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..."