Pirates of Venus

Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Bison Books, 2001
First serialized in Argosy, 1932
First published in book form by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., 1934
Price I paid: Hooray for public libraries

The shimmering, cloud-covered planet of Venus conceals a wondrous secret: the strikingly beautiful yet deadly world of Amtor. In Amtor, cities of immortal beings flourish in giant trees reaching thousands of feet into the sky; ferocious beasts stalk the wilderness below; rare flashes of sunlight precipitate devastating storms; and the inhabitants believe their world is saucer-shaped with a fiery center and an icy rim. Stranded on Amtor after his spaceship crashes, astronaut Carson Napier is swept into a world where revolution is ripe, the love of a princess carries a dear price, and death can come as easily from the blade of a sword as from the ray of a futuristic gun.
Pirates of Venus is the exciting inaugural volume in the last series imagined and penned by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This commemorative edition features new illustrations by Thomas Floyd, the original frontispiece by J. Allen St. John, an afterword by Phillip Burger, a glossary of Amtor terms by Scott Tracy Griffin, a map of Amtor drawn by Edgar Rice Burroughs that appeared in the first edition, and an introduction by acclaimed science fiction and horror novelist F. Paul Wilson.

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Triplanetary

Triplanetary by E.E. “Doc” Smith
Pyramid Books, 1970
Also Halcyon Classics, 2010
Originally published in Amazing Stories, 1934
Price I paid: none and unknown

Eddore and Arisia fought desperately to control the Universe. The ultimate battleground was a tiny, backward planet in a remote galaxy―Earth.

And only a few Earthmen knew of the titanic struggle―and of the strange, decisive role they were to play in the war of the super-races.

Here is the beginning of “Doc” Smith’s famous Lensman series―the first of the celebrated novels that set a pattern for science fiction.

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Captain Future and the Space Emperor

Captain Future and the Space Emperor by Edmond Hamilton
Popular Library, 1969
Originally published in 1939
Price I paid: none

President Carthew was in his office when the monster appeared—a giant, hunched creacher, bizarrely hideous…

The President gaped as a guard appeared in the doorway and pointed his weapon at the fanged being.

“Don’t shoot”, Carthew cried, but too late. The beast lay dead on the floor.

Carthew sighed deeply as he confirmed his fears. The corpse on the floor was Sperling, his best secret agent, transformed into this hairy brute by the dread peril that threatened to destroy them all.

Only one man left alive might be able to ward off total doom. The President flashed an emergency call for Captain Future…

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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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Merlin’s Godson, Part 1

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

Originally published as King of the World’s Edge, 1939

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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