MINDSWAP

Ace paperback, 1978. Cover painting by Howard Darden.

"It all started with a perfectly ordinary classified ad: 

"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."

At 31, Marvin Flynn was practically an adult; was it merely the vestiges of adolescent foolishness that sent him to the body-brokerage firm of Otis, Blanders and Klent? Or was it extraterrestrial fervor? Whatever it was,  Marvin knew he must see the Burrows of Mars, the Talking Ocean, the Disappearing Desert and - above all - Mud Heaven. 

What he didn't know was that more than one person had claims on the body of Ze Kraggash, and that before he was finished he would see more strange sights - through even stranger eyes - than he had ever imagined. That in his desperate struggle for continued corporeal existence he would fall pray to Metaphoric Deformation, the limitations of the Set-Expansion Factor, and at last descend/ascend/extend to the strange and unexplainable reaches of the Twisted World - for the ultimate MINDSWAP"

THE DRAGON MASTERS

Mayflower paperback, 1972. Cover artist uncredited.

"The race of man is growing old, but it's not yet ready to die - not while there are dragons still to kill!

The cross-bred dragon armies of the Men of Aerlith are the most appalling horrors ever to threaten the sanity of our future. 

Termagants

three hundred reptilian giants with six legs apiece, the most fecund breeders of them all 

Juggers

eighteen of them, growling amongst themselves, waiting for an opportunity to snap off a leg from any unwary groom

Murderers (striding and long-horned) 

eighty-five of each, with scaly tails and eyes like crystals 

Fiends

fifty-two powerful monsters, their tails tipped with spiked steel balls 

Blue Horrors, Basics, Spider Dragons

the heaviest, most specialised creatures in the history of Science Fantasy"

THE CURRENTS OF SPACE

Panther SF paperback, 1973 reprint. Cover painting by Chris Foss.

"DOOMED PLANET 

They called him 'Crazy Rik' - but only he knew that they planet was doomed with all its people. The only key to the vital information that could save it was locked in the subconscious memory of this strange, child-minded man...a memory obliterated by a Psychic Probe! 

Caught in a galactic web of intrigue, Rik struggled courageously with his own blasted mind and an unknown enemy in a desperate and one-sided race with time... 

Here is a nova-bright novel of tension and adventure by the acknowledged High Master of today's science fiction, Isaac Asimov."

Panther SF paperback, 1967. Cover artist uncredited.

I'm greedy - here's another book I unwittingly bought two copies of. The 1973 one with the Chris Foss cover (which I didn't think I still had) was/is my reading copy, the 1967 edition is unbelievably free from wear and is unread.

THE BROKEN LANDS

Ace paperback, 1968. Cover by Richard M. Powers.

"The passing of thousands of years left the planet Earth a series of broken lands ... a mutated world of distant alien empires and near-at-hand rapacious satraps. 

The hunted common people were sustained by one last legend - that some day one would come who would "ride the Elephant" and thereby bring back the Golden Age. 

This is the gripping novel of the young rebel who found out what the legend really signified, and of how he sought to use that banned knowledge in the very heart of the satrap's stronghold of alien magics and well-guarded scientific mysteries. 

THE BROKEN LANDS combines the best elements of sword-and-sorcery and top-notch science-fiction."

JOHN CARTER OF MARS

Four Square paperback, June 1968. Cover artist is Josh Kirby
(thanks, Mark).

"Here is the eleventh, and final, book in Edgar Rice Burroughs' best-selling Martian Series. John Carter is pitted against the infamous Pew Mogel, who has kidnapped his beloved wife, Dejah Thoris. The famous Warlord of Barsoom is lured to a deserted city on the shores of the dread sea of Korvas. But instead of his wife, he finds a huge synthetic giant and hordes of great, white apes into each of which the brain of a man has been grafted. It takes all the skill of Carter's famous fighting arm and extraordinary agility to preserve his life - and meanwhile the sands of time are running out for Dejah Thoris!"

LORD KALVAN OF OTHERWHEN

Ace paperback, 1965. Cover by Jack Gaughan.

"The Paratime Police patrolled the vast number of alternate time-dimensions - the worlds which had branched off at every major decision in history. Their aim was to keep the many Earths from mixing and destroying each other. 

But the Time cops could make mistakes and they made a big one when Calvin Morrison, a member of the Pennsylvania State Police on the Fourth Level, Europe-American, Hispano-Columbian subsector, was accidentally tossed through the dimensions and deposited in Aryan-Transpacific, Styphon's House Subsector. 

The man been there only a few weeks and already he was called Lord Kalvan and was masterminding a local war that could blow the whole Paratime secret sky-high!"

WORLD WITHOUT STARS

Ace paperback, 1967. Cover by Kelly Freas.

"When the starship Meteor crash-landed on a strange world orbiting a solitary sun in the vast darkness outside the galaxy, her crew of Earthmen had no idea of what to expect. The planet was Earthlike in gravity, air, animal and vegetable life - but what of the native races they glimpsed from a distance? 

What kind of culture would evolve on a planet whose sky was dominated by the glow of an entire galaxy - and with no other stars save its own dim sun? What kind of gods would they worship? 

The Earthmen had to find the astounding answers to these questions on a planet split by a world-wide war."

THE SUNLESS WORLD

Ace paperback, 1967. Cover by Gray Morrow.

"Forty million years after the death of Earth, one man's brilliant mind lives on - although strangely encased in an indestructible metal body of a Zorome. Professor Jameson and the machine men of Zor continue their danger-laden explorations of the infinite universe: 

In the kelp cities of a watery hydrosphere planet they encounter the race of the Plekne fish-men, eternally enslaved by the alien Uchke... 

In the core of a hollow world, the Zoromes discover a cavern of bones, picked clean by the flesh-devouring predators who feed upon the humanoid Aytans... 

And through the marvels of a time machine, Professor Jameson views the mausoleum of his planet's history: from the glorious birth of Earth as it splits from Sol, to its ultimate devastated end...."

CHRONICULES

Arrow paperback, 1976. Cover art by David Bergen.

"A mysterious explosion, a haunting indefinable smell... 

Sitting quietly by a Cornish creek, reading his favourite comic book, Roses Varco hears the bang, catches a trace of the odour - and understands nothing. 

Which is hardly surprising, since Roses has just witnessed the death of a time-traveller lost in a limbo between worlds. Had he known the truth, it would have terrified him - for that travellers was himself."

THE WORLDS OF FRANK HERBERT

NEL paperback, 1970. Cover art by Jan Parker.

"An infinity of universes each with its own strange stories. A future where they have space suits with chastity belts. A planet where they have a new thrill - but will it ever replace sex? A good government must work - but, what happens if it works too well? The phobias of today translated into the fears of tomorrow. An alien culture who didn't want to change Earth; they just wanted to use it. 

Eight of the very best by the author of the mind-shattering best-seller "Dune". If you care about what's happening or what might happen - these stories are for you."

Contents:

Tactful Saboteur

Committee Of The Whole

Old Rambling House

Mating Call

A-W-F- Unlimited

The Featherbedders

The G.M Effect

Escape Felicity.

DIMENSION OF MIRACLES

Panther Science Fiction paperback, 1977. Front cover illustration
by Peter Gudynas.

"When Thomas Carmody wins the jackpot in the Intergalactic Sweepstakes, he is whisked off to galactic headquarters to claim his prize in person. But when he arrives in outer space, the only problem is - how does he get back to Earth? The odyssey home takes him through the most extraordinary worlds, populated by extraordinary people. And over all looms the terror of his personal predator - a monster of many guises, designed and created specially for devouring Carmodys..."

ENTRY TO ELSEWHEN

DAW paperback, 1972. Cover by Jack Gaughan.

"The generation born and raised within the first starship seemed increasingly strange to the Earth-born crew, their own parents. There was a growing gap between them, an alienation none of the psychological planners had provided for. 

When the vast ship reached its destination, the crisis came to a head. Then, for the first time, the great schemes and dreams of Earth to colonize the universe were confronted by the reality of humans whose natural habitat was interstellar space only. They, too, had their dreams - and they were not of planets. 

John Brunner, one of the great masters of science fiction and winner of honors and awards on two continents, makes this just one of the three unusual science fiction themes in his new book."

Contents:

Host Age 

Lungfish

No Other Gods But Me

THE OTHER LOG OF PHILEAS FOGG

1973 DAW Books paperback. Artwork by Jack Gaughan.

"Philip José Farmer won the Hugo for the best SF novel of last year. His study of the background of Tarzan made feature headlines in the news. Now in his latest novel he turns his literary wizardry to the astounding science fiction story Jules Verne did not tell in Around The World In Eighty Days. 

Who was Phileas Fogg really - this man whose origins were shrouded in mystery and whose actions were guided as if by clockwork? How could he compute the probabilities of future events so accurately? 

The Other Log Of Phileas Fogg is a thoroughly enthralling novel of what went on behind the scenes during Fogg's unprecedented trip - in which not only do two alien races contend for Earth's mastery, but you will meet some even more famous characters you never suspected were involved in the globe-girdling race!"

WHAT MAD UNIVERSE?

1987 Grafton paperback, cover artist uncredited.

"Pulp SF magazine editor Keith Winton was answering a letter from a teenage fan when the first moon rocket fell back to Earth and blew him away. 

But where to? Greenville, New York, looked the same, but Gems (Bug-Eyed Monsters) just like the ones on the cover of Startling Stories walked the streets without attracting undue comment. 

And when he brought out a half-dollar coin in a drugstore, the cops wanted to shoot him on sight as an Arcturian spy. 

Wait a minute. Seven-foot purple moon-monsters? Earth at war with Arcturus? General Dwight D. Eisenhower in command of Venus Sector?

What mad universe was this? 

One thing was for sure: Keith Winton had to find out fast - or he'd be good and dead, in this universe of any other."

EPIC ILLUSTRATED, APRIL 1982

Epic Illustrated, April 1982. Painting © 1981 James Fox.

Epic Illustrated April 1982, Vol. 1, No. 11. Contents: Run For The Stars by Harlan Ellison, adapted by Ken Steacy, Abraxas And The Earthman: Initiation by Rick Veitch, An Imperial Message and Before The Law by Leo Duranona, adapted from Franz Kafka's fables, Weirdworld: Journey To Skyhook Mountain by Doug Moench (story) and John Buscema (art), Woody, a tribute to Wallce Wood by Archie Goodwin, Advice To A Barbarian by Robert Rodi (story) and Joe Jusko (art) and Marada The She Wolf by Christopher Claremont (story) and John Bolton (art).

Page from Harlan Ellison's Run For The Stars, artwork and adaptation
by Ken Steacy.

Run For The Stars chronicles the war between Earth and an alien world called Kyba. Drug-addict and thief Benno Tallant is apprehended on Deald's World whilst looting during the Kyban invasion, he is knocked out and has a sun-bomb surgically implanted inside him by the planet's military, he then finds himself abandoned on the planet and left to deal with the alien Kyban.

Abraxas And The Earthman, written and illustrated by Rick Veitch.

"Marine biologist John Isaac is conducting a study into the communication of whales aboard the U.S. Naval submarine the barb. Suddenly, it is attacked and destroyed. Only Isaac himself and Falco, the sub's commander survive the disaster. Captured by the vessel that sank them, Isaac and Falco are shocked to learn that they have become the prisoners of a starfaring crew of whalers, and that their ship was destroyed simply so that the whalers could shanghai two human prisoners. 

To prepare the prisoners for duty aboard the strange, treelike vessel, its captain, Rotwang, turns them over to the Xlexu, enormous insects who function as the ship's surgeons and will alter the Earthmen in whatever means necessary for what lies ahead."

© 1982 Leo Duranona, adapted from the original story 'An Imperial Message'
by Franz Kafka.

© 1982 Leo Duranona, adapted from the original story 'Before The Law'
by Franz Kafka.

Page from Weirdworld: The Dragonmaster Of Klarn.

"Somewhere in the endless heavens, a cosmic game is being played, and eternal contest between the champions of light and darkness. The shifting of the various pieces across the great chessboard, their gains and losses, and reflected in the lives of those who dwell in Weirdworld, the strange and wondrous land beneath.

A few of those whose lives have been touched by the game of the gods are: Tyndall and Velanna - a pair of innocent elves who long to return to their home, the floating island of Klarn, and who have no memory beyond the recent past.

Mud-Butt the dwarf - their loyal and irascible companion.

Black Majister and his henchman, Murkandor - a pair of evil sorcerers working to gain control of Velanna, for they believe that she and Tyndall are somehow crucial to the fate of Weirdworld.

Now, as evil manifests itself across the land, Tyndall, Velanna and Mud-Butt journey to Skyhook Mountain, to seek the aid of the powerful wizard who lives there."

Artwork by Wallace Wood.

Advice To A Barbarian by Rob Rodi with artwork by Joe Jusko.

There's an amusing poke at Sword & Sorcery in Advice To A Barbarian, where Hakalot the barbarian meets Wotatease the necromancer and her small monkey-demon-thing Phyllis, illustrated by Savage Sword Of Conan cover artist Joe Jusko and written by 22 year-old Bob Rodi, who according to the magazine's overview, wrote to Marvel publications frequently.

Page from Marada, The She-Wolf by Chris Claremont with artwork
by John Bolton.

"Her mother was the first-born of Caesar. Her father, a prince in his own land, a slave in Rome. At the age of four, Marada saw her father broken on the rack, disembowelled and, finally, drawn and quartered. It was a public execution and, though the prince was a long time dying, he uttered not a sound. That night, Marada's mother fled the Eternal City, taking her child to be raise free, far from the place that had claimed the life of her beloved. That was twenty years ago. The child is a woman now, and that woman a warrior known and respected throughout the Empire as Marada, The She-Wolf."

I don't mean to criticise John Bolton's artwork but Marada, The She-Wolf is just awful, Heavy Metal style sword and sorcery ... very juvenile sort of stuff where everyone's a muscular hulk and walks around in their underpants, and everyone talks using archaic pronouns like thou and having entire conversations during fight sequences. Bleh.