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| Sphere paperback, 1978. Cover painting by Melvyn Grant. |
Synopsis:
"From the wild and wintry borders of Asgard to exotic Iranistan, from the perilous Pictish Marches to the awesomely-guarded stronghold of the miser-wizard Siptah, Conan the incomparable cuts his savage swathe through a matchless world of swordplay and sorcery in his most thrilling adventures yet!"
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| Signet paperback, 1982. Cover illustration uncredited. |
Rear-cover synopsis:
"Behind them lay death, before them the universe ... The Senyas dancers - they practiced their unique skills on their home planet, Deva, their smooth skin glowing with complex energy patterns as they learned the power dances and mentally mastered the elemental forces of Nagure. And the Bre'n mentors - large, fur-covered humanoids, they were the only living beings who could control and channel the power of a Senyas dancer. Yet Bre'n and Senyas together could not save Deva from becoming a flaming inferno devoured by its own greedy sun.
Somehow two survived - Rheba the fire dancer and Kirtn, her Bre'n companion. Their world had died but they swore their people would not, and together they set out to search the star systems for others of their kind. But the twisted trail they followed soon forced them into the clutches of the evil Loo-chim, galactic slavers from whose stronghold no one had ever escaped alive...."
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| DAW paperback, 1984. Cover artwork by Don Maitz. |
Synopsis:
"Something had seized his mind, something that rode his body like a speed-maniac would drive a stolen car - for he had committed atrocities against his friends and neighbours, he had done unspeakable things - and yet his own conscious mind had only stood aside and watched in horror. For a demonic intelligence had taken over inside his skull and left him a helpless observer.
He was not unique. It was happening all over the world - society was breaking down in an epidemic of crimes, vicious and senseless, and it would seem as if the world had been invaded by a legion of invisible devils from some interplanetary hell.
There had to be a solution, and when at last he found a clue, he set out to pursue it to the bitter end. Frederik Pohl's Demon In The Skull is a revision and upgrading of his A Plague Of Pythins, bringing this classic science fiction shocker into the realtime world of 1984 and after...."
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| Corgi paperback, 1966. Cover illustration uncredited. |
Synopsis:
"A journey with a man who is given one hour in the past - A search for the lost continent of Atlantis - A fantastic hunt with a phantom dog, and the experience of the calamitous, supernatural effects of an atom bomb test...It has become axiomatic in our time that today's fiction is tomorrow's fact. These stories demonstrate the twilight zone where fantasy becomes more real than life, and, science reveals its hidden core of fantasy..."
Contents:
Doctor Hanray's Second Chance by Conrad RichterFallout Island by Robert MurphyThe Green Hills Of Earth by Robert A. HeinleinDoomsday Deferred by Will F. JenkinsTest-Tube Terror by Robert StandishIsland Of Fear by William SambrotSinister Journey by Conrad RichterThe Place Of The Gods by Stephen Vincent BenétThe Phantom Setter by Robert MurphyThe Big Wheel by Fred McMorrowThe Death Dust by Frank HarveyThe Lost Continent by Geoffrey HouseholdThe Trap by Ken BennettSpace Secret by William SambrotThe Unsafe Deposit Box by Gerald KershThe Second Trip To Mars by Ward MooreThe Voice In The Earphones by Wilbur SchrammMoon Crazy by William Roy SheltonThe Little Terror by Will F. JenkinsThe Answer by Philip Wylie
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| Fontana paperback, seventh impression, 1980. Cover illustration by Peter Goodfellow. |
Synopsis:
"Cursed by a terrible disease, Thomas Covenant is an outcast in our world: shunned by his neighbours, pushed by loneliness to the edges of madness. Suddenly he is transported to a mysterious and beautiful new world - the Land - where gentle people work magic with wood and stone, and the very earth and air bring healing. Covenant is welcomed as the reincarnation of a legendary saviour: his maimed hand and white-gold wedding ring mark him as a figure of power and sorcery, with a wild magic powerful against evil. But Covenant does not believe that the Land is real and thus, he becomes the unwilling tool of the enemy who seeks to destroy it: Lord Foul the Despiser. Three times, in their hour of greatest need, the peoples of the Land will summon him to their aid. Three times, as their reluctant leader, he will fail them. Only at the end, as a victorious Lord Foul prepares to devastate the Land and enslave its people forever, will Thomas Covenant call on the wild magic he alone can wield - for a last, epic battle with the forces of evil..."
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| Popular Library paperback, 1973. Cover artwork uncredited. |
Rear-cover synopsis:
"Commodore Tom Dalton, of Terran's Space Navy, is approached by the Softliners, politicians who want to avoid war with the Hukk invaders. He is also approached by the Hardliners, who want him to provoke a full-scale battle with the Hukks. Out in space, Dalton is faced with the harsh reality of the situation when the Hukk admiral suddenly pulls a fast one. Dalton's decision can mean mutiny, space war, or instant defeat..."
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| Sphere SF paperback, 1968. Cover photograph by David Davies. |
Rear-cover synopsis:
"In the age of the Optiman genetic surgeons tamper with the gametes of unborn children in the hospital vats. From time to time they achieve the miracle known as the Optiman - a human being whose tissues never wear out, an immortal.
There is one drawback: The Optimen are not viable - they cannot breed. The ability to reproduce is confined to a small minority of ordinary mortals. The hospitals are supervised by an all powerful security force to stop this minority from growing beyond the limits decreed by the Optimen.
Then Dr. Potter presides at the 'cutting' of a very special embryo; to ensure its destruction, the Optimen are prepared to destroy a whole city."
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| Bantam paperback, 1961. Cover artwork by William Hofmann. |
Rear cover fluff:
"Why be miserable? Dial P-L-E-A-S-U-R
Happiness guaranteed by Hedonics Inc. Sounds like a skin-game to you and me. But in James Gunn's future it's the slogan of a legitimate and sucessful business. Product: anything you need to make you happy.
The Joy Makers rips the lid off: describes pleasures that will make your skin tingle and your mind rattle, tells a story of men and women who are so hysterically happy they turn in strange new directions for diversion."
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| Sphere SF paperback, 1968. Cover photograph by David Davies. |
Rear-cover synopsis:
"The Government of North America has been pushed into the sea and survives only on the West coast of Ireland as a strict military dictatorship. The East of the U.S. is ruled by The Syndic - permissive, happy, possibly doomed - and to the west is Mob territory. Charles Orsino and Lee Falcaro from the Syndic are planted as spies in Government territory. They discover the truth about the outside world and the extent of the dangerous scheme which is being plotted to smash the Syndic for ever."
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| Panther SF paperback, 1977. Cover illustration by Peter Jones. A slightly modified version of this painting can be found in his book "Solar Wind" (Paper Tiger, 1980) |
Rear cover synopsis:
"Vesa was the Empire of Earth's moon of vice. Every year millions of space-voyagers from all corners of the universe travelled there to make or break their fortunes in the exotic gaming palaces. But something much more sinister was going on in the Playground of the Galaxy.
Already a quarter of a million people had vanished from Vesa.
The situation shrieked for action. The security of the Empire was at risk. So the Head summoned SOTE's Number One super-agents. For only Jules and Yvette d'Alembert would risk life and limb to smash this interplanetary conspiracy of catastrophic dimensions..."
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| Panther SF paperback, 1975. Cover illustration by Tom McArthur. |
Rear cover synopsis:
"Earth is dead - murdered from the depths of space. But how? And by whom? Poul Anderson, as versatile as ever, admirably confirms with this tale of interplanetary terror that he possesses one of the most awe - inspiring talents in the whole field of science fiction..."
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| Granada hardback, 1984. Cover painting by Peter Gudynas. |
In the final phase man will become master of his own evolution as well as that of all other living things.
Thanks to Jerry Boucher who made me aware of this book and the similarity of a certain Peter Gudynas painting similar to the cover of Frederik Pohl's Man Plus, which I posted a few weeks ago.This book (with obligatory Asimov foreword) is sort of disappointingly not concerned with science fiction per se, rather the application of speculative fiction, theories as well as modern science and medicine in real life (circa 1984). Topics include evolution, the biological revolution, mastering the environment, diseases, ageing, engineering people, mind control and scenarios for the future of mankind. The majority of illustrations are photographs of a medical or scientific nature, but there's a few paintings by Gudynas, Peter Goodfellow, Terry Oakes and others have artwork credits in the acknowledgements section but I do not recognize which images are theirs.
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| Life underwater. |
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| Man modified for life underwater. |
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| Man modified to live in space by Peter Gudynas. |
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| Man modified for war. |
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| Orbit paperback, 1977. Cover artwork by Tony Roberts, thanks to all who left comments identifying the artist! |
Back cover fluff:
"The Co-Dominium Navy . . . shipping prisoner colonists by the hundreds of thousands to strange worlds for a corrupt alliance of Earth nations.
The Co-Dominium Marines . . . keeping uneasy peace on dozens of planets as their resources are robbed for the benefits of Earth.
The Mercenaries . . . using their own methods to end the fighting as raging riots of independence explode into open warfare.
And Falkenberg . . . a legend in his own time, a man who gave up a brilliant military career to fight on his own, a mastermind to his soldiers, an enigma to the politicians who buy his services - and the cause of turmoil on a dozen planets."
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| Stoneshire paperback, 1983. Cover artwork by Greg Theakston. |
Rear cover fluff:
"Unless you were a member of the Category Military, no one on Earth could own a gun. So who was shooting at Joe Mauser? And why?
He'd been a mercenary, but he'd been thrown out when he saved Field Marshal Cogswell's life. Whose enemies were after him now - his own, or Cogswell's?
In a world where the computers kept track of you, Mauser had to disappear - and stay alive long enough to reach the field Marshal!"
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| Tandem paperback, 1969. Cover artist uncredited. |
Rear cover fluff:
The best science fiction stories of all time - chosen by the masters of science fiction. Here are the masters who chose the stories: Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, James Blish, Robert Bloch, Fredric Brown, John W. Campbell, Arthur C. Clarke, Lester del Rey, Horace L. Gold, Damon Knight, Fritz Leiber, Murray Leinster, Judith Merril, Clifford D. Simak, E. E. Smith, Theodore Sturgeon, William Tenn, Jack Williamson, John Wyndham.
The stories they chose: Seven-Day Terror by R. A Lafferty, Coming Attraction by Fritz Leiber, Politics by Murray Leinster, Memento Homo by Walter M. Miller, Jr., The Bright Illusion by C. L. Moore, And Now The News by Theodore Sturgeon, The Custodian by William Tenn and The New Accelerator by H. G. Wells.
