Balzan of the Cat People #1: The Blood Stones

Balzan of the Cat People #1: The Blood Stones by Wallace MooreBalzan of the Cat People front
Pyramid Books, 1975
Price I paid: 75¢

Space flight Ares Probe One was thirteen months away from earth on a manned journey to Mars.

Then IT happened!

The craft was plucked out of the solar system to crash on a wild planet never seen by man. Only an infant boy, sleeping in stasis inside a safety cube, survived. He was to become Balzan, adopted son of a tribe of bipeds resembling earth cats!

THE BLOOD STONES

Reptilian raiders, flashing deadly neutron swords, had taken Balzan’s cat-people into slavery to satisfy the blood-lust of an insatiable queen. Only Balzan could hope to rescue them. But first he must learn the terrible truth about the evil blood stones, even if the knowledge destroyed him!

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The Penetrator #29: Aryan Onslaught

The Penetrator #29: Aryan Onslaught by Lionel DerrickThe-Penetrator-front
Pinnacle Books, 1979
Price I paid: ??? (I lost the tag)

Coalville, Summit County, Utah…a peaceful, law-abiding community until the Aryan Brotherhood creates havoc. The streets are swarming with swastika-tattooed ex-cons lusting for blood and flesh, loot and power. As these swaggering arrogant bullies take over the town, the local citizens, for some strange reason, act as if nothing is happening.

The Penetrator thinks it’s all pretty weird. Until he discovers the brotherhood is polluting the town’s water supply with a mind-controlling drug, then brainwashing the people with programmed subliminal messages broadcast over TV. Under this facade of normalcy, they are manipulated, raped, and degraded into slavery by the storm troopers.

But this is only the beginning of the organization’s evil conspiracy. Unless stopped, they will establish a neo-Nazi order, using dangerous drugs to overpower the unsuspecting. It’s a mind-blowing situation…even for the Penetrator.

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S.T.A.R. Flight

S.T.A.R. Flight by E.C. TubbS.T.A.R. Flight front
Paperback Library, 1969
Price I paid: 90¢

The Kaltich invaders sell their Earthman serfs a rejuvenation process that cruelly prolongs life.

The Kaltichs also promise to sell their secret for instantaneous space travel desperately needed by a barbaric, overpopulated Earth.

But decades pass and Earth is no closer to the stars. Yet the Kaltichs continue to strip Earth of its riches and its pride.

Only the Secret Terran Armed Resistance movement opposes the Kaltich tyranny. And only Martin Preston, S.T.A.R. agent, can possibly steal their secrets. If he fails, Earth will become a planet of billions of starving people—with no place to go except to their graves!

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The Day of the Klesh

The Day of the Klesh by M.A. FosterThe-Day-of-the-Klesh-front
DAW Books, 1979
Price I paid: 75¢

His name was Meure and he hired out on an alien ship to see the universe. There were ler aboard that vessel—transmuted humans who were partial supermen—and specifically there was the ler girl Flerdestar who had a mission.

When Meure and Flerdestar were marooned on the world they called Monsalvat, they were confronted by a planetary enigma involving time and space. For Monsalvat had a myriad human species, all alien to each other, and all in awe of the Mystery that dominated their isolated planet.

Here is the long-awaited major novel by the author of THE GAMEPLAYERS OF ZAN and WARRIORS OF DAWN. It is a masterwork of alien wonders, human ingenuities, of the past invading the present, and of the perverted legacy of the legendary mistress of the first starship, the mad ler Sanjirmil…

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SAR

SAR, by John Robert RussellSAR Front Cover
Pocket Books, 1974
Price I paid: 75¢

Nothing remains of the human race but a few tribes struggling to survive. Ruled by strongmen and warlords, the people toil, produce babies, and submit sullenly to brutality and sexual exploitation.

But one man does not submit. His name is Sar, and, though only a slave, he carries within him the rebellious flame of human dignity…

This magnificent novel is Sar’s story—a globe-spinning adventure filled with the drama of war, love, and the unquenchable spirit of mankind.

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The Martian Viking

The Martian Viking by Tim SullivanMartian Viking front
Avon Books, 1991
Price I paid: $1.25

Earth’s new order has declared non-productivity a crime—dooming Johnsmith Biberkopf to life imprisonment in a Martian penal colony. Sentenced to a life of never-ending toil and despair, he seeks escape in the hallucinogenic power of “onees”—a government-banned substance that will lead Biberkopf through the portals of a strange and timeless dimension where ancient Viking ships sail the cosmos…and illusions become uniquely, terrifyingly real.

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The Hawks of Arcturus

The Hawks of Arcturus by Cecil Snyder IIIThe Hawks of Arcturus front
DAW Books, 1974
Price I paid: 90¢

Somewhere out there among the stars there had to be a greater intelligence than man’s. Though mankind had spread out, none had yet contacted such an intelligence. The first of the now fiercely competitive planetary empires to do so might gain power over all the others—if it survived at all.

Arcturus was ambitious. Its emblem was the hawk and its leaders thought of themselves as birds of prey. When they were the first to reach an alien powerhouse, the hawks of Arcturus prepared to pounce.

And only Chen the Earthman stood in their way.

Arcturus may have considered itself to be an irresistible force—but this despised, imprisoned, and insignificant Earthling turned out to be the immovable object.

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The Spawn of the Death Machine

The Spawn of the Death Machine by Ted WhiteThe Spawn of the Death Machine front
Paperback Library, 1968
Price I paid: 90¢

“You are an artificially constructed being, a mobile data-gathering device.”

Locked in his cell, there is no way Tanner can dispute the computer’s metallic-voiced assertion, for he has no memories. The machine releases him to get facts on the present state of humanity.

Naked, without weapons, Tanner emerges into the savage world of the twenty-third century. He is prey for the bears and cannibals that roam the forested streets of Manhattan.

Struggling to stay alive, Tanner learns that it was the power-crazed computer that had destroyed civilization. If he follows its orders, the machine will again control the state of mankind. If he rebels, he faces the brutality of a world united on only one thing—its eagerness to destroy his existence as THE SPAWN OF THE DEATH MACHINE.

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Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot

Buck Alice and the Actor Robot by Walter KoenigBuck Alice and the Actor-Robot front
Guild Press, 1988
Price I paid: $1.25

BUCK ALICE AND THE ACTOR ROBOT takes a wry and insightful look at human behavior after apocalypse. Mr. Koenig finds that people remain human—both mean-spirited and heroic, both aimless and persistent—in the gravest circumstances. It’s a complex worldview, all articulated in a well-conceived science-fiction thriller.
—Leonard Nimoy

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