, EX-HERO OF INTERSTEL, NOW TRAITOR TO MANKIND. THE PARTY THAT LASTED FOREVER: WHERE THE ULTRA-RICH MEMBERS OF "THE SET" REVELED FOR A NIGHT, THEN SLEPT FOR YEARS, THEN PARTIED AGAIN, AND SLEPT AGAIN...AND ALL THE WHILE THEY TRAVELED INTO A MORE AND MORE ALIEN FUTURE IN WHICH THEY WERE INCREASINGLY LOST. THE LEVIATHAN OF VENUS: WHICH HAD DESTROYED EVERY EARTH EXPEDITION SENT TO CAPTURE IT...BUT STILL ONE MAN HAD TO RISK HIS LIFE IN A FINAL DESPERATE ATTEMPT. THE LAST OF THE ANCIENT MARTIANS: WHO WAS AN AWESOMELY LOVELY GIRL WITH A MISSION SHE COULD NOT FULFULL...AND A SECRET FOR THE FUTURE....]

SLEEPING PLANET

2012-01-25T10:55:00.003Z

Artist uncredited.

[YOU MAY NOT BE SLEEPY NOW. BUT GIVE YOURSELF TIME. GIVE THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM TIME. ABOUT NINE HOURS WORTH. IT IS THE TWENTY-FIFTH CENTURY AND THE TERRAN FEDERATION, A SMALL BUT TECHNICALLY ADVANCED STELLAR UNION, IS ENGAGED IN A LONG AND INDECISIVE WAR AGAINST THE LLRALAN 'EMPIRE OF FOUR THOUSAND SUNS'. THE LLRALANS HAVE DISCOVERED A TOXIC DUST WHICH, BY MEANS OF ROBOTIC SHIPS, THEY SPREAD OVER EARTH, MARS AND VENUS; AND THE THREE BILLION INHABITANTS OF THESE PLANETS COLLAPSE INTO UNCONSCIOUSNESS. BUT THERE ARE TEN EXCEPTIONS...WILL THEY BE ABLE TO SAVE THE GALAXY?]

VOR

2011-12-06T14:28:00.001Z

Artwork by Don Crowley.

[THE GLOWING OVOID PLUMMETED EARTHWARD, THE SKY SCREAMING LIKE A METALLIC BANSHEE AS THE AIR BOILED AWAY FROM ITS SIDES.

A SUPERSONIC BOOM BROKE OVER THE FOREST. THE CURIOUS THING GLIDED DOWN; EARTH FOUNTAINED AWAY FROM IT LIKE WATER, AND THE FOREST BURST INTO FLAME! THEN A THIN BLACK LINE ETCHED A CIRCLE ON THE SIDE OF THE METAL EGG; THE CIRCLE THICKENED INTO A DOOR, OR AIRLOCK; THE AIR WAS RENT BY A SEARING, SCREAMING HISS AND SUDDENLY - THE STRANGE BEING SOON TO BE KNOWN TO ALL MANKIND AS VOR EMERGED....]

STRANGE RELATIONS

2011-12-06T14:22:00.001Z

Artist uncredited.

[PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER IS ONE OF THE HANDFUL OF AUTHORS WHO MADE SCIENCE FICTION GROW UP. UNLIKE SO MANY OTHER SF WRITERS, HE HAS NEVER BEEN AFRAID TO EXPLORE TO THE FURTHEST LIMITS OF THE BIZARRE, TERRIFYING AND GROTESQUE THE IMPLICATIONS OF MAN'S CONTACT WITH COMPLETELY ALIEN LIFE-FORMS IN OUTER SPACE. IN THIS OUTSTANDING COLLECTION OF BRILLIANTLY DISTURBING STORIES MAN MEETS ALIEN IN A WEIRD VARIETY OF WAYS. THE RESULTS OF THESE ENCOUNTERS WILL SHOCK, STARTLE AND ASTOUND YOU. THEY WILL ALSO OPEN YOUR MIND TO A NEW AWARENESS OF THE RANCE OF EXPERIENCE AVAILABLE TO MAN IN AN INFINITE UNIVERSE...]

Today was must have been weird book cover day - I'm intrigued by the weird slug on the male sphinx's back and, let's face it; the whole Sphinx thing. Somehow it just seems to fit PJF.

MASQUE OF A SAVAGE MANDARIN

2011-12-06T14:15:00.001Z

Possibly out of shame, the artist is not credited.

[NICHOLAS COAD, THE SAVAGE MANDARIN: DETACHED, SCIENTIFIC, 'CONVERTED' INTO A STATE OF 'SUBLIME, COSMIC INDIFFERENCE'. HE IS WORKING ON A UNIQUE PROJECT - THE 'CONVERSION' AND LIBERATION OF THE SOUL OR HIGHER SELF FROM CHAINS OF PHYSICAL BONDAGE. HIS 'PATIENT' IS HIS GOOD-NATURED NEIGHBOUR, ROGERS, UP-AND-COMING AD-MAN. ROGERS DOES NOT REALISE THAT HIS PIERCING HEADACHES ARE CAUSED BY THE FEARSOME, HYPNOTIC IN COAD'S FLAT. BUT AS COAD BRINGS HIM FURTHER ALONG THE PATH TO LIBERATION, HE HAS NO CHOICE. AFTER ALL, HIS BRAIN NOW RESEMBLES A CHUNK OF GRUYÉRE CHEESE...]

Well, you don't see a book cover like that every day, so I had to buy it as soon as I'd finished pissing myself laughing.

From the bumf on the back it looks like the literary equivalent of a psychotropic.

GUERNICA NIGHT

2011-12-06T14:10:00.001Z

Illustration: Tim White.

[EARTH IN THE TWENTY-THIRD CENTURY IS ADORNED WITH CORPSES AS SUICIDES RAVAGE A DEHUMANISED POPULATION, COMPELLED TO LIVE, OR MERELY EXIST, IN SEGREGATED COMPLEXES. DESPITE THE TECHNICAL WIZARDRY OF THE CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY AND THE DICTATES OF THE UNSEEN RULERS, MORE AND MORE PEOPLE SEEK THE ULTIMATE EXIT. ONE MAN PROBES THE SOCIAL DISEASE, BUT HE TOO FIGHTS THAT DREADFUL AND PERMANENT SEDUCTION. IF HE SUCCUMBS, THE VICTORY OF THE OPPRESSORS WOULD BE COMPLETE...]

LOST DORSAI

2011-10-29T00:20:00.002+01:00

Artwork by Les Edwards.

[RENOWNED THROUGHOUT THE GALAXY AS THE FINEST SOLDIERS EVER BORN, THE MEN OF THE DORSAI HAD BEEN HIRED BY EL CONDE, SOVEREIGN OF GEBEL NAHAR, TO TRANSFORM HIS RAGGLE-TAGGLE ARMY INTO A FIGHTING FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH. NOW REVOLUTION HAD ERUPTED, AND THE MEN ONCE TRAINED BY THE DORSAI BORE ARMS AGAINST THEM. BOUND BY THEIR RIGID CODE OF HONOUR, THE MERCENARIES' FIRST DUTY WAS TO PROTECT EL CONDE FROM THE REBELS. BUT WHAT CHANCE HAD A HANDFUL OF WARRIORS, HOWEVER NOBLE AND FEARLESS, AGAINST THE MASSED RANKS OF THE NAHARESE?]

SPIRIT OF THE DORSAI

2011-10-29T00:16:00.000+01:00

Artwork by Les Edwards.

[THE SPIRIT OF DORSAI IS AN ILLUMINATION OF THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE PLANET DORSAI AND ITS PEOPLE, SHOWING WITH EPIC CLARITY AND UNFORGETTABLE VISION HOW AND WHY THE DORSAI FIGHT AND LIVE. IT TELLS OF THE BEGINNING WHEN THE FIRST DORSAI WAS FORMED BY MERCENARIES WILLING TO FIGHT OTHERS' BATTLES TO BUY FREEDOM FOR THEIR OWN HOMES. IT TELLS HOW EVEN CHILDREN AND OLD MEN FOUGHT FOR THE DREAM OF THE DORSAI. FROM THE MOUTH OF AMANDA MORGAN, DIRECT DESCENDANT OF TWO ILLUSTRIOUS WOMEN WHO BORE HER NAME, THE FULL STORY IS TOLD IN ALL ITS SPLENDOUR.]

NEW WORLDS SCIENCE FICTION AUGUST 1961

2011-10-19T11:59:00.007+01:00

Cover painting by Sydney Jordan.

New Worlds Science Fiction volume 37 No. 109, August 1961. Features novelette Goodbye Dr. Gabriel by John Rackham, short stories Company Store by Robert Silverberg, The Ship Of Heaven by Mike Davies plus serial (conclusion) of Put Down This Earth by John Brunner.

I've wanted a copy of this magazine for about 20 years, ever since I saw Sydney Jordan's artwork in Brian Aldiss' Science Fiction Art book.

TIME STORM

2011-09-29T19:40:00.003+01:00

Artwork by Peter Elson.

[THE DAY THE TIME STORM STRUCK, MARC DESPARD WAS ONE OF THE HANDFUL TO SURVIVE. MIST WALLS, MOVING ENDLESSLEY ACROSS THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH, CREATED A DEVASTATED, SHIFTING PATCHWORK OF TEMPORAL ANARCHY. BUT DESPARD SAW STRANGE, DAZZLING PATTERNS IN HIS HEAD THAT HE KNEW COULD LEAD HIM THROUGH THE STORM. IN THE VIOLENT, TERRIFYING LANDSCAPE OF AN EVER-CHANGING WORLD HE BEGAN TO REALISE HIS AWE-INSPIRING MISSION: HE MUST BECOME NOTHING LESS THAN MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE - HE MUST BECOME GOD.]

THE STAR WITCHES

2011-09-16T11:17:00.000+01:00

Cover artist uncredited.

[A MAN HAS BEEN EXPERIMENTING TO MAKE CONTACT WITH THE OUTER WORLD. ONE NIGHT HE DISAPPEARS - TO BECOME THE MASTER OF THE FORCES HE HAS UNLEASHED, OR THEIR FIRST VICTIM?]

She put her hands over her ears and stared at the silent man on the camp bed. They had not touched him. He was breathing, but very slowly, so slowly that they had not noticed it at first. There were wires attached to his head by a structure like earphones. They ran under the bed and disappeared into the darkness beneath.

NONE BUT MAN

2011-09-15T16:42:00.003+01:00

Cover art by Don Maitz.

[OUT THERE...BEYOND THE FRONTIER...BEYOND THE LAST HUMAN SETTLEMENT IN THE PLEIADES, LAY THE TERRITORY OF THE MOLDAUG: ALIEN, MENACING THINGS FROM FAR, INHUMAN STARS WHO WERE GATHERING THEIR FORCES FOR WAR. AND IT SEEMED THAT THE PEOPLE OF THE OLD WORLDS, IN UNREASONABLE AND UNREASONING FEAR, WERE PREPARING TO SACRIFICE THE COLONIES OF THE NEW WORLDS IN A COWARDLY ATTEMPT TO AVERT THAT WAR...BUT NOT IF FRONTIERSMAN CULLY WHEN HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT!]

THE BIG TIME

2011-09-15T16:39:00.002+01:00

Cover artist uncredited, could be Bob Haberfield?

[THE SECRET OF TIME TRAVEL IS THE EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OF TWO HUGE, SHADOWY ORGANIZATIONS WHO SEND THEIR AGENTS INTO THE PAST TO CHANGE CRUCIAL EVENTS IN HISTORY AND THUS REMODEL THE WORLD IN THEIR OWN IMAGE. FRITZ LEIBER'S MASTERPIECE OF SUSTAINED SURREALISTIC IMAGINATION IS THE MOST REMARKABLE NOVEL EVER TO WIN SCIENCE FICTION'S COVETED HUGO AWARD.]

OUR LADY OF DARKNESS

2011-09-15T16:35:00.002+01:00

Cover illustration by Roy Ellsworth.

[WHAT WAS THE EVIL FIGURE THAT HAUNTED FRANZ WESTEN? WAS IT HIS IMAGINATION, OR WAS IT SOMETHING INFINITELY MORE FRIGHTENING, CONNECTED SOMEHOW WITH THOSE OLD BOOKS HE'D BEEN READING? FOR THERE WAS MUCH IN THOSE BOOKS TO CONNECT THE FIGURE WITH THE BIZARRE TWILIGHT WORLD OF SAN FRANCISCO IN THE 1920S, THE WORLD OF H. P. LOVECRAFT, CLARK ASHTON SMITH, JACK LONDON, DASHIELL HAMMETT AND ALEISTER CROWLEY. THE MORE WESTEN PLUNGED INTO THOSE MISTY REACHES OF THE OCCULT, THE MORE HE WOULD UNCOVER THINGS WHICH HAD PERHAPS BETTER LAIN UNDISTURBED. FOR WESTEN, IN TRYING TO UNRAVEL THE MYSTERY OF OUR LADY OF DARKNESS, WAS GAMBLING WITH HIS LIFE.]

THE TEXTS OF FESTIVAL

2011-09-15T16:31:00.002+01:00

Cover illustration by Peter Jones.

[IN THE WILDERNESS OF BRITAIN LITTLE OF CIVILIZATION REMAINS. DECADENCE AND DIVISION HAVE OVERTAKEN THE HUDDLED PEOPLE OF FESTIVAL. AND FAITH IN THE TEXTS OF THE OLD GODS - DHILLON, DJEGGAR AND MORRIZEN - IS FADING FAST. BEYOND THE CITY WALLS THE TRIBES ARE MASSING, UNITED IN EVIL INTENT. HILL SAVAGES FIRED BY RITUAL SUPERSTITION TO PILLAGE AND SLAUGHTER. SATANIC HORSERIDERS INSPIRED BY DRUGS TO RAPE AND DEFILE. AND CRYSTAL-CRAZED IGGY AT THE HEAD OF THEM ALL - A DESPOT IN SEARCH OF A TERRITORY. A TERRITORY LIKE FESTIVAL.]

I bought this one due to the Hawkwind connection - The Text Of Festival is bootleg quality live record that's been around since the early 1980s.

THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION MAY 1961

2011-09-14T11:29:00.003+01:00

Covery by Ed Emshwiller ("Emsh").

The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction, Vol. 11, No. 6 (British Edition) May 1961. Contents: Operation Incubus by Poul Anderson, The Man On The Beach by Vince Aandahl, Shotgun Cure by Clifford D. Simak, Return Journey by Charles V. De Vet and What Nice Hands Held by William Eastlake.

Another 'pulp' I had to have because it was in Brian Aldiss' Science Fiction Art book - burned into my memory since the age of 13.

MASTERS OF SPACE

2011-09-09T14:16:00.001+01:00

Cover artist uncredited.

[AMONG THE HANDFUL OF WRITERS WHO MAKE UP THE REAL HARDCORE OF SCIENCE FICTION, EDWARD E. SMITH STANDS SUPREME. HIS 'SKYLARK' AND 'LENSMAN' SERIES SET A STANDARD FOR BREATHTAKING INTERGALACTIC ADVENTURE WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SURPASSED. MASTERS OF SPACE SHOWS THE MASTER STORY-TELLER AT THE TOP OF HIS FORM IN THIS STORY OF A BRASH NEW RACE ERUPTING INTO SPACE, DETERMINED TO RISK THEIR VERY EXISTENCE IN A BID TO TAKE OVER THE GALACTIC EMPIRE AND PREVENT IT FALLING INTO THE HANDS OF TYRANTS.]

THE CLOCKWORK TRAITOR

2011-09-08T13:52:00.000+01:00

Cover illustration by Chris Foss.

[JULES AND YVETTE D'ALEMBERT HAD FACED CHALLENGES BEFORE - BUT RARELY ONE AS DAUNTING AS THIS. TO THEM FELL THE PERILOUS TASK OF INFILTRATING A VICIOUS CONSPIRACY WHICH THREATENED TO DESTROY THE STANLEY DYNASTY AND THROW THE WHOLE INTERSTELLAR CIVILIZATION INTO CHAOS. NOW, AS RIVAL CANDIDATES FROM ALL CORNERS OF THE GALAXY GATHER FOR THE PROGRESS, THE TWO MOST DARING SPACE SUPER-AGENTS OF ALL TIME GO INTO ACTION. FOR AMONG THE SUITORS COMPETING TO BE CONSORT TO THE ROYAL HEIRESS OF THE EMPIRE OF EARTH, THERE IS A TRAITOR. AND SOMEWHERE CLOSE TO THE PRINCESS, A TIME BOMB IS TICKING...]

THE LION GAME

2011-09-08T13:45:00.006+01:00

Illustration: Tim White.

['WHAT'S THE LION GAME?' ASKED TELZEY OF HER CAPTORS. 'YOU'RE ENGAGED IN IT NOW,' WAS THEIR ANSWER. IT WAS A GAME OF MENTAL CHESS PLAYED ON THE INTRICATE CLOSED-TRANSIT CIRCUITS OF AN ENTIRE WORLD BY A RACE OF GIANT MENTALISTS WHO ACKNOWLEDGED NO ALLEGIANCE TO THE CIVILIZED PLANETS. TELZEY WAS A HUMAN AND, AS SUCH, A TEST PIECE - EITHER A PAWN TO BE SACRIFICED OR A WILD QUEEN WHO COULD MAKE HER OWN DECISIONS, SHE WAS NEVER SURE WHICH. EITHER WAY THE LOSER WOULD NOT BE JUST ONE TALENTED EARTHLING; THE LOSER WOULD BE A WHOLE CIVILIZATION, AND POSSIBLY A FEW PEACEFUL PLANETS AS WELL...]

THE SHIP WHO SANG

2011-09-07T11:22:00.000+01:00

Cover artist uncredited.

[THE BRAIN WAS PERFECT, THE TINY, CRIPPLED BODY USELESS.

SO TECHNOLOGY RESCUED THE BRAIN AND PUT IT IN AN ENVIRONMENT THAT CONDITIONED IT TO LIVE IN A DIFFERENT KID OF BODY - A SPACESHIP.

HERE THE HUMAN MIND, MORE SUBTLE, INFINITELY MORE COMPLEX THAN ANY COMPUTER EVER DEVISED, COULD BE LINKED TO THE MASSIVE AND DELICATE STRENGTHS, THE TOTAL RECALL, AND THE INCREDIBLE SPEEDS OT SPACE. BUT THE BRAIN BEHIND THE SHIP WAS ENTIRELY FEMININE - A COMPLEX, LOVING, STRONG, WEAK, GENTLY SAVAGE - A PERSONALITY, ALL-WOMAN, CALLED HELVA...]

OVERLAY

2011-09-07T11:17:00.001+01:00

Cover artwork by Ray Feibush.

[EARTH WAS A PLANET OF INCOMPETENTS, BUT SIMMONS WAS THE GREATEST LOSER OF ALL. IT SEEMED AS IF THE POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE WERE CONCENTRATED ON GRINDING HIS SMALL SOUL INTO ULTIMATE INSIGNIFICANCE...UNTIL THE ALIENS CAME. TO THEM, SIMMONS WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT HUMAN ON THE PLANET - FOR ONLY THROUGH HIS MIND COULD THEY OVERCOME THIS WORLD.]

In the year 1978 (433 Galactic) the attention of the Bureau fell to the planet Earth, which, Headquarters decided, had reached a point where it furnished a clear and present danger to the cause of Galactic Unity. With some regret, tampered by a long and hard-bought sense of bureaucratic anomie, a plan was put into operation to rid the sector of the menace by sowing the seeds of disunity within.

-First prologue.

SO BRIGHT THE VISION

2011-09-07T11:12:00.000+01:00

Cover illustration: Chris Moore.

[CLIFFORD D. SIMAK NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION. FOR YEARS HIS CREATIVE TALENTS HAVE DELIGHTED AND INSPIRED THE SCIENCE FICTION WORLD.

THIS VOLUME IS A DAZZLING COLLECTION OF HIS MOST INVENTIVE, HUMOROUS AND EXCITING NOVELETTES - THE GOLDEN BUGS, LEG. FORST, SO BRIGHT THE VISION, GALACTIC CHEST.]

SO BRIGHT THE VISION

There was a strange creaking noise from somewhere and I glanced hurriedly around to find out what it was. I found out, all right.

Over on one corner, my favourite chair was slowly and deliberately coming apart. The upholstery nails were smoothly rising from the edging of the fabric - rising as if by their own accord - and, dropping to the floor with tiny patterings. As I watched, a bolt fell to the floor and one leg bent underneath the chair and the chair toppled over. The upholstery nails kept right on coming out.

And as I stood there watching this, I felt the anger draining out of me and a fear come dribbling in to take its place. I started to get cold all over and I could feel the gooseflesh rising...

BUY JUPITER

2011-09-07T11:08:00.004+01:00

Cover illustration by Peter Jones.

[THE BIGGEST ADVERTISING SIGN IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM...DINOSAURS OF THE MESOZOIC ERA - ARMED WITH GUNS...THE FALL OF A FUTURE ATLANTIS - THESE AND MANY MORE MIND-SPINNING DELIGHTS AWAIT THE READER WITHIN THIS LATEST COLLECTION OF ISAAC ASIMOV'S SHORTER SCIENCE FICTION.

NEVER BEFORE COLLECTED INTO BOOK FORM, THE STORIES IN BUY JUPITER SPAN TWENTY-THREE YEARS OF DR ASIMOV'S WRITING CAREER. EACH BRILLIANT TALE COMES COMPLETE WITH FASCINATING DETAILS OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH THE AUTHOR WROTE IT. THE RESULT IS AN UNSURPASSED COMBINATION OF FIRST-RATE ENTERTAINMENT AND AN INTRIGUING LOOK AT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY'S GREATEST MASTER OF SCIENCE FICTION.]

Contains Darwinian Pool Room, Day Of The Hunters, Shah Guido G., Button, Button, The Monkey's Finger, Everest, The Pause, Let's Not, Each An Explorer, Blank!, Does A Bee Care?, Silly Asses, Buy Jupiter, A Statue For Father, Rain, Rain, Go Away, Founding Father, Exile To Hell, Key Item, The Proper Study, 2430 A.D., The Greatest Asset, Take A Match, Thiotimoline To The Stars and Light Verse.

RESTOREE

2011-09-06T11:00:00.002+01:00

Cover artist uncredited.

[THERE WAS THE SUDDEN STENCH OF A DEAD SEA CREATURE....THERE WAS THE HORROR OF A HUGE BLACK SHAPE CLOSING OVER HER....THERE WAS NOTHING....THEN THERE WAS THE MEMORY....ISOLATED FRAGMENTS THAT WERE SO HORRIBLE HER MIND REFUSED TO ACCEPT THEM....INTENSE HEAT AND SHIVERING COLD....EXCRUCIATING PAIN....DISMEMBERED PIECES OF THE HUMAN BODY....SAWN BONES AND SEARING SCREAMS....AND WHEN SHE AWOKE SHE FOUND SHE WAS IN A WORLD THAT WAS NOT EARTH, AND WITH A FACE AND BODY THAT WERE NOT HER FACE AND BODY.

SHE HAD BECOME A RESTOREE...]

THE FROZEN PLANET

2011-09-06T10:55:00.001+01:00

Cover painting: Jack Faragasso.

[THE MACHINE DECIDED WHO WOULD LIVE AND WHO WOULD DIE. IT PROVIDED FOOD FROM MECHANIZED PLANTS. IT ENABLED PEOPLE TO TRAVEL TO DISTANT PLANETS, OR TO GO BACKWARD AND FORWARD IN TIME. THE ONLY THING IN THE UNIVERSE IT HAD NOT YET CHANGED WAS MAN. HERE IS A WORLD IN WHICH NEW PROBLEMS AND NEW DANGERS HAVE REPLACED THE FAMILIAR ONES - BUT MAN CONTINUES HIS AGE-OLD BATTLE TO RETAIN MASTERY OVER THE MACHINES HE CREATED.]

Contains The Frozen Planet by Keith Laumer, Growing Season by F. L. Wallace, Cinderella Story by Allen Kim Lang, The Quality Of Mercy by Daniel Keyes and Gleaners by Clifford D. Simak.

BEYOND

2011-09-06T10:48:00.000+01:00

Cover artwork by Richard M. Powers.

"The late, lamented Beyond, edited by H. L. Gold, published during its career some of the best adult fantasy and science fiction stories written in America - stories by masters such as Theodore Sturgeon, Ray Bradbury and Algis Budrys"

-Damon Knight.

[THE WATCHFUL POKER CHIP - RAY BRADBURY TELLS THE STORY OF A MAN WHO HAD ONE OF HIS EYES REPLACED WITH THE MOST BEAUTIFUL POKER CHIP IN THE WORLD...

THE REAL PEOPLE - A STARTLING STORY WHICH SHOWS THAT MOST OF US ARE ONLY PUPPETS - AND ALGIS BUDRYS PROVES IT...

THE GHOST MAKER - FREDERIK POHL DEMONSTRATES THAT IF YOU TRACK REAL MAGIC TO ITS LAIR, YOU MAY BE VERY, VERY SORRY...]

Contains The Watchful Poker Chip by Ray Bradbury, The Ghost Maker by Frederik Pohl, Can Such Beauty Be? by Jerome Bixby, The Real People by Algis Budrys, The Beautiful Brew by James E. Gunn, I'd Give A Dollar by Winston Marks, The Root And The Ring by Wyman Guinn, Double Whammy by Frederic Brown and Talent by Theodore Sturgeon.

EXTRO

2011-09-06T10:40:00.000+01:00

Cover artist uncredited.

[SCATTERED OVER THE DENSELY POPULATED SOLAR SYSTEM THERE IS A SMALL GROUP OF IMMORTALS. ONE OF THEM, DR SEQUOYA GUESS, ATTEMPTS TO TAKE OVER EXTRO, THE SUPERCOMPUTER COMPLEX THAT CONTROLS ALL MECHANICAL ACTIVITY ON EARTH. BUT INSTEAD EXTRO TAKES OVER GUESS, AND THE COMBINATION TURNS SUDDENLY EVIL. DR GUESS MUST BE DESTROYED - BUT HOW DO YOU KILL AN IMMORTAL?]

So I now have two copies of this book including an earlier hardback version with a different cover, and I still haven't read either of them.

KRONK

2011-09-05T12:17:00.002+01:00

Cover artwork by Chris Foss.

[THE DAY GABRIEL CHROME, A FAILED BOOK SCULPTOR CONTEMPLATING SUICIDE ON THE THAMES EMBANKMENT, STUMBLED ON THE SUICIDE BID OF THE NAKED CAMILLA GREYLAW, WAS A DAY OF HOPEFUL REDEMPTION FOR A CORRUPT AND VIOLENT WORLD. FOR THE LOVELY FORM THAT HE CHANCED TO PRESERVE WAS THE SOLE CARRIER OF A CONTAGIOUS VENEREAL DISEASE. A BUG WHICH COULD INHIBIT THE AGGRESSIVE INSTINCT, RENDERING TOTAL PLACIDITY IN ALL HUMANS. AT ONCE GABRIEL'S LIFE HAS NEW MEANING AND PURPOSE. TO SAVE MANKIND BECOMES HIS HARDENED AMBITION. BUT MANKIND SEEMS FAR FROM HOPE.]

The river stank. It stank of time, effluent and the subtle odours of twelve million Londoners.

Nevertheless, in the half-light there was a hint of mystery - nay, even magic - on the waters of the Thames. Not enough mystery or magic to inspire one to leap off the bridge without further consideration. But at least enough to make one consider to possibility. Calmly and without haste. The question was whether he would drown first or be poisoned by the toxic waste that, over a few decades, had transformed the Thames into a rich brown syrup. Perhaps all that industrial crap had altered the river's specific gravity. Perhaps he would simply float like a cork until he died of horror at the variety of unmentionables - even unthinkables - drifting past his nose.

His meditations were interrupted by a bra.

THE BEST OF ROBERT SILVERBERG

2011-09-05T12:08:00.007+01:00

Cover artwork by Peter Jones.

"One of the great writers of his time"

-Barry N. Malzberg

[ROBERT SILVERBERG: A GIANT AMONG SF WRITERS, A MASTER OF THE MACABRE, THE FANTASTIC, THE SATIRICAL AND THE AMAZING. HERE IS THE VERY BEST OF HIS SHORTER FICTION. HAWKSBILL STATION: ONE OF THE GREAT CLASSICS OF TIME TRAVEL; NIGHTWINGS: THE HUGO AWARD-WINNING MASTERPIECE; PASSENGERS: THE CHILLING NEBULA WINNER; GOOD NEWS FROM THE VATICAN: SLY AND ELEGANT, A NEBULA AWARD-WINNER; AND SIX MORE SUPERB STORIES.]

Contains ten short stories featured chronologically: Road To Nightfall (1954), Warm Man (1957), To See The Invisible Man (1962), The Sixth Palace (1964), Flies (1965), Hawksbill Station (1966), Passengers (1967), Nightwings (1968), Sundance (1968) and Good News From The Vatican (1971).

THE UNDERPEOPLE

2011-09-05T11:57:00.001+01:00

Traversing the gallery of arses - artist uncredited.

[THE UNDERPEOPLE WERE MUTATED FROM ANIMAL STOCK TO SERVE MANKIND. THEY LIVED DOWNDEEP IN THE FORGOTTEN CORRIDORS AND CAVERNS OF OLD EARTH, SERVANTS TO THE MEN WHO BRED THEM IN THEIR OWN IMAGE.

BUT EVEN UNDERPEOPLE DREAM - AND OFTEN HAVE STRANGE POWERS.

AND NOW THEY HAVE A STRANGE ALLY IN THE RICHEST MAN WHO EVER LIVED: THE MAN WHO OWNED THE WHOLE PLANET.]

My second copy of The Underpeople. I wouldn't make a point of buying two copies but one was in a box of SF books I picked up from a car boot sale so didn't have much choice in the matter.

SERVANTS OF THE WANKH

2011-09-05T11:52:00.001+01:00

Cover art: Jeff Jones.

[MAROONED ON THE STRANGE PLANET TSCHAI, ADAM REITH AGREED TO LEAD AN EXPEDITION TO RETURN THE PRINCESS YLIN YLAN, THE FLOWER OF CATH, TO HER HOMELAND HALFWAY AROUND THE GLOBE. MONSTERS OF LAND AND SEA LAY BEFORE THEM, AND BEINGS BOTH HUMAN AND ALIEN WHO MIGHT ROB, KILL OR ENSLAVE THEM. TSCHAI WAS A LARGE PLANET, AN ANCIENT PLANET, WHERE FOUR POWERFUL ALIEN RACES STRUGGLED FOR MASTERY WHILE HUMANS WERE TREATED AS PAWNS; NOTHING WOULD BE EASY FOR REITH ON THIS JOURNEY. BUT THE GIRL'S FATHER WAS ENORMOUSLY WEALTHY, HER HOMELAND TECHNOLOGICALLY SOPHISTICATED. IF REITH WAS EVER TO OBTAIN HUMAN AID IN RETURNING TO EARTH, WHERE BETTER THAN CATH? IF HE COULD GET THERE...]

Sadly Jack Vance was made aware of Commonwealth slang, and was convinced to change the offending Wankh to Wannek in later publications.

THE BLOODY SUN

2011-09-05T11:41:00.000+01:00

Cover artwork by Melvyn Grant.

[DARKOVER HAD ONCE BEEN HOME TO JEFF KERWIN - A HOME HE'D LEFT AND THEN YEARNED AFTER FOR MANY YEARS. BUT WHEN, FINALLY, HE RETURNED IT WAS TO MYSTERY AND FEAR. FOR THERE WAS NO RECORD OF HIS BIRTH THERE, NOR OF HIS CHILDHOOD. AND WHEN HE JOINED THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS WHO STRUGGLED TO OVERTHROW EARTH'S CONTROL OF THE PLANET, THE DARKOVANS ACCUSED HIM OF BEING A SPY. HAD JEFF BEEN CONDITIONED, ON EARTH, TO BETRAY DARKOVER? HE, HIMSELF WAS NO LONGER SURE OF WHO - OR WHAT - HE REALLY WAS!]

BEHIND THE WALLS OF TERRA

2011-09-04T11:46:00.003+01:00

Cover artwork by Melvyn Grant.

[BEHIND THE WALLS OF TERRA LAY A SECRET NO MAN COULD BE ALLOWED TO LEARN. BUT KICKAHA - THE EARTH-BORN ADVENTURER OF THE TIERED WORLDS - HAD TO UNCOVER THAT SECRET, OR WATCH HIS HOME WORLD DESTROYED. KICKAHA WAS RETURNING TO EARTH FROM THE WORLD OF TIERS, THE MANY-LEVELLED UNIVERSE OF THE GOD-LIKE LORDS, THAT HE HAD ENTERED MANY YEARS AGO AS PAUL JANUS FINNEGAN. NOW HE HAD RETURNED TO A WORLD HE NO LONGER KNEW, TO FIND IT RULED BY RED ORC, A LORD JEALOUS OF HIS PERSONAL DOMAIN AND HOSTILE TO INTRUDERS. YET KICKAHA HAD TO STAY ALIVE IN ORDER TO DEFEAT THE DEADLY ENEMY THAT THREATENED EARTH AND THE OTHER WORLDS OF TIERS - THE 'BELLER', THE MALIGNANT CREATURE THAT WAS THE MIND-ESSENCE OF A REBEL LORD.]

THORNS

2011-09-04T11:41:00.000+01:00

Illustration: Keith Laban.

[DUNCAN CHALK - ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY MOGUL - FED HIS 600LB BODY A STEADY DIET OF PAIN AND SUFFERING. HE WANTED TO GIVE THE GOOD PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE A NEW TRAGEDY TO WATCH ON THEIR VIDEOS.

MINNER BURRIS - STARMAN - CAME BACK FROM MANIPOOL WITH HIS BODY HORRIBLY BUTCHERED BY THE PLANET'S SURGEONS. HE WANTED A NEW, WHOLLY HUMAN BODY. CHALK PROMISED IT TO HIM, IF HE CO-OPERATED.

LONA KELVIN - 17 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN - WAS THE MOTHER OF A HUNDRED BABIES WHOM SHE ONLY KNEW FROM PHOTOGRAPHS. SHE WANTED A COUPLE TO RAISE HERSELF. CHALK PROMISED THEM TO HER, IF SHE CO-OPERATED.

CHALK, MINNER, LONA...THE GREAT TRIANGLE. THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED, BUT NOT WHAT THEY NEEDED. ONLY TIME WOULD GIVE THEM THAT.]

CAMILLA: You, sir, should unmask.

STRANGER: Indeed?

CASSILDA: Indeed it's time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.

STRANGER: I wear no mask.

CAMILLA: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask?

-The King in Yellow: Act 1 - Scene 2.

THE OTHER WORLD

2011-09-04T11:34:00.000+01:00

Artwork by Richard M. Powers.

[GEORGE BRADERICK, A CIVILIAN GS-5 CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEE, WAS ALSO A SERGEANT MAJOR IN THE NATIONAL GUARD. HIS PRINCIPAL DUTY WAS TO GUARD THE LOCAL ARMOURY. IT WAS AS SUCH THAT HE BECAME THE TARGET OF THE SINISTER DR. LUDWIG TAUN - AND THE VICTIM. HERE IS THE STORY OF A DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOR POWER IN A WORLD WITHOUT THE DIMENSIONS WE KNOW.]

XANTHE AND THE ROBOTS

2011-09-04T11:28:00.000+01:00

Cover illustration by Adrian Chesterman.

[XANTHE IS A MEMBER (FEMALE) OF A RESEARCH TEAM WHICH IS INVESTIGATING THE POSSIBILITIES OF HUMANOID ROBOTS, IN A WORLD OF CHAOS AND STARVATION...TWO TYPES OF ROBOT HAVE BEEN PRODUCED: THE PRAGMAPRACTORS, WHO DO THE CONVENTIONAL MANUAL WORK; AND THE PHILOPHRENICS, WHO HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED TO MORE HUMAN LEVELS, TO FEEL AFFECTION, TO TALK, AND EVEN CONSTRUCT THEMSELVES. THE QUESTION IS: SHOULD THEY BE ALLOWED TO GO FURTHER?]

Whereas primitive man personifies things, anthromorphism), modern man 'thingifies' persons. We call this mechanomorphism: modern man tries to understand man as if 'it' were a machine.

-Thomas S. Szasz: Ideology and Insanity.

THE MAN WITH A THOUSAND NAMES

2011-09-04T11:21:00.001+01:00

Illustration: Tim White.

[ALTHOUGH THIRTY LIGHT YEARS DISTANT, MITTEND WAS EARTH'S NEAREST HABITABLE PLANET. SO THE BORED YOUNG HEIR, STEVEN MASTERS, CONTRIVED TO JOIN THE FIRST MANNED EXPEDITION JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT. WHEN HE FOUND HIMSELF BACK ON EARTH IN ANOTHER MAN'S BODY, IT WAS MORE THAN HE HAD EXPECTED. WHAT THEN FOLLOWED WAS A VERITABLE KALEIDOSCOPE OF EVENTS THAT WAS TO INVOLVE HIM IN MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES, IN MORE EXPEDITIONS TO MITTEND AND IN THE AFFAIRS OF THE ENTITY CALLED MOTHER FOR WHOM MITTEND ITSELF WAS JUST A MEANS TO AN END - AND STEVEN MASTERS THE HANDY NEXT STEP IN A GALACTIC PROGRAMME.]

THE SODOM & GOMORRAH BUSINESS

2011-09-04T11:16:00.001+01:00

Artist uncredited.

[INSTITUTE COURSES TOLD A GRIM STORY ABOUT THE NETWORK - THAT SAVAGE WORLD BEYOND THE CLOSELY GUARDED INSTITUTE GATES. BUT THEY WANTED TO SEE FOR THEMSELVES. THEY HAD TO KNOW. WERE THERE REALLY FEMALES THERE? WOULD THEIR TRAINING AS MERCENARIES PREPARE THEM FOR THE WILD BANDS OF GRISLY SUBHUMANS? THEY SET OUT ON A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY ONLY TO BECOME THE UNWITTING AGENTS OF FORCES THAT THREATENED TO DESTROY THE ONLY WORLD THEY'D EVER KNOWN.]

God gave me a tail to brush off the flies but I'd rather have no flies and no tail.

-Benjamin the Donkey (Animal Farm, George Orwell)

THE FURY FROM EARTH

2011-09-03T11:54:00.000+01:00

Painting by Jack Gaughan.

[IT WASN'T POSSIBLE. NO EARTH-MADE MISSILE COULD ESCAPE DEFLECTION - OR DESTRUCTION! - BY THE SENTRY SATELLITES THAT KEPT RADAR WATCH ON THE SPACE AROUND VENUS FOR A MILLION MILES OUT. BUT ON THEY CAME, FASTER THAN ANYTHING HAD EVER TRAVELED BEFORE! AND THEY SHOOK THE PLANET VENUS LIKE A TOY RATTLE, RIPPING DEEP WOUNDS IN ITS DESOLATE FLANK, SWALLOWING CITIES WHOLE. WHAT WAS THIS STRANGE NEW WEAPON? WHAT DEFENSE COULD BE ERECTED AGAINST A "BLIND BOMB?" THE QUESTIONS CAME AS COMMANDS TO VENUS-BORN, EARTH-REARED ALEX FROST. BUT WHEN ALEX COMPLETED HIS SECRET MISSION TO THE SWEET PLANET OF HIS YOUTH, HE RETURNED WEARY AND DISILLUSIONED. ONCE AGAIN - IN 2154 A.D. - THE POWERS-THAT-WERE ON EARTH HAD CORRUPTED THE PEACEFUL RESEARCH OF ITS SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY AND TURNED IT TOWARD DESTRUCTION. SPACE WAR I COULD NO LONGER BE AVOIDED...]

IT WAS THE DAY OF THE ROBOT

2011-09-03T11:47:00.003+01:00

Artist uncredited.

["THE VAULT WAS LIKE A PRISON, HARSH WITH ARTIFICIAL SUNLIGHT, EACH OF THE TWENTY COMPUTER UNITS GUARDED BY HEAVY BARS. YOU COULD LOOK UP AT THE GLITTERING TIERS OF MEMORY BANKS AND STIMULUS RESPONSE UNITS AND TELL YOURSELF THAT THE BIG BRAIN WAS ON OUR SIDE. BUT IF THE UNIT FLASHED ITS COLD LIGHT UPON YOU...FAR DOWN THE VAULT A MAN SCREAMED. HIS FISTS WERE CLENCHED AND HE RAGED CURSES AT THE HUMMING COMPUTERS. THERE WAS AGONY IN HIS EYES, AND DEFIANCE. I HAD NO RIGHT TO INTERFERE (IT WAS A PROBLEM FOR THE SECURITY GUARDS) BUT I DID. I'D SEEN MEN KILLED OR CRIPPLED FOR LIFE. IN SIX LONG STRIDES, I CROSSED THE VAULT..."]

It Was The Day Of The Robot is an original paperback novelization of the famous short story Made To Order, published by special arrangement with the author.

You stand before the humming computers and you fight off terror. You feel a more than human wisdom crushing you to the earth, denying you the right to think for yourself. You know that the future should be in your own hands, but you can't wring that much independence of thought and action from the master controls. The Big Brain can't know what a man is thinking, but the feeling is there - the guilt feeling. You want to escape but can't. You look around you and see your own face mirrored back. You see on gleaming metal the haggard eyes and tight, despairing lips of a total stranger.

MORE THAN SUPERHUMAN

2011-09-03T11:31:00.001+01:00

Illustration: Gerald Grace.

[A LONE SCIENTIST WORKING ON MAN'S ONE DESPERATE CHANCE AGAINST CONQUERORS FROM SPACE. A MAN AND A WOMAN IN A WORLD WHERE THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES HAS BECOME A DEATH STRUGGLE. A FUTURE WORLD WHERE CITIZENS ARE COMMANDED TO BE HAPPY OR TO SUFFER DESTRUCTION. A LAST STAND AGAINST THE ALL-POWERFUL DICTATORSHIP THAT HAS TAKEN OVER EARTH...]

Contains Humans Go Home, The Reflected Men, All The Loving Androids, Clone, Laugh (with Forrest J. Ackerman), Research Alpha (with James H. Schmitz) and Him.

THE OMEGA POINT

2011-09-03T11:25:00.000+01:00

Illustration: Joe Petagno.

[GEORGIAS WAS ONE OF THE LAST SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE ANCIENT AND MIGHTY RACE, THE HERCULEANS. THEIR RIVAL EMPIRE HAD DARED CHALLENGE EARTH'S SUPREMACY OF THE STARS. IN VICIOUS RETALIATION THEIR RACE WAS NEARLY WIPED OUT, AND THEIR HOME PLANET LEFT LIFELESS AND BURN OUT. THESE OLD AND TERRIBLE MEMORIES WERE ETCHED DEEP IN GEORGIAS' MEMORY. THEY DROVE HIM ON OVER THE LONELY AND HATE-FILLED CENTURIES, SEEKING A VENGEANCE THAT WOULD BRING ETERNAL GLORY. BUT THE LOVELY MYRAA, BELOVED FROM LONG AGO, HAD A DIFFERENT AND STRANGE VISION THAT DID NOT INCLUDE EMPIRES AND WARS AND ARMIES. AND SHE CONSTANTLY CALLED HIM, DRAWING HIM ALWAYS BACK TO HER SIDE...]

ZARDOZ

2011-09-02T11:18:00.000+01:00

Artist uncredited (signature visible; illegible).

[THROUGH THE LOWERING CLOUDS CAME THE FACE OF ZARDOZ, THE GOD WHO GAVE ZED AND THE EXTERMINATORS THE RIGHT TO MATE, THE MEANS TO KILL. WHAT ELSE IN LIFE WAS MEANINGFUL? THEN ZED ENTERED THE GODHEAD SEEKING ITS MYSTERIES, ENTERING THE WORLD OF THE VORTEX, WHERE DEATH WAS BANISHED FOR EVER, STIRRING THE LONG-FORGOTTEN SEXUAL DESIRES OF THE ETERNALS, DIVIDING THEM, REVERSING TIME ITSELF TO FIND THE TRUE SECRET OF THE TABERNACLE...]

"I wrote Zardoz in 1972 at my home, a lost valley in the dreaming hills of Wicklow. It came out closer to a novel than a screenplay. Gradually I worked it into a film form that proved too radical for most of the studios. Finally I got some backing and shot the movie in our local studios, Ardmore and locations around my house between May and July 1973. In the final weeks of Preparation Bill Stair - who worked with me on Point Blank and Leo The Last - came in to help rationalize the visions that threatened to engulf me. While editing the film I decided to restore the story to novel form. I asked Stair to help me with it. It follows the film very closely but draws heavily on the earlier versions. It offers an interpretation of the film and helps to lay the ghosts that stalked the Celtic twilight pressing this strange vision of the Future upon me."

-from the Preface by John Boorman, September 1973.

'We seal ourselves herewith into this place of learning. Death is banished forever. I direct that the Tabernacle erase from us all memories of its construction, so we may never destroy it if we should ever crave for death. Here man and the sum of his knowledge will never die, but go forward to perfection.' The old man finished speaking. There was no applause from the assembled audience. They quietly dispersed and went about their allotted duties. Eternal life had begun.

-from the Prologue.

SOLDIER, ASK NOT

2011-08-31T15:43:00.003+01:00

Artwork by Paul Lehr.

[SOLDIER, ASK NOT...AND THEY NEVER DID. THEY WERE BLACK-CLAD MERCENARIES, RESPONSIBLE ONLY TO THEIR EMPLOYER AND THEIR GOD. THEY COLDLY EXECUTED TAM OLYN'S BROTHER-IN-LAW BEFORE HIS EYES.OLYN'S QUEST FOR VENGEANCE TOOK HIM ACROSS HALF OF THE CIVILISED WORLDS - TO FAR CASSIDA, NEW EARTH, BUSTLING FRIELAND; TO THE POLITICAL PLANET, ST. MARIE - AND THEN BACK TO OLD EARTH AGAIN.HE MET MEN OF ALL THE SPLINTER GROUPS INTO WHICH MANKIND HAD EVOLVED AND HE USED THEM TO FURTHER HIS ENDS - UNTIL PADMA THE EXOTIC, AND LISA THE MYSTIC TAUGHT HIM HOW TO USE HIS SPECIAL POWERS - AND THE ENORMOUS KNOWLEDGE OF THE FINAL ENCYCLOPEDIA....]

ELRIC OF MELNIBONÉ

2011-08-31T15:36:00.003+01:00

Artist uncredited.

[MELNIBONÉ: NO LONGER THE MIGHTY EMPIRE THAT ONCE DOMINATED THE WORLD BUT A WANING KINGDOM, DEPENDENT ON TRADE FROM THE HUMAN NATIONS WHICH HAVE BEGUN TO CHALLENGE HER POWER.ON HER RUBY THRONE SITS THE ALBINO ELRIC - SORCERER AND WARRIOR. A MELANCHOLY PHILOSOPHER AT ODDS WITH HIS DESTINY.AS FLEETS OF MARAUDERS PROBE THE DEFENCES OF THE DRAGON ISLE, ELRIC FACES TREACHERY FROM WITHIN HIS OWN COURT - FROM YYRKOON, THE CRUEL AND AMBITIOUS COUSIN WHO DREAMS OF USURPING HIM.]

This is the tale of Elric before he was called woman-slayer, before the final collapse of Melniboné. This is the tale of his rivalry with his cousin Yyrkoon and his love for his cousin Cymoril, before that rivalry and that love brought Imrryr, the Dreaming City, crashing in flames, raped by the reavers from the Young Kingdoms. This is the tale of the two black swords, Stormbringer and Mournblade, and how they were discovered and what part the played in the destiny of Elric and Melniboné - a destiny which was to shape a larger destiny: that of the world itself. This is the tale of when Elric was a king, the commander of dragons, fleets and all the folk of that half-human race which had ruled the world for ten thousand years. This is a tale of tragedy, this tale of Melniboné, the Dragon Isle. This is a tale of monstrous emotions and high ambitions. This is a tale of sorceries and treacheries, of bitter love and sweet hatred. This is the tale of Elric of Melniboné. Much of it Elric himself was to remember in his nightmares.

- from the Prologue, The Chronicle of the Black Sword.

Another one I bought for the cover alone. I've already read Elric Of Melniboné several times, but this one has Arioch on the cover - whoopee.

THE ART OF RICHARD POWERS

2011-08-28T13:32:00.010+01:00

[STARTING WITH HIS FIRST APPEARANCE ON BALLANTINE'S PAPERBACKS IN THE 1950S, RICHARD POWERS'S CAREER SPANNED OVER FOUR DECADES IN WHICH HE PRODUCED JACKED ILLUSTRATIONS FOR OVER 1,200 SF NOVELS. NOW WIDELY REGARDED AS THE SINGLE MOST INFLUENTIAL ARTIST IN THE HISTORY OF PAPERBACK ILLUSTRATIVE ART, HE IS ALSO CONSIDERED A FIGURE OF TOWERING STATURE IN AMERICAN TWENTIETH-CENTURY FINE ART. RICHARD POWERS DIED IN 1995.

ILLUSTRATED THROUGHOUT WITH OVER 120 OF THE ARTIST'S POWERFULLY EVOCATIVE AND DREAMLIKE PAINTINGS, THIS DRAMATIC AND COLOURFUL BOOK REVEALS THE FULL DIVERSITY OF POWERS'S DISTINCTIVE ART.

INCLUDES AN INSIDE LOOK AT HIS LIFE BY HIS SON RICHARD GID POWERS, INTERVIEWS WITH THE INNOVATIVE ARTIST HIMSELF AND A FORWARD BY VINCENT DI FATE.]

"More than any individual author, Richard Powers showed the public that science fiction could be written by intelligent adults for intelligent adults. His superior aesthetics, which still overshadow most rivals, were actually what started me reading modern sf - with Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, the cover for which perfectly captured the mood of that great American novel. I bought the book in Paris in 1957 because the cover looked cool. It didn't insult either my eye or my intelligence. So if it hadn't have been for Powers, my romance with science fiction would have ended in my teens. I have huge admiration for him and am delighted that his talent is again on splendid display!" - MICHAEL MOORCOCK.

STAR SCIENCE FICTION STORIES #1 (1953) Back cover for the anthology edited by FREDERIK POHL.

The Star Of Life (1960) Cover for the novel by EDMOND HAMILTON.

The Sirens Of Titan (1990) Cover for the novel by KURT VONNEGUT JR.

Stardance II (interior illustration, 1978) Analog magazine, September 1978, illustrating the serial by SPIDER and JEANNE ROBINSON.

Stardance II (interior illustration, 1978) Analog magazine, November 1978, illustrating the serial by SPIDER and JEANNE ROBINSON.

I've owned this book for years now but somehow neglected it throughout the existence of this blog until now. Of all the books with SF art as subject matter, The Art Of Richard Powers is one of the best and easiest to obtain with copies going for £3 - £10 used and new on both eBay and Amazon. Published in 2001 by Paper Tiger the book is crammed with full-colour illustrations, interviews and biographical essays - one of my favourite aspects of the book is a complete checklist of novels with publisher and publication data for every book that Powers worked on.

THE INTERPRETER

2011-08-21T13:02:00.005+01:00

Artist uncredited - Brian Lewis perhaps?

[EARTHMAN GARY TOWLER IS TREATED LIKE A PARIAH; FOR HIS TASK AS CHIEF INTERPRETER FOR THE CORRUPT AND TYRANNICAL NULS MAKES OTHER HUMANS AVOID HIM AS A TRAITOR. NOR IS HE TRUSTED BY THE THREE-ARMED MAMMOTH RULERS THEMSELVES. THE LEADERS REALIZE THAT GARY KNOWS TOO MUCH. WHEN THE HUMANS LEADING THE UNDERGROUND REBELLION DEMAND GARY'S AID OR HIS LIFE, HE IS CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO UNTRUSTFUL FORCES. AND HIS ONLY WAY OUT IS TO MAKE HIMSELF INTO A ONE-MAN THIRD FORCE AGAINST TWO WORLDS' PLOTTERS.]

"Science fiction stories featuring galactic empires have always intrigued me, partly because I had the chance of seeing at first hand the uneasy relationship existing between "imperialists" and subject races in India and Indonesia. So there's a galactic empire in this book with the Earthmen on the the receiving end as subject race. The plot hinges on the notion that the further spread your empire is, the greater are the opportunities for graft therein.So the villains of the piece are not so much the all-conquering nuls, as the size of the galaxy and the economics involved in its rule. At the same time, the fact that the four central characters each have good reason to mistrust the other does complicate things.I hope it doesn't complicate things too much. Van Vogtian complexities of plot and sub-plot are not for me. This book aims at being a simple study of four pretty hard types each trying to out-think the other."

-A note from the author, Brian W. Aldiss.

Another paperback I already own but bought again because of the different cover artwork. I'll buy it again if I ever see the version with the Josh Kirby painting on the front.

THE TWO-TIMERS

2011-08-21T12:54:00.003+01:00

Artist uncredited.

[DEFYING TIME, JACK BRETON CROSSES INTO A PARALLEL WORLD TO REGAIN KATE - THE WIFE WHO, NINE YEARS EARLIER, WAS FOUND RAPED AND STRANGLED IN A LONELY PARK. BUT, IN THE ALTERNATE TIME-STREAM KATE IS MARRIED TO HIS DOUBLE, JOHN. AND FOR ONE HUSBAND TO REMAIN EITHER JACK OR JOHN MUST DIE...]

A sense of aching vastness, shifting of perspectives and parallax, unthinkable transitions in which the curvatures of space-time write between negative and positive and infinity yawns at the mid-point - numinous, illusory, poignant...

-Excerpt (1) from chapter three.

Excellent book! Do you suffer from hemicrania sine dolore? (type of Migraine) If so you may well be a frustrated time-traveller.
Jack Breton withdraws fluid from a blister, which when put in contact with glass develops kinin, which he injects into himself, then after searching for a loophole in Kirchoff's Laws, develops a delivery system for the kinin.

He touched the brim of his hat and a low humming sound came from it as the high-efficiency batteries strapped to his body delivering power. Simultaneously, the hypodermic gun built into the circuit fired a cloud of kinin into the shaven patch above his right temple. He felt its icy sting, then agony coiled languorously through his head as the chemical spread in the cerebral arteries

-Excerpt (2) from chapter three.

THE UNCERTAIN MIDNIGHT

2011-08-18T15:15:00.005+01:00

Artwork by Chris Foss.

[THEY CALLED HIM THE SURVIVOR - A 20TH CENTURY MAN 'REBORN' IN 2113 - AFTER A DEVASTATING ATOMIC HOLOCAUST, MANKIND HAD NOW TURNED TO THE MACHINE TO SOLVE HIS PROBLEMS. WHICH LED TO THE ANDROIDS - DESCENDED FROM THE ROBOT, THEY WERE HARDLY DISTINGUISHABLE FROM REAL HUMANS. BY THE YEAR 2113 THEY RAN SOCIETY - LEAVING MAN TO A LIFE OF LEISURE. IT WAS INTO THIS WORLD THAT JOHN MARKHAM EMERGED AFTER SPENDING 146 YEARS OF SUSPENDED ANIMATION IN AN UNDERGROUND DEEP-FREEZE UNIT. BUT HIS NEW LEASE ON LIFE WAS LIKELY TO BE A SHORT ONE. A MAN WITH HIS 'OUTDATED' IDEAS COULD BE VERY DANGEROUS - A FACT THE ANDROIDS REALIZED ONLY TOO WELL...]

When is a machine not a machine?

When it is an android...

Machines - creations of plastic and metal - are made in the exact outward likeness of man, fulfilling man's functions, but always with perfect efficiency. They start with programmed emotions, factual data, logical reactions and reasoned thinking. They can 'create' in themselves something more than the original input - original thought, other emotions. Furthermore, they can, and do, reproduce themselves. These benevolent daleks are more intelligent, more amusing, more likeable, more human than the effete descendants of their original creators. These androids, this new race of near-men, are a better strain than mankind.

Why does one primitive Twentieth Century man have the right to destroy these creatures who lack the spark of original sin? Because he has the right to survive - if he can.

A really enjoyable adventure. I always get along well with Edmund Cooper's books, the themes are similar to many of his other works; possible futures and the man-made problems that inhabit them - in this case an post-nuclear, android-dominated utopia free of human burden and responsibility. The Uncertain Midnight (formerly titled Deadly Image) was Edmund Cooper's first novel, and pre-dates the Space Age. It was adapted as a ten-part television serial in the French language and was also shown in Switzerland and Belgium - the serial was chosen to represent Swiss TV at the 1969 Prix Futura in Berlin (has anyone seen this? Is it any good and where can you get your hands on it?)

THE MEN INSIDE

2011-08-18T15:08:00.003+01:00

Artwork by David Bergen.

[EARTH'S ELITE - OR ITS OUTCASTS? FOR A SELECTED, GENETICALLY-FITTED FEW AMONG THE TEEMING MILLIONS OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, TO BECOME A MESSENGER FOR THE HULM INSTITUTE IS TO ESCAPE THE PRISON THAT IS LIFE, THAT IS EARTH. A MESSENGER IS NOBLE! A MESSENGER IS ONE OF THE CHOSEN. A MESSENGER IS A FORERUNNER OF A TIME IN WHICH FEAR AND DISEASE WILL DISAPPEAR FOR EVER. AND INSIDE A MESSENGER'S HEAD IS MURDER, IMPOTENCE AND DESPAIR.]

"I will go into the core and, striking, take the sickness out. I will do this with humility because I am merely a Messenger. My enemy is metastases, my cause is their expulsion, my sin the vanity of pride, my future the casting of burdens for I am a Messenger..."

-Oath of the Institute, 1996

"It's all a bunch of crap and don't you forget it."

-Leslie Blount, 2022

FINAL STAGE

2011-08-12T11:06:00.005+01:00

Illustration by David Pelham.

[THIRTEEN FANTASTIC NEW STORIES ON THE CLASSIC THEMES OF SCIENCE FICTION BY: ISAAC ASIMOV/POUL ANDERSON/ROBERT SILVERBERG/HARLAN ELLISON/FREDERIK POHL/BRIAN ALDISS/HARRY HARRISON/PHILIP K. DICK AND OTHERS. BETWEEN THEM THE CONTRIBUTORS HAVE WON ALL THE AWARDS BESTOWED BY SCIENCE FICTION: SEVENTEEN HUGOS, TEN NEBULAS AND THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL MEMORIAL AWARD. IN THIS VERY SPECIAL ORIGINAL COLLECTION, EACH WRITER IS AT THE TOP OF HIS FORM, EACH ATTEMPTING TO CREATE THE ULTIMATE ON A GIVEN THEME.]

"The assumption was that science fiction - that branch of literature half beast, half civilized - sits upon perhaps a dozen classic themes which, in various combinations, permutations and convolutions, underlie most of the work in the field. Like the ten to twenty basic chess attacks and defenses, these themes can lead to winning combinations of great beauty or, in less talented hands, to disastrous and obvious cliches."

-from the forward by the editors Barry N. Malzberg and Edward L. Ferman.

Contains We Purchased People by Frederik Pohl, The Voortrekkers by Poul Anderson, Great Escape Tours, Inc. by Kit Reed, Diagrams For Three Enigmatic Stories by Brian W. Aldiss, Thou Art Mindful Of Him! by Isaac Asimov, We Three by Dean R. Koontz, An Old Fashioned Girl by Joanna Russ, Catman by Harlan Ellison, Space Rats Of The CCC by Harry Harrison, Trips by Robert Silverberg, The Wonderful All-Purpose Transmogrifier by Barry N. Malzberg, Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. and A Little Something For Us Tempunauts by Philip K. Dick.

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION NOVEMBER 1956

2011-08-11T12:56:00.002+01:00

Cover by Kelly Freas.

Astounding Science Fiction Vol. XII, No. 11 (British Edition) November 1956. Inside: novelettes Plus X by Eric Frank Russell and The Chosen People by Robert Randall, short stories The Peasant Girl by Paul Janvier, The Live Coward by Poul Anderson and Sea Change by Thomas N. Scortia.

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION MAY 1956

2011-08-11T12:52:00.002+01:00

Cover by Kelly Freas.

Astounding Science Fiction Vol. XII, No. 5. (British Edition) May 1956. Inside: novelette Sand Doom by Murray Leinster, short stories Breakaway by Stanley Gimble, Far From Home by J. A. Taylor and Faithfully Yours by Lou Tabakow plus serial Under Pressure (part two of three) by Frank Herbert.

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION MARCH 1956

2011-08-11T12:47:00.004+01:00

Cover "Follow Me..." by Ed Emshwiller ("Emsh").

Astounding Science Fiction Vol. XII, No. 3. (British Edition) March 1956. Inside: short novel The Short Life by Francis Donovan, novelette New Blood by James E. Gunn, short story Security by Ernest M. Kenyon plus serial Call Him Dead (conclusion) by Eric Frank Russell.

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION FEBRUARY 1956

2011-08-11T12:40:00.003+01:00

Cover artwork "Choice", by Pattee.

Astounding Science Fiction Vol. XII, No. 2. (British Edition) February 1956. Contains novelette The Gift Of Gab by Jack Vance, short stories Aspirin Won't Help It by John A. Sentry, Scrimshaw by Murray Leinster, Blessed Are The Meek by G. C. Edmonson and serial Call Him Dead (part two of three parts) by Eric Frank Russell.

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION AUGUST 1953

2011-08-11T12:33:00.003+01:00

Cover by Pawelka.

Astounding Science Fiction Vol. IX, no. 8. (British Edition) august 1953. Inside: novelette Thou Good And Faithful by John Loxmith, serial Null-Abc by H. Beam Piper & John J. Mcguire and short story To Still The Drums By Chan Davis.

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION MAY 1953

2011-08-11T12:29:00.002+01:00

Cover "The First Martian" by Welker.

Astounding Science Fiction Vol. IX, No. 5. (British Edition) May 1953. Inside: novelette Noise Level by Raymond F. Jones, serial The Currents Of Space (conclusion) by Isaac Asimov and short story Demotion by Robert Donald Locke.

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION FEBRUARY 1953

2011-08-11T12:21:00.005+01:00

Artwork "The Greater Fire" by Alejandro Canedo.

Astounding Science Fiction Vol. IX, No. 2. (British Edition), February 1953. Inside: short novel The Entrepreneur by Thomas Wilson, novelette Frontier Of The Dark by A. Bertram Chandler and short story No Moon For Me by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

DR FUTURITY

2011-08-10T11:01:00.004+01:00

Artist uncredited.

[HE HAD A MOMENT OF SHATTERING, BLIDNING TERROR. ONE MINUTE HE'D BEEN DRIVING ALONG THE FAMILIAR ROAD TO HIS CITY OFFICE, NEXT HE WAS HURTLED CENTURIES INTO THE FUTURE - BUT WHY? THE TRIBESMEN OF THE WOLF HAD CHOSEN HIM FOR A GRIMLY DANGEROUS TASK. BUT HOW COULD HE ESCAPE IT, AND RETURN TO HIS OWN TIME?]

"Where was he? Why was he here?

Suddenly Dr Jim Parsons realized that he had not been dumped on a new world - but into a completely new time. In seconds he had traversed centuries.

Now he must face the terrible role that the tribesmen of the future had chosen him for. But could he tamper with the threads of destiny?"

THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH

2011-08-08T11:14:00.006+01:00

Illustration by Peter Goodfellow.

[WORLD WAR III IS RAGING - OR SO THE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE CRAMMED IN THEIR UNDERGROUND TANKS BELIEVE. FOR FIFTEEN YEARS, SUBTERRANEAN HUMANITY HAS BEEN FED ON DAILY BROADCASTS OF THE NEVER-ENDING NUCLEAR DESTRUCTION, SUSTAINED BY A BELIEF IN THE ALL-POWERFUL PROTECTOR. BUT UP ON EARTH'S SURFACE, A DIFFERENT KIND OF REALITY REIGNS. EAST AND WEST ARE AT PEACE. ACROSS THE PLANET, AN ÉLITE CORPS OF HOAXERS LIVE IN VAST PRIVATE DEMESNES - REPAYMENT FOR THEIR SERVICES IN PRESERVING THE GREAT LIE. UNTIL ONE DAY, A TANKER EMERGES AND DISCOVERS THE PATH TO THE MOST SINISTER PENULTIMATE TRUTH OF THEM ALL...]

"In the wide white bed lay something flat, something so squashed that it could only gaze up, as it it were a reflection, something dimly seen in a pool that absorbed light rather than reflected it. The pool in which the old man lay was a consumer of energy of all kinds. Nicholas realized as he walked to the bed. This is only a husk left here; it has been drained as if a spider got to it; a world-spider or for us, rather, a subworld, under-spider. But still a drinker of human existence. Even below this far."

LA SECONDE MORT PHILIP K. DICK

2011-07-12T22:07:00.008+01:00

By popular demand; here are scans of the BLADERUNNER article in METAL HURLANT issue 79, September 1982, plus a bonus article which appears to infer a MOEBIUS / BLADERUNNER link - useless unless you speak French but if anyone does, let us know.

METAL HURLANT NO.77.78.79.80.81.82

2011-07-10T20:19:00.013+01:00

Collected volume of five issues of METAL HURLANT in its original French language. I can't understand much (if any) but still, it's nice to look at. Big thumbs up to anonymous who noticed that the Blade Runner cover is actually issue 79, not 78. There must be a misprint here because there is no issue 77 inside the book, we start at 78 and end at 82. 79 has a large BLADE RUNNER feature featuring stills, artwork and a couple of photos of RIDLEY SCOTT with PHILIP K. DICK (who died six months before the magazine was published). Incidentally, issues 80 and 82 feature DRAGONSLAYER and TRON on the covers.

Page from SALAMANDRES - AXOLOTLS by PHILIPPE CAZA.

LOGICIEL - COUP D' ETAT by PHILIPPLE GAUCKLER and CHARLES IMBERT.

Cover to issue 79 by RALPH REESE.

Page from DEN II by RICHARD CORBEN.

TRAVELLING TOWARDS EPSILON

2011-07-07T15:41:00.005+01:00

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.]

Contents include The Gunboat Dread by Daniel Walther, Where The Astronauts Meet by Suzanne Malaval, How's Business? by Jacques Sternberg, Jonah by Gérard Klein, Until Proof To The Contrary by Bernard Mathon, Towards The High Tower by Michel Jeury, It's Only Pinball! by Philippe Curval, Summer In The Death Zone by Maxim Jakubowski, Thomas by Dominique Douay, Delta by Christine Renard & Claude F. Cheinisse, The Bubbles by Julia Verlanger, Stars, Here I Come! by Jean-Pierre Andrevon, The Leap by Tony Cartano and Wings In The Night by Nathalie Henneberg.

ACE DOUBLE: THE SEARCH FOR ZEI + THE HAND OF ZEI

2011-07-07T15:07:00.004+01:00

Artwork 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.]

Artwork by Ed Emshwiller ("Emsh")

GOLDEN BLOOD

2011-07-07T15:03:00.005+01:00

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.]

IF SCIENCE FICTION AUGUST 1968

2011-07-06T10:57:00.004+01:00

Cover by Douglas Chaffee, from Rogue Star.

Worlds Of If Science Fiction With Worlds Of Tomorrow Vol. 18, No. 8 August 1968 (issue 129). Contains novelettes Getting Through University by Piers Anthony, Last Dreamer by A. Bertram Chandler, What The Old Aliens Left by D. M. Melton, short stories In Another Land by Mary Urhausen, Merlin Planet by E. G. Von Wald, Song Of The Blue Baboon by Roger Zelazny, West Is West by Larry Tritten and serial Rogue Star by Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson.

IF SCIENCE FICTION 108

2011-07-06T10:52:00.005+01:00

Cover by Dan Adkins from A Code For Sam.

UK edition of Worlds Of If Science Fiction vol. 16, no. 11, September (British Edition - undated). Inside: novelettes Truce Or Consequences by Keith Laumer, At The Core by Larry Niven, The Sign Of Gree by C. C. MacApp, A Code For Sam by Lester Del Rey, serial Snow White And The Giants by J. T. McIntosh plus short stories The Babe In The Oven by John T. Sladek, Halfway House by Robert Silverberg, Hairry by Mike Hill and The Boat In The Bottle by Thurlow Weed.

IF SCIENCE FICTION APRIL 1965

2011-07-06T10:47:00.004+01:00

Cover by Richard McKenna for Our Martian Neighbours.

Worlds Of If Science Fiction vol. 15, no. 4 April, 1965 (issue 89). Inside: serial - first of two parts The Altar At Asconel by John Brunner, novelettes Gree's Hellcats by C. C. MacApp, White Fang Goes Dingo by Thomas M. Disch, plus short stories What T And I Did by Fred Saberhagen and Our Martian Neighbours by John McCallum.

IF SCIENCE FICTION MARCH 1964

2011-07-06T10:37:00.005+01:00

Cover by Nodel, from Guardian.

Worlds Of If Science Fiction vol. 14, no. 1 March, 1964. Inside: novelettes In Saturn's Rings by Robert F. Young, The City That Grew In The Sea by Keith Laumer, short stories Guardian by Jerome Bixby, Almost Eden by Jo Friday, What Crooch Did by Jess Friedlander and serial Three Worlds To Conquer by Poul Anderson (conclusion).

THE HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE PART 1

2011-07-04T10:56:00.005+01:00

[THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF FIVE BOOKS COVERING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE FICTION WRITING FROM ITS BEGINNINGS TO THE PRESENT DAY, THIS VOLUME TRACES THE STORY OF THE GREAT PULP FICTION MAGAZINES OF THE DEPRESSION YEARS. THIS WAS THE HALCYON ERA OF BUG-EYED MONSTERS, RAYGUNS AND OTHER NOW CLASSIC S.F. PARAPHERNALIA, THE INVENTIONS OF THE FERTILE IMAGINATIONS OF WRITERS MANY OF WHOM WENT ON TO BECOME LEADING NAMES IN THEIR FIELD. FORTY-ODD YEARS ON, THE STORIES FROM THIS PERIOD STILL MAKE FOR FASCINATING READING. MICHAEL ASHLEY'S EXCELLENT INTRODUCTION AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDICES TAKE US INTO THE TIME-HALLOWED WORLD OF AMAZING STORIES, WEIRD TALES AND ASTOUNDING STORIES AND THEN LEAVE US TO THE TENDER MERCIES AND HEAT-RAYS OF CLIFFORD D. SIMAK, RAYMOND Z. GALLUN, EDMOND HAMILTON AND OTHER EARLY MASTERS OF S F WRITING.]

Short stories inside this book are as follows: The Coming Of The Ice by G. Peyton Wertenbaker, The Machine Men Of Ardathia by Francis Flagg, Out Of The Sub-Universe by R. F. Starzl, The Eternal Man by D. D. Sharp, The Power And The Glory by Charles Willard Diffin, The Voice From The Ether by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, The Asteroid Of Gold by Clifford D. Simak, The Island Of Unreason by Edmond Hamilton, One Prehistoric Night by Philip Barshofsky and Davy Jones' Ambassador by Raymond Z. Gallum.

THE HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE PART 2

2011-07-01T11:59:00.010+01:00

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.]

Contains The Circle Of Zero by Stanley G. Weinbaum, Seeker Of Tomorrow by Eric Frank Russell & Leslie J. Johnson, The Dead Spot by Jack Williamson, The 4-Sided Triangle By William F. Temple, Hermit Of Saturn's Rings by Neil R. Jones, The Abyss by Robert A. W. Lowndes, Up There by Donald A. Wollheim, Almost Human by Robert Bloch, Wanderer Of Time by John Russell Fearn and The Power by Murray Leinster.

WEB OF THE CHOZEN

2011-06-23T14:50:00.004+01:00

Cover art by Ralph MacQuarrie.

[NOBODY BEATS BAR HOLLIDAY - HE WAS PAID TO FIND TERRAFORMABLE WORLDS, NEW PLANETS FOR HIS CORPORATION TO PLUNDER. UP UNTIL THE DAY HE CAME UPON THE PEACE VICTORY, AN ABANDONED GENERATION SHIP HOVERING OMINOUSLY ABOVE A DEFINITELY HABITABLE PLANET, HE BELIEVED NOBODY EVER COULD. NOBODY BEATS BAR HOLLIDAY - ...BECAUSE HE WAS NEVER SATISFIED WITH ANYTHING LOWER THAN FIRST PLACE, BECAUSE HE WAS ALWAYS THE ODDBALL, IN CHARGE OF HIS OWN WELFARE, HIS OWN DESTINY...A MAN DETERMINED TO MAKE HIS MARK IN THE WORLD AND WIN ALL GAMES AT ANY COST. NOBODY EVER BEATS BAR HOLLIDAY - ...BECAUSE HE ONLY TOOK THE WRONG CHANCES AT THE RIGHT TIMES. BUT ON THE PLANET PATMOS, WHERE EVERYTHING LOOKED SAFE, BUT NOTHING WAS, BAR HOLLIDAY HAD AT LAST MET HIS MATCH!]

Cover art by RALPH MACQUARRIE.

"...and the award for weirdest cover of the week goes to..."

The painting here is so nuts I had to buy this book. The fact that Ralph MacQuarrie was responsible sealed the deal.

THE CITY

2011-06-21T11:54:00.006+01:00

[IN THE AFTERMATH OF MANKIND'S FINAL WAR THE FEW SURVIVORS SCRATCH AN EXISTENCE FROM THE RUINS. THIS IS NO BRAVE NEW WORLD. FROM THE SHATTERED FRAGMENTS OF A ONCE GREAT CIVILIZATION CRAWL THE RATS - TO CLAIM THE DOMAIN AS THEIR OWN. THE CITY AND ITS PITIFUL HUMAN INHABITANTS FINALLY BELONG TO THEM. THE PEOPLE HAVE BECOME PREY, THE HUNTERS THE HUNTED. BUT NOW THE TRAVELLER HAS ARRIVED AND HE IS NO VICTIM. IN SEARCH OF HIS PAST, HE HAS COME TO TAKE BACK THE DREAM OF LIFE AS IT WAS BEFORE. BUT IN THE CITY THE ONLY DREAMS LEFT ARE NIGHTMARES.]

LONE SLOANE : DELIRIUS

2011-06-20T14:54:00.002+01:00

[PHILIPPE DRUILLET IS ONE OF EUROPE'S MOST PROMINENT AND POPULAR ARTISTS IN THE FIELD OF ILLUSTRATED FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. THE ADVENTURES OF LONE SLOANE THROUGH TIME AND SPACE AND ON THE INCREDIBLE WORLD OF DELIRIUS ARE HERE PRESENTED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ENGLISH. FORTHCOMING BOOKS BY DRUILLET IN THE SERIES INCLUDE "YRAGAEL" AND "URM". HE IS AT PRESENT WORKING ON FURTHER ADVENTURES OF LONE SLOANE. DRUILLET (PRONOUNCED DRU-YAY) HAS WON NUMEROUS AWARDS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA FOR HIS BOOKS. HE SAYS THAT HIS ULTIMATE AMBITION IS "TO CREATE A WHOLE UNIVERSE OF SCIENCE FICTION. IT WOULD BE TERRIBLE TO THINK OF NOT DOING IT. I HAVE WORLDS TO CREATE, CHARACTERS TO DEVELOP. IT'S WHAT I HAVE IN ME, AND I WANT TO EXPERIMENT. I BELIEVE THAT I WILL ALWAYS DRAW COMICS; THEY ARE AMONG THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT CAN BE IMAGINED - AND THEY ARE TRUE."]

YRAGAEL : URM

2011-06-20T14:37:00.006+01:00

[PHILIPPE DRUILLET IS ONE OF EUROPE'S MOST PROMINENT AND POPULAR ARTISTS IN THE FIELD OF ILLUSTRATED FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. THIS BOOK IS THE SECOND IN THE SERIES OF ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF DRUILLET'S WORK PUBLISHED BY DRAGON'S DREAM; THE FIRST "LONE SLOANE - DELIRIUS" WAS RELEASED IN 1977. DRUILLET (PRONOUNCED DRU-YAY) HAS WON NUMEROUS AWARDS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA FOR HIS BOOKS. HE SAYS THAT HIS ULTIMATE AMBITION IS "TO CREATE A WHOLE UNIVERSE OF SCIENCE FICTION. IT WOULD BE TERRIBLE TO THINK OF NOT DOING IT. I HAVE WORLDS TO CREATE, CHARACTERS TO DEVELOP. IT'S WHAT I HAVE IN ME, AND I WANT TO EXPERIMENT. I BELIEVE THAT I WILL ALWAYS DRAW COMICS; THEY ARE AMONG THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT CAN BE IMAGINED - AND THEY ARE TRUE."]

[IN THESE TIMES OF PEACE IN THE TEMPLES, THE BELLIES OF METEORS, MAD PRIESTS SANG THE NAME OF YRAGAEL, PRINCE OF MEN.]

DIARY OF A SPACEPERSON

2011-06-02T18:34:00.007+01:00

[THIS BOOK IS A FACSIMILE OF PARTS OF A DIARY DURING THE EXCAVATION OF THE NEW VENICE SITE. IT CHARTS THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF A TYPICAL STUDENT WHO REFERS TO HERSELF SIMPLY AS 'J'. IN HER OWN INTIMATE LANGUAGE SHE DESCRIBES AND ILLUSTRATES HER SENSUAL AND SPIRITUAL ODYSSEY THROUGH TIME AND SPACE AS SHE IS BUFFETED BY CIRCUMSTANCES AND CHANCE ENCOUNTERS. THE DATES BEAR NO RELATION TO KNOWN CALENDARS OR CHRONOLOGIES AND CARBON DATING HAS SO FAR BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL IN IDENTIFYING THE AGE OF THE MATERIAL. 'J' IS A BUBBLY, LIVELY YET ALSO ESSENTIALLY SERIOUS GIRL - ALMOST TO THE POINT OF PEDANTRY. THROUGHOUT HER VOYAGE OF SELF-DISCOVERY SHE IS COMPELLED TO MAKE REGULAR ENTRIES AND DRAWINGS IN HER JOURNAL, HER MOST FERVENT DESIRE ALL ALONG TO RETURN HOME - TO EARTH. HOWEVER, DESPITE HER BEST INTENTIONS SHE FINDS HERSELF IN ALL SORTS OF FIXES THAT, IN THE WORLDS SHE MOVES IN, INEVITABLY LEAD TO QUITE SERIOUS AND UNPREDICTABLE CONSEQUENCES...]

Illustration from the rear of the dust-jacket.

Painting from page #73.

Painting from page #104.

Ski-Ffy

ANYTHING YOU CAN DO

EIGHT KEYS TO EDEN

WATERS OF DEATH

ODYSSEY TO EARTHDEATH

THE GREKS BRING GIFTS

CYCLE OF FIRE

MINDSWAP

CHILDREN OF THE VOID

JOURNEY BEYOND TOMORROW

SINISTER BARRIER

BRING THE JUBILEE

THE SHORES OF SPACE

GIANT OF WORLD'S END

THE NIGHT OF PUUDLY

SPACE TUG

FROOMB!

THE AMAZING MR. LUTTERWORTH

DOOMSTAR

SUNDOG

NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR

THE TIME OF INFINITY

THE OUTER REACHES

THE LEGION OF SPACE

FOUR FOR TOMORROW

SLEEPING PLANET

VOR

STRANGE RELATIONS

MASQUE OF A SAVAGE MANDARIN

GUERNICA NIGHT

OTHER WORLDS SCIENCE STORIES JUNE 1956

LOST DORSAI

SPIRIT OF THE DORSAI

NEW WORLDS SCIENCE FICTION AUGUST 1961

TIME STORM

THE STAR WITCHES

NONE BUT MAN

THE BIG TIME

OUR LADY OF DARKNESS

THE TEXTS OF FESTIVAL

THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION MAY 1961

MASTERS OF SPACE

THE CLOCKWORK TRAITOR

THE LION GAME

THE SHIP WHO SANG

OVERLAY

SO BRIGHT THE VISION

BUY JUPITER

RESTOREE

THE FROZEN PLANET

BEYOND

EXTRO

KRONK

THE BEST OF ROBERT SILVERBERG

THE UNDERPEOPLE

SERVANTS OF THE WANKH

THE BLOODY SUN

BEHIND THE WALLS OF TERRA

THORNS

THE OTHER WORLD

XANTHE AND THE ROBOTS

THE MAN WITH A THOUSAND NAMES

THE SODOM & GOMORRAH BUSINESS

THE FURY FROM EARTH

IT WAS THE DAY OF THE ROBOT

MORE THAN SUPERHUMAN

THE OMEGA POINT

ZARDOZ

SOLDIER, ASK NOT

ELRIC OF MELNIBONÉ

THE ART OF RICHARD POWERS

THE INTERPRETER

THE TWO-TIMERS

THE UNCERTAIN MIDNIGHT

THE MEN INSIDE

FINAL STAGE

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION NOVEMBER 1956

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION MAY 1956

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION MARCH 1956

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION FEBRUARY 1956