THE COMPASS ROSE

Panther/Granada paperback, 1984. Cover illustration by Peter Goodfellow.

Back cover fluff: 

"From dream worlds to nightmare planets, from the boundaries of madness to the six points of Ursula Le Guin's three dimensional compass, these stories are a mind-shaking reminder of the uniqueness of Le Guin's unsettling visions." 

This is a short story collection, and contains the following stories: The Author of the Acacia Seeds, The New Atlantis, Schrodinger's Cat, Two Delays on the Northern Line, SQ, Small Change, The First Report of the Shipwrecked Foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb, The Diary of the Rose, The White Donkey, The Phoenix, Intracom, The Eye Altering, Mazes, The Pathways of Desire, Gwilan's Harp, Malheur County, The Water Is Wide, The Wife's Story, Some Approaches to the Problem of the Shortage of Time and Sur.

TRIPLE DÉTENTE

Sphere SF paperback, 1975. Cover painting by Jim Burns (I think).

Rear cover synopsis: 

"Victory! 

Our invincible space fleet has occupied the monsters' worlds. 

Victory! 

Our mighty space force has seized the aliens' home planet. 

Victory! 

Our triumphant space warriors have captured the enemy system. 

But then why are we suffering so beneath the tread of those heartless conquerors from the stars?"

HOUR OF THE HORDE

Berkley Medallion paperback, 1971. Cover artwork by Richard M. Powers.

Rear cover synopsis:

"As a horde of monstrous travelers advances through space annihilating everything before it, a super-defense force, consisting of one especially talented man from each as yet untouched planet, converges in an attempt to turn back the horde. 

Miles Vander, Earth's representative, finds himself with a small group regarded as the less civilized of the defending force. But in the final showdown, it is these creatures capable of independent action and raw courage who give a surprising twist to this galactic cliffhanger..."

THE HALF-ANGELS

Sphere SF paperback, 1975. Cover painting by Patrick Woodroffe.

Back cover fluff. 

"The book was like no other he had ever seen. The language was alien to the Earth, and the shifting, changing patterns of the illustrations seemed to spell a deadly, dreadful story. The book was a gateway: a transtemporal link point between two worlds. And soon he found himself in that strange other world. It was a weird, alien place of soul-destroying danger, a place in which he had a quest. To survive, he must hunt down the lost daughter of the witch-king, a girl who might be an angel. Or a demon."

MAN PLUS

Panther SF paperback, 1978. Front cover illustration by
Peter Gudynas.

Rear cover synopsis: 

"Man Plus is a haunting vision of to-morrow's man - less mortal than monster, more machine than flesh and blood... 

Man Plus is a desperate top-level plan to save mankind and satisfy the sinister predictions of a government computer... 

Man Plus is Frederik Pohl's stunning new novel of an all-too-plausible future where man must be biologically modified for survival on an alien planet before he exterminates himself on Earth."

THE TIME DWELLER

Mayflower SF paperback, 1981. Cover by Bob Haberfield (thanks: Jerry).

Back cover fluff: 

"From the mercurial mind of Michael Moorcock... 

Tales of other worlds, other dimensions - strangely beautiful with rich surrealistic landscapes. Tales of doom, despair, horror, of dazzling invention and inspired genius. Including: 

Escape from Evening: one man finds there is only one ironical escape in a sad, dying world. 

The Mountains: the two last men on earth search for the last woman. 

The Golden Barge: what did a single murder matter when the golden barge sailed slowly onwards? 

Consuming Passion: a tale of a pyromaniac with a chilling difference. 

The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius: what was a Roman doing in Berlin; found strangle in a garden of strange, living plants?"

BORED OF THE RINGS

Signet paperback, 1969. Cover by Michael K. Frith

They asked each other countless riddles, such as who played the Cisco Kid and what was Krypton. In the end Dildo won the game. Stumped at last for a riddle to ask, he cried out, as his hand fell on his snub-nosed .38, "what have I got in my pocket?" This Goddam failed to answer, and growing impatient, he paddled up to Frito, whining, "Let me see, let me see." Frito obliged by pulling out the pistol and emptying it in Goddam's direction. The dark spoiled his aim, and he managed only to deflate the rubber float, leaving Goddam to flounder...

THE ZERO STONE

Beaver paperback (Hamlyn imprint), 1977. Cover illustration
by John Raynes.

Rear cover synopsis:

"The mysterious powers of the zero stone on his rung bring danger to young Murdo Jern. Together with his strange feline companion Eet, he is hounded through space by the murderous Thieves' Guild, helped only by Eet's super-human intelligence and the unpredictable stone itself."

THE WORLD OF PTAVVS

Orbit paperback, 1982 .Cover painting by Peter Jones.

Rear cover synopsis: 

"Larry Greenberg's telepathic tendencies had been trained and developed to a critical level. The trouble was that if these psychic interchanges were strong enough, a man could end up not knowing who he really was. And when Larry's mind is taken over by a sinister alien force, he has to fight to retain his sanity - and divert a disaster that threatens all mankind."

THE DUNE STORYBOOK

Sphere paperback, 1984.

Its surface is barren.

Its true strength hidden.

Its foreboding desert conceals the power to fold space, to slow time, to send the mind where the body cannot go.

It is the source of the ultimate power.

It is the deadly battleground where a young leader will emerge to command an army of six million warriors against the tyrannical force that threatens to enslave the universe.

It is the clash for the greatest prize of all...

The planet called Dune.

The third-stage Guild Navigator.

Who had this book as a child? I did. I don't recall ever reading it but essentially the text is adapted from David Lynch's screenplay - it's nothing special, really, and is obviously targeted at children (which I always found odd as here in the UK the film had a 15 certificate) but it does have some nice production photographs and stills to illustrate the story. Strangely, Joan D. Vinge is credited as writing it, so I can only surmise that she was strapped for cash in the 1980s.

The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

The Beast Rabban.

Alia Atreides.

THE QUEST OF THE DNA COWBOYS

Mayflower SF paperback, 1976. Cover illustration by Peter Jones.

Rear cover fluff: 

"THE WEST THAT'S WILDER THAN YOUR WEIRDEST NIGHTMARES 

From out of the little township of Pleasant Gap stride Billy and Reave, the DNA Cowboys. Reproduction pistols in their hands, portable generators at their belts, they hit the long trail riding through the molecular dissolution of the Nothings, teetering on the edge of non-existence, to Graveyard, the wheelfreaks' paradise, Dogbreath, home of the blue-scaled whores, Port Judas, Puritan outpost, through Dropville and the hippy immortals to the terror city of Akio-Tech. 

Scraps of contemporary myth, fragments of futuristic horror, strange imaginings and bright strands of story-telling ebb, flow, float, jostle and synthesize into this, the first volume of a dazzling new science fantasy trilogy."

JASON COSMO

Pan books paperback, 1990. Cover illustration by Josh Kirby.

Rear cover synopsis: 

Jason Cosmo was a humble woodcutter in the village of lower Hicksnittle on the northern fringes of Darnk, where a conversation about mottled pig pox in the Festering Wart Tavern was a major community event. 

But the arrival of a foppish stranger who promptly tried to kill him, made Jason realize that there was more afoot in the magical Elven Kingdoms of Arden than he'd previously suspected. 

In neighbouring Whiteswap, sipping carrot juice under the watchful eye of the Sanitary Police, Jason met the wizard Mercury Boltblaster - and learned some bad news. 

The evil Dark Magic Society had placed a ten million gold crown bounty on Jason's head - and bounty hunters BlackMoon and Red Huntsman were on his trail. Was it a case of mistaken identity? Was there another Jason Cosmo? Or did he have something strangely wrong with his aura?

ROGER DEAN - VIEWS

The cover for Roger Dean's 1975 book Views, published by Big O Publishing Ltd. I think my copy
is the third edition (September 1976, 60,000 copies).

Cover artwork for Keith Tippet's album Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening.

Gollum.

Cover for Magna Carta's album The Lord Of The Ages.

THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN

New English Library paperback, 1978. Cover by Joe Petagno.

Rear cover synopsis: 

"Three astronauts had returned safely from the Mars landing. Two were dead and Steve West was on the run. On the run from the quarantine hospital which had been treating him ... from the authorities who had to conceal his escape at all costs ... from his friend Ted Nelson ... and from the dreadful organism which had taken possession of his flesh, turning him into a fiendish nightmare but leaving his mind intact to cringe from the murderous horror he had become."

I feel the need to point out that the only reason I bought this (tie-in) book was because I remember seeing the film in all its awfulness on Mystery Science Theater 3000. As a bonus, the eye-catching cover painting is by Joe Petagno.

MANIFEST DESTINY

Orbit paperback, 1986. Cover painting by Peter Elson.

"The United States of Earth will become The United States of the Universe...

If.... 

They can survive Baalphor of the Shikazu, where the warriors who can never be conquered stalk the conquerors who can never win... 

They can absorb Draco, a planet of pale reptilians, which most humans can't stand - and some can't leave... 

They can defeat Rhana, last of the rebel worlds, where the final battle is to protect man from his worst enemy - himself..."