Author: jmstine

by Brant House

Secret Agent X was one of the most lurid of pulp magazines, as these three novels reprinted from its pages prove. The series was unique in another respect: as a Wikipedia entry notes: "In the stories, the true identity of Secret Agent X is never revealed. He is a master of disguise, known as 'the man of a thousand faces', who adopts several different identities in each story. Although he is a dedicated crime-fighter working undercover for the U.S. government, this is unknown to the police who consider him an outlaw. His true role is known only to newspaper reporter Betty Dale and his mysterious Washington controller, K-9."

Like other pulp hero novels, the Secret Agent X stories are filled with nonstop action, bizarre villains, fiendish weapons, and diabolical plots, as these book-length reprints show. If you love the Shadow, the Spider and Doc Savage, you will love Secret Agent X!

From the #1 Bestselling Author of Star Quest!

More adventures of tomorrow's greatest hero. In The World Changer, when Germaine breaks into the cosmium vault at Martanium, he discovers why he is the key to a would-be tyrant's scheme of empire—and the threat it poses to his personal freedom.

Meanwhile, Germaine and his friends find a way to use a comet as camouflage so they can blast the growing Earth Empire Fleet on Luna. Germaine meets the tough, beautiful Lori Beldon who begins to nurture feelings for the Star Man, but his lonely heart belongs to Anne of Thulone. But the destruction of the Empire Fleet triggers a psychic command the tyrant had implanted in Germaine's mind. He must return to the tyrant's headquarters and surrender himself into the tyrant's hands.

In The Slaves of Venus, when he is sentenced to the Venusian slave mines with his old "Superman" crew from Thulone, Germaine discovers the lost laboratories of the 23rd century "Magicians." There, mutant Paul Traynor comes into contact with a Quasar Crystal and a history-changing breakthrough.

If that weren't enough for Germaine to contend with, the dangerous beauty, Aarri-Waziya, also becomes a love temptation for him. The Star Man creates a second front on Venus by allying with the hidden Braburni nation, the gill-breathing race of the Gagandhi, and the "Magicians'" new star ship, Night Song II, with its mutant weapons. This in turn leads to threatened retaliation from the forces of Sol.

Add the possessive impulse of Aarri-Waziya, and the resulting crisis threatens to leave our adventurers lost in the Milky Way!

Find Out Why Gene Roddenberry Wanted Stu Byrne for Star Trek!

Forget the captains of the Enterprise, the real space hero is Steve Germaine, the Star Man, featured in two complete novels in this special omnibus edition.

In the first epic, Interstellar Mutineers, Steve Germaine has sacrificed his love for the mutant Anne Cardwell to fight for human freedom on the worlds of Alpha Centauri. Accompanied by "Si," the human cyborg, Paul Traynor, another mutant, and a handful of others, Germaine has snuck Traynor's small ship, Night Song, into a long train of cargo being escorted back to Sol.

Germaine's goal is nothing less than to attack the tyrants of Earth, who hold the worlds in thrall, with the Night Song's new paralysis weapon. Now, in the midst of a 4.3-light-year voyage, Germaine finds himself and his mission threatened by conspiracies and power struggles. For behind the mission lurks a secret plotter who plans to use the revolutionaries as mere puppets on his way to grasping supreme power. Not knowing who to trust, Star Man must cut the strings of the puppet masters before they cut his throat.

If he survives, he will have to capture Sol's first cosmium-powered interstellar warship—which is protected by all the might of Earth's space navy—before he can possibly think about returning to the woman he loves.

In The Cosmium Raiders, Steve Germaine leads a desperate raid to Mars to break into the impregnable vaults that hold the dictators' coveted hoard of cosmium, the metal of power. Cosmium is the key to Germaine's plan for overthrowing the tyranny that holds the stars in slavery. The problem is not only how to steal the cosmium but also how to escape with the booty when all of Earth's Navy is on his heels.

Also, Star Man's long personal battle against the insidious schemer, Vincent Cardwell, could hold the vital key to human liberty on many worlds already aflame with revolt. What Germaine doesn't know is that in discovering Cardwell's secret, he will acquire the greater burden of becoming THE WORLD CHANGER.

Cover art by Igor Varavin.

Chaos is the most enigmatic, mysterious and powerful of all the gods and goddesses. Only she can turn what is to what is not, make nothing of something and with the help of her servant Time, destroy all that is or ever will be. Thus the heart trembles and the knees quake when this powerful and capricious goddess interferes directly in the affairs of humankind.

Pity, then, the citizens of Retslu, a tiny kingdom ruled by an honest, just and liberal monarch, King Knight Black, whose only faults were muddleheadedness—not an unusual trait in rulers of this land—and a tendency toward extravagance. During his reign, the once proud and prosperous Retslu was subject to several years of drought, wars with neighboring Neerg, poaching by the dreaded beast-things in the south and more, and now the kingdom was destitute.

Near King Black's castle squatted an ancient, venerable and hoary church. Presiding over this church was Bishop Faith, whose ambition was to replace the church with a tremendous cathedral. When two marriages are to be performed there, the king throws a lavish masquerade ball, and the goddess Chaos appears, awarding Bishop Faith the prize for the best costume. When others ridicule her choice, Chaos curses the kingdom.

The very next day, the royal treasurer, Screege, discovers that not enough gold is left in the treasure room to pay the king's bills. Thus begins a hilarious serious of misadventures in the tradition of Discworld and Xanth. In it you will meet Captain Blite, a pirate with an unusual buried treasure; the hapless knight, Lord Noise, who must hock the Royal Crown if he can survive the monsters that litter his path; the king of Atlantis and his troll, Turkle; Ping Pong, a monsterous gorilla; the witch, Wortisha; Lord Noise's slutty daughter, Hunkerina; Pancho Beastman, and many of Retslu's other crazy and irresistible denizens.

On Friday the thirteenth, in the dead of winter, a beautiful woman named Pim chains up her werewolf lover in anticipation of the full moon. Yet when the orb rises blue and later turns to blood, her lover disappears and the castle of her vampire friend, Count Gorblud, is burned to the ground. So begins another tale of Retslu, a fantasy land in the tradition of Oz or Xanth, with humor, satire, love and adventure.

Some of the many quirky characters include: Pim, the lovely gypsy girl in love with a beast; Mordrake, the sorcerer who wants King Skeemer to stop bugging him about the ultimate magical weapon; Doctor Nemesis, the evil scientist who turns the moon blue and forgets to change it back; the youthful King Black Pawn who worries that his mother will make him marry a haughty noblewoman; the sinister Gnorduc who wipes the mind of the king's father returned from exile; Hokum, an illusionist pretending to be a real sorcerer; Lord Noise and Clank, a bumbling dragon-fighter and his metal assistant; and many more.

In addition, there is a castle whose labyrinth passages trap anyone who enters it, an enormous crystal ball that broadcasts the news of the future, a war fought with wooden soldiers, a magical painting that transports people to the lair of the ferocious red dragon, and other monsters, magic and mayhem.

A humorous fantasy in the tradition of Piers Anthony's Xanth series!

In the magical land of Retslu, Dorian, a plucky youth, sets off to win the hand of the lovely princess Jennifer, by winning a tournament. During his travels he befriends a vampire, saves a tiger-headed woman from assault, falls into the Looking-Glass World, is thrown down a well by a witch, is tried by gnomes, goes to Hell, is kidnapped by pirates, finds Atlantis which sinks into the sea, and exchanges riddles with a troll.

Through amazing luck and guile, he nonetheless becomes one of ten tournament finalists. But that's only the beginning; the tournament winners must go on a quest to obtain water from the Fountain of Youth. The first to return with the magical fluid will marry Princess Jennifer and be named heir apparent to the throne.

The final test of Dorian's pluck comes when he and the other finalists reach the Fountain of Youth, guarded by the great red dragon who demands the one thing each finalist cannot give. A uproarious fantasy classic in the making which no true fan should miss.

Cover: Sami Hursey

Here is a rollicking fantasy about the search for the missing Prince Knight Black, husband of the beautiful but shrewish Princess Jennifer of Retslu. It includes ghosts, demons, dragons, witches, sorcerers, a fabulous and wild birthday ball, war, revolution, high adventure, magic and time travel—and it begins where most fairy tales end, after the handsome prince marries the beautiful princess.

On a dark and stormy night within Castle Klinton, a quarrel brews between the royal couple. Prince Knight Black regrets his marriage to the Princess, who in her final months of pregnancy has become impossible to live with. After Knight Black stalks off from her room and disappears, Prince Black Pawn is born. Promptly following the baby's birth, a ghost predicts disaster for the kingdom and a witch places a curse on him.

When King Woden decides to hire a sorcerer to help with these problems, Hokum, a prestidigitator and juggler, gets the job. The King also sends his best men on quests: General Eric to find and assassinate the missing Prince Knight Black; Minister Dorian, Tiger Lily and the boisterous braggart, Lord Noise, to retrieve a lost talisman; Duke Wisdom and Bishop Faith to defeat the demoness who caused all the mischief; Hokum, the humbug sorcerer, to consult a prophetic book; and Screege, the miserly treasury secretary, to search for the king's missing foster children.

Meanwhile, Jennifer is kidnapped by a demon who dwells in her mirror, King Woden collapses into a deathlike coma and King Skeemer, Woden's northern neighbor, conquers Retslu. It's a modern fantasy classic in the making no true fan should miss!

First time ever in one-volume, the two classic novels about Tharn, Tarzan rival and warrior of the dawn age. Plus a special Introduction about the writing of the book and the author's career. Tharn is a Cro-Magnon, one of the first truly human race of men, who lived twenty thousand years ago. Browne gives him only the clothes, equipment, and weapons that he might have had. Tharn is a true prehistoric man, not a freak pulled out of his time by some scientific hocus-pocus in the fourth dimension. Very likely he is also an ancestor of yours, one you can be proud of. Tharn is not only strong but thoroughly likable. Life in that far off time, you will find, was not much simpler and not a bit less dangerous than we have made it today. Give Tharn an automatic weapon instead of a flint-tipped spear, and he would be very much at home with the Marines fighting in hotspots anywhere in the world.

Tharn's saga is a whale of an exciting story and will hold you spellbound. It is stark, solid action, building suspense, building to a climax that is really rousing: It is a novel in the Tarzan vein for everyone who likes fast, exciting action. Browne, who later wrote hardboiled mysteries and famous movies, is an ingenious writer and Tharn is a great character.

Rarely Reprinted Novel of Future Political Intrigue by Winner of 3 Hugos and a Nebula!

One man wanted to make the solar system his own personal Empire. Spencer Chambers was a trillionaire and an industrialist. He owned the ships that could carry humanity to freedom and plenty in the untapped riches of the solar system. But in return he wanted to charge prices so high he would end up owning every planet and asteroid.

Gregory Manning had a different idea. He saw a solar system open to everyone, that everyone could own a piece of. Only one man's vision for the future of humanity could come true: slavery or freedom. But Gregory Manning had an ace up his sleeve—a scientific ace.

Here is a lost classic by the author of Way Station and other science fiction masterworks.