PHOENIX IN OBSIDIAN

Mayflower paperback, 1970. Cover painting by Bob Haberfield.

"As Erekosë, the Eternal Champion, he slew the human race that had betrayed his ideals. And loved Ermizhad, the Eldren princess. 

Then the voices called him and he was powerless to resist. As Fate's soldier, the eternal one, his lot was to vanquish tyranny. Sent tumbling through the corridors of eternity. Transformed. Now Urlik Skarsol - Prince of the Southern Ice. But called by whom? 

By Bishop Belpheg, Lord Spiritual of Rowenarc, obscene ruler of a damned race born at the end of Time? By Bladrak of the Scarlet Fjord? By the Lady of the Screaming Chalice? By the Silver Warriors, incandescent men of Moon? 

Urlik Skarsol would need take up the Black Sword, the monstrous weapon that demanded blood, be it friend's or be it foe's, before his tortured soul could rest. Before the powers of Evil could be conquered. Before he could rediscover Ermizhad. Before he could know peace again..."

FUGUE FOR A DARKENING ISLAND

NEL paperback, September 1973. Cover artist uncredited.

FUGUE - a glimpse into the future of Britain. At a time when the country is caught by civil conflict between a right-wing government and the liberal element, a third group arrives - refugee Africans from a continent devastated by nuclear attack. The country is ripe for a three-way civil war. Total breakdown in communications quickly follows, and a nightmare situation grips the community. 

Alan Whitman, the central character of this frightening story, represents the view of the man on the street. How will he cope with this situation when he has opted out all his life, from political, personal and moral decisions? 

Christopher Priest's second novel consolidates his place among the most brilliant and imaginative of the younger writers of today, already established by his earlier work 'Indoctrinaire'."

THE LAST CONTINENT

Hodder paperback, first printing, 1971. Cover painting by Chris Foss.

"The devastated Earth had only a handful of inhabitants - now even their future was in balance 

The Twenty-Second Century had been and gone - and with it, the worst war in the bloody history of mankind: the War of the Black Rising. The Earth was devastated, the moon blasted out of the sky. It was only on Mars, many millions of miles away, that humanity had survived - in the shape of a few isolated Black colonists. 

But out of that few had grown a new civilization - a civilization which now, some two thousand years later, had successfully launched its first ever space exploration - destination, the 'dead' planet Earth.

CYTEEN

NEL paperback, 1989. Cover artist uncredited.

"The planet Cyteen dominated all settled space. 

The Reseune bio-engineering labs dominated Cyteen. 

Ariane Emory, 120 years old, a genius in genetics and psychology, corrupt and ruthless, was absolute ruler of Reseune. 

So when she was murdered, a genetic double had to be brought into being to succeed her. A little child was to be created to inherit all the regions of humanity. 

Ariane Emory was to be reborn..."

WORLD SOUL

Collier / Macmillan paperback, first edition, 1979. Cover painting by
Richard M. Powers.

"Sergei Arefyev is a brilliant scientist at the Institute of Telepathy. Torn by a sense of isolation and alienation, he dreams of a human future where telepathy allows mankind to share its experiences fully. His dream seems to be fulfilled by the World Soul, a biological mutation that links human consciousnesses through telepathy. Lies and deception become impossible, wars can no longer be fought, and people experience an ecstasy of full communion with each other. However, human relations change dramatically as the lack of individual privacy leads to a loss of  personal identity. In the midst of this turmoil the World Soul evolves until it acquires a will of its own, and Sergei and his friends must face the horrible challenge of reestablishing individual autonomy before mankind is completely engulfed."

STORMBRINGER

Mayflower paperback, 1968. Cover art by Bob Haberfield.

SWORD AND SWORDSMAN...BUT WHICH WAS MASTER? 

STORMBRINGER, the mighty runesword, hung far away in the city's armoury. ELRIC, haunted albino warrior-king had sworn never again to touch the enchanted blade. But he needed it now as never before. Evil supernatural beings had abducted his lovely wife Zarozinia. He would sacrifice the world itself to rescue her. But would STORMBRINGER, which seemed to have a life of its own, allow it? 

He was fated to ride out again over spectral landscapes, with the sentient blade he loved and hated...which had slain enemies - and claimed comrades.

NEBULA MAKER

Sphere SF paperback, 1979. Cover artist unknown.

"It was at the moment of creation that the nebulae first found awareness. And they were to burn with life for countless millennia, changing, struggling, shifting on an axis that had only the Mystery at its centre. 

The Launching of the Cosmos, the First Cosmical War, the appearance of Bright Heart the saint and of Fire Bolt the revolutionary - all led to that Mystery - the terrifying, eternally fascinating enigma of the Nebula Maker... 

NEBULA MAKER is a recently discovered novel by Olaf Stapledon, an epic of the universe's evolution that is both separate from and complimentary to his acclaimed masterpiece STAR MAKER."

FAR RAINBOW / THE SECOND INVASION FROM MARS

Collier / Macmillan paperback, first edition, 1980. Cover painting by
Richard M. Powers.

PROFESSOR DOWELL'S HEAD

Collier / Macmillan paperback, first edition, 1981. Cover painting by
Richard M. Powers.

THE ROAD TO SCIENCE FICTION #2 FROM WELLS TO HEINLEIN

Mentor paperback, 1978. Cover Artwork by Paul Stinson.

"H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Murray Leinster, John W. Campbell, Jack Williamson, A. E. Van Vogt, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein. 

These are just some of the top writers from the golden age of science fiction, the wonderful era when the universe was ours for the taking through a simple flight of the imagination. From H. G. Well's story of a scientist who can increase man's speed a thousandfold, to Edgar Rice Burroughs's tale of Mars teeming with alien cultures; from the chilling horror of A. Meritt's The People Of The Pit, to Murray Leinster's encounter with sentient and potentially deadly plant beings; from L. Sprague De Camp's humorous account of how the human race turned into the ultimate shaggy-dog story, to Robert Heinlein's portrait of a man who wanted to reach the stars so badly that he would sacrifice anything to get there... From Argosy to Astounding, from Incredible inventions to alien encounters, here is a delightful and fascinating sampling of some of science fiction's finest moments, a capsule history of the birth and evolution of a modern galaxy-spanning literature."

Contents:

The New Accelerator by H. G. Wells

The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster

The Chessmen Of Mars (chapters II and III) by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The People Of The Pit by A. Merritt

The Red One by Jack London

Dagon by H. P. Lovecraft

The Tissue-Culture King by Julian Huxley

The Revolt Of The Pedestrians by David H. Keller, M. D.

The First And Last Men (chapter XIII) by Olaf Stapledon

Brave New World (chapters 16 and 17) by Aldous Huxley

A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum

Twilight by John W. Campbell

Proxima Centauri by Murray Leinster

What's It Like Out There? by Edmond Hamilton

With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson

Hyperpilosity by L. Sprague De Camp

The Faithful by Lester Del Rey

Black Destroyer by A. E. Van Vogt

Nightfall by Isaac Asimov

Requiem by Robert A. Heinlein

ELRIC OF MELNIBONÉ

Arrow SF paperback, 1973. Cover illustraton by Chris Yates.

"The tale of Elric, later called womanslayer; of his love for Cymoria and of the rivalry with his cousin Yyrkoon. A rivalry that was to bring the dreaming city crashing in flames, destroyed by the reavers of the young kingdoms. 

Elric, red-eyed, albino, the inheritor of waning powers, his strength precarious, sustained by arcane drugs. A hero seemingly unfit for his role. 

A story that treats of monstrous emotions and high ambitions, of sorceries and treacheries, agonies and fearful pleasures. A story that Elric was to remember only in his nightmares."

THE SONGS OF DISTANT EARTH

Grafton paperback, 1987. Jacket art by Michael Whelan.

"THE VOYAGERS AWOKE IN PARADISE 

When Earth's sun went nova, the MAGELLAN barely escaped in time, with its precious cargo of one million sleepers and gene banks of plants and animals. 

Five hundred years into the voyage they stopped for repairs on the idyllic planet of Thalassa. 

But whilst the awakened Earth people envied them their stable, harmonious world, the hospitable Thalassasns were drawn by the long quest of the interstellar voyagers. 

And when Lieutenant Commander Loren Lorenson met beautiful thalassan mirissa, their alien destinies became inextricably - and tragically - entwined. 

THE SONGS OF DISTANT EARTH 

is the novel that Arthur C. Clarke has wanted to write for the past 20 years, a brilliant blend of sound scientific speculation with a moving story of life and love on an alien and beautiful world."

MIRKHEIM

Sphere SF paperback, 1978. Cover artwork by Peter Elson
(thanks, Yvan).

"THE DOOMED PLANET 

The gigantic planet of Mirkheim was gone - blasted and vaporised by a supernova. But its core had survived the holocaust, and now, transmuted, it was the only source of certain vital supermetals. David Falkayn, agent and troubleshooter for the powerful Polesotechnic League, governors of the Terran Empire, had plans for Mirkheim. But the Baburites - an unscrupulous alien race - were one step ahead of him and had claimed the priceless minerals as their own. The conflict cloud mean only one thing - war, on a titanic scale - unless Falkayn could turn the tide and negotiate a peaceful agreement. But with the Baburites, that was a near-impossible task."

2061: ODYSSEY THREE

Grafton paperback, 1988. Cover illustration by Michael Whelan.

"2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY WAS THE CLASSIC STORY THAT TOLD OF MAN'S DESTINY IN SPACE. 

2010: ODYSSEY TWO PUSHED BACK THE FRONTIERS OF HUMAN IMAGINATION STILL FURTHER.

NOW, 2061: ODYSSEY THREE TELLS OF HUMANITY'S EVOLUTION TOWARDS THE STARS... 

In 2061, when two suns share the skies of Earth, Halley's Comet returns to the inner Solar System. Soon the fates of the two spacefaring expeditions are entwined by human necessity and the immutable laws of astrophysics, Centenarian Heywood Floyd must once again confront Dave Bowman, a newly independent HAL and the limitless power of an alien race that has decided humanity must play a part in the evolution of the galaxy - whether it wants to or not... 

2061: ODYSSEY THREE takes the century's greatest story on to brilliant new dimensions of wonder and excitement. This is visionary storytelling at its compelling, mind-expanding best."

2010: ODYSSEY TWO

Granada paperback, 1983. Cover illustration by Michael Whelan.

"2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY WAS THE GREATEST STORY EVER WRITTEN OF MAN'S DESTINY IN OUTER SPACE. 

NOW IN 2010: ODYSSEY TWO, THE ULTIMATE QUEST CONTINUES... 

Out among the moons of Jupiter, the empty spacecraft DISCOVERY and the enigmatic alien monolith still float in the silent depths of space, mute witnesses of the mysterious disappearance of astronaut David Bowman through the 'Star Gate' nine years before. To them comes the LEONOV, bearing a joint Soviet-American scientific team on a mission of investigation and recovery. A mission whose outcome will be beyond the wildest imaginings of any of the mere humans involved... 

2010: ODYSSEY TWO carries the century's greatest story onward into astounding new dimensions of the imagination. It is a masterwork by one of the twentieth century's greatest storytellers and thinkers."