Author: jmstine

First Time in Book Form, the Classic Pulp Space Opera!

From the hallowed pages of Amazing Stories in 1942, here is the first of the adult space operas.

Written by the legendary—and highly controversial—science fiction editor Raymond A. Palmer, The Vengeance of Martin Brand has never before appeared in any book edition. In this book, Palmer took a giant stride forward from his contemporaries, replacing the noble, uncomplicated heroes of the first space operas with the tormented anti-hero, "Suicide" Martin Brand, one of science fiction's most memorable characters.

The half-crazed Brand, who likes to play classical music while rocketing toward a half-dozen enemy ships, atomic cannons blasting, is Earth's only hope. The embittered former spy for the Interplanetary Patrol is the only one who knows about the Martian spaceships waiting in the hidden cavern on the Moon.

It would be easy to make himself the most powerful man in the system and become its master. But to warn Earth, Brand would have to forsake vengeance on the man who betrayed him and cost him everything he held dear, then survive two women, one who has sworn to kill him and one who has sworn to arrest him dead or alive—and if he made it that far, he'd have to fight his way to the surface through ten thousand Martians. But that's why the call him 'Suicide' Martin Brand. And even if he does succeed in warning Earth, war will flare across three worlds!

From its advanced flashback-within-a-flashback technique, to the adult passions and emotions of the characters, The Vengeance of Martin Brand is superior space opera far ahead of its time!

Cover art: Original cover from The Vengeance of Martin Brand, Amazing Stories 1942, by H.W. McCauley.

A Golden Age Science Fiction Masterpiece from a Hugo Award Nominee Writer!

Rog Phillips' The Involuntary Immortals is the story of a woman who finds herself outliving her lovers—and of the incredible peril she faces when she sets out to discover the source of her involuntary immortality.

Helen Ranston was one of the Involuntary Immortals. In Hugo Award nominee Rog Phillips' classic science fiction novel, Helen discovers that her own daughter, Agnes, thinks she is a witch or vampire—for Agnes is forty, and her father, sixty-seven. But Helen still looks twenty, and has never aged during her daughter's entire life. But, even Agnes doesn't suspect the truth—that Helen is over a hundred years old and has no idea why she is apparently immortal.

With her daughter vowing vengeance, Helen knows she will have to start her life over, under a new identity—as she has so often before. Then she meets the young man with the figure-eight pin on his collar. Looking into his eyes, Helen discovers they are the eyes of a much older man. When Eric Trent says, "You never thought there would be others," he catapults Helen into the midst a lethal three-corner cat-and-mouse game, the pawn of ruthless schemers who know how to kill immortals—and are willing to kill every one of them in order to control and sell the priceless secret of eternal life! Can Helen keep her immortality or will she lose it—and her life along with it?

To Save the World, They Plotted to Wipe Out All Males!

Here is a unique and highly controversial combination of mystery, suspense, and science fiction that only Sam Merwin, Jr., author of the classic House of Many Worlds could write.

This science fiction classic begins when Larry Finlay, a young and unsuspecting chemist, discovers sinister forces have taken an interest in his new approach to the seemingly innocuous problem of hemophilia. Soon, Finlay is unwittingly caught up in a nightmare plot of violence and counter-violence. Behind it is the sinister cabal that calls itself The White Widows. But who—or what—are they?

When Larry learns all these events are tied in to the concept of parthenogenesis, he realizes that a certain woman scientist has found the secret of giving birth without the need of males. She and the other White Widows are determined to end war, greed, violence, poverty, and the idea of cut-throat competition by eliminating all men! Particularly the man named Larry Finlay! The only person he can turn to for help is the woman he loves. If he can trust her with his life... And he'll have to!

The New York Times says Sam Merwin, Jr.'s sf novels are "Fast-moving" and the San Francisco Chronicle praised them as "Entertaining and realistic." The editors of Galaxy magazine hailed The White Widows as "a masterpiece of danger, suspense, treachery and intrigue that will sweep you along with held breath, a great book." But sf critic and editor Geoffery Kidd condemned it as "The war between the sexes gone nuclear... a nasty piece of work." Judge for yourself when you read this thought-provoking book that still remains controversial 50 years after publication.

She Had to Prevent Present and Future from Warring in the Past!

"Fast-moving adventure, told with engaging humor," is what the New York Times says readers can expect from this classic science fiction saga.

Elspeth Marriner, once an ace journalist, is now a Time Watcher working from the mysterious House of Many Worlds. On some parallel time-tracks, Earth's cultures lag thousands of years behind our own. On others, science is far in advance of ours. As a Watcher, Elspeth's job is to keep advanced Earths that have discovered the existence of their parallel sisters from invading and exploiting them.

Now the Watchers have discovered that the power-hungry dictator of one far-advanced civilization, having devastated his own Earth, has already infiltrated a parallel Earth still in the age of the Roman Empire, and is seeking to conquer it! Though chariots roll through the streets, and men with swords guard the cities, flying tanks and atomic artillery are gathering in secret behind the walls!

In this sequel to Merwin's The House of Many Worlds, it's Elspeth's job to enter this world and stop the invasion! And all she knows is that the dictator's master plan centers around the famous events that occurred at Misenum on the 24th of August, 74 C.E. Worse, Elspeth learns that her co-agent on the mission will be the irritating, insulting Mark Fraser, the one man on this Earth whose presence she can't stand!

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that in the Elspeth Marriner duology, "Merwin has created characters that are human—entertaining and realistic." H. L. Gold, founder and longtime editor of Galaxy Magazine, raved that the series was "an exciting, modern science fiction story, with a new and highly unusual twist—outstanding for its realistic characters and expert seasoning of thrills and horror."

A hilarious romantic fantasy classic!

Only Larry Maddock, creator of Hannibal Fortune and his sardonic shape-changing pal, Webley, could have penned this 1960s classic sex-switch comedy with more than a bit of Thorne Smith and tongue-in-cheek. It begins when anthropologists George Martin and Helene Lewis meet, and the result is hate at first sight. Then contact with a statue of Polynesian love God works a magical spell on the two. Each time either makes love to anyone, George ends up in Helene's body and Helene finds herself in his body.

If that isn't trouble enough, the two anthropologists run afoul of smugglers, who kidnap Helene. Only its George in her body. But when one of the smugglers forces his attentions on "her," George returns to his body, and so does Helene. To save Helene, George needs to return to her body, and to do that he has to find someone to make love with. Soon he and Helene are looking for love in all the likely places and switching bodies faster than you can unhook a bra, as each tries to defeat the smugglers on his or her own. Throughout, both find themselves in bed with the most unexpected partners at the most unexpected tines.

Here's another riotous novel from the author of The Mind Monsters and The Golden Goddess Gambit. Fallen Angel Reviews says Larry Maddock's work is "rollicking, fast paced, attention grabbing, comical."

By night she flew free and alone beneath the stars. Or so she thought.

Judy Rowe, gifted with the power of flight, found refuge in the open spaces above the Carolina mountains, beneath the stars. She was unaware that she was but one of many—and some, closer than she could have guessed, were already learning about her.

How could she or anyone know that Armageddon could be triggered by the psychic awakening of a young art school student in New York, who dreams, one night, of a beautiful flying girl...an angel without wings. The tale follows the journey of an ordinary man who finds himself thrust into extraordinary circumstances and who is then unexpectedly imbued with powers. Powers both magical...and frightening. Has the young art student been blessed or has he been cursed?

An exceptional fantasy novel from Ross Chamberlain and Futures Past Editions!

What if you were picked to wage an almost hopeless battle against all the demons of Hell?

OMEGA, a super-secret organization of billionaires who have dedicated their fortunes to benevolent causes, have discovered that the stories of Hell and its demons are actually rooted in fact—for millennia ago, Earth was infiltrated by monstrous aliens who have since risen over and over again to positions of power and influence where they could sow suffering and death across the planet.

OMEGA selects Dave Duqayne and Mike Havelin, former U.S. commandos, to head a strike team in a desperate attempt to locate the top aliens and destroy them. But Duqayne and Havelin, lifetime buddies, both fall in love with the daughter of one of OMEGA's zillionaire backers, Lillian Hart.

Then, in order to recover after being attacked and nearly killed by the demonic aliens, Duqayne is subjected to brain surgery that enables him to become OMEGA’S super weapon. The result for Duqayne is a new range of wild talents and glimpses of unforeseen things—things that wreak havoc on his love life. That's when Lillian discovers the only way she can follow him into his new dimensions is by committing herself to witchcraft.

Meanwhile, the aliens have learned of OMEGA and David's team, and are marshaling their overwhelmingly superior forces to blot them from the face of the Earth!

The Alpha Trap is another astonishing blend of physics and metaphysics by the trail-blazing author whose work Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry said he'd "wait in line" to buy and read!

A Romantic Gothic in the Classic Tradition!

Even the pure at heart quail when the demon walks in this spellbinding work of romantic suspense (first published as Hoaxbreaker).

When Beatrice Benedict is unwillingly drawn back to Thorncliff Manor after the mysterious disappearance of a family member, she finds herself facing supernatural terrors. A demonic force has marked her for its bride, and the cult that worships the demon have infiltrated her circle, waiting only for their master's signal to betray her into his hands.

With her friends Ella and Rocky unable to protect her, and even her physician-uncle helpless before the occult spell being woven around her, Bea seems fated to face the demon's lust alone. Only the handsome, infuriating Greg Bauer, a world-famous hoaxbreaker, appears to offer any hope, for he is convinced an evil plotter is behind all these seemingly supernatural events and he is determined to expose them for the cunning tricks they are.

But just as Bea finds herself half-falling in love with Greg and beginning to believe him, to her horror she finds herself scooped from her bed by the demon and carried straight into hell!

Cover art: Alan White

Horror and Humor in the Robert Bloch-Weird Tales Vein!

Pianora Duvall, who manages her mother's country and western band Grand Old Gullywumpers, and has been wondering how to pay the month's bills. But when her millionaire uncle Daniel Duvall is run over by a herd of motorcyclists and then smashed flat by a cement truck, leaving her mother his only heir, it seems the answer to everybody's prayers, or at least to those of his niece. Happy days seem here again!

Unfortunately, when Pianora and the band move into the family mansion, they find the house comes equipped with a sullen caretaker, a dimwitted scullery maid, a large stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling, a cozy little family cemetery, strange noises coming from behind a mysterious door in her Uncle Daniel's den, and something huge, hairy, and yellow-eyed that can only be seen in the mirrors.

But just when Pianora is making headway with the caretaker, who turns out to be not quite as sullen and unapproachable as she thought, all hell breaks loose. Literally! And carries her mother, the rest of the Grand Old Gullywumpers, and assorted other characters, off to an eldritch doom. That's when Pianora discovers she is the only one who can save them, and save the good-looking caretaker she wasn't quite done with.

Battling darkness, demons, and a snowstorm that comes indoors to look for victims, our intrepid heroine is determined to win despite the odds and get back to a cold drink, a warm shower and a hot caretaker. If she isn't carried off, too, by the indescribable horrors from beyond who lurk just behind the forbidden door in Uncle Daniel's den.

Did She Come to Save the U.S. or Destroy It?

The thrilling romantic fantasy of one brave woman against the Forces of Evil. In 1920, an American-born girl, Tressa Norne, has escaped from years of bondage in the Temple of Erlik, center of a worldwide organization of murderous magicians, made up of Yezidees and Hassani. The Yezidees worship Erlik, a devil-god of Central Asia.

Trained in all the black arts of the Yezidees, Tressa races to America to warn the government of a deadly plot against it. Not far behind her is the Slayer of Souls, black magician and master of mystic assassination, bent on recapturing Tressa and destroying America. Rescued from Yezidee vengeance by Victor Cleves, a U.S. secret agent, Tressa falls in love and finds the courage to set her magic powers to counteract those of the awesome Slayer of Souls. One amazing magical battle after another ensues as Tressa duels the black magicians who are trying to destroy her native country. Will Tressa succumb to the Slayer of Souls or become him?

E.F. Bleiler said that "The Slayer of Souls… is a real thriller with many memorable scenes."