The Long Mynd

The Long Mynd by Edward P. Hughes
Baen Books, 1985
Price I paid: 25¢

Not long ago, back in the 1980s, the world had not yet heard of charming. But then came a strange and godlike mutation that affected one child in a million. That child would grow to be a Charmer—one who could, by an act of will, change the form of any substance: coal into diamonds, play money into real money, iron ore into armor plate, water and uranium ore into hydrogen bombs—and the charmed item would appear wherever the Charmer wanted. The White House, the Kremlin, anywhere. It was the end of the world, of course…

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D-99

D-99 by H.B. Fyfe
Pyramid Books, 1962
Price I paid: None

EARTHMEN IN TROUBLE

Harris was caged in an underwater “zoo” by a pack of blue lobsters

Maria drew a five-year sentence on a puritanical planet for trying to buy a souvenir—and for being excessively feminine

Taranto & Meyers had committed the crime of being shipwrecked on a planet that didn’t like strangers

Gerson was simply kidnapped—and nobody had any idea why

Five citizens of Terra were being held on other worlds—and the ultra-secret Department 99 existed only to set them, and others like them, free.

This tense novel is the story of one evening’s work for Department 99—their successes and failures—and of the strange crisis that almost wrecked

D-99

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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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