The Island Snatchers

The Island Snatchers by George H. Smith
DAW Books, 1978
Price I paid: 90¢

HIBERNIA HIJACKED!

Flying machines had not yet been invented on Earth’s dimensional twin, Annwn. So Dylan MacBride thought it would be a good idea, even if a bit on the crackpot side from the viewpoint of that world’s somewhat backward Victorian viewpoint.

But when Dylan and his witch wife Clarinda tried out the machine by flying to Hibernia to attend a wild Irish wedding, they came a-cropper. For the Emerald Isle was not where it ought to be. Instead it was drifting rapidly westward under some strange power.

Now who would hijack a whole land of legends and fair lassies? And how was it done—and why?

THE ISLAND SNATCHERS is a wonderful, whacky, and adventurous tale, replete with Little People, lost races, and super-scientific perils.

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The People Beyond the Wall

The People Beyond the Wall by Stephen Tall
DAW Books, 1980
Price I paid: 75¢

The original premise of science fiction—the foundation stone—was the tale of the discovery of a lost land or an unknown civilization. From Plato’s Atlantis and Swift’s Lilliput, Butler’s Erewhon, and the beloved works of Haggard, Burroughs and Merrit, “Lost Race” novels have been the favorites of millions. But time and exploration seem to have abandoned this engaging theme.

Yet here is a new one, written with all the color and feel that marks the work of the masters, which manages to place the lost land within the context of today and get away with it. Stephen Tall’s tale of two Alaskan explorers who burrowed beneath a vast glacier to find themselves beyond the maps of today, where a strong primitive people made life free from crises, wars, and social disasters.

THE PEOPLE BEYOND THE WALL will delight everyone who loves a good adventure—and especially those who yearn for a new Alan Quatermain, a new Tarzan, a new Gulliver.

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The Panchronicon Plot

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!

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Starmasters’ Gambit

Starmasters’ Gambit by Gerard Klein
DAW Books, 1973 (Original French edition published 1958)
Price I paid: 90¢

As colonists penetrated the galaxy, a series of strange legends accumulated about the worlds just beyond the rim of our exploration.

These legends told of vast black citadels built by pre-human intelligences that dominated certain deserted planets. And the legends agreed that these colossal structures were not only impenetrable to explorers—but were still in some mysterious way activated.

This is the story of Jerg Algan, into whose restless hands fell the key to the citadels.

This is the story of Jerg Algan whose fate it was to be a “knight” on a cosmic chessboard, leaping to planet to planet as a gambit—a chess sacrifice move—to check the dark monarch who ruled the farther half of the Milky Way.

This is the novel that established Gerard Klein as the leading modern science fiction novelist of Jules Verne’s homeland.

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Earthchild

Earthchild by Doris Piserchia
DAW Books, 1977
Price I paid: 75¢

She called herself Reee and she was the last human being on Earth. This was the one thing she was sure of. Because Earth was not a dead planet, not by a long way. There were all manner of strange plants and bizarre animals, and there were the blue boys who always insisted they were human—but she always set fire to them.

There was however Indigo, the all-devouring protoplasmic ocean that was literally gobbling up everything in the world. And there was the enigmatic Emeroo to whom she owed her continued existence. There were also the so-called Martians—humans who had fled to Mars and only came back to Earth to scout for survivors and vent their futile furies on the inhospitable homeworld.

And that is as much as we are going to tell about EARTHCHILD, one of the strangest and most fascinating science fiction novels DAW Books (or anyone else) ever published. It’s by Doris Piserchia, author of A BILLION YEARS OF EARTH and STAR RIDER, and it’s a very original DAW Original.

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Identity Seven

Identity Seven by Robert Lory
DAW Books, 1974
Price I paid: 75¢

Hunters Associated was the simple name of the organization. Who was behind it, what its ultimate purpose was, was never told its agents. All they needed to know was that they covered the galaxy, that their real identities had been buried, that once in Hunters they could be anybody.

He was Seven. That was all. Identity Seven. He had a new assignment. Identity Six had just been slain—lasered down on a far world by enemies unknown. But the death had been kept secret long enough for Seven to be sent to take his place.

To take his place, to take his features, to take his task—and to be a target to slay once again. If he failed, there would be an Identity Eight to step into his burned-out shoes…and a Nine and a Ten.

But Seven was determined to see that the progression stopped with him—even if he had to go down to the bottom of an alien sea and hobnob with horror.

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Warlord of Ghandor

Warlord of Ghandor by Del DowDell
DAW Books, 1977
Price I paid: 75¢

The fighting men of Ireland were gathering to repel Cromwell’s invasion—and with them marched the Dowdalls under their brave young chief Robert. Master swordsmen of Europe, he had returned to lead his kinsmen’s steel against the invaders. And then—to the confusion of history—he vanished.

Here at last is his story—the story of Robert of Eire who marched to fight an Earthly foe only to find himself in desperate combat against the beastmen and alien warriors of another world, another Earth, but not the one on which he had been born.

This is a novel in the grand tradition of John Carter, of Dray Prescot, of Tarl Cabot. Here is one man against a world, one man to save princess, one man to fight, to lead, to conquer or to die.

Everyone who loves high heroism on a distant planet will thrill to the mighty adventures of Robert of Eire on Ghandor.

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The Day of the Klesh

The Day of the Klesh by M.A. Foster
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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The Hawks of Arcturus

The Hawks of Arcturus by Cecil Snyder III
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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