KULDESAK

Orbit paperback, 1976. Cover artwork by Chris Achilleos.

"Earth, 2000 years after the final holocaust which drove man deep underground; a ghostly, deserted planet peopled only by the diligent robots who, century after century, silently harvest grain which no man will eat. 

Up into this eerie world comes Mel, a questioning young roamer who has disobeyed the Law which says he must never venture into or beyond the Lost Levels. Together with three companions, and a companion not of this Earth, Mel takes on the awesome task of freeing human beings from the tyranny imposed on them by their remote ancestors; of justifying the agonized cry of Barney as he died in a Forbidden Level: 'I am a man! Everything is for man!'"

THE SOLARIANS

Paperback Library Edition. First printing, July 1966.
Cover by Ed Valigursky (thanks, Mark).

"Earth was programmed for destruction in the mad war of the computer worlds - unless the Solarians could stop the machines! 

Three hundred years ago the solarians retreated to the safety of their Fortress as Earth became embroiled in the first of the computer wars with the dread Duglaari Empire. 

The solarians' final word to all humanity was a promise to reappear one day and bring it to victory. Suddenly, with Earth on the verge of becoming a helpless victim of the merciless Duglaars, the Solarians made contact with fleet commander Jay Palmer. It was an offer of aid. 

But the Solarians' plan was so cunning, so fraught with danger, that Jay faced the greatest decision of his life - and that of Earth's: 

Accept their ingenious strategy as a stroke of genius or reject it as a trick designed to destroy human life forever."

THE INTERPRETER

Digit Books paperback, 1963 reprint. Cover artist uncredited.

"Earthman Gary Towler is treated like a pariah; for his task as chief interpreter for the corrupt and tyrannical Nuls makes other humans avoid him as a traitor. 

Nor is he trusted by the three-armed mammoth rulers themselves. The leaders realize that gary knows too much. 

When the humans leading the underground rebellion demand Gary's aid or his life, he is caught between two untrustful forces. And his only way out is to make himself into a one-man third force against two world's plotters."

STAR MAKER

Pengiun Books paperback, 1973. Cover design by David Pelham.

"One moment a man sits on a suburban hill. The next he is whirling through the firmament. Street lamps become blinding stars and rushing grains swell into planets. 

Like H. G. Wells's time traveller, he visits many worlds, often at times of political and social crisis... Like the 'Other Earth' from which he escapes with the quasi-human Bvaltu just before technological change sweeps and annihilates the planet... Like the worlds of the Nautiloids, men-cum-fish-cum-boats, and the Plant men, vast mobile herbs... 

As they search up and down time and space for the Star Maker behind the cosmos, the two travellers are joined by others, to develop into a strange mental community, both 'I' and 'We', reacting multi-dimensionally to a mind-spinning range of experiences."

ACE DOUBLE: THE GATES OF TIME + DWELLERS OF THE DEEP

Ace Double paperback, 1970. Cover art by Josh Kirby.

"They slithered and twittered and jangled, for they were not men. There was only one man - Jarcal - and he was the last of his kind. 

The advancing vacuum of the voids had sucked Jarcal's worlds into nothingness. But the aliens around him denied its existence; they gibbered inanely when questioned. And then, when Jarcal was discovered to be possessed, they most happily cast him out. 

But if Jarcal was possessed, he was also chosen. For the red dancing slippers of the gods led him through a mission to Armageddon...."

Ace Double paperback, 1970. Cover art by Jack Gaughan.

"What! A science fiction novel about science fiction fans? And why not? 

Or - like it says in this novel: 

"Do you really think science fiction fans could save this planet? Could understand this situation and save it?" "I most certainly do," she says. "Who else?" 

Who else, indeed? Not since Frederic Brown's "What Mad Universe" has there been a novel like this."

PLANET OF NO RETURN

Universal paperback, 1978. Cover by Les Edwards (thanks, Staz).

"WANTED: 

terrestroid planets, habitable but uninhabited, clean of major sicknesses, rich enough to support colonists without outside help. 

FOUND: 

in almost a generation, nothing. 

Then a shipful of astronomers chanced on the troas-illium system. The da gama had set out, but never come home. Now, seven years later, the henry hudson is due to leave on the same mission..."

FRANK R. PAUL: FATHER OF SCIENCE FICTION ART

"Born in 1884, Frank R. Paul was slated to study for the priesthood; instead, he studied art and architectural and mechanical drafting. The impact of these studies are evident in his brilliant and original science-fiction artwork. 

In 1914 Paul met Hugo Gernsback and began illustrating for Gernsback's Electrical Experimenter and Science and Invention. By 1926 when Gernsback's Amazing Stories was born Paul was ready: a talented calligrapher, Paul not only created the magazine's famed comet logo, but also the front cover painting and all of the interior black and white illustrations. Subsequently, over the span of his career, Paul was to paint over 200 published sci-fi covers and in excess of 1,000 black and white interiors. 

To say that Frank R. Paul is the father of science-fiction illustration is an understatement: his fertile imagination, amply demonstrated by the paintings and drawings in this book, speak for themselves and his legacy continues to influence the field today. 

Here, in this giant compendium, is the very first collection ever published showcasing many of Paul's full-color science-fiction artwork along with appreciations and critical essays by Sir Arthur C. Clarke and by Stephen Korshak; Jerry Weist and Roger Hill; Sam Moskowitz; Gerry de la Ree; Forrest J. Ackerman; and Frank Wu."

Artwork for Life On Neptune, from the back cover of Fantastic Adventures,
March 1940.

Cover painting from Science Fiction, December 1939 depicting
Planet Of The Knob-Heads by Stanton A. Coblentz.

The book erroneously credits the above painting as appearing on the cover of Wonder Stories, June 1931, in fact it appeared on the cover of Science Fiction, December 1939.

FRIENDS COME IN BOXES

Sphere paperback, 1976. Cover artist uncredited.

"The problem of immortality was solved in the 21st century: at forty, your brain was transferred to the head of a six month old child. Thus you gained another forty years of active life, until you could do it all over again. 

But then the birthrate fell - and a growing horde of brains waited in the friendship boxes for host bodies. And on the sidelines a rebellious minority fought the system, seeking to raise their children in freedom to live a normal life. 

Inevitably, the factions moved towards confrontation: a day of final reckoning."

INDOCTRINAIRE

NEL paperback, 1973 reprint. Cover artwork by Bruce Pennington.

"In the very depths of the densest jungle in Brazil, there exists a circular plain of stubble. A perfect circle. 

This is the Panalto district, and no man has ever come out of it alive. Elias Wentik might, perhaps, be the exception. He finds himself imprisoned in the very centre of the plain, subject to humiliation and bizarre sessions of interrogation. And this visit, so completely contemporary in its paranoid vision of strangeness, has revealed to him the incredible secret of the Panalto. It exists two hundred years in the future."

SUM VII

Magnum paperback, 1981. Cover illustration by Chris Moore.

"A medical research trip to Egypt leads to the opening of a magnificent new tomb and the discovery of a unique mummy. Code-named SUM VII, the mummy is so perfectly preserved that specialists are able to revive the body - a being considered dead for nearly 5000 years! Believed to be a high priest to a Pharaoh, SUM VII reveals awesome powers. Soon a fugitive hunted by the men who returned him to life, his true identity is stranger and more mysterious yet..."

THE DARK DESIGN

Grafton paperback, 1988 reprint. Cover by Joe Petagno.

"Who are the weavers of the dark design? The myriad dead of thirty thousand centuries have awakened to find themselves resurrected, naked and hairless, on the banks of the great river which winds itself round the awe-inspiring planet Riverworld. A few resourceful and intrepid individuals attempt to trace the source of the river, among them Sir Richard Francis Burton, Mark Twain and Peter Jairus Frigate. Together they seek to find some purpose to the dark design in which they find themselves enmeshed..."

ANALOG JULY 1977

Cover by Mike Hinge.

Analog erroneously credited the cover artist as Rick Sternbach for this issue. Thanks to I. Richards who spotted the mistake; check out his blog Onyx Cube, for more info on the cover's actual artist Mike Hinge.

ANALOG FEBRUARY 1976

Cover by Rick Sternbach.

ANALOG SEPTEMBER 1974

Cover by Kelly Freas.

ANALOG JULY 1972

Cover by John Schoenherr.

Interior artwork by John Schoenherr from Collision Course.