The Pirates of Rosinante

The Pirates of Rosinante by Alexis A. Gilliland
Del Rey Books, 1982
Price I paid: 75¢

2042—Not a good year for Mundito Rosinante. As the space colony’s orbit drew it farther from Earth, the tiny world’s troubles just seemed to grow. It was caught up in the power struggle between the Japanese and the successors to the U.S. Citizens revolted. Robots got uppity. Someone even threw a grenade at Governor Cantrell!

If Rosinante was to survive, Cantrell would have to act fast and think faster. Well, at least the robots thought he had God on his side.

Continue reading “The Pirates of Rosinante” →

The Ayes of Texas

The Ayes of Texas by Daniel da Cruz
Del Rey/Ballantine Books, 1982
Price I paid: 90¢

It was 1994, but Gwillam Forte was an entrepreneur of the old school. Twenty-three disabled Veterans needed a reason to live, so he gave them a rusty hulk—the battleship U.S.S. Texas—and unlimited funds to make her beautiful and seaworthy in time for Independence Day, 2000.

But the world changed quickly and for the worse. By 1998, the Texas and her supermodern weapons were needed for duty far more important than guarding the National Monument in which she rode at anchor.

Continue reading “The Ayes of Texas” →

The Glass of Dyskornis

The Glass of Dyskornis by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron
Bantam Books, 1982
Price I paid: $1.25

For Ricardo Carillo, taking over the life of the swordsman Markasset on the desert world of Gandalara had its compensations: a strong, young body, a beautiful fiancee, and a mighty telepathic war-cat named Keeshah, who obeyed his every command. It also had its problems. Markasset had many enemies, and one was out for blood. So Ricardo and Keeshah left Raithskar to join the Sharith—the warrior brotherhood of sha’um cat-riders. But trouble followed, and he soon found himself in the company of a jealous lieutenant and a lovely but treacherous illusionist, on the track of a murderer who had stolen Gandalara’s most precious jewel.

Continue reading “The Glass of Dyskornis” →

The Penetrator #49: Satan’s Swarm

The Penetrator #49: Satan’s Swarm by Lionel Derrick
Pinnacle Books, 1982
Price I paid: 60¢

When a group of international terrorists releases Dr. Raymond Barr from a hospital for the criminally insane, the Penetrator springs into action. Dr. Barr, aside from being insane, is a brilliant scientist—a very dangerous combination. With the mad doctor on the loose, no one is safe.

Taken by his rescuers to a secret laboratory in Nicaragua, the doctor’s twisted talents are employed by Colonel Po Hahn Chau, who is breeding new strains of abnormally large, highly-aggressive insects. The colonel’s plan is to develop an insect army, a living weapon which could bring the world to its knees.

The Penetrator has to smash this plot before the colonel’s plague is loosed on the world—and before he becomes the swarm’s first victim.

Continue reading “The Penetrator #49: Satan’s Swarm” →