The Flickr Britishpaperback Image Generatr

Marketing strategies have evolved, yet the allure of luck and love remains timeless. Intriguing ads from the mid-20th century could often be found in pulp magazines or digest-sized publications like Curtis Warren’s. They were part of a broader trend of marketing exotic or mystical items to appeal to people’s curiosity and belief in luck or supernatural influences.

Looks to be a Jacono copy of the Ace D-103 cover, credited to Ed Valigursky.

"The Invaders Left the World Facing the Deadliest Peril in its History"

Fanthorpe’s “Doomed World,” as described on the back cover:

“George Mallory was out for a quiet day’s shooting. A typical countryman in typical English country. His day’s sport was interrupted by the be beginning of the greatest catastrophe in man’s history – an alien space ship was crashing at his feet.

“The ghastly monstrosity that emerged was so hideously repulsive that no one would have guessed at the degree of intelligence and potential friendliness in its strange mind.

“Mallory shot first and asked questions afterwards. With its dying strength, the alien cursed the earth with a scientific horror beyond the comprehension of man, a horror that turned the beasts against us.

“The only escape seemed to be out in space . . . but the devastating effect of the cosmic rays, wrought havoc in the minds of the space men and the lunar expedition turned upon itself in deadly carnage.

“What would be the outcome of the terrible conflict between man and beast?

“Doomed World is a masterly authentic science fiction thriller from the able pen of R. Lionel Fanthorpe, M.B.I.S.

“It needs no further recommendation.”

“Working on the theory that an electronic current variation is set up by thought processes within the human brain, Alex Larsen and his fellow scientists developed a system of telepathic cerebral communication. Amplification of the minute currents through a series of transistors produced a frequency beam which it was found could be channeled to synchronized receptor units worn by other persons. The variations were then reconverted and so made acceptable as a pattern of coherent thought impulses. Nothing, it seemed, could be more valuable. Here was a soundless means of communication without complex or bulky equipment.

“But there was the matter of a mysterious thought voice that interrupted the experiment . . . It was through that voice that an accidental lateral shift of minds occurred. Almost before they realized it Larsen’s helpers found themselves in one of the strangest situations imaginable. They bridged the time-space gap between parallel planes of existence, aiding a race of slaves against their Masters, a group of evil, abnormally developed beings half brain, half robot in form. How they joined forces, did battle, and finally won makes an enthralling story, set as it is against the jungle background of the human mind.” – Arn Romilus

[Note: Those final sentences sound strangely familiar, like the premise of the movie “The Matrix.” Also, the tentacled machine on the book cover looks amazingly like the "sentinels" or "squids" in the movie. It's possible that these themes and visuals were part of the broader science fiction zeitgeist, influencing creators over decades. Or it may be just a striking coincidence that highlights the cyclical nature of ideas in speculative fiction.]

Contents: “Prison Planet” by Roger Carne (Sydney J. Bounds); “Martian Apemen” by W. E. Clarkson (Sydney J. Bounds); “Menace from the Atom” by W. E. Clarkson (Sydney J. Bounds); “The Mechans of Muah” (Norman Lazenby); and “Treasure in Space” (Uncredited).

Predates the “Badger Books” imprint, which was launched in May, 1954 and became one of the publisher’s longest running series.

[Source: “John Spencer & Co. Illustrated Bibliography” by Shane P. D. Agnew. Volume 1: Comics, Science Fiction and Supernatural (2020)]

Contents: “Spawn of the Void” by Edward Stokes (John F. Watt); “Terror from the Skies” by Hamilton Downe (John F. Watt); “Space Trader” (R. Brothwell); “The Problem Ship” by David Campbell (Leonard G. Fish); and “Beast Men of Mars” by M. B. Stone.

Predates the “Badger Books” imprint, which was launched in May, 1954 and became one of the publisher’s longest running series.

[Source: “John Spencer & Co. Illustrated Bibliography” by Shane P. D. Agnew. Volume 1: Comics, Science Fiction and Supernatural (2020)]

Contents: “The Fire Goddess” by D. J. Mencet (John F. Watt); “Death Ships” by Frank C. Kneller (John F. Watt); “One Million Years Ago” by Hamilton Donne (John F. Watt); “Plasma Men Bring Death” (Norman Lazenby); and “Vultures of the Void” by Clifford Wallace (Sydney J. Bounds).

Predates the “Badger Books” imprint, which was launched in May, 1954 and became one of the publisher’s longest running series.

[Source: “John Spencer & Co. Illustrated Bibliography” by Shane P. D. Agnew. Volume 1: Comics, Science Fiction and Supernatural (2020)]

Contents: “Pioneers for Saturn” by Tom W. Wade; “Slaves of Space” by Bruce Fenton (John F. Watt); “Journey into Tomorrow” by Frank C. Kneller (John F. Watt); and “Power Politics” by R. Brothwell.

Predates the “Badger Books” imprint, which was launched in May, 1954 and became one of the publisher’s longest running series.

John Rackham is a pseudonym for the electrical engineer and science fiction author, John T. Phillifent. The cover artist is Ron Turner.

“Joe Ganley was an asteroid miner, a job requiring in high degree the qualities of patience, perseverance and the ability to live alone for long periods, together with a better than average knowledge of metallurgy, mechanics and astrogation. His own chosen area of operations was that group of asteroids which lie in the orbit of Jupiter, but sixty degrees ahead of that planet in its flight around the Sun, known as the Trojans.

“He was busy tinkering with an experimental radio-hookup, trusting his radar-scanner to keep look-out for him, when a slight change in the monotonous beeping made him look up and glide over to his control panel. There a slight touch of reactor-jets corrected his course ‘till his ungainly dredger was headed directly towards the still distant object . . .

“It’s a ship, sure enough!” he marvelled, “don’t look damaged, either. Had a bad dose of radiation, though. I’d better get ready to go alongside: maybe there’s someone still alive on her. . .” [From the novel’s opening paragraphs]

Joe discovers a dead guy with a broken neck and an attractive young woman barely alive aboard the strange ship and takes her aboard his own. And so the story begins.

Author John Rackham (1916-1976) is credited with a definition of science fiction dubbed “Rackham’s Law:”

“It consists in looking at the world around us, dissecting it into its component parts, throwing some of those parts away and replacing them with invented new ones – then reassembling the new world and describing what might happen in it. And I think that every SF writer who ever lived has used precisely that method.” – Frederik Pohl.

Bruno G. Condray is a pseudonym for Leslie George Humphrys. The cover art is by Ron Turner.

Rebels fight the totalitarian Earth Control Board whose absolute control of the Solar System is maintained by all-powerful gray-uniformed thugs of the Security Corps.

“John Carter, mighty Warlord of Mars, rides to new and terrifying adventures. Captured by deadly warriors mounted on huge birds he is taken to the ill-omened city of Morbus. There he meets Ras Thavas, evil genius and master surgeon. A man who has succeeded in his nightmare wish of creating life in his own beings – creatures that ultimately rebel and threaten the lives of Ras Thavas, of John Carter and of all Mars.” [From the back cover]

Philip Kent is a pseudonym of Kenneth Bulmer. The cover art is by Ron Turner.

“The ship was a blind, broken, decaying thing. She came helplessly from the deeps beyond Jupiter, dragged by the sun’s attraction into the orbits of the inner planets, and from her pitted sides an aura of horror marked her as a death ship. Tugs of Space Salvage grappled her and brought her at last to rest on Earth, shunted her into a solitary berth at Sahara Spaceport. . .” [Opening paragraph]

Conrad G. Holt is a pseudonym for John Russell Fearn. The cover art is by Ron Turner

“Following a civil war in 1971, England is a dystopia controlled by a ruthless dictator whose fiendish schemes include turning cadavers into robots with the help of Dr. Azimov of Vienna. But the dictator's plans pale before those of Brenda Norcross, a brilliant and beautiful female industrialist who is a bioengineered Martian super scientist in disguise. She plans to enslave the entire planet to provide breeding stock for the dying Martian race. . .” – L. W. Currey

“The bestselling novel that inspired the heartwarming TV series The Waltons.”

The novel was first published in 1961 by the Dial Press and was the basis for the 1963 Warner Bros. film “Spencer’s Mountain” starring Henry Fonda, Maureen O’Hara and James MacArthur. The TV series “The Waltons” aired on CBS from 1972 to 1981 and was inspired by both the book and the film.

The cover art for this detective story set on a terraformed Venus is by Ron Turner.

“Hounded through space, they held a secret that could set millions free – if only they could stay alive!”

From the back cover:

The world beyond tomorrow the unopened future which lies at a point far distant from the early, fumbling attempts at space flight of our own times.

It is the future of mankind among the stars – but also a future of intrigue and treachery!

This is the setting of “Search the Dark Stars,” A. A. Glynn’s vigorous fantasy of a Galactic civilization which has split against itself and on whose shambles a ruthless warlord of the stars has built a barbaric empire. Persistently striving to topple his autocratic power is the Mutant League, a band of mentally powerful supernormals who style themselves the “inheritors of wisdom and power.”

Enter into this fantastic future in company with the man and the girl who dare to battle against the might of the New Empire – and who hold a guarded, vital secret. Travel with them in their urgent, hunted and hounded flight across the far-flung void of interstellar space and among the myriad worlds of peril of the starways.

“Search the Dark Stars” is a dynamic work of science fiction, a vivid novel of vast scope and swift action.

If your sense of wonder is jaded – try it!

“Ghost towns were the rule . . . not the exception . . . the world was empty!”

From the back cover:

The ties of home were strong. In a few years man gets attached to bricks and mortar, and scenery. In a hundred years roots are so deep that no one wants to tear them up. In a thousand years it is quite unthinkable. In a million years, only a lunatic would want to leave . . .

Then came the alien, presenting an impossible choice . . . Humanity must leave the Earth – or die! Behind them was everything they had known. In front of them, an unknow tomorrow.

Which were the greater – the hazards of remaining, or the dangers of the infinite void ahead?

Could they trust the alien?

He said there was another world, a safe world, that would be a new home – but was it all a trap?

There were dangers out there. The dangers of a population confined in ships for half a life-time; the dangers of cosmic radiation; danger of attacks by the “Others”!

Only men of the highest courage and the greatest integrity could hope to survive in the raw, searing savagery of the unknown . . .

“What was the source of the stranger’s incredible power?”

From the back cover:

They were trying out a new drive when a cosmic accident took them incalculable light years off course. A miracle of courage and astrogation meant that there were some survivors from the inevitable crash. The ship itself did not escape unscathed. What had been their vehicle became their prison. The buckled lock could not be opened from the inside and they had no other means of getting free. The air was slowly running out.

The planet they had hit was raw and primitive by their own standards, but it did hold intelligent life. One of the natives found the ship. Dare the trapped space travelers hope for a miracle? If they got out what kind of strange life forms would they be involved with? Could they hope to find the types of raw materials which would get their crippled ship into space again? If not, could they face life sentences on this strange, unknown, primitive world . . .?

Faced by a thousand fantastic difficulties the astronauts battled untiringly for their right to survive.

“The suspended animation chamber was her only chance of reaching the future.”

From the back cover:

Catherine Wilder was a strange girl, lovely but lonely. Sir Henry Wilder, her father, was the kind of eccentric, medical researcher who preferred to work in complete isolation. Catherine withdrew deeper into herself as the oppressing loneliness of her father’s remote mansion weighed upon her mind.

When she first heard the voice she wondered whether the mansion was haunted, then she feared for her sanity. But it was neither madness nor the supernatural which threatened her.

Mezak appeared to her suddenly in the twilight of the mansion’s gloomy corridors. He was more romantic than her wildest dreams. Although some of his language was beyond her understanding at first, it gradually became possible for them to communicate. Mezak was from the future, the remote future, but Catherine slowly realized that she was in love with him! Her father’s strange research into super-freezing and suspended animation gave her only a remote chance of reaching him, but she was prepared to take the chance. As Catherine placed herself in the freezing chamber, numbness and darkness crept over her. . .Would she ever open those beautiful eyes again?

“Joan Shirning, the daughter of a scientist, is discovered as a stowaway when the spaceship Gloria Mundi is en route from Earth to Mars. Ace aviator Dale Curtance, pilot and designer of the spaceship, together with engineer Burns, journalist Froud, Doctor Grayson and Geoffrey Dugan, are attempting the two-way trip to the Red Planet in an attempt to win a million pound prize offered by a rival aircraft company.

“Curtance does not believe Joan’s story that her father has been in communication with intelligent life on Mars, although she tells him that they had been visited on Earth by a strange many-tentacled machine which taught her the Martian language, and that she has stowed away to vindicate the ridicule and scorn heaped upon her father’s head.

“Seventy-four days after leaving Earth the Gloria Mundi lands safely upon the arid Martian desert and the occupants are then thrown into a series of suspenseful adventures that will keep you on the edge of your chair wondering what will happen next. The arrival of two other spaceships – one Russian and one American – complicate the International situation. Add the semi-sentient mechanical life of Mars and the discovery of one of the few remaining Martians living, plus the imaginative writing of one of Britain’s outstanding science fiction authors, and it adds up to a top-notch Nova Science Fiction Novel.”