Four pulp sci-fi novels (set #6)

Continuing my re-visiting of pulp sci-fi started back in 2018 on a lark. I picked these up at Book Nook when I picked up the three romance novels because at this point it’s an addiction.

Phoenix (Balantine Books, 1970) by Richard Cowper (John Middleton Murray, Jr.)

Cover artist Paul Lehr. Also did the cover for Night Slaves from Three pulp sci-fi novels (set #1).

This is the story of a teenager in the 25th century unhappy with his life (huh). He decides to go into suspended animation for three years after which time he can be revived and will be old enough to claim his inheritance. Some world calamity occurs while he is frozen and he wakes up 1,500 years in the future when the world has returned to a medieval, theocratic state. His existence threatens orthodoxy and so he must hide with the help of a few enlightened others. 3/5 for prose style. 2/5 for a clumsy ending.

19 May 2022 – Left in a booth at Mandolin Kitchen & Hookah Bar on Roswell Rd.

The Second Experiment (Fawcett Crest Books, 1973, The Roiss #1) by J.O. Jeppson (Janet Asimov)

Spouse of Isaac Asimov.

Cover artist Doug Beekman.

Operation Umanaq (Ace Books, 1973) by John Rankine (Douglas R. Mason)

Also wrote novelizations of Space: 1999 episodes.

Cover artist Dean Ellis though there is some confusion. ISFDB credits Dean Ellis but notes:

The artist is not credited; no visible signature. The painting is attributed to Dean Ellis in Infinite Worlds by Vincent Di Fate.

In Goodreads, Vincent Di Fate is listed as the artist. From a few samples by each artist, although their styles are similar I suspect Ellis is correct because of the brushwork in the background.

Ellis created the famous cover for Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man which sold for $45,894 in 2014 and as of Mar 2021 is/was on display at MoPOP in Seattle.

Interior illustration artist Bruce Waldman (found at WorldCat). He also did the interior illustration for Andre Norton’s Ordeal in Otherwhere from Four pulp sci-fi novels (set #4).

On a scientific outpost orbiting Earth, people are dying in apparent suicides but without warning. Clever James Bond-like agent Chevron suspects a conspiracy by enemy agents. He is part of the Northern Hemisphere alliance which is in tenuous detante with the Southern Hemisphere. Each has elaborate infrastructure controlling the weather and holding back glacial ice from the north and south poles respectively from advancing and starting a new ice age. Chevron is soon on the run from his own government, who suspects he is unstable, an the Southern Hemisphere agents who have infiltrated the Northern’s medical clinics in order to poison key people, making their deaths appear a suicide. Apart from only minimal sci-fi aspects, this is a straight up spy novel. Decent story, rushed ending, too-flowery prose. 3/5.

Victory on Janus (Ace Books, 1966, 1973, Janus #2) by Andre Norton

Cover artist Josh Kirby. Also did the cover for Midsummer Century from Three pulp sci-fi novels (set #1).