THE FURY FROM EARTH

Pyramid paperback, first printing, October 1963.
Cover painting by Jack Gaughan.

"It wasn't possible. No earth-made missile could escape deflection - or destruction! - by the sentry satellites that kept radar watch on the space around Venus for a million miles out. 

But on they came, faster than anything had ever travelled before! And they shook the planet Venus like a toy rattle, ripping deep wounds in its desolate flank, swallowing cities whole. 

What was this strange new weapon? What defense could be erected against a "blind bomb?" the questions came as commands to Venus-born, Earth-reared Alex Frost. But when Alex completed his secret mission to the sweet planet of his youth, he returned weary and disillusioned. 

Once again - in 2154 A.D. - the powers-that-were on earth had corrupted the peaceful research of its scientific community and turned it toward destruction. Space War I could no longer be avoided..."

IT WAS THE DAY OF THE ROBOT

Belmont paperback, first printing, March 1963.
Cover artist uncredited.

"The vault was like a prison, harsh with artificial sunlight, each of the twenty computer units guarded by heavy bars. You could look up at the glittering tiers of memory banks and stimulus response units and tell yourself that the big brain was on our side. But if the unit flashed its cold light upon you... 

Far down the vault a man screamed. His fists were clenched and he raged curses at the humming computers. There was agony in his eyes, and defiance. 

"I had no right to interfere (it was a problem for the security guards) but I did. I'd seen men killed or crippled for life. In six long strides, I crossed the vault..."

It Was The Day Of The Robot is an original paperback novelization of the famous short story Made To Order, published by special arrangement with the author.

MORE THAN SUPERHUMAN

NEL paperback, 1980 reprint. Illustration: Gerald Grace.

"A lone scientist working on man's one desperate chance against conquerors from space. A man and a woman in a world where the battle of the sexes has become a death struggle. A future world where citizens are commanded to be happy or to suffer destruction. A last stand against the all-powerful dictatorship that has taken over earth..."

Contents:

Humans Go Home

The Reflected Men

All The Loving Androids

Laugh, Clone, Laugh (with Forrest J. Ackerman)

Research Alpha (with James H. Schmitz)

Him

THE OMEGA POINT

NEL paperback, 1978. Illustration: Joe Petagno.

"GEORGIAS WAS ONE OF THE LAST SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE ANCIENT AND MIGHTY RACE, THE HERCULEANS. 

Their rival empire had dared challenge Earth's supremacy of the stars. In vicious retaliation their race was nearly wiped out, and their home planet left lifeless and burn out. These old and terrible memories were etched deep in Georgias' memory. They drove him on over the lonely and hate-filled centuries, seeking a vengeance that would bring eternal glory. But the lovely Myraa, beloved from long ago, had a different and strange vision that did not include empires and wars and armies. And she constantly called him, drawing him always back to her side..."

ZARDOZ

Pan paperback, 1974. Cover artist uncredited; signature visible,
albeit illegible.

"Through the lowering clouds came the face of Zardoz, the god who gave Zed and the Exterminators the right to mate, the means to kill. What else in life was meaningful? 

Then Zed entered the Godhead seeking its mysteries, entering the world of the Vortex, where Death was banished for ever, stirring the long-forgotten sexual desires of the eternals, dividing them, reversing time itself to find the true secret of the Tabernacle... 

Zed - an unlikely champion against eternal evil..."

THE ART OF RICHARD POWERS

"Starting with his first appearance on ballantine's paperbacks in the 1950s, Richard Powers's career spanned over four decades in which he produced jacket illustrations for over 1,200 sf novels. Now widely regarded as the single most influential artist in the history of paperback illustrative art, he is also considered a figure of towering stature in american twentieth-century fine art. 

Richard Powers died in 1995. 

Illustrated throughout with over 120 of the artist's powerfully evocative and dreamlike paintings, this dramatic and colourful book reveals the full diversity of powers's distinctive art. 

Includes an inside look at his life by his son Richard Gid Powers, interviews with the innovative artist himself and a forward by Vincent Di Fate."

~

"More than any individual author, Richard Powers showed the public that science fiction could be written by intelligent adults for intelligent adults. His superior aesthetics, which still overshadow most rivals, were actually what started me reading modern sf - with Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, the cover for which perfectly captured the mood of that great American novel. I bought the book in Paris in 1957 because the cover looked cool. It didn't insult either my eye or my intelligence. So if it hadn't have been for powers, my romance with science fiction would have ended in my teens. I have huge admiration for him and am delighted that his talent is again on splendid display!"

-Michael Moorcock.

Back cover from the anthology Star Science Fiction Stories #1, 1953. 

Cover for the novel The Star Of Life by Edmund Hamilton, 1960.

Cover for Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s The Sirens Of Titan, 1990.

Interior illustration for Stardance II by Spider and Jeanne Robinson,
as featured in Analog, September 1978.

Interior illustration for Stardance II by Spider and Jeanne Robinson,
as featured in Analog, September 1978.

I've owned this book for years now but somehow neglected it throughout the existence of this blog until now. Of all the books with SF art as subject matter, The Art Of Richard Powers is one of the best and easiest to obtain with copies going for £3 - £10 used and new on both eBay and Amazon. Published in 2001 by Paper Tiger the book is crammed with full-colour illustrations, interviews and biographical essays - one of my favourite aspects of the book is a complete check-list of novels with publisher and publication data for every book that Powers worked on.

THE INTERPRETER

Digit Books paperback, 1961. 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 worlds' plotters."

THE TWO-TIMERS

Pan SF paperback, 1971. Cover artist uncredited.

"Defying time, Jack Breton crosses into a parallel world to regain Kate - the wife who, nine years earlier, was found raped and strangled in a lonely park. But, in the alternate time-stream Kate is married to his double, John. And for one husband to remain either Jack or John must die..."

THE UNCERTAIN MIDNIGHT

Hodder paperback, 1971. Artwork by Chris Foss.

"They called him the Survivor - a 20th Century man 'reborn' in 2113 

After a devastating atomic holocaust, mankind had now turned to the machine to solve his problems. Which led to the androids - descended from the robot, they were hardly distinguishable from real humans. By the year 2113 they ran society - leaving man to a life of leisure. 

It was into this world that John Markham emerged after spending 146 years of suspended animation in an underground deep-freeze unit. But his new lease on life was likely to be a short one. A man with his 'outdated' ideas could be very dangerous - a fact the androids realized only too well..."

THE MEN INSIDE

Arrow SF paperback, 1976. Cover painting by David Bergen.

"EARTH'S ELITE - OR ITS OUTCASTS? 

For a selected, genetically-fitted few among the teeming millions of the twenty-first century, to become a messenger for the hulm institute is to escape the prison that is life, that is earth. 

A MESSENGER IS NOBLE! 

A MESSENGER IS ONE OF THE CHOSEN. 

A MESSENGER IS A FORERUNNER OF A TIME IN WHICH FEAR AND DISEASE WILL DISAPPEAR FOR EVER. 

And inside a messenger's head is murder, impotence and despair."

FINAL STAGE

Penguin SF paperback, 1975. Cover illustration by David Pelham.

"Thirteen fantastic new stories on the classic themes of science fiction by: Isaac Asimov/Poul Anderson/Robert Silverberg/Harlan Ellison/Frederik Pohl/Brian Aldiss/Harry Harrison/Philip K. Dick and others. Between them the contributors have won all the awards bestowed by science fiction: seventeen Hugos, ten Nebulas and the John W. Campbell memorial award. In this very special original collection, each writer is at the top of his form, each attempting to create the ultimate on a given theme."

Contents:


We Purchased People by Frederik Pohl
The Voortrekkers by Poul Anderson
Great Escape Tours, Inc. by Kit Reed
Diagrams For Three Enigmatic Stories by Brian W. Aldiss
Thou Art Mindful Of Him! by Isaac Asimov
We Three by Dean R. Koontz
An Old Fashioned Girl by Joanna Russ
Catman by Harlan Ellison
Space Rats Of The CCC by Harry Harrison
Trips by Robert Silverberg
The Wonderful All-Purpose Transmogrifier by Barry N. Malzberg
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.
A Little Something For Us Tempunauts by Philip K. Dick. 

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION NOVEMBER 1956

Cover by Kelly Freas.

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION MAY 1956

Cover by Kelly Freas.

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION MARCH 1956

Cover Follow Me... by Ed Emshwiller ("Emsh").

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION FEBRUARY 1956

Cover painting Choice, by Pattee.