Month: August 2014

The Mad Throne

The Mad Throne by Brad MunsonThe Mad Throne front
Popular Library, 1979
Price I paid: 75¢

Lawrence Connor. Brilliant actor. Riding the crest of a sensational star role.

What had happened to him?

He had waked from a terrifying trance to find himself trapped in another man’s body—in a nightmarish realm of giants and killer warriors, arrogant overlords and oppressed slaves, seductive temptresses and endangered beauties.

How had he gotten there? How could he return to earth?

These were questions that he did not have time to answer. He was too busy fighting for his own survival….

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Utopia Minus X

Utopia Minus X by Rex GordonUtopia Minus X front
Ace Books, 1966
Price I paid: 75¢

It took two hundred years to go to the nearest star and come back, but for astronaut Morgan Harvey it seemed but a short trip of a few months. Such is the nature of relative-time at near-light speeds.

So when Harvey got back to Earth he was still the same young patriotic Free World soldier he had been at the start of his flight. But the world he came back to was seemingly one in which his nation’s foes had triumphed and which now called itself The Perfect World.

And Utopia it certainly seemed, but Harvey refused to be brainwashed into accepting it. But until he met the man marked X, the problem of saving not only himself but humanity seemed beyond solution.

A remarkable new novel by the author of FIRST TO THE STARS.

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The Outer Fleet

The Outer Fleet by M. MatzkinThe Outer Fleet front
Manor Books, 1978
Price I paid: 25¢

It seemed to be merely a matter of time before Solonius VII, a lone solar system, would be crushed by the tyrant. Supplies and manpower were going fast. The only hope left was the “Outer Fleet,” a band of courageous guerilla warriors from the far reaches of the universe. But would the “Outer Fleet” and Solonius VII join forces in time for one last desperate stand against this overwhelming evil power?

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Phase Two

Phase Two by Walt and Leigh RichmondPhase Two front
Ace Science Fiction, 1979
Price I paid: 25¢

WISDOM IS WASTED ON THE OLD…

By the time a man was truly wise, he was old and feeble—until now. A revolutionary technique developed by Dr. Katsu Lang of the Asteroid Belt has changed all that; students can actually be innoculated [sic] with “memory molecules” and given a lifetime of knowledge in the same length of time as ordinary schooling. that’s why the brightest youngsters from all over the solar system vie for entrance to the Astro Technology School on Earth.

At the head of his class at AT is Stan Dustin, son of the hero of the Asteroid Belt’s first triumphant battle for independence. When he learns that he is being groomed for a career in Earth’s hated militia Stan escapes to the Belt, where he learns the frightening truth about the memory injections and the side effects Earth has so carefully cultivated.

The struggle for the Belt’s independence is far from over—and of all the brilliant young officers from the AT school, only Stan has full control over his own will. Earth plans that the second battle with the upstart Belters will go very differently from the first—but Earth reckons without Stan Dustin, and the courage of men who fight for a world they love.

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