Author Archives: emh_2024_admin

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Starwolf (SW#1, SW#2, and SW#3) UK edition

Starwolf
Cover illustration by Eddie Jones
Publisher: Hamlyn : London, July 1985
Pagination: 464 p. ; cm.
Series: Venture Science Fiction ; 5 (940030-8)
ISBN: 0099400308
Note: Paperback ￡2.50
The only mercy a Starwolf could expect was death…
Morgan Chane was a Starwolf – a member of the most infamous band of interstellar pirates in the galaxy. He had flown with the raiding packs, rockets screaming, to plunder the rich and slaughter the helpless.
But Morgan Chane was also a Terran, adopted as a child into the Starwolf clan. And when a quarrel erupted, Chane discovered that the Starwolves weighed his alien birth more heavily than all the years of comradeship. Now he is cast out of the clan – and running for his life.
But where, in all the galaxy, can a Starwolf expect to find refuge?
swall-uk
Book review

  • Lake, Ken, Paperback Inferno, Oct 1985
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The Weapon from Beyond (SW#1)

The Weapon from Beyond
New York : Ace Books, 1967
158 p. ; 18 cm. – (Ace Books ; G-369) pbk. $0.50 NUC: 70-71183
Cover: Gaughan
“A great new galactic-adventure series! Morgan Chane, the Starwolf, battles pirates and hostile space-cruisers to find the secret of the dark nebula.” — cover
The stars whispered: die, Starwolf! die!
Morgan Chane was an Earthman by parentage, but he had been born on the pirate-world Varna, whose heavy gravity had developed strength and incredibly quick reflexes in him. When he was old enough, he joined the raider-ships that looted the starworlds, and fought side by side with the dreaded Starwolves of Varna.
But then there was a fight among them. Chane killed their leader, and the other Starwolves turned on him. He barely got away alive – wounded near death, his Starwolf pursuers following him across the galaxy.
And there was nowhere he could seek refuge, for no world would lift a hand to save one of the hated Starwolves.
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The Valley of Creation (Lancer 1967 edition)

The Valley of Creation
New York : Lancer Books, 1967. –
159 p. ; 18 cm. – (Lancer ; 73-577)
Cover: Emsh
“Alien forces struggle to rule a strange, forgotten world …. Great fantasy-adventure in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs” — Cover
Beasts, men … or aliens?
In that hidden valley, land of strangely forbidding beauty, Eric Nelson, soldier of fortune, faced a battle weirder and more savage than any he had ever fought.
He was hired to fight for humanity, against beings that seemed to be both more and less than human.
The weapons of the enemy included centuries-old powers of magic and superstition . . . but Nelson fought grimly, even when his mind was helplessly trapped in the body of a wolf.
Then came the climactic test of his allegiance, the knowledge that more than just humanity was at stake . . . and the final mind-shattering discovery of an alien secret that lay buried in the Cavern of Creation!
Here is a masterpiece of sword-and sorcery that belongs on your shelves next to those of Burroughs, Eddison, and R.E. Howard.
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The Valley of Creation (Lancer)

The Valley of Creation
New York : Lancer Books, 1964. –
159 p. ; 19 cm. – (Lancer Science Fiction Library ; 72-721) NUC: 78-64694
Cover: Emsh
“Alien forces struggle for mastery in a forgotten land where beasts have more-than-human powers” — Cover
Beasts, Men…Or Aliens?
In that hidden valley, land of strangely forbidding beauty, Eric Nelson, soldier of fortune, faced a battle stranger than any he had ever encountered.
He was hired to fight for humanity, against beings that seemed to be both more and
less than human.
The weapons of the enemy seemed to include centuries-old powers hinted at in tales of
magic and superstition, but he fought on … even when helplessly trapped in the body of a savage wolf.
Then came the climactic test of his allegiance, the knowledge that more than just
humanity was at stake … and the final mind-shattering discovery of the alien secret that lay buried in the Cavern of Creation!
Book Reviews:

  • Analog. 74(6):90. Februry 1965. (P. Miller)

 
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The Sun Smasher (Ace Double)

The Sun Smasher (aka: Starman Come Home)
New York : Ace Books, 1959. –
110, 146 p. ; 17 cm. – (Ace Double Novel Books ; D-351) pbk.
Cover: Emsh NUC: 70-105061; 80-367147
Bound With: Starhaven (146 p.) / by Ivar Jorgenson (=Robert Silverberg)
“The ultimate weapon of an uncrowned king” — Cover
A CROWN FOR THE STAR-CROSSED
“It can’t be true! It must be some kind of hoax!” These were the words that went spinning through Neil Banning’s mind when the Greenville authorities told him that the house he had grown up in, the aunt and uncle who had raised him, had never existed.
So Banning found himself in jail, charged with disturbing the peace—and maybe insanity. But when a stranger from outer space came to his cell at midnight and hailed him as the Valkar of Katuun, then Banning decided that maybe the authorities were right, maybe he was crazy. Because the only alternative was to believe the impossible explanation of the Outworlder — that he really was the exiled ruler of a remote star-world, and the personality of Neil Banning was an elaborate fraud.
It didn’t really matter, though, who was right. Banning was on his way to Katuun whether he liked it or not. And as Banning — or the Valkar — he would have to save that star-world from the terror of THE SUN SMASHER . . . or perish with the loyal subjects he might never even have known!
Book Reviews:

  • Astounding Stories. 64(3):153. November 1959. (P. Miller)

sunsmasher

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The Star of Life (Crest)

The Star of Life
Greenwich : Fawcett, 1959.10. –
187 p. ; 18 cm. – (Crest Book ; S-329) (Fawcett World Library) NUC: 70-72300
Cover: Powers
“The strange and terrifying adventure of the first man in orbit around the moon” – Cover
How Long Had He Been Lost In Space?
Slowly, Kirk Hammond pushed his way back to consciousness. He remembered then that there had been trouble – that his ship Explorer 19, earth’s first manned satellite, had failed to orbit properly – that he had gone astray in space.
Hammond looked up at the sky to get his bearings. He was a man who knew the constellations thoroughly, but it seemed to him there was a something wrong with the stars. Something terribly, insanely wrong.
Frantically he checked again. No, the vast star clock did not lie.
The Truth hit him then like an icy belt of terror. Either he was mad, or dead – or he had been asleep in space for nearly a thousand centuries!
crests329
Book review