The Emperor of the Last Days

The Emperor of the Last Days by Ron GoulartThe Emperor of the Last Days front
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.

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The Feminists

The Feminists by Parley J. CooperThe Feminists front
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.

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The Uncensored Man

The Uncensored Man by Arthur SellingsThe Uncensored Man front
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…

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The Penetrator #9: Dodge City Bombers

The Penetrator #9: Dodge City Bombers by Lionel DerrickThe Penetrator 9 front
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.

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Earthchild

 

Earthchild by Doris PiserchiaEarth-Child front
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.

 

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Under the City of Angels

Under the City of Angels by Jerry Earl BrownUnder the City of Angels front
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…

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The Doomsday Bag

The Doomsday Bag by Michael Avallone

The Doomsday Bag front

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!

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Unto Zeor, Forever

Unto Zeor, Forever by Jacqueline LichtenbergUnto Zeor, Forever front
Playboy Press, 1978
Price I paid: $1.25

Humanity has mutated into two distinct races—where the tentacled touch of a Sime means instant death to a Gen. Now only the rare Sime “Channels” are able to maintain an uneasy truce.

Into this explosive situation comes Digen Farris, descendant of the first channel and ruler of the legendary House of Zeor. He dares to do the unthinkable: Digen Farris wants to be a doctor, and his struggle to become the first Sime surgeon could plunge the world into destruction and chaos once more…

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Earthwreck!

Earthwreck! by Thomas N. ScortiaEarthwreck front
Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1974
Price I paid: 75¢

The Americans watched from space as the earth erupted in flashes of incredible brilliance. Their probes told them all they had to know. The earth was buried under a blanket of radioactivity. No life remained.

Except for them—and their Russian counterparts.

Together the American and Russian space stations had enough resources to build a colony on the moon. But could they bear life imprisoned in a tiny, man-made pocket of air?

There was no alternative. Or was there? A far more perilous course might ensure the survival of the human race.

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The Pursuit of the Phoenix

The Pursuit of the Phoenix by John-Allen PriceThe Pursuit of the Phoenix front
Zebra Books, 1990
Price I paid: 50¢

Rising on twin pillars of white-hot fire, the U.S. space shuttle Phoenix curved up from its Cape Canaveral launch pad into a low-altitude orbit around earth. The crew’s mission: train and instruct three fledgling French astronauts in the secrets of space flight. But short hours after liftoff, Commander Ed Cochran knew he must scrub the mission for a far more perilous task—the rescue of three Russian cosmonauts suddenly trapped in orbit in a space-debris-damaged Soyuz space capsule, its heat shield gone, its fuel depleted, and its supply of life-giving oxygen rapidly running out.

Or so Cochran thought—until the Politburo abruptly declined Phoenix’s offer and the White House threatened that any rescue operation might set off the beginning of World War III. As the three Soviet cosmonauts televised their last good-byes to a waiting world below, Cochran suddenly realized that the differences between men who challenged the deadly hazards of the space frontier and those concerned with bureaucratic politics on the earth below much finally be resolved—even if it meant the risk of turning the world into a radioactive cinder to which there would be no return!

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