BORED OF THE RINGS

Signet paperback, 1969. Cover by Michael K. Frith

They asked each other countless riddles, such as who played the Cisco Kid and what was Krypton. In the end Dildo won the game. Stumped at last for a riddle to ask, he cried out, as his hand fell on his snub-nosed .38, "what have I got in my pocket?" This Goddam failed to answer, and growing impatient, he paddled up to Frito, whining, "Let me see, let me see." Frito obliged by pulling out the pistol and emptying it in Goddam's direction. The dark spoiled his aim, and he managed only to deflate the rubber float, leaving Goddam to flounder...

THE ZERO STONE

Beaver paperback (Hamlyn imprint), 1977. Cover illustration
by John Raynes.

Rear cover synopsis:

"The mysterious powers of the zero stone on his rung bring danger to young Murdo Jern. Together with his strange feline companion Eet, he is hounded through space by the murderous Thieves' Guild, helped only by Eet's super-human intelligence and the unpredictable stone itself."

THE WORLD OF PTAVVS

Orbit paperback, 1982 .Cover painting by Peter Jones.

Rear cover synopsis: 

"Larry Greenberg's telepathic tendencies had been trained and developed to a critical level. The trouble was that if these psychic interchanges were strong enough, a man could end up not knowing who he really was. And when Larry's mind is taken over by a sinister alien force, he has to fight to retain his sanity - and divert a disaster that threatens all mankind."

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..."

GREYLAND

Belmont Tower paperback, 1972. Cover artist uncredited.

"He awoke as from some misty, prolonged, vaguely disturbing dream, yet somehow he knew that what had happened and what was happening had a strange reality. It was not the kind of reality his disciplined mind would have accepted in the past, though his consciousness rejected the concept of present and past. This reality seemed to exist outside thought and apart from emotion. There was the lingering physical sensation of having travelled infinite distances through unimaginable dimensions. There was, too, the sense of unthreatening mystery, of soft, overpowering greyness. This total greyness meant limitless peace, he seemed to know. He knew his name. He spoke it aloud. The beautiful girl bending over him repeated it. her skin was grey..."

ACE DOUBLE: THE COILS OF TIME + INTO THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

Ace Double paperback, 1964. Cover by Jack Gaughan.

"Dr. Henshaw had created what he thought was a time travel machine and he had sent guinea pigs through it. But now he needed a human guinea pig to test it with. 

Christopher Wilkinson thought the whole idea was absurd, until a book that had been sent through the machine came back with a thumb print on it, the finger print of Vanessa, his long lost sweetheart! 

So Wilkinson agreed to the experiment. He stood in the white circle facing the machine as it began to gleam and spin, pulling him down through the tortuous coils of time...."

Ace Double paperback, 1964. Cover by Ed Valigursky.

"Others called their expedition a "wild ghost chase." But for Space Commodore John Grimes and the beautiful Sonya Verrill who had initiated the project, it was strictly scientific research. Their trip along the rim of the galaxy in search of two men - two dead men - was also an investigation of the long-puzzling phenomenon of the Rim Ghosts. They would do this by penetrating into alternate universes. 

There was only one real problem involved in this study - how to report its results. For once the break-through to an alternate world was achieved, there was no known way of getting out...."

ACE DOUBLE: OFF CENTER + THE RITHIAN TERROR

Ace Double paperback, 1965. Cover by Jack Gaughan.

"The room was quiet; the man in front of the mirror was the only living thing there, and he was too horrified to utter a sound. 

In the mirror, five faces stared back at him: one young and ruddy, which was his own, and four that did not belong in that place at all, for they were wrinkled, malevolent, small as crabapples and blue as smoke. 

So begins Damon Knight's "Be My Guest," a story of the human race possessed by things that were - well, not exactly demons ... but not exactly not demons, either. It's just one of the unpredictable imaginitive tales in this fascinating collection by a modern master of science fiction." 

Contents: 

What Rough Beast

The Second-Class Citizen

Be My Guest

God's Nose

Catch That Martian

Ace Double paperback, 1965. Painting by Jack Gaughan.

"The fate of the Earth Empire hung in the balance - and Security Commissioner Spangler knew it was up to him to find the monster, the Rithian Terror, ans some called it. Seven Rithians had landed on Earth. Six had been disposed of. One was loose. 

Surely, Spangler reasoned, the stereoptic fluroscope would flush it out. "That's one test the Rithian can't meet, no matter how good his human disguise may be." Spangler explained to Pembun, the strange, little Colonial who had been sent to help find the monster. 

But Penbun didn't agree. "The trouble," he said, "is that the Rithi have no bones. Which would be indication enough under a fluroscope, if it weren't for the fact that it can easily swallow a skeleton." 

Spangler Shuddered."

ORDEAL IN OTHERWHERE

Ace paperback, 1965. Cover painting by Gray Morrow.

"Fans of Andre Norton are familiar with the planet Warlock and its shimmering, powerful witches, the matriarchal Wyverns, who rule by dreams. ORDEAL IN OTHERWHERE goes back to this familiar science-fiction setting, this time with young Charis Nordholm, who has been sold as a slave to a trader wishing to buy cloth from these strange creatures. Charis soon finds herself not only mixed up in a mysterious internecine warfare she does not understand..."

SPACE WAR

Ace Books paperback, 1967. Cover by Gray Morrow.

"The Zoromes had found a way to immortality and thereby were able to set out on centuries-long explorations of the entire galaxy. One among the Zoromes was a human, Professor Jameson, last man of Earth, and his adventures make a saga second to none. 

The Zoromes had made on mistake in their scientific history - they had helped another race of beings change over into machine bodies - the Mumes of the world Mumed. But unlike Jameson, the Mumes did not join in fellowship with Zor. Rather instead they turned on their benefactors, schemed for greater power, and finally the two super-races of machine-men became the bitterest of enemies. 

In SPACE WAR, Professor Jameson finds himself in the thick of a war of the worlds...."

TAURUS FOUR

Paperback Library paperback, 1970. Cover artist uncredited, but
I'm dead sure it's by Robert R. Foster.

"IT IS THE YEAR 2270 A.D. 

A long time ago on Earth, our ancestors did not believe in the industrial-warfare society. They dropped out to live in freedom and do their thing, hated by all the uptight squares.... 

Thus begins a folk legend on Taurus Four, where, during the Saurian Wars, a group of hippies had been transplanted forcibly. Right now the only uptight squares on the planet is a stranded Space Sociologist, Dorian Frank - who has reason to be uptight. The group is about to sacrifice a beautiful virgin to the god in charge of their hemp garden. And the planet is about to be colonized by a nonhuman race even more ruthless than mankind. But all Dorian can do is invent new footnotes to the Space manual, like, 

"For his own piece of mind, the Space Sociologist should sometimes kick the dirty savage on his bare butt."