The Pursuit of the Phoenix

The Pursuit of the Phoenix by John-Allen Price
Zebra Books, 1990
Price I paid: 50¢

Rising on twin pillars of white-hot fire, the U.S. space shuttle Phoenix curved up from its Cape Canaveral launch pad into a low-altitude orbit around earth. The crew’s mission: train and instruct three fledgling French astronauts in the secrets of space flight. But short hours after liftoff, Commander Ed Cochran knew he must scrub the mission for a far more perilous task—the rescue of three Russian cosmonauts suddenly trapped in orbit in a space-debris-damaged Soyuz space capsule, its heat shield gone, its fuel depleted, and its supply of life-giving oxygen rapidly running out.

Or so Cochran thought—until the Politburo abruptly declined Phoenix’s offer and the White House threatened that any rescue operation might set off the beginning of World War III. As the three Soviet cosmonauts televised their last good-byes to a waiting world below, Cochran suddenly realized that the differences between men who challenged the deadly hazards of the space frontier and those concerned with bureaucratic politics on the earth below much finally be resolved—even if it meant the risk of turning the world into a radioactive cinder to which there would be no return!

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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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Cycle of Fire

Cycle of Fire by Hal Clement
Ballantine Books, 1957
Price I paid: 50¢

Nils Kruger was the Earthman. A castaway with a smashed spaceship on the parched surface of the inhospitable planet Abyorman.

Dar was his non-human castaway companion. But Nils, a latter-day Robinson Crusoe, quickly learned that his intended Man Friday was a superior creature.

They would both die.

Typically, Nils the Human opted to do something about it. Typically, Dar, who knew the day, date, and hour of his death in advance, opted to do nothing.

Which of them was right?

Or, perhaps both of them were!

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The House of Zeor

The House of Zeor by Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Pocket Books, 1977
Price I paid: 75¢

Earth is divided between Sime and Gen, both offspring of the ancient race of men—and mortal enemies. The Sime cannot control their thirst for the kill; terrified Gen cannot escape the sinuous tentacles whose grip means death.

Hugh Valleroy, crossing into Sime territory in a desperate search for the woman he loves, comes on a brave new experiment—one that could mean the survival of his world!

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Assassins from Tomorrow

Assassins from Tomorrow, by Peter Heath
Prestige Books, 1967
Price I paid: 90¢

The mystery of the Kennedy assassination has attracted many amateur investigators—but none quite like young Mark Brown, the brilliant but footloose young son of America’s leading theoretical physicist. Like others, Mark Brown had only a theory to work on. Unlike others, his theory led him straight into trouble—and into even deeper mystery…

Mark Brown needed help—and that help could only come from Jason Starr and Adam Cyber, the Mind Brothers. The three made up a team of scientific brains unmatched in human history—but the problem they faced was enormous. The complexities included a mysterious artificial satellite and a weird organization called “Sutra”…and the only thing certain was that at least one of the three would die. The biggest question was whether the Earth would die, too….

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City Wars

City Wars by Dennis Palumbo
Bantam Books, 1979
Price I paid: 75¢

Chicago vs. New York

For decades after the great wars, Chicago re-armed to defend what was left. Never knowing when an enemy city would strike.

In a world obsessed with fear and violence, Cassandra and Jake were programmed to kill. Neither had ever experienced love.

Now they were drawn together on a combat mission against New York…a city where no human was left alive.

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The End of Man?

The End of Man? by Olof Johannesson (Hannes Alfvén)
Award Books, 1969
Price I paid: 90¢

Panic broke out. The computers had stopped working! There was no heat, no food, no communication. The death toll was long past the million mark.

No one knew what caused the breakdown. Was it human error, or a plot devised by the computers themselves?

Whatever the cause, when it was over most of the human population of the earth had perished. It was the dawn of a new era—when the computers ruled. And since the machines had learned to reproduce themselves without man’s help, there was no need for even a single human being.

So the nightmare battle began—between the few surviving humans and the super-being of their own creation—The Big Computer!

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The Legion of Space

The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson
Pocket Books, 1977 (Originally published 1947)
Price I paid: 75¢

They were the Legion, the small body of fighting men that had been chosen to defend the new democracy after the overthrow of the despotic interplanetary Empire.

Now, in the 30th century, an alien solar system is about to invade the human planets and the golden age ends abruptly in an outbreak of terror, suffering, and—worst of all—deadly treason that has allied itself with the dreaded monsters of Barnard’s Planet.

Sworn to protect mankind, John Star and his band of legionnaires must find AKKA, the mysterious weapon that guards the solar system, and rescue the beautiful young woman who keeps the weapon’s secret inscribed on her flesh. To succeed, they will have to brave the dangers of the sinister Medusa World, the black spider-ship, and the Belt of Peril where death and madness lurk.

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The Pollinators of Eden

The Pollinators of Eden by John Boyd
Dell Publishing Co., 1969
Price I paid: 90¢

Blond and beautiful Dr. Freda Caron had been waiting patiently for her fiancé, Paul, to return from The Planet of the Flowers. But Paul had unaccountably requested an extended tour of duty, and had sent in his stead his handsome assistant, Hal Polino, along with an exquisite new breed of talking tulip.

Freda, methodical scientist that she was, was not quite sure what do with either of them—especially when the tulip was as heterosexual as Hal.

That’s when she began the experiments…

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Doomstar

Doomstar by Edmond Hamilton
Belmont Tower Books, 1966
Price I paid: 75¢

By mid-afternoon the brilliant intense sun shone on barren space. It had blasted each of its four planets out of existence.

SOMEONE HAD FOUND A WAY TO POISON A STAR!

Someone had to be found who could prevent the takeover or destruction of the entire universe by the madman who’d engineered the disaster.
The choice fell on Johnny Kettrick, banned from the Cluster World for space piracy. Now he was to be sent back there to search out the Doomstar—to find it before it burned out another world!

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