Saucer Hill by Paul Adler
Avon Books, 1979
Price I paid: 75¢
CALIFORNIA, 1999
They came from the faraway planet of Azydia. They took Bianca, the only woman Alfons ever loved. But what did they offer? Invasion, salvation, or doom?
High in a tree house above a world of maddened car racers, mass suicide, and hardly any air, Alfons can only wonder, and wait…
FOR THE RETURN OF THE FLYING SAUCERS!
Starmasters’ Gambit by Gerard Klein
DAW Books, 1973 (Original French edition published 1958)
Price I paid: 90¢
As colonists penetrated the galaxy, a series of strange legends accumulated about the worlds just beyond the rim of our exploration.
These legends told of vast black citadels built by pre-human intelligences that dominated certain deserted planets. And the legends agreed that these colossal structures were not only impenetrable to explorers—but were still in some mysterious way activated.
This is the story of Jerg Algan, into whose restless hands fell the key to the citadels.
This is the story of Jerg Algan whose fate it was to be a “knight” on a cosmic chessboard, leaping to planet to planet as a gambit—a chess sacrifice move—to check the dark monarch who ruled the farther half of the Milky Way.
This is the novel that established Gerard Klein as the leading modern science fiction novelist of Jules Verne’s homeland.
Doomsday Wing by George H. Smith
Priory Books, 1963
Price I paid: 25¢
In the War Room of Command Post D the military and civilian analysts stared in horror as the message appeared on the big screen:
ATTENTION ALL COMMANDS! SAMOS SATELLITE 105 REPORTS ROCKET FIRED FROM EASTERN SIBERIAN POINT. NORAD.
A projection of the polar region appeared on the screen and all eyes followed a red dotted line that started in Siberia and had now reached the edge of the icecap. It was picking up speed as it arched up over the top of the world.
SAC TO ALL WINGS. SCRAMBLE ALL AIRCRAFT.
BMEWS NOW REPORTS 25 ICMB’s..ESTIMATED IMPACT AREAS: WASHINGTON, OMAHA, VANDENBURG, McCOY, MacDILL, COLORADO SPRINGS, MARCHFIELD, TITAN BASES AT TUCSON, DENVER…
PRESIDENT AUTHORIZES ALL FORCES TO ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK! PLAN C FOR CHARLIE. START COUNTDOWNS…
The Emperor of the Last Days by Ron Goulart
Popular Library, 1977
Price I paid: 75¢
Dan Farleigh—a pleasant young fellow with a kinky craving for the company of computers.
Janis Trummond—a beautiful young woman reporter out to dig up the dirtiest secrets of a man’s world.
Professor Supermind—mental master of machines.
Tin Lizzie—a gifted if ungainly bionic teen-ager.
Deadend—a Chicago thug whose thoughts were deadly weapons.
No human imagination could have conceived this oddly twisted team—and no human imagination had. Their master and mentor used the name of Bernard Maze. But to friends he was Barney—a computer who decided to take charge before it was too late to save the world from—THE EMPEROR OF THE LAST DAYS.
The Feminists by Parley J. Cooper
Pinnacle Books, 1971
Price I paid: $15
THE STORY THAT HAD TO BE WRITTEN—SO TIMELY, SO FRIGHTENINGLY POSSIBLE, YOU WON’T BELIEVE IT’S FICTION!
Take a look into the future…women now rule the world—or most of what’s left of it—and their world is not a pretty place to live in. Men have been reduced to mere chattel, good only for procreation. THE FEMINISTS are working to eliminate even this strictly male function…
Men must get permission to make love to any female—even if she is willing—or the penalty is death!
Follow one man’s story as he is hunted for just such a crime. In desperation, he stumbles upon the hide-out of the subterranean people—others, like himself—both male and female—who have broken the law of THE FEMINISTS. Hiding in abandoned subway undergrounds, this group of gallant and desperate people wage a guerilla war to overthrow their enslavers.
The Uncensored Man by Arthur Sellings
Berkley Medallion Books, 1967 (Originally published in 1964)
Price I paid: 90¢
Dr. Mark Anders was one of the government’s top physicists, working on a high priority project concerning defense. Wrapped up in his abstract world of mathematical symbols, he was ill-prepared for the messages he began to receive. They were in words of other languages…and they came from strange sources: the babblings of an epileptic in a fit; the output sheet of a new super computer on a test run.
But this was only the beginning, for he was soon to find himself transported to a different dimension, setting foot on another world, whose people had been desperately trying to contact him in order to deliver a message terrifying in its implications for the future of the human race…
The Penetrator #9: Dodge City Bombers by Lionel Derrick
Pinnacle Books, 1975
Price I paid: 75¢
It was always a tactical advantage to know the enemy’s intended route of march, in addition to his identity. The Penetrator knew the Shadowmen were moving their operations into the Dodge City area. After the pasting they had taken near Liberal, the Penetrator was certain they wouldn’t make any further attacks until they had regrouped.
But who were the Shadowmen? Those who had seen them described them as younger Hell’s Angels without the bikes, unsavory clothing, and bizarre rituals. But they were every bit as violent—and ambitious for anything that could make money. The big question was who was behind their vicious swath of destruction, and why?
Only the Penetrator had the guts and cunning to get to the heart of the terrorist gang and ruthlessly wrench it out.
Earthchild by Doris Piserchia
DAW Books, 1977
Price I paid: 75¢
She called herself Reee and she was the last human being on Earth. This was the one thing she was sure of. Because Earth was not a dead planet, not by a long way. There were all manner of strange plants and bizarre animals, and there were the blue boys who always insisted they were human—but she always set fire to them.
There was however Indigo, the all-devouring protoplasmic ocean that was literally gobbling up everything in the world. And there was the enigmatic Emeroo to whom she owed her continued existence. There were also the so-called Martians—humans who had fled to Mars and only came back to Earth to scout for survivors and vent their futile furies on the inhospitable homeworld.
And that is as much as we are going to tell about EARTHCHILD, one of the strangest and most fascinating science fiction novels DAW Books (or anyone else) ever published. It’s by Doris Piserchia, author of A BILLION YEARS OF EARTH and STAR RIDER, and it’s a very original DAW Original.
Under the City of Angels by Jerry Earl Brown
Bantam Books, 1981
Price I paid: 75¢
Jack Kelso is a scavenger, a half-crazed loner, a burnt-out cause, always one jump ahead of the government, eking out an uneasy living in the sunken ruins of L.A. Then he meets Judith—mysterious, beautiful, driven—who offers him an assignment only “Mad Jack” Kelso would be crazy enough to take on. He takes the job, and gets love in the bargain. Suddenly, their newfound happiness, and perhaps the fate of the entire planet, is threatened by a deadly power struggle on an alien world light centuries away…
The Doomsday Bag by Michael Avallone
Signet Books, 1969
Price I paid: 25¢
THE PRESIDENT’S “SHADOW” IS MISSING!
And with him, his lethal “Doomsday Bag”—the small black satchel that contains the thermonuclear codes for total world destruction!
Private Eye ED NOON’s assignment—find him, and fast! Even if it means becoming the unwilling target in a bedroom showdown with Washington’s deadliest—and sexiest—counter-spy!
(mostly) short reviews of (mostly) short fiction
Classic detective fiction and impossible crimes
Be not ashamed, my brothers, to stand before the proud and the powerful. Tagore
The many tongues of translated speculative fiction
Adventures in Fiction
Kevin O'Leary Reviews Every Issue of Uncanny X-Men from the 1960s to the Present
Movies, thoughts, thoughts about movies.
Defending the planet from bad science fiction
Reviews of Vintage Science Fiction (pre-1985)
Joseph Nebus's work in progress.
Schlock Value 