The disappearance of John Henderson was most spectacular. It occurred while he was at the blackboard working an example in multiple integration for his ten o'clock class. The incompleted problem remained on the board for three days while the police worked on the case. It, a wrist watch and a sterling silver monogrammed belt buckle, lying on the floor near where he had stood, were all the physical evidence they had to go on. There was plenty of eyewitness evidence. The class consisted of forty-three pupils. They all had their eyes on him in varying degrees of attention when it happened. Their accounts of what happened all agreed in important details. Even as to what he had been saying.
What actual result is there in the act of conquest? What is its cube root? -- These weren't questions that would have come to Jan. But the man in the hunting blind -- great-great-grandson of the folks who'd conquered him country and murdered most of the people -- the short, fat creepy man who tried to shoot him -- might have told the history. But he was the sad result of his people's fat and happy culture.
The third issue of Black Cat Weekly presents more tales of the mysterious and fantastic—3 mystery shorts, a mystery novel, 2 science fiction stories and a fantasy story, plus a science fiction novella. Here are: THE MAN FROM SCOTLAND YARD, by Leslie Ford [mystery novel] THE CASE OF THE ZINC CASE, by Frank Lovell Nelson [Serial story - 3 of 12] THE CASE OF THE VANISHING PROFESSOR, by Tara Laskowski [Barb Goffman Presents - mystery short] CLEARLY GUILTY, by Hal Charles [Solve it yourself mystery!] HOLMES SHERLOCK, by Eleanor Arneson [Paul Di Filippo Presents - sci-fi short story] WORLD OF THE MAD, by Poul Anderson [sci-fi short story] MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MAGNATE, by Ralph Milne Farley [sci-fi short story] THE COSMIC JUNKMAN, by Rog Phillips [fantasy novella]
Welcome to Black Cat Weekly #36. We have another great issue featuring not one, but two full-length books—George O. Smith’s classic collection of linked science fiction stories, Venus Equilateral, and Hulbert Footner’s mystery, Officer! As always, our acquiring editors have cooked up some delights. From Michael Bracken comes an original police procedural from H.K. Slade, “A Body at the Dam.” Barb Goffman has unearthed “Run Don’t Run,” by Mary Saums, which I know you’ll enjoy. And Cynthia Ward brings us “Shattering the Spear,” by P. Djèlí Clark, a heroic fantasy story—we need more of these in BCW! Topping things off, we have another solve-it-yourself mystery from Hal Charles, plus classic reprints by Rog Phillips (Vampires!), Lester del Rey (Superstitions in Space!), and Percy James Brebner (Kidnapping! Secret Agents!) All told, lots of terrific reading. Here’s the lineup: Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “A Body at the Dam,” by H.K. Slade [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “A Present from the Past,” by Hal Charles [solve-it-yourself mystery] “Run Don’t Run,” by Mary Saums [Barb Goffman Presents short story] “The Missing Signorina,” by Percy James Brebner [short story] Officer! by Hulbert Footner [novel] Science Fiction & Fantasy: “Shattering the Spear,” by P. Djèlí Clark [Cynthia Ward Presents short story] “Superstition,” by Lester del Rey [short story] “A Vial of Immortality,” by Rog Phillips [short story] Venus Equilateral, by George O. Smith [novel]
The premiere issue of "Science Stories" magazine (October, 1953), edited by Ray Palmer of "Amazing Stories" fame, features a short novel by Jack Williamson ("Hocus Pocus Universe") as well as fiction by R.J. McGregor, Jan Tourneau, Robert Moore Williams, and Rog Phillips. Cover by Hannes Bok. Interior illustrations by Bok, Michael Becker, Charles Hornstein, J. Allen St. John, Burdoff, and Pierce. [Facsmile reprint.]
Gordon and Harold both admitted the possibility of thinking entities other than human. But would they ever recognize the physical form of some of these beings?
Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. “Worlds Within” is the first novel, penned by master sci-fi craftsman, Rog Phillips. An Aero dynamics engineer hears a knock at his door one morning. At his door is a beautiful “out of this world’ woman who takes him on a rapid succession of “out of this world” adventures, leading him through worlds within worlds into breathtaking wonders previously undreamed of by science. The second novel, “The Slave” is a taut, sometimes grim sci-fi tale by the late great C. M. Kornbluth. There were alien slave ships over Earth! It seemed unimaginable that scores of these spaceships had been coming and going from Earth, virtually undetected, for centuries. And taking with them, untold thousands of human beings who were transformed into pitiful galley slaves, used for driving their captors’ spacecrafts from one side of the galaxy to another. When agents of Earth finally became aware of their planet’s plight, it was decided that one agent would be sent in, and it must be an agent with extraordinary mental powers—far above those of the average human. The only problem was that the agent selected was a washout with the service and now a wandering bum with a propensity for too much booze!
Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel is another great thriller by top sci-fi author Rog Phillips. “World of If” deals with the complexities of “the dream world” where there are always unexpected variants. In our reality, the past is fixed, what happened to you yesterday can never be altered. But, what IF you could be placed under hypnosis for an eight-hour period, each second in the real world equaling a year in the dream world, and dream a whole different lifetime. And suppose that in that lifetime, some things were completely different, and some the same? Would you marry the same person? Witness the rise of Communism? Have the same trusted people by your side? But most importantly, what could there be to learn in your dream world that could be brought back—back to the world of reality? Are all of our fates linked by the same differences and similarities in both the real world, and in the Worlds of If..' The second novel is by an author known for his vivid imagination and wild tales, Don Wilcox. “Slave Raiders from Mercury” is a fast-moving thriller about an interplanetary black market for human slaves. In the most unbelievable manner possible, Lester Allison found himself hijacked to the planet Mercury. Once there he became a slave to a dying alien race, to be sold at auction to the highest bidder. However, the creature responsible for his kidnapping wasn’t a yellow-skinned alien, but a scientist—a scientist from Earth itself, in league with the potentates of Mercury. Allison might have resigned himself to his fate like the other humans who had come before him, but when a beautiful Earth woman came into danger, it set off a chain of events that threatened not only his life, but the lives of every living creature on the planet. A chain of events that culminated at Allison’s scheduled execution: the Rite of the Floating Chop.
The third issue of Black Cat Weekly presents more tales of the mysterious and fantastic—3 mystery shorts, a mystery novel, 2 science fiction stories and a fantasy story, plus a science fiction novella. Here are: THE MAN FROM SCOTLAND YARD, by Leslie Ford [mystery novel] THE CASE OF THE ZINC CASE, by Frank Lovell Nelson [Serial story - 3 of 12] THE CASE OF THE VANISHING PROFESSOR, by Tara Laskowski [Barb Goffman Presents - mystery short] CLEARLY GUILTY, by Hal Charles [Solve it yourself mystery!] HOLMES SHERLOCK, by Eleanor Arneson [Paul Di Filippo Presents - sci-fi short story] WORLD OF THE MAD, by Poul Anderson [sci-fi short story] MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MAGNATE, by Ralph Milne Farley [sci-fi short story] THE COSMIC JUNKMAN, by Rog Phillips [fantasy novella]
The premiere issue of "Science Stories" magazine (October, 1953), edited by Ray Palmer of "Amazing Stories" fame, features a short novel by Jack Williamson ("Hocus Pocus Universe") as well as fiction by R.J. McGregor, Jan Tourneau, Robert Moore Williams, and Rog Phillips. Cover by Hannes Bok. Interior illustrations by Bok, Michael Becker, Charles Hornstein, J. Allen St. John, Burdoff, and Pierce. [Facsmile reprint.]
Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel is “Cosmic Junkman,” another fine tale by sci-fi stalwart, Rog Phillips. Do Robots dream of playing fetch? Earth’s military forces had a unique way of fielding an army. They took the brains of dogs, wiped their memories, and trained them with just the right amount of discipline. Then, they were placed in the bodies of robots that were then used to fight Earth’s battles in outer space. What would happen, though, if those dog brains started to regain their memories? What kind of carnage might be released upon humanity if an army of vengeance-seeking robots were loosed upon the Earth? To make matters worse, an alien visitor had exactly that idea—and he had two million robot bodies to help make his invasion plans into reality! Here is a taut tale of futuristic espionage, intrigue, and betrayal in this fine novel of an alien invasion. The second novel is “The Ultimate Weapon” by the long-time editor of Astounding Science Fiction, John W. Campbell. The sun Mira had unpredictable cycles. Sometimes it was a searing, brilliant star. But at other times it could also be inexplicably dim and cool, shedding little warmth on the planets of its system. Gresth Gkae, ruler of the Mirans, was seeking a more stable star, one to which Mira’s inhabitants could migrate. The new star would have to be stable and have a good planetary system. In his astronomical searching, he found Earth. With an armada of powerful, gigantic spaceships, each well-armed and having light-speed capabilities, the Mirans set out to invade and conquer the Solar System.
Gordon and Harold both admitted the possibility of thinking entities other than human. But would they ever recognize the physical form of some of these beings?
Mankind's experiments with the power of the atom have poisoned the planet. An atomic chain reaction happens in the atmosphere that eventually leaves nearly all animal life dead from radiation poisoning. There may be solution for humans, though. If humans can abandon the surface world and live beneath the surface of the planet for the next 2,000 years! What humans find under the surface is more shocking than the splitting of the atom!
Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel, “The Man Who Lived Twice” portrays an Earth of the future, where there was but one brain to rule the world. It only seemed like a short time that he had been asleep, maybe an hour at most, but when John Cole awoke in the cradle of his suspended animation machine, deep inside a hidden cave, he found that he had been asleep for over 500 years! And how the world had radically changed! There were no longer countries or cultures as he had known them. In fact, other than a few scattered pockets of resistance, the entire world’s populace was ruled and controlled by one massive brain force in which the minds of all people had melded. And this brain force, called “She” by the few remaining Individualists, was determined to destroy the last pockets of true humanity. The second novel, “Valley of the Croen” by Lee Tarbell, asks the question, what lies in the hidden valley? Are you the superstitious type? Would you be too scared to go into immense, dark, damp forests or great mountains where no man has gone before? Do you tremble at the thought of stepping into places where no one else dares enter? Come along with a group of daring fortune hunters as they make a leap of faith and embark on a long journey across perilous Korean bandit country…through river rapids, and untouched forests. All the while risking their lives as they head toward uncharted mountains and a valley where flying disks have landed. But was it a valley ripe with treasures of gold…or a valley filled with alien terror?
They opened the ruins to tourists at a dollar a head but they reckoned without The OLD MARTIANS. The man with the pith helmet had his back toward me. Hunched forward, he was screaming at the girl in the lens of his camera. “Don’t just stand there, Dotty! Move! Do something! Back up toward that column with inscriptions on it....”
Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel, "Time Trap," is by former Hugo Award nominee, Rog Phillips. It was a doorway into the future... When two well-known nuclear engineers crossed a common telephone with the latest kind of nuclear induction units, they got a lot more than they bargained for. In fact they got something that even Alexander Graham Bell could have never imagined in his wildest dreams-a telephone with a direct connection into the future! And there was a voice on the other end of that connection...a human voice. But just whom did this voice belong to and what did her whispered words of warning really mean? The two astonished engineers, Joe Ashford and Ray Bradley, were soon knee-deep in the creation of a time machine that could carry them into the distant future, a future where the United States was threatened by a horrible three-eyed menace from Earth's past. The second novel is a terrific tale by Alexander Blade, "The Cosmic Destroyer." There was big time woman trouble in outer space. Sam Barron and the crew of his spaceship returned to their home planet, only to find themselves jeered at, shot at, and made to feel unwelcome in the loudest, angriest way possible. Death seemed an inevitable outcome should they decide to stick around. What Sam and his crew soon found out was that all Earthmen had been exiled. The reason why? One lone man had decided to "rescue" a young (and ever so lovely) priestess of the Amazon women. However, unknown to this female opportunist was that his fair priestess also possessed an incredible power-a power potent enough to destroy an entire galaxy! So Sam and his crew realized they had two choices: Leave home forever...or find the girl and bring her back. But finding the girl was not an easy task due to the assassins, mercenaries, and other parties in pursuit of the impetuous priestess. Who would find her first? And who, if anyone, could convince her to go back?
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