High Couch of Silistra by Janet E. Morris
Bantam Books, 1981 (originally published 1977)
Price I paid: $1.25
Her sensuality was at the core of her world.
Her quest was in galaxies beyond the civilized stars.
Somewhere deep in the heavens of a terribly distant tomorrow was the one man whose will conquered her own.
The Enforcer #3: Kill City by Andrew Sugar
Lancer Books, 1973
Price I paid: 50¢
TEN-FOUR AND KILL!
Alex Jason! You’ve just been elected to infiltrate the Patrol. They’re a vigilante group, and they claim to be on the side of law and order…
But it’s their kind of law and their kind of order that triggers the action. And innocent, concerned men are being tricked into signing their lives away to the Patrol. It’s a vigilante group—sure. Vigilantes who’d kill a cop as quick as kill a mugger. And they’ll kill you, Jason, if they find out who you are. Cell by cell they’ll destroy you just like they’re destroying the fabric of this country.
So get them first. Infiltrate and attack—a job for the Enforcer!
Cinnabar by Edward Bryant
Bantam Books, 1977
Price I paid: 50¢
To experience the magic of Cinnabar…
use this book as your map.Here are some of your traveling companions:
Tourmaline Hayes, Network sex star.
Obregon, the star scientist of the anti-city
Leah Sand, melancholy media artist.
Jade Blue, the computer-womb-born catmother.
Cougar Lou Landis, once a pudgy kid, now the last hero.
Sidhe, the great white shark that sprang from oceans 350 million years deep!
Denver is Missing by D.F. Jones
Berkley Medallion Books, 1971
Price I paid: 90¢
A scientist reports to a stunned world: “The whole earth may be shrivelling up like a punctured balloon.” The flight from cities at high altitudes—whose nitrogen gas accidentally released from the earth’s core is gathering to cause mass death—to the coastlines creates political chaos and violent anarchy. But worse is in store for mankind—for the coastline holds only temporary haven.
The great oceans of the world are about to deliver destruction on a scale never before envisioned even in nightmares of nuclear holocaust. Two men and two women in a flimsy yacht in the Pacific may hold the key to the earth’s survival…
Solo Kill by S. Kye Boult
Berkley Medallion Books, 1977
Price I paid: 75¢
High above the heavy air, the March People and the winged Drak met where the two suns crossed: locked in a battle as old as the ritual of life itself. For Amarson and his fierce lady Ameera, to live was to kill Drak; to die was nothing. That was the Law—until the long-winged Flier came, riding the crest of the thermocline….
In this masterful science fantasy adventure, S. Kye Boult has created a world that is both grippingly intense and luminously strange.
The Penetrator #18: Countdown to Terror by Lionel Derrick
Pinnacle Books, 1976
Price I paid: 60¢
The message: “Liberty for Puerto Rico or death to all Gringos. Viva el F.A.L.N.” The terrorist tactics of the Fuezas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puerto Riquena were being stepped up.
The bombings would increase each day, culminating in the big blast, Operation Luz. Racing against the clock, Mark Hardin stalks the streets of Spanish Harlem—his quarry, El Chico, ruthless leader of the fanatic F.A.L.N. Each step brings him closer to the creations of this time table of death and destruction. One by one, he manages to pick off the terrorist troops, slowly decimating their forces and equalizing the kill count of bombing victims.
But the deadline for Operation Luz is explosively near. Seconds ticking away like tiny bombs…
This is the eighteenth book in the Penetrator Series. The police blotters of cities across the nation and even as far away as Japan contain evidence of Mark Hardin’s handiwork—the deaths of corrupt hogs at the public table, deaths of men who kill, maim, or cause suffering among the innocent. The Penetrator is a warrior without uniform or rank, pledged to fight anyone—on either side of the law—who seeks to weaken or destroy the American way of life. Follow the Penetrator as he travels from place to place, leaving his personal symbol of retribution, a chipped blue flint arrowhead, on the bodies of society’s deadliest enemies.
Balzan of the Cat People #3: The Lights of Zetar
Pyramid Books, 1975
Price I paid: $2.39 + S&H
A new world for Balzan to survive, where Orala the priestess plans to seduce him and Androth the Krell king to kill him.
Only the Lights of Zetar, dazzling sentries left over from a civilization dead millions of years, can thwart these enemies and emblazon a path between hallucination and reality.
Balzan wins his weirdest combat yet in a twilight world of slaves and six-legged spider anthropoids.
Continue reading “Balzan of the Cat People #3: The Lights of Zetar”
The Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett
Ballantine Books, 1974
Price I paid: 90¢
WHERE WAS SIMON ASHTON?
Ashton had disappeared somewhere—somehow—on Skaith, and Stark had come to find him, no matter what the cost. Everyone on this exotic planet had heard of the strange Dark Man from another world, but no one was talking. Not the Farers. Not the Wandsmen. Not even the Irnanese. All clues led to the mysterious North—stronghold of the tyrannical Lords Protector. Stark was on his way, despite the price on his head…
Star Ka’at World by Andre Norton and Dorothy Madlee
Pocket Books, 1979
Price I paid: 35¢
Jim and Elly Mae travel to a distant planet as guests of Tiro and Mer—members of a super-intelligent race of Ka’ats. On this strange world, work is done by machines, which are controlled by thoughts from Ka’ats. But Jim and Elly cannot learn this power and become dependent on their hosts for everything—even meals! Determined to find their own food, Jim and Elly explore a nearby city where human-like beings once lived. But fierce robots now march down the streets. Tiro and Mer rush in to protect their human friends and are kidnapped by the robots. Jim and Elly must use all their courage to find a way to rescue the Ka’ats!
The Day of the Burning by Barry Malzberg
Ace Books, 1974
Price I paid: none
It was a sultry summer day in 1981, and the 3 billion or so inhabitants of the world went about their daily routine unaware that, possibly, the fate of the human race lay in the shaking hands of one George Mercer, an insignificant and slightly neurotic employee of the New York City Department of Welfare.
For George had been informed, by an accredited emissary of the Galactic Overlords, that he had 12 hours in which to prove the people of Earth worthy of admission into the Galactic Federation. George, and George alone, would represent all of mankind. If he failed the entire planet would be destroyed.
Was all this a nightmare of delusion dredged up by his tortured subconscious? Or a very real nightmare that would end in the Day of the Burning….
(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 
