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| Carlyle paperback, 1980. Cover art by Michael Gross. |
"In the year 2086, criminal investigations have been made virtually impossible since American technology has enabled people to exchange identities as easily as ideas. So how will Robyn O'Rourke discover who is actually responsible for a preposterous economic fraud that involves murder and may well lead to her own? With the aid of a testy computer, Citizen O'Rourke finds evidence that leads her deeper into a deadly trap of the 21st Century."
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| Sphere paperback, 1988 reprint. Cover by Les Edwards. |
"THEY SOUGHT ONLY TO CONTROL MANKIND - HIS MISSION WAS TO UNDERSTAND IT...
Almost a century has passed since the legendary Donal Graeme, master of interplanetary warfare and unifier of mankind, disappeared into the vastness of space. Out of his great vision only scattered colonies of the Dorsai, Earth, the Exotics and the Friendlies now remain to challenge the all-conquering Others who have mutated from the strongest of the Splinter Cultures to rule the galaxy.
Yet even these last bastions are in disarray, their peoples isolated and divided by self-interest. Only someone who can understand the forces of their long and glorious history - someone in who the spirit of Donal lives on - can bring them together against the new superman, and prove that their own evolution has not been in vain."
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| Penguin SF paperback, 1980. Cover illustration by Tom Stimpson. |
"THE BIGGEST, MOST EXCITING COLLECTION OF SCIENCE FICTION STORIES EVER!
Including stories from such masters as Harry Harrison, Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl, Arthur C. Clarke, C. M. Kornbluth, James Blish, Clifford Simak, J. G. Ballard and many more...
Selected and introduced by Brian Aldiss"
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| Ace paperback, 1978. Cover by Alex Schomburg. |
"What? Another Anthology?
Editor BEN BOVA offers two good reasons:
This book represents the best stories of the past five years of Analog magazine - adjudged by many to be the best science fiction magazine on the market.
These stories have been written by the brightest authors in the SF game.
ROGER ZELAZNY. LARRY NIVEN. GEORGE R. R. MARTIN. JOE HALDEMAN. VONDA MCINTYRE. GORDON R. DICKSON
...All of our Best and Brightest.
And the best reason of all:
This one is fun to read. Enjoy!
-From his introduction"
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| 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!"
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| Sphere paperback, 1979. Cover painting by Peter Jones. |
"The Mathematics of Magic - it was the greatest discovery ever. Or so though Professor Harold Shea. With the proper equations he could instantly transport himself and his friend Reed Chalmers back - or sideways - in time to all the wondrous lands of ancient myth and legend.
But slips in time were a hazard. And Shea's magic didn't always work quite as he expected. A dragon spell might yield a hundred dragons - or, even worse, one tenth of a dragon. And the various imaginary lands he travelled to held countless dangers that even Shea's equations couldn't predict..."
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| Sidgewick & Jackson hardback, 1981. Cover illustration by Ian McCaig. |
"On the Rim planet fittingly called End of Nothing, a bizarre society of robots and humans toiled for a thousand years to perfect a religion that would create a new and all-embracing faith - no novelty in a galaxy crowded with religions. But one project was hidden from the hordes of pilgrims welcomed at Vatican-17 on End of Nothing. A group of trained human sensitives were sending their minds ranging through all of time and space, gathering information. With that information,a computer of infinite knowledge, wisdom, and infallibility was being constructed in secret - the ultimate Pope.
Of the three outsiders allowed residence on End of Nothing, one was tolerated at a distance by Vatican-17, one was welcomed - and one was a threat to be countered.
Decker hardly mattered. His lifeboat had landed him on the remote planet, and he kept to himself in the wilderness. Neither the human or the robot authorities knew of the unseen companion who whispered constantly in Decker's mind.
Dr Jason Tennyson had fled the political furies of his homeworld. Here, Vatican-17's physician had died, and Tennyson's skills were desperately needed and well rewarded.
Jill Roberts was a journalist in quest of a sensational story she had scented. Vatican-17 knew she could not be allowed to break the news of Project Pope before it was completed - and debated two possible ways of stopping her.
Then one of the Searcher sensitives threw Vatican-17 into turmoil, threatening its very existence and involving the three outsides in a sudden power struggle between human and robot.
Drifting in unsuspected dimensions, the woman had encountered Heaven!"
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| Ace paperback, 1987. Cover art by Peter Dana. |
"No one has ever seen him. But everyone knows him. The people of Shant swear by his name, and live in terror of him.
To break canton law is to defy the Faceless Man. To leave the canton itself is to defy the Faceless Man. To refuse to wear the torc that binds you to him is to defy the Faceless Man.
Gastel Etzwane has done all three.
And to defy the Faceless Man is death."
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| 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..."
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| 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..."
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| 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..."
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| Granada paperback, 1983. Cover artist uncredited. |
"THE LOWER DEPTHS...
Aton's crime was a dreadful one. He had loved a Minionette. All the worlds of mankind despised and feared this almost mythical siren. But no creature anywhere could tell Aton why.
In the brutally hot garnet mines of Chthon to which he had been condemned, Aton sought an answer. And when he could not find it he determined to seek it elsewhere.
He had to escape. And no man had ever escaped from Chthon and lived. But the mystery of the Minionette had to be solved. Aton had to have his answer..."
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| Grafton / Panther paperback, 1986. Cover illustration by Tim White. |
The macroscope is the most expensive, important device ever put into space by the inhabitants of Earth. Many nations have come together to build and run it.
By using a newly-discovered aspect of radiation, the macroscope is able to give clear images of worlds thousands of light-years away.
And somewhere - out there - is a civilisation which has learned how to broadcast in the macroscopic band. Some brilliant scientists have already studied the broadcasts, with devastating results. Their brains have been badly damaged.
There is one person who might be able to cope with the alien broadcasts - Schön, the elusive genius who won't appear if things bore him..."
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| Granada paperback, 1984. Cover illustration by Tim White. |
"A TREACHEROUS SPACE RACE FOR THE LEGACY OF THE ANCIENTS
For Heem of Highfalls - an outlawed Hydr0 - and Jessica of Capella - a Solarian impostor, the new competition is a matter of life and death.
The target planet is a wilderness world - Eccentric. The objective of the competition is an Ancient site. And the site is believed to be in operable condition.
That means that the competition will be murderously stiff. It will be a race against time, enemy aliens and black holes.
And for Heem and Jessica - linked together in the most intimate way possible - the contest is very simple: they can win.
Or they can die...
Thousandstar takes Piers Anthony's marvellously inventive Cluster series exploding further across the bounds of space and time."
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| Granada / Panther SF paperback, 1980. Cover illustration by Fred Gambino. |
Alp the Uigur steps into the Game
Alp is a 9th Century warrior on the great Steppes of Russia, suddenly plucked from his own time by 24th Century Galactics, players of the Game.
The Game is a reconstruction of history, controlled by a super-computer. Any Galactic with enough money can buy himself a part. The more he prospers, the more points he scores and the more fans he acquries on the outside. The history being re-run now is Steppe, 9th Century...with a difference. Instead of on rolling grasslands, the Game is played over an entire galaxy. Instead of on sturdy ponies, the competitors travel by individual spaceship. Only the women, and the need to use cunning and strength, seem the same..."
