THE ELECTRIC FOREST

Hamlyn paperback, 1983. Cover by Tim White.

CHESSBOARD PLANET

Hamlyn paperback, 1983. Cover artwork uncredited.

Rear cover/synopsis.

THE SILENT INVADERS

Hamlyn paperback, 1978. Cover artwork by Peter Jones.

Rear cover and synopsis.

BRIAN STABLEFORD: THE CITY OF THE SUN

Hamlyn SF paperback, 1980. Illustration by Tim White.

"It was a circular city - like the City of the Sun, a perfect community dreamed up by the seventeenth-century philosopher Campanella. 

Many utopian groups had emigrated into space to found their ideal settlements. And it was on one such colony world - appropriately called Arcadia - that the recontact starship Daedalus made its fourth planetfall. There in all its splendour stood the fulfilment of Campanella's dream - the real seven-circled City of the Sun. 

But the city was too ordered, the inhabitants too perfect, the world too Arcadian ... and very soon the Daedalus's scientists realized that in this particular utopia the idealists had unleashed a force that could undermine all human culture on other planets."

PROJECT BARRIER

Hamlyn paperback, 1979. Illustration: Tim White.

"The first starship to Centauri could only carry 120 lb. of human being, yet required three specialist crewmen to handle it. 

The solution was radical but relatively simple. Take a twelve-year-old girl weighing 100 lb., and impress the personalities of three ideal crew members on her mind. 

These "shadow" crewmen then took the ship - with the girl - to the stars. Quite naturally the four became close friends - which would make for a decidedly complex problem when they returned. 

From the psychiatrists's point of view he's merely restoring the girl's sanity. But from the crew's point of view it's murder!"

Contents:

Shuffle Board

Recovery Area

Rub-a-Dub

Reign of the Telepuppets

Project Barrier

The rear-cover makes no light of this, but Project Barrier is a short story collection. The synopsis references Recovery Area, whilst Tim White's cover illustration seems to be for Reign of the Telepuppets. You know, just in case you were wondering.

FURY

Hamlyn paperback, 1981. Cover artist uncredited.

"The Earth is long since dead, blasted in a self-sustaining chain reaction. Human survivors settled on Venus have organised themselves into a static, class-ridden society living in huge citadels buried beneath the Venusian seas. 

The rulers are Immortals, genetic mutations who live a thousand years or more. Their subjects are the ordinary people with normal life spans. 

Sam Reed's insane father had him mutilated as a baby so that he doesn't realise he's an Immortal until he reaches the age of eighty. 

Then he goes looking for revenge..."

MUTANT

Hamlyn SF paperback, 1979. Illustration: Peter Elson.

"When there were no telepaths men were used to being alone. But I couldn't remember a time when I'd been locked in the bony prison of my skull, utterly and absolutely cut off from all other men. Deafness or blindness wouldn't have mattered as much. They wouldn't have mattered at all - to a telepath." 

Originating after the great Blow-up, they were a sub-species of the human society. Because of their hairless bodies they were known as the Baldies, telepaths all linked to each other by thought and sensation - objects of suspicion to the rest of mankind. 

The survivor is alone. But still he can remember how it was - two hundred years ago..."

THE PROUD ENEMY

Hamlyn SF paperback, 1982. Cover artist uncredited.

"DEEP SPACE...TERRAN SLAVES...AND ALIEN MASTERS 

Barton is the only man ever to outwit the Demu - the only being to successfully escape their planet, where all members of captured races are surgically altered to become like their new masters. 

Leading a fleet of Earth ships, he now ventures into deepest space to join up with the other races under attack. This will be the first blow against the alien slaves. 

But from another source Barton receives mysterious advice. He must go to the holy planet of the slaves and discover their secret..."

BEYOND THE BARRIER

Hamlyn SF paperback, 1978. Illustration: Peter Jones.

"Was he human or alien, sent to rescue Earth or to destroy it? 

This is a novel of Time... 

Of a man who travelled through the swirling worlds of space - and who killed. 

And when he had killed he found himself moving to another dimension - to a time ten thousand years in the future...or in the past."

THE LION GAME

Hamlyn SF paperback, 1979. 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..."

A DIFFERENT LIGHT

Hamlyn paperback, 1983. Cover artist uncredited.

"Jimson Alleca has twenty years to live - or just one. Twenty years if he stays on his home world, where his disease can be treated. One year if he follows his desire to travel the galaxy. 

When he meets Leiko his mind is made up, and he follows her out into space. There they enlist as crew members on a dangerous and illegal voyage - to steal one of the fabulous crystal masks of distant Demea. 

But it will prove a journey of immense problems and perils - and one that becomes a race against time for Jimson..."