The Chariots of Ra, by Kenneth Bulmer

(pb; 1972)

From the description page:

"The chariots came on at great speed and there was no mistaking their purpose.  Tulley wondered if they were using this place as a base. . .  Then an arrow plunked into the parapet of his chariot.  Oolou lashed the reins.  The nageres sprang forward.  With suicidal speed the two chariot groups closed in on each other.

"Tulley swallowed down, feeling the dryness in his throat, loosed a shaft at the oncoming mass.  There must be twenty chariots out there. . .

"He glanced at Oolou, shouting.  She stared back at him with a ghastly grin, the blood pouring from her neck above the corselet where an arrow stood, stark and brutal."


Review:

Chariots is a solid, exotic and action-relentless science fiction novella that recalls the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs for its blunt physical action and many of John Wayne's films for its masculine/man's gotta do. . . tone.  In it, two friends (Graham Pike and Roy Tulley) are kidnapped and shuttled (via portals) into other worlds, where they encounter strange creatures, slavers, warriors, queens and other bristling characters.  Will they be able to return to Earth, whence they came?  That question is secondary when survival is a moment-to-moment challenge.

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Chariots was packaged as a reverse-bound "Ace Double" novel, which means that if readers flip the book upside down and over, there was another science fiction novel, penned by another author, on the other side. (Considering that these books sold for 95 cents a pop, this seems like a great deal, even back in that less-expensive, Seventies economy.)

In this case, the flipside novel is John Rackham's Earthstrings.

Earthstrings, by John Rackham

 

(pb; 1972)


From the front cover:

"Its prize space-colony had grown silent - and Earth wanted to know why."


Review:

Plot:  When the beacon signal from Beta Hydri, a human "space colony" on Mars, goes dead for forty hours - indicating almost near-certain disaster - and a notorious author (Kit Carew) goes missing there as well, reporter Jeremy White is sent there to investigate what happened.  Accompanying him is a motley crew with mixed, possibly dangerous motives: Liss Landis, a flirty fellow reporter; Abigail Crane, Carew's secret sister and head of the Triple-C Corporation, whose financial ties to  Beta Hydri are complex; Fanny Allen, a promiscuous, petulant socialite and Carew's sugar mama; and Miguel Santana, a playboy with hidden talents - and possibly another identity.

Earthstrings reads like an high-spirited Swingin' Sixties science fiction parody - there's plenty of science fictionish-sounding devices, the characters wear different colored skin suits which highlight their curves (particularly the women's), there's a strong element of mystery and lots of twists, and the women act like "Bond girls," in the sense that they fall over themselves to get with the mission-focused, sometimes taciturn Jeremy White. 

This is a fast blast, wildly entertaining pot boiler, one worth owning.

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Earthstrings was packaged as a reverse-bound "Ace Double" novel, which means that if readers flip the book upside down and over, there was another science fiction novel, penned by another author, on the other side. (Considering that these books sold for 95 cents a pop, this seems like a great deal, even back in that less-expensive, Seventies economy.)

In this case, the flipside novel is Kenneth Bulmer's The Chariots of Ra.

Behold the Stars, by Kenneth Bulmer

(pb; 1965)

From the front page:

"Man had discovered a means for colonizing the galaxy. Through a system of instantaneous matter transmission, men, machines, anything, could be sent light years away in seconds!

"Only men were not the only beings in the galaxy who were expanding, and at 200 light years from Earth the alien Gershmi people made their claims clear, with guns!

"It would have been a fair fight between equally matched races, had not the very matter transmitter boxes which made mankind's expansion possible, suddenly began to put men back together, 200 light years from Earth, with their will to fight removed, so that Earthmen were marching with white flags of truce straight into Gershmi fire!"

Review:

This is a fun, blast-through science fiction adventure read, with some nice (though not entirely unexpected) plot wrinkles near the end. Genre-true and reader-hooking, this is, with its tight plotting and writing, and tongue-in-cheek/stock characterizations.

Behold the Stars, like its conjoined novel, Planetary Agent X (by Mack Reynolds), is a worthwhile read.

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Behold the Stars was packaged as a reverse-bound "Ace Double" novel, which means that if readers flip(ped) the book upside down and over, there was another science fiction novel, penned by another author, on the other side. (Considering that these books sold for 45 cents a pop, this seems like a great deal, even back in that less-expensive, Sixties economy.)

The cover for the flipside novel, Planetary Agent X, by Mack Reynolds, follows this sentence.

Planetary Agent X, by Mack Reynolds

(pb; 1965: this novella originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine in two parts under the titles Ultima Thule and Pistolero)

From the front page:

"Newly accepted as a Special Agent of the star-spanning United Planets organization, Ronny Bronston found that his first assignment was one which had taken the lives of dozens of agents before him: he was to track down a man named Tommy Paine.

"'We've been trying to catch him for twenty years,' said Ronny's section chief. 'How long before that he was active, we have no way of knowing. It was some time before we became aware that half the revolts, coups d'états and assassinations that occur in the United Planets have his dirty finger stirring around in them.'

" 'But what motivates him?' Ronny asked. 'What's he get out of all the war and killing he stirs up?'

"'Nobody seems to know. But the best guess is that he's insane - a homicidal maniac on an intergalactic scale. He's dangerous, Ronny, and you've got to get him!' "

Review:

Fun, clever science fiction adventure novella with interesting, succinctly sketched characters; this novella is split into two storylines. The first: Ronny Bronston is sent out on his first mission as a United Planets agent, a mission that inspires more questions than answers; the second: Bronston's manhunt for a young, sharp assassin with impressive skills and a big vendetta takes on a whole new dimension when Bronston gets sneaky.

Planetary Agent X is an entertaining and fast-moving read that was much better than I thought it would be.

Worth owning, if you enjoy Sixties science fiction that's mildly provocative and wastes no words.

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Planetary Agent X is packaged as a reverse-bound "Ace Double" novel, which means that if readers flip the book upside down and over, there is another science fiction novel, penned by another author, on the other side. (Considering that these books sold for 45 cents a pop, this seems like a great deal, even back in that less-expensive, Sixties economy.)

The cover for the flipside novel, Behold the Stars, by Kenneth Bulmer, follows this sentence.