Jandrax by Syd Logsdon
Del Rey Books, 1979
Price I paid: 25¢
JAN ANDRAX
As a child he’d learned the ways of death in the worst holy war known to man…
JAN ANDRAX
As a scout he’d tamed four planets—and more women than most men ever see…
JAN ANDRAX
As a colonist, he’d have to tame a world, then fight the people he’d tamed it for. He was the colony’s best hope for survival—but somebody wanted him dead!
I, Weapon by Charles W. Runyon
Popular Library, 1977 (Original copyright date 1974)
Price I paid: 90¢
Ancestry: Programmed
Destiny: Unpredictable
To create the man named Raki, Earth had broken its most rigid taboos against interbreeding.
His grandparents were a four-foot tall female genius; a rapacious, blue-skinned space brigand; an enormous superstud gladiator with long, silky fur; and a blind telepathic huntress.
His parents were the most gifted creatures ever to walk the earth—until Raki was born to surpass even them.
But the supreme computer that had calculated the mating necessary to produce Raki refused to predict his chances in his confrontation with the alien Vim in the very heart of their eternally expanding empire…
…for not even the Vim themselves knew the secret of their power and of all the universe’s peril…
East of Danger by Paul Twitchell
Illuminated Way Press, 1978
Price I paid: 25¢
Shraosha…
Millions dominated to the point where everything in their life is being controlled.
Then free-thinkers, people able to be creative, wage a fight—to free its people enslaved by the tyrant Agadnir and his mind-control techniques.
Through love, jealousy, treachery and deceit, the spiritual warrior and freedom fighter Peddar Zaskq confronts the magicians of illusion. The androids. Even the “Ancient One” himself.
Individual freedom can be attained by the people only with the true power working through its chosen vehicles. One is Peddar Zaskq—provided he meets the two greatest tests of his life…
The Steel Crocodile by D.G. Compton
Pocket Books, 1970
Price I paid: 90¢
IN ANSWER TO AN UNANSWERABLE FUTURE SCIENCE HAS CREATED BOHN…
Bohn, the omnipotent computer whose flashing circuits and messianic pronouncements dictate what tomorrow will—or will not—be.
But Matthew Oliver is flesh and blood and full of questions—not nearly as certain as the machine he’s appointed to serve.
And the right hand of science seldom knows what the left hand is doing…
Whisper from the Stars by Jeff Sutton
Dell Publishing Co., 1970
Price I paid: 75¢
Nights are the worst.
Those cloudless nights when a thousand eyes look down, mocking me. Because I know that Man, in some form other than my own, quietly has taken over the universe.
I know because I’ve lived and died and lived again.
Worse yet is when the whisper comes.
It comes from beyond the blaze of lights, from beyond the gulf of darkness which separates the burning suns.
“We are here,” the whisper says. “We are here.”
The Penetrator #11: Terror in Taos by Lionel Derrick
Pinnacle Books, 1975
Price I paid: 60¢
Mark Hardin is known to his enemies as The Penetrator. He penetrates in several ways: by fighting his way in, by easing in…or by dropping in via parachute.
He’s half-Cheyenne and half-Welsh. In quest of his warrior heritage, Mark Hardin has learned Indian skills: to track a man, but to not leave tracks; to use a crossbow, a garrote, a spear, a knife; to live on the land; to speak his native tongue.
As a child he grew up in orphanages, boarding schools, and foster homes. He’s seen all sides of life. He knows it is too often evil, and it has become his mission to eradicate crime and lawlessness in any way he can. His ancestors bequeathed him special knowledge in these things.
Now, as he dropped through the air, scanning the desert for David Red Eagle’s smoke signal, his mind flashed back to similar jumps in Vietnam. Another time, another enemy. In the fetid rice paddies and rubbled hamlets the enemy had a yellow skin and slanted eyes. Today Hardin would be fighting foes of his own kind, men of white skin and red skin.
It all started with the theft of some valuable turquoise and silver relics and the murder of an Indian holy man. It would accelerate with the entry of militant young indians, State Troopers, the National Guard…and the Mafia.
It would climax in a desert bloodbath!
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.
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.
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!
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!”
(mostly) short reviews of (mostly) short fiction
Classic detective fiction and impossible crimes
Be not ashamed, my brothers, to stand before the proud and the powerful. Tagore
The many tongues of translated speculative fiction
Adventures in Fiction
Kevin O'Leary Reviews Every Issue of Uncanny X-Men from the 1960s to the Present
Movies, thoughts, thoughts about movies.
Defending the planet from bad science fiction
Reviews of Vintage Science Fiction (pre-1985)
Joseph Nebus's work in progress.
Schlock Value 