The Flickr Ballantinebook Image Generatr

“The most savage fighter of them all – a true Apache in everything but blood.”

From the back cover:

“Scouting a wagon train for the best moment to strike. . . leading a screaming charge against the Cavalry. . . attacking the hated whites throughout the Southwest. . . Shoz-Dijiji, raised as the son of Geronimo, was the foremost young warrior of the Apache, and gloried in the unending war against the invaders.

“But only his adoptive father – and his deadliest enemy – knew that Shoz-Dijiji was not an Apache by birth, but sprang from the white men he despised.

“And, as the power of the Apache was drained by the whites, Shoz-Dijiji was consumed by a love he dared not face – for a girl of the race he did not know as his own.

“THE WAR CHIEF combines Edgar Rice Burroughs’ gift for startling action and compelling narrative with a searing insight into the ways of Indian life and thought destroyed by ‘civilized’ man. . .”

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Shoz-Dijiji is a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, but his story is deeply influenced by real historical events and figures of the American West, particularly the Apache Wars and the life of Geronimo. Burroughs was fascinated by the Apache people and their struggles, and he aimed to portray them with more nuance than was typical in early 20th-century literature. Shoz-Dijiji’s experiences and conflicts reflect the broader realities faced by Native American warriors during that era.

[Sources: True West Magazine, and EdgarRiceBurroughs.com]

“The novel tells the story of a math professor who struggles against urges to commit suicide. His life seemed so successful. He was a well-liked college-on-TV lecturer who offered the public a way to improve their meager living standards in the crowded future world of 2200. He has a lovely young wife, which would seem to be a protective factor. Doctors have ruled out depression, and they cannot figure out his problem. Yet in a suicidal attempt he tries to hurl himself from a high balcony. During one TV lecture he cuts his neck on live broadcast, and he takes an overdose of pills. In fact, a mysterious foe is trying to cause the professor to die, and this villain plans to increase the death toll into the millions.” – Wikipedia

This book is a novelization by Alan Dean Foster of the bomb of a movie "Luana." The film is supposedly about a young girl who was raised by fierce cats in the untamed African jungle after her plane crashes. She grows up to be as savage as her jungle habitat. Mei Chen, who stars as Luana in the 1968 Italian film, looks and acts more like a pussy cat than a savage beast. She is nothing like Frazetta's concept of the fierce jungle goddess portrayed on the book cover.

“In 1972 Ballantine Books hired Alan Dean Foster to write a novelization of the film, which had just been acquired for U.S. distribution. However, at the time the only available copy of the script was in Italian, which Foster couldn’t read, so the publisher arranged for him to view the film; but the print that was screened was also only in Italian, with no English subtitles. So, Foster wrote a new novel from scratch, finding inspiration in the Frank Frazetta painting that the distributor had chosen for the U.S. poster.” – IMDb

Maybe someday the Foster/Frazetta version of “Luana” will be brought to the screen.

“Rocket-swift stories of the Air Force – on guard in a world of dazzling speed.”

From the back cover:

OFF!

With the speed-past-speed of the incredible planes he knows so well, these fine stories by Frank Harvey zoom the reader right into the middle of the Air Force. The present-day, up-to-the-minute Air Force – in which the P-38’s and P-47’s of World War II are already memories.

Already known to millions through his many appearances in “The Saturday Evening Post,” Frank Harvey here presents his first book. JET proves clearly that here is an author who knows what’s going on in the world of the air and knows how to present it in swift, hard, breathtaking fiction.

It’s a book for anyone who ever craned his neck when a jet flew by overhead.

"Untouched by Human Hands" by Robert Sheckley.

"No one in recent years has vaulted so promptly into the first rank of science fantasy writers as Robert Sheckley." -- New York Herald Tribune.

Thirteen tales by Robert Sheckley collected from early 1950's pulp magazines. Some are interplanetary, some supernatural, some chilling, some comic. All are wildly imaginative.

From the back cover:

"Deep into the heart of the oceans' unexplored subworlds goes one lonely ship -- a new kind of submarine -- with a handpicked crew bent on solving a 300-year-old riddle.

"But the surging ocean deeps take the powerful ship and hurl it like a toothpick miles deeper than any living man has ever penetrated before: for the ocean hides secrets as unknown as those of deep space. Far below the surface of the Earth's seas the handful of men uncover a wonder and release a terror . . ."

John Coleman Burroughs (1913-1979) was born in Chicago, the son of Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, and of his first wife, Emma Centennia Hulbert. Jack became an author in his own right and a professional artist who went on to illustrate his father's books beginning in 1937.

From the back cover:

A BALLANTINE "FIRST" . . .

Britain has produced many fine writers of science fiction, and Ballantine Books has consistently published the finest, notably Arthur Clarke, Harold Mead, John Wyndham -- to name a few. And here is

EDMUND COOPER . . .
A rising star in Britain, and a Ballantine "First" -- with the recent publication of his first novel, DEADLY IMAGE, and now TOMORROW'S GIFT, the first volume of his collected short stories, seven of which are completely original in this country.

Cooper belongs to that school of writing which is primarily imaginative -- he likes to wander far in space, is fascinated by the riddle of time; and in many of these stories he writes provocatively stimulating variations in answer to a challenge as yet unsolved by man. But Mr. Cooper has the good writer's ability to translate the overall largeness of his themes into strongly personal terms. Moreover, in the widely varying scope provided by this group of stories, he displays a delightful talent for dry, understated humor, and a keen awareness of human values.

Keep your eye on Mr. Cooper.

"Edited by Frederik Pohl . . . Nine top original stories never before published anywhere."

ORIGINAL STAR STORIES BY:
*Algis Budrys
*Rosel George Brown
*Chan Davis
*Daniel F. Galouye
*Gavin Hyde
*Richard Matheson
*MacLean and Condit
*Arthur Sellings
*Robert Silverberg

From the back cover:

"It's always time for rejoicing among science fantasy fans when Frederik Pohl mints a new imaginative work." -- Buffalo Evening News

And here is STAR Science Fiction Stories #4
*Henry Kuttner
*C. M. Kornbluth
*Fritz Leiber
*Richard Wilson
*Lester Del Rey
*Miriam Allen deFord
*Edmund Cooper
*Damon Knight
*James E. Gunn

From the back cover:

Jimmy Holden was an experiment . . .

He was normally bright, normal-sized, and enormously curious -- just like most small boys. The only thing different in Jimmy's life was a machine -- a machine which could teach him better, faster, more completely and more thoroughly than any human method yet devised.

It was really nothing more than a glorified memorizing contraption, but it filled the mind permanently with whole books of fact and figure -- readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic -- plus all the diverse information that an insatiable curious young mind could seek, including how to build the machine that taught him.

So Jimmy quickly became a very valuable experiment indeed. Certain people figured that, properly handled, young James could be a goldmine, and they weren't above murdering in order to get control of him. But even a five-year-old mind will defend itself when attacked.

And nobody had figured on what the machine did not teach -- the fourth "R" -- REASON . . .

From the back cover:

THE SIXTH VOLUME OF THE FAMOUS "STAR" SERIES, edited by Frederik Pohl; containing stories by:
*Elizabeth Mann Borgese
*C. L. Cottrell
*Miriam Allen deFord
*Gordon R. Dickson
*Howard Koch
*John J. McGuire
*Tom Purdom
*Cordwainer Smith

After his ship crashed on the inhospitable planet Abyorman, Nils Kruger had spent weeks wandering across the face of the planet suffering from blistering heat, the searing cold of an alien climate. Now he had found a fellow wanderer, Dar, an alien castaway. They may both die. The human opts to do something about it. Dar, who knows the time of his death in advance, opts to do nothing. Which of them is right? Perhaps both? [Source: Goodreads]

Taken from the back cover:

Perhaps the most remarkable science fiction novel of the past decade was Walter Miller's "A Canticle for Leibowitz." When published, it won the Hugo Award and received almost as much acclaim in and out of science fiction circles as Arthur Clarke's "Childhood's End" (Ballantine U2111).

Miller is first and foremost a talented writer. The fact that most of his writing concerns itself with science fiction is only secondary. The scope and depth of his interests are demonstrated in "The View From the Stars," in which he travels all the way from puckish humor to horror, to robotics, to the grand, sonorous, cataclysmic exploration of the stars by that weakling "homo sapiens" . . . NINE stories in all - a galaxy of reading.

Slans are evolved humans, named after their alleged creator, Samuel Lann. They have the psychic abilities to read minds and are super-intelligent. They possess near limitless stamina, "nerves of steel," and superior strength and speed. When Slans are ill or seriously injured, they go into a healing trance automatically.

There are two kinds of Slans. One has tendrils and can read the minds of ordinary humans and telepathically communicate with other Slans. The tendrils are golden in color, making it easy to spot a Slan. These Slans are hunted to near extinction. The other type of Slan is tendrilless. They are still super intelligent but do not have psychic capabilities, only the ability to hide their thoughts from the first type of Slan. Kier Gray is the leader of the human society and vows to exterminate the Slans.

As the novel begins, nine-year-old Jommy Cross (a telepathic Slan of the first type) is brought with his mother to the capital, Centropolis. They are both discovered and Jommy's mother is killed. Jommy manages to escape. Jommy Cross is not only the heir to the brilliant inventions of his father, but he represents the last hope of his race to save it from genocide. Because of the importance of his mission, he is opposed by various enemies. Jommy seeks to destroy Kier and in confronting him discovers an astonishing secret.

The novel was originally serialized in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction (September – December 1940). It was subsequently published in hardcover in 1946 by Arkham House. [Source: Wikipedia]

From the back cover:

NEW BOSS

The old man had handed him a tough job -- to ride down and straighten out the trouble on the Texas spread. He could handle trouble -- when he could see it. But in this place it didn't stand up and face him. It lurked behind rocks, it shot at him from behind trees.

And he had his son with him, a boy who didn't know him well or trust him, whose love and respect he wanted to gain. So he had two jobs, not one. First, he had to flush out the trouble. And then he had to lick it.

From the back cover:

A SAVAGE FLOOD CHANGED THEIR WORLD

It was a pleasant little town in the Northeast. It had never been hurricane country. When they heard that Diane was coming, they couldn't really believe it would harm them. And the hurricane itself didn't touch them.

But the rains caused by the hurricane ravaged their little town as viciously as the worst artillery attack could have done.

This is a powerful and tremendously graphic novel of people trapped in that town: and how they learned what a flood really means.

And how they found out what they themselves were like.

From the back cover:

Each of the three tales of imagination in this book is by a master of the art, and in each there is incident and invention enough to surpass most full-length novels.

"Envoy Extraordinary" by William Golding tells of a barbarian genius who arrives in ancient Rome with three inventions -- and the results are appalling.

"Consider Her Ways" by John Wyndham presents a shocking and utterly convincing picture of a world of women -- without men.

"Boy in Darkness" by Mervyn Peake is a venture into a dream-like world of strangeness and terror -- quite unlike anything you have ever read, and unforgettable.

From the back cover:

This is no story of space ships and Martians.

This is a novel about the atomic world -- our world. It tells of a peacetime atomic plant -- supplying electric power and radioactive isotopes for industry, agriculture, medicine.

But even in peacetime, even under the controlled conditions of a manufacturing process, radioactives are dangerous. "Nerves" is the story of one day in such a plant -- a day that begins in fear and tension . . . and reaches its climax as men race against disaster in what may be the last day of their lives.

From the back cover:

"I'm Julian Cole. I'm a science writer. I've read about every theory of history you can name, and only one makes sense: the one which assumes that every historical event is aimed personally at my very own head."

Sounds paranoid, doesn't it? But wait. Suppose you had the job given to Julian Cole: official historian to a grandstand Arctic explorer who sets off on a disastrously ridiculous expedition to the far North. Suppose you had to cope with the explorer's highly pneumatic wife and an assortment of characters one of whom is either a Martian or insane? And, to cap it all, suppose you held in your hands proof of the biggest science story of the century -- and nobody would believe you?

Wouldn't you feel just a little like Julian Cole?

Five novelettes of unbounded imagination from the mid-1950s telling of strange encounters between man and alien. Nothing else like this existed in the 50s.. Radical and groundbreaking, the five works address Freudian fantasies just obliquely enough to avoid being explicit. Check out the following website for a more detailed description of the book and for a look at the unusual cover art on later editions:
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