Brigands of the Moon

Brigands of the Moon by Ray Cummings
Ace Science Fiction, 1931
Price I paid: none

A pioneer of imaginative writing, Ray Cummings is one of the founding fathers of modern American science-fiction. For in his novels and short stories, this talented writer—once an associate of Thomas Edison himself—first originated many of the soaring conceptions that became part and parcel of all science-fiction since then.

Cummings spanned the gap between the early gropings of H.G. Wells and the full vision of our atomic future. His vivid tales were the first to fully explore the cosmos from the interiors of atoms to the farthest bounds of the galactic universe.

BRIGANDS OF THE MOON is one of Cummings’ classic novels—a thrilling novel of the clash of two planets in the fight for super-power ore, an adventure in interplanetary piracy, and a prediction of the mining and colonization of the moon that is still as timely as the day it was written.

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Black in Time

Black in Time by John Jakes
Paperback Library, 1970
Price I paid: $5

RIGHT ON!

Into the time machine plunges Jomo, the black militant leader of BURN. “Revolution then” is his motto; he’s going to rearrange history so the blacks get a fair shake—or, preferably, world dominance.

But in another area of time, rabble-rousing white supremacist Billy Roy Whisk is also at work—fixing history so the slaves are never freed.

Worlds spin in and out of existence. And through the paradoxes of time, one black man is pursuing Jomo and Whisk, trying to stop them before their experiments wipe out the world—forever.

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Seven Steps to the Sun

Seven Steps to the Sun by Fred Hoyle and Geoffrey Hoyle
Fawcett Crest Books, 1970
Price I paid: 75¢

The last thing Mike Jerome remembered seeing was the taxi coming straight for him….

That was in 1969.

When Mike recovered he was in one piece, but nothing else seemed to be.

Everything had changed. The buildings were different. The cars. The people.

Mike could not understand it. Suddenly he was caught up in something beyond his control. He was lost and no one he knew was around to help.

Yes, everything had changed.

Even the year.

It was now 1979.

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Space Viking

Space Viking by H. Beam Piper
Ace Books, 1963
Price I paid: ???

A galaxy-wide war had destroyed the Old Federation, leaving every surviving world on its own—and at the mercy of the Space Vikings.

Lucas Trask was one of those renegades—a warrior with a ship and a crew terrorizing a thousand worlds. But Trask was more than just a raider…he was a man with an old score to settle and a very special mission to fulfill.

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The Flying Eyes

The Flying Eyes by J. Hunter Holly
Monarch Books, 1962
Price I paid: none

Linc Hosler was sitting in a packed football stadium when the Flying Eyes appeared and cast their hypnotic power over half the crowd. Thousands of people suddenly began marching zombie-like into the woods where they vanished into a black pit.

Linc used every resource of the Space Research Lab and the National Guard to destroy the Eyes. But nothing could stop them, for they proved immune to bullets and bombs.

In desperation, Linc captured an Eye and found a way to communicate with it through his mind. He learned that radiation was fuel for the creatures’ lives. And then they issued their terrible ultimatum: Explode a series of atom bombs to supply them with radiation or they would turn the world’s population into mindless robots!

It gave the world two harrowing choices—self-destruction via fallout from the bombs or annihilation via the sinister Flying Eyes…

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The Panchronicon Plot

The Panchronicon Plot by Ron Goulart
DAW Books, 1977
Price I paid: 90¢

What better way to get rid of your political enemies than to shove them back into the past and maroon them there? It isn’t exactly murder but it sure could raise hob with history!

That was what was happening when they yelled for the Wild Talent Division. The actual time machine was a secret known only to the president—who was apparently the culprit. But someone like Jake Conger would be just weird enough to be able to locate the kind of nut who could travel in time himself.

It’s Ron Goulart with as whacky and wonderful a novel as any he’s written. Back to Old Vienna, back to the Middle Ages, back to Ancient Rome—it’s a mystery trail through time conducted by a madman and guaranteed to keep you on the edge of the seat with suspense and falling off it with laughter at the same time!

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D-99

D-99 by H.B. Fyfe
Pyramid Books, 1962
Price I paid: None

EARTHMEN IN TROUBLE

Harris was caged in an underwater “zoo” by a pack of blue lobsters

Maria drew a five-year sentence on a puritanical planet for trying to buy a souvenir—and for being excessively feminine

Taranto & Meyers had committed the crime of being shipwrecked on a planet that didn’t like strangers

Gerson was simply kidnapped—and nobody had any idea why

Five citizens of Terra were being held on other worlds—and the ultra-secret Department 99 existed only to set them, and others like them, free.

This tense novel is the story of one evening’s work for Department 99—their successes and failures—and of the strange crisis that almost wrecked

D-99

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Civil War II

Civil War II by Dan Britain
Pinnacle Books, 1971
Price I paid: $1 + S&H

“Well, my adjutant just completed a nationwide inspection of the militia. They seem ready, but I’m still a bit concerned about the discipline,” Harvey said. “They’re eager young bucks, and they’ve been penned up a long time. I just hope we don’t have a blood orgy.”

“I’ll vouch for the readiness of the militia,” Abe Williams said quickly. “I’ve been in constant contact. They are ready. The only loose ends we have are political, and that we can work out by ear…”

“And my boys have been waiting for a month,” Ritter reported. “We’re gonna jerk old whitey apart at the seams! We’re zeroed in on air traffic control, gas mains, water supply, power plants, communications, the whole damn—”

“Great! Then I see no reason to change the battle order,” General Bogan declared. “We hit tonight!”

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Star Rogue

Star Rogue by Lin Carter
Lancer Books, 1970
Price I paid: 90¢

There was a name, but the name was myth. The myth rode the tongues of ten billion men—and ten times ten billion not-men—on ten thousand worlds, and wherever the name was spoken, it was with awe and respect.

Citadel!

The secret name for the masters of space, the creatures who ruled without office, who served without reward.

Citadel!

The deepest mystery and the greatest power of all the myriad stars. Wherever two creatures met in fear of oppression, a silent cry to the men of that code-named organization rose in the birth of new hope. For the galaxy was Citadel…and Citadel was the galaxy!

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Merlin’s Godson, Part 2

Merlin’s Godson by H. Warner Munn
Del Rey Books, 1976
Price I paid: 50¢

Originally published as The Ship from Atlantis, 1967

Camelot was gone and Arthur lay in the sleep of the forever undead. Only a small band of loyal men were left, guided now by the magical wisdom of Merlin. United, they braved uncharted seas toward the mysterious Lands of the West. With them they carried the Thirteen Magic Treasures of Britain and the power of Merlin’s Ring.

Ahead of them lay unknown lands that offered lush wonders and ecstasies beyond their dreams and savage creatures that drove them into horrors beyond any nightmare.

For Ventidius Varro, a Roman centurion who had given his service to Arthur, this was to be an odyssey of soul-stirring glory and heartbreaking discovery….an odyssey that would bring him the love of a beautiful woman and take from him his son Gwalchmai.

And before Gwalchmai, godson of Merlin, lay an even darker and more mysterious quest.

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