SOUL OF A ROBOT

"At the far end of the hall a tall door swung open. Through it strode Gogra: a giant of a robot, twelve foot tall and broad to match. Gogra was coal-black. In his right hand he carried a massive sledge-hammer that in a few blows could have crushed Jasperodus to junk, tough as he was. Pausing in the doorway, the terrifying robot surveyed the hall. As soon as he caught sight of Jasperodus he lunged forward, lifting the hammer with evident purpose. Jasperodus backed away. Gogra's appearance was frightening; his head was thrust forward on his neck, reminiscent of an ape-man; and the face was a mask of ugliness as to arouse both terror and pity: Gogra's designer had sought to give his massive frame sufficient agility by filling his interior with oil under pressure; the safety valve for that oil was his grotesque grilled mouth, from which green ichor dribbled copiously and continuously."

Orbit paperback, 1977. Cover by Bob Layzell.

Rear cover/synopsis.

THE GRAND WHEEL

Fontana SF paperback, 1979. Cover artist uncredited.

"when empires hung on the turn of a card...Cheyne Scarne was a gambler - a lucky one. What he didn't know about randomatics wasn't worth knowing. He had the brains to get to the heart of the Grand Wheel - the syndicate that controlled all illegal activity in the planets under human control. 

But what Scarne had staked to get that far was chickenfeed compared to what he would risk to get into the real big time - the massive intergalactic combine that dwarfed the empires of mere men. For Scarne, double crossing at every deal, had laid his life on the line to win a game where no one knew the value of the cards and the rules changed with every trick!"