Beachhead Planet

Robert Moore Williams (1907-1977) was a Missouri native who wrote adventure, fantasy, and science-fiction novels and stories for a variety of publishers. He wrote using his own name and pseudonyms like Russell Storm, H.H. Harmon, and John S. Browning. I enjoyed his 1961 Ace paperback The Day They H-Bombed Lost Angeles, but he's one of those guys that I just haven't kept track of. I decided to tackle another of his paperbacks, Beachhead Planet. It was published by Dell in 1970 with a cover by Jack Gaughan. 

First off, this novel kicks off with one of the most insane scenes I've ever read. The year is 2150, and a large ship has just landed in Golden Fleece, Colorado. These are tourists from large metropolitan cities hoping to gawk at the old mining town for a perspective on the nation's history and manufacturing. A naked man is seen running frantically from one of the abandoned mine shafts. Above the man, from the concealment of a cliff, a series of incendiary rounds rings out. The naked man is burned alive from the inside out. As the ship immediately jockeys back into the air to escape the nightmare, a small child passenger is hit with a bullet and literally burns to death seconds before the ship plunges to the ground in a fiery explosion of death and destruction. What could top this? The shooter is revealed as a 10-foot-tall two-headed creature!

Scientist John Valthor is working in his lab in California when he's approached by Major Smith, an internal security officer working for the mysterious Brocknor Corporation. Valthor knows that Brocknor is working on a simulated brain substance that may have sinister intentions. In a wacky, wild biography, readers learn that Valthor is an expert in psychic phenomena  and knows that alien forces are at our universe's doorway, clamoring to break the veil for a full-on invasion. Can you say “high concept”?

Valthor and his two quirky assistants, Greer and Evan, journey to Golden Fleece to assist Brocknor in discovering who or what this strange 10-foot-tall creature is, and if it is the first of an army of alien assassins using Earth as a beachhead for the invasion. During the investigative adventure, the trio of heroes discovers that the town itself is populated by “pod people” - humans dipped in a vat of green oily radioactive substances. These brainwashed, transformed people are called Narks – mindless, alien-controlled puppets. Needless to say, the heroic trio is captured, prodded, and nearly dipped in the human-to-alien chemistry. But, they team up with an unlikely ally to escape the bizarre predicament and...um...save Earth. 

Beachhead Planet reads like a stoned-out version of a Lin Carter romp – and that's saying something. The heroes are fun, mostly due to Greer and Evan's bouncy, comedic personalities. It reminded me of Ham and Monk's friendly rivalry in the Doc Savage novels. But there's no denying the over-the-top silliness of the whole thing. It's a dense, overly complicated science-fiction story featuring the overused invasion formula. You can expect lots of dialogue about psychic mumbo-jumbo, the consequences of human devolution, and biological speculation on what the aliens are made of. If that's your jam, grab some sunscreen and hit the Beachhead Planet. 

Get this book HERE. 

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet #01 - Stand by for Mars!

According to the Tom Corbett Website, Grosset & Dunlap began publishing the Tom Corbett Space Cadet juvenile novels in 1952. These were a tie-in to the established television character and the Rockhill Radio IP. There were eight books in the published series from 1952 to 1955, all using the house name Carey Rockwell. There has never been a definitive answer on who actually wrote the books, but speculation is that it could have been Richard Jessup or G&D editor Joe Green.

Tom Corbett first appeared on CBS television in 1950 before moving to ABC in 1951. The show remained on air, with various networks, through 1955. Corbett also appeared on the radio in 1952, in 14 Dell comics from 1952-1955, and in Sunday newspaper strips between 1951 to 1953. My only experience with the character, like most readers, is the G&D books, which I still see from time to time in used bookstores. 

I decided to try the character out with the series debut, Stand by for Mars!, originally published in 1952. 

The setting for the series is the 24th century, 2350. All of the inner planets have been colonized by humans. Earth is a commonwealth shared by Mars and Venus. Solar Guard units are stationed in different parts of the universe, each monitoring shipping and passenger commutes while conducting various experiments. Somewhere in the North American Midwest, there's an academy to train men and women vowing to join the Solar Guard. This is where we first meet Tom, on day one of his training as a cadet. 

Roger Manning, like Tom, is from Earth. As a fellow cadet, Roger is consistently tormenting Tom and a man from Venus named Astro. This conflict is the central plot of the book – the trio's ability to work together cohesively through training and actual operations. Roger seems to have a great burden on his shoulders, one that he distributes emotionally and physically to his cadet mates. At one point, Tom and Roger have a fistfight in the facility gym. Awkwardly, Roger strives for companionship, but simply doesn't know how to coexist with his teammates. This is a mystery that permeates the book's second half – Roger's secret. Fortunately, the reveal pays off in the book's emotional finale.

As I was reading Stand by for Mars!, I kept thinking of other series titles that shared similarities with the book. The trials and tribulations heaped on Tom during training reminded me of R.A. Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt series of Forgotten Realms novels. That character is forced to make alliances while also combating other students during his training. The debut, Homeland, featured Drizzt's time in the Academy. Another similar title is the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, complete with the alliances and rivalries forged at Hogwarts, a school of magic. Like Stand by for Mars!, that series features a combat sport in which the students must rely on each other to score goals and win for their team (or house). 

Most of Stand by for Mars! features Tom, Roger, and Astro working as a trio to overcome mathematical and engineering problems during their training classes and final. However, their education pays off when they are thrust into a real scenario of answering a rescue beacon from another ship. The action also includes a shipwreck, an 8-day survival quest through a hot desert, and some intense battle planning as the trio is forced to make quick decisions to defend a faux invasion. 

Overall, this Tom Corbett debut was highly entertaining. I connected to the character, enjoyed Astro's comical scenes, and found Roger detestable. All three characters, and their emotional baggage, helped elevate the storytelling. I'm all in. Stand by for the next installment!

Get Stand by for Mars! HERE

Breeder

Author Jim Morris served three tours with The Green Berets during America's participation in the Vietnam War. His memoir of the experience, War Story, won the Bernal Diaz Award for military non-fiction. He's authored the books The Devil's Secret Name, Fighting Men, and The Guerrilla Trilogy, among others. My experience with the author is his unusual men's action-adventure paperback, Breeder, originally published by Tor in 1988. The cover artist is Luis Royo.

In the opening pages is a letter inscribed to Gary Dexter from his father. “Dad” advises Dexter that he isn't his real biological father. He explains that he served with another soldier Jeff, in ground forces, and that Jeff is Gary's biological parent. He then continues, explaining that this book is a manuscript he had been working on chronicling both his, and Jeff's exploits during the war and the aftermath of the campaign. In the book's faux Editor's Note, readers learn this book was found in the personal effects of an Airborne Ranger, Gary Dexter, who was killed during the assault on Orly Airport on June 6th, 2042. 

The book begins with these three and a half pages, which is a bit ambiguous because readers have no idea who these characters are. However, after the book's 306-pages, it all makes perfect sense. It was a satisfying way to tease the set-up and then slowly build to that early revelation. It's just another unique element in the way Morris tells this story.

Breeder is a tough book to review without giving away spoilers. However, I feel that by giving the concept away, it might encourage you to track the book down. It works like a post-apocalyptic novel, but can serve as science-fiction and action-adventure in the use of purposeful machismo, over-the-top fighting scenes, and the brisk pace. The novel is also set during a new American Civil War, although some of the more intricate details of this war remained unclear. 

Jeff Clendenning and Duncan (who might be the author of the letter) are serving as cadets in a rugged ROTC somewhere in America – they think. But the rules of this ROTC program are bizarre, allowing cadets to murder officers in hand-to-hand combat and run wild with sexual urgency. Jeff, who is described as the perfect man, typically has sex with a randomly chosen woman every day and a half. Females are powerless to resist his pheromones. While Jeff is learning the fine art of war and the lay of the land, Duncan is romancing a young woman named Lauren. Jeff ends up sleeping with Lauren as well, which creates animosity between the two cadets. 

There are a number of interesting events within this ROTC program, but ultimately, Jeff decides to escape the facility after receiving his graduation orders to stay on base and instruct future cadets. Jeff replaces another soldier and is transported to Texas to fight Mexican gangs and the NRA (yes, that NRA). It is during this battle that Jeff confronts an officer at gunpoint to learn more about who he is and what the ROTC's goals are. This is the wow moment in the book as Jeff learns he was grown in a lab by the Soviets in a super-soldier plot. The ROTC program has been in the Soviet Union the entire time, though dressed up as an average American military town. Further, Jeff is a “breeder”, meaning he can impregnate women and replicate his supersoldier self. Jeff loses his mind upon discovering all of this head-spinning intel and flees.

The second half of the book is a fish-out-of-water tale as Jeff learns about America, romances a woman, and joins a trio of criminals on a bank heist spree. There are letters inserted every few chapters from “Dad” - Duncan – that fill readers in on his military experiences piloting a helicopter. As the book marches to the finale, both Duncan and Jeff are reunited to crush an anti-American rebellion fueled by the Soviets. The last pages of the battle help explain the book's opening three pages, and the letter.

Clearly, Morris was writing Breeder as a condemnation of Hollywood macho-films, spoofing the ability of action heroes to ride tall, shoot straight, speak the truth – and get laid by the most beautiful women. It possesses all the stereotypes and is laugh-out-loud hilarious at times. Proof of this is the John Wayne Bobbit moment that blew my mind (which didn't even occur until five years after this book's publication). Morris was having an absolute blast writing this book, and I'm shocked that it isn't more popular. This is a cult-sensational novel that just waited for an audience that never arrived. If you love the aforementioned genres, or just the idea of this high-concept, then you owe it to yourself to get this book. I will never forget Breeder. 

Get the book HERE.

Exiles

Andrew Pyper (1968-2025) received a B.A. And M.A. in English Literature from McGill University and earned a law degree from the University of Toronto. Instead of pursuing a career as an attorney, Pyper became a full-time novelist, writing 15 novels including, The Demonologist, a 2013 novel that won the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Hardcover Novel. As Mason Coile, Pyper wrote two darker science-fiction titles, William (2024) and Exiles (2025), the latter of which he wrote while battling terminal cancer. Pyper passed away on January 3rd, less than four months after Exiles release date. 

As Coile, Pyper took on a type of gritty, horror-related storyteller role, evident in his cutting-edge AI haunted house novel William. While Exiles isn't a sequel to the book, it still serves as a sort of literary sibling. Both books contain plots in which everyday people are trapped in structures with an evolved homicidal AI. Granted, there are a lot of AI-related films and movies, so the plot isn't necessarily innovative or unique. But Pyper could write well, and his prose is easy to devour, making Exiles a book I was really looking forward to. Be careful what you wish for. 

Exiles stars three astronauts – Blake, Kang, and protagonist Dana – on mankind's first landing on Mars. Their trip, seven months in hibernation aboard a spaceship, is closely monitored by millions of personnel to achieve success. Before the three arrive, a grandiose mission was launched with an assemblage of rovers and worker bots building  Citadel, a cross-shaped facility where the three astronauts will live while preparing humans for future missions to the red planet. The mission is for these three to land their pod, make a short journey to the facility, meet the trio of worker bots, and begin a two-to-three year study and preparation event. However, these sorts of things never go as planned in survival horror.

After a roller coaster landing, the three make it to Citadel and discover two worker bots that have begun to achieve a type of false humanity. These bots have assigned themselves genders, express emotional feelings, and seemingly want to return to Earth. The astronauts are equally shocked and perplexed by the bots' ability (or inability) to become “human”. But the bots, who call themselves Shay and Wes, are also afraid of what is outside the facility. Their description of an alien creature is terrifying to the crew. But, as things get weird – and then weirder – it seems as though the third worker bot might be a homicidal maniac, a crazed machine called Alex. This plot device transforms Exiles into a locked-room mystery set aboard this space facility. 

While this story sounds great, Pyper's characters are irritating. These three were picked as the best of the best, the ultimate representation of Earth transported to Mars. Yet they behave in obnoxious ways, curse every piece of dialogue, and behave like teenagers despite their stellar technical education. Dana is the worst of the trio, and unfortunately the reader rides in her mind and experiences her conscious thoughts. Pyper tries to make the book more dynamic by revealing pieces of Dana's childhood and a mystery involving her mother, but it just never worked for me. Also, the whole concept doesn't provide any answers to the AI problem, just more examples of machined intelligence gone wild. Lots of media positions the problem, but I need author commentary on how to fix the problem (besides crushing the mad robot in a pit). 

Exiles is an okay novel that could have been something special. Instead, poor characters, a bland second act, and the isolation all combine to make the novel one long snooze fest. Your mileage may vary, proceed at your own risk.

Get the book HERE.

The Day They H-Bombed Los Angeles

Using his own name, and pseudonyms like Russell Storm, John S. Browning, and H.H. Harmon, Robert Moore Williams (1907-1977) authored science-fiction and adventure novels and short stories. He contributed his Tarzan-inspired series Jongor to the Fantastic Adventures pulp, and also wrote for other magazines like Amazing Stories and Startling Stories. In my search to read another doomsday novel, I chose his stand-alone 1961 Ace paperback The Day They H-Bombed Los Angeles (D-530).

As the novel begins, Tom Watkins, a former Sergeant in the U.S.M.C., is walking in the harbor area of Los Angeles when a bright splash of light engulfs the sky. He quickly realizes a bomb has decimated Pasadena and begins seeking shelter. As sirens sound, Tom and others find a fallout shelter and brace for more impacts. Earthquake tremors, more bombs, and human hysteria devour the day and night as Tom tries to survive in this hot, confined space.

In these post-apocalyptic scenarios, alliances are naturally formed. Typically, it is the calm, cool, and collected opposing the irrational, deranged lunatics. As unsatisfied people begin leaving the shelter, Tom's group hunkers down to wait for the rain to wash the fallout from the air. His group consists of an FBI agent, Tom's former classmate, a spoiled Hollywood actress, an adventuresome young man, and Tom's soon-to-be love interest, a woman named Cissie. 

The next day, the group leaves the shelter and heads to Cissie's employer, a scientist named Dr. Smith, who lives and works in a large concrete building. Inside, the group set up a makeshift living arrangement and begin prowling the streets by day gathering guns, ammunition, and food storage. At night, the group hears an unnerving howling coming from the dark streets outside. The next morning, they find the remains of a woman that appears to have been eaten. 

On one of the supply runs, the group encounters a small group of survivors displaying bizarre behavior. The people walk/run hunched over and seem to have no regard for their own safety. They just press forward and want to kill. As the narrative unfolds, these “zombies” repeatedly attack the shelter, and the group is forced to shoot them. But as more and more are killed, there are hundreds more that take their place. Is this the Dawn of the Dead?

No. Not really. Although the term “zombie” is thrown around a lot. This is more like the film franchise 28 Days Later crossed with Jack Finney's The Body Snatchers. As Dr. Smith and the group run experiments on these infected people, they realize they are all suffering from a molecule that transforms them into killing machines. But as the molecule evolves, the humans gain intelligence to unite, create armies, and eventually commandeer airplanes. There's a backstory on the molecule, how it was pulled from the ocean, and a far-reaching spin on evolution. 

Williams' narrative combines the efforts of Smith and Tom leading their respective factions against the crazies. Smith's emphasis is on research and attempts to only injure the infected. He feels he can cure them with more time. Tom is in desperation mode as the survivors defend themselves in the concrete building and on supply runs. 

Ultimately, Williams used an alien invasion angle, like the aforementioned The Body Snatchers, to make this post-apocalyptic tale work as science-fiction. It's a fun book loaded with tension, action, and some genuinely scary moments. But the author's dialogue is clunky and uneven, which reduces the book's enjoyment. If you can get through the rough patches, then you'll absolutely love this one. Recommended. Get the book HERE.

War of the Worlds

Perhaps the father of science-fiction, H.G. Wells, is best known for his celebrated classic War of the Worlds. The book was written between 1985 and 1897, and first published in Pearson's Magazine in the U.K. and Cosmopolitan in the U.S. The serial transitioned into a novel in 1898, and has been reprinted and offered in numerous formats since then. The seminal alien invasion novel has also been adapted into radio drama, films, comics, and television.

The novel, presented in third-person by an unnamed narrator, begins in Southeast England as a cylinder launches from Mars and arrives on Horsell Common in Surrey. The narrator approaches the pit where the capsule is laying. He then gets a neighboring journalist to accompany him and the news spreads as more and more people arrive to gaze into the pit. Eventually, the cylinder's top spins open and the aliens, possessing tentacles and a beak-like moth, emerge. Within a few minutes the aliens incinerate over 40 people with a devastating heat ray. The human slaughter commences and another capsule arrives.

The book's prose intensifies with more descriptions of battle. Wells focuses a great deal on catastrophe and destruction, elevated with the emergence of the tripods, three-legged Martian fighting machines that simply annihilate military forces. Entwined in the narrative is the narrator's flee with his wife to the nearby town of Leatherhead, leaving her there with relatives. The narrator (for reasons unclear to me) returns to the Woking area to witness more carnage and then the mass exodus of people abandoning London.

The book's second half (labeled Book 2) is more atmospheric as the nature of the novel expands into a more despondent post-apocalyptic tone. London, referred to as “Dead London” in chapter eight, is described as a truly dismal place littered with corpses and alien scavengers. These scavengers seemingly squeeze the blood from humans as a source of nutrients. 

The more intimate details of the book's second half features the narrator and a soldier trapped in a deserted house. The narrator is concerned with his wife's safety and irritated with the soldier's deteriorating mental state. There's a lack of food and water that adds more misery to the situation. Both characters eventually leave the house, only to find themselves trapped in another dwelling as the alien scavengers continue to scrape the streets and houses with probing tentacles. 

The book's climax comes as the narrator travels into lifeless London. As he walks through wreckage he begins to hear an eerie sound emanating from the aliens. I won't ruin the surprise here, but this is a hopeful sound that eventually leads to Earth's liberation from the Martian invaders. 

Reviewing literary classics is challenging. These works are over a century old, and my personal exposure to their legacy – various adaptations of the material, decades of critique, imitators, and overall cultural awareness – means I have been desensitized from the novel's initial grandeur. I hadn't read the book before, but I had watched the movies, heard the radio drama, and was made aware of the book's importance in science-fiction and as a catalyst for the genre's sub-genre of alien invasion. One watch of something as flashy as Independence Day (1996) makes this novel's action sequences a little underwhelming. But that's a personal problem reflective of my absorption of media, not any fault of the author or the work. 

With all that in consideration, I found War of the Worlds to be a good novel. I enjoyed the atmosphere, and the narrator's survival horror perspective. The Martians appearance as tall blood sucking creatures with large eyes, tentacles, heat rays, and deadly gas played on my fears of being flesh-squeezed by a hideous alien invader. The description of England as a lifeless and decimated husk was described in the darkest way imaginable. In post-apocalyptic situations, humans can be the worst horror of all. Wells does an excellent job presenting human suffering and the mass lunacy of everyday people forced into extreme circumstances. Selfishness and greed leads to the greatest suffering of all.

I think my only real complaint with the book was the inability to really hone in on the narrator. Often this character would tell me things happening in other parts of England or explaining in great detail his brother's exploits to survive the invasion, including a naval battle between a battering ram and an alien. I felt that I lost the intimacy of things directly occurring with the character, his personal predicament and the things affecting only him. It took me out of the moment and made the narration more epic in nature than personal. 

Needless to say, War of the Worlds is an important book, and a praised work of science-fiction worthy of imitation, inspiration, and discussion. Read the book and appreciate the novel's legacy and impact. You won't be disappointed.

Get the book HERE.

Planet of the Apes #02 - Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel Monkey Planet, published in French as Le Planete des singes, is the catalyst for a booming blockbuster franchise of movies, tie-in books, comics, magazines, and toys. The book's adaptation in 1968, Planet of the Apes, sparked 20th Century-Fox into creating original sequels to the film. In 1970, Beneath the Planet of the Apes was released to mixed  reviews, yet stirred up a $19 million dollar box office off of a budget of $2.5. 

The film was originally shopped to Rod Serling as a possible writer, then to Boulle, who wrote a draft that was later declined by producers. The end result was a group initiative led by director Ted Post, the film's actor James Franciscus, and a robust contribution from British writer Paul Dehn, who drew inspiration from the 1945 atomic bombings. Charlton Heston, the star of Planet of the Apes, hesitantly agreed to return briefly for Beneath, and offered script revisions and an apocalyptic approach to destroy the planet. That ending was scrapped by producers fearing it offered “no hope” in its conclusion. Yet, that version of the script made it to author Michael Avallone's box.

Film producers offered Avallone the opportunity to write a novelization of the film. Although his novel mostly stays consistent to the film we all know (aside from a weird ice thing at the beginning), the book's ending possesses the apocalyptic theme as an atomic bomb is detonated in the finale. It's an enjoyable book, and offers something a little different than the movie, but not a necessity. If you are an ape-man collector then this paperback is probably already in your collection. If not, don't bother. If you don't care about my opinion, get the book HERE. 

The Day the Machines Stopped

Christopher Anvil was the pen name of Harry Christopher Crosby, Jr. (1925 – 2009). Born in Norwich, Connecticut, he served as a U.S. military pilot before launching a career as a prolific science-fiction writer under the Anvil pseudonym. The Day the Machines Stopped from 1964 was his first novel.

The novel begins with two laboratory workers, Brian and Carl, fighting over the same girl in an office love triangle. A newscast on the radio in the background is discussing an ambitious cryogenics project happening in Afghanistan conducted by Soviet scientists. A defector among the scientists is warning the media that these experiments could cause a worldwide failure of all electrical products.

And then poof! The lights go out at the lab. Brian and Carl are dispatched by their boss to see how far the outage stretches and return with a full report of that the men find. In 1964, losing access to your transistor radio was like an internet outage today.

Once outside, Brian and Carl see the extent of the outage. As the book’s cover betrays, everything is out of order — cars, clocks, flashlights, phones — all dead. The laws of nature surely have changed. Human hysteria and lawlessness follow.

The author spends a lot of time (too much, in fact) rationalizing the science behind this science fiction. There are explanations of electron gas that carries a current and hydrometer testing. Most of this can be easily glazed over, so the reader can get to the evolving anarchy.

The journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland has been done a million times in survivalist literature - although this is a fairly early entry in the genre. You have your wandering nomads and warlords turning to analog weapons to gather power. Pretty standard stuff - all very readable.

The Day the Machines Stopped is a decent entry in the post-apocalyptic genre. It’s been done better elsewhere but this short and entertaining paperback is probably worth your time if you have it in your library. Just don’t spend a fortune chasing it down. Get it affordable HERE. 

Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 121

In this episode, Eric embarks on a globe-trotting nautical adventure with a spotlight on Arthur Catherall, exploring his World War II-era series set in exotic locales. He also dives into a recent western discovery, reviews a thrilling novel about a runaway rollercoaster, and shares his thoughts on the latest short story collection from Bruce Elliott, newly released by Stark House Press. Stream it below, watch on YouTube HERE, or download HERE.

Listen to "Episode 121 Audio" on Spreaker.

The Doomsday Planet

New York author Harold Vincent Schoepflin (1893-1968) used the pseudonym Harl Vincent to write shorts for Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories of Super-Science, Fantastic Adventures, as well as the detective pulps of the early to mid 20th century. He managed to write one full-length novel in his career, The Doomsday Planet, published in two paperback editions beginning in 1966. 

An astronaut named Jack Donley has joined a space flight on a freighter called Meteoric. The reason he joined the voyage is in hopes that he can somehow learn more about his lover, Mera, and her strange disappearance on an earlier flight using this same trajectory. The Meteoric is on a customary trading flight but suddenly finds itself being vacuumed into another orbit and headed to a planet called Ormin. Donley is excited that the voyage is now reflecting the same incident that led to Mera's disappearance.

As the Meteoric makes a slow gravitational orbit onto Ormin the crew becomes frightened and experiences high levels of panic. However, an odd pulsating sound is introduced from the planet that seems to make the ship's passengers slip into a catatonic state. Donley, an admirable co-hero named Randle, and a Martian are three of a dozen or so passengers and crewmen that aren't affected by the sounds. They coordinate a proper and safe landing on Ormin.

On Ormin, the crew and passengers of the Meteoric travel into a domed city. There they are introduced to Apdar, an Ormin being that explains the planet was divided eons ago into two warring factions. The two factions annihilated the planet with nuclear weapons and half the planet now lives in an underground network of tunnels. The other half remains topside under the safety of the domed enclosure. Apdar's pulsating signal is putting this area of the cosmos into a deep sleep. The reason is that he telepathically can see that the immediate future features a large asteroid or planet colliding with Ormin and killing everyone. To prevent physical and mental pain Apdar is taking it upon himself to end everyone's suffering. Is it a mad power grab? A doomsday cult?

Donley and the crew get a different story from the leader of the underground beings. They see that none of this is actually happening and that Apdar is incorrect. Donley finds his lover as one of the hibernating sleepy people that Apdar has put down. Thankfully, with the help of the underground leaders, Donley has a chance of getting everyone awake again. The different portions of the narrative include Apdar's mission to keep everyone asleep, three rogue crewmen that have committed a heist, Donley's quest to find his lover, and a various chain of events that does rock the planet – just not an apocalyptic one. 

The Doomsday Planet was like an original Star Trek episode. It was presented as if Donley was Captain Kirk trapped on this wacky planet where people submit to an ideology. The book was written during the heights of the Cold War as well as America's segregation based on race. Vincent injects a cautionary warning of big government, nuclear build-up, and the inevitable violence that occurs between classes and races of people. The finale of the book features a “Watcher” type of being that addresses the planet's history and warring factions. This watcher being praises the efforts of both parties to reach an agreement of co-existence by the book's end. It isn't necessarily preachy, but the message is on the nose – get along to get along. 

If you enjoy vintage science-fiction that is breezy, with little mental taxation, then this book should do the trick. It isn't amazing. It isn't abysmal. It's an average read with a page-count of 148. You could do a lot worse. Get it HERE.

Let's Play a Game Show

Let's play a game show! On this exciting new book shopping video, Eric transforms the book shelves, covers, and pricing into a fun interactive game show. You'll be guessing the name of the book and the price through a series of entertaining questions sure to boggle the minds of book collectors, readers, and fans of Paperback Warrior. View below or directly on YouTube HERE.

Men's Adventure Quarterly #11

Believe it or not, Robert Deis and Bill Cunningham are all the way up to issue 11 now of their Men's Adventure Quarterly Magazine. They just keep churning these books out and each one of them is just a real masterpiece of vintage fiction from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. This new issue is available now and I thankfully have my copy. I love the whole UFO and alien thing. I've been following that stuff since I was a little kid watching Unsolved Mysteries on NBC each week and from watching the Sightings show on Fox. Of course, I love the X-Files as well. So, I was happy to see that this new publication is the UFO Issue. 

In the book's introduction, Bob Deis explains the connection between UFO pop-culture and the Men's Adventure-Magazines, which honestly I didn't even realize until I saw this issue was coming out. Deis explains how he grew up in Dayton, Ohio, home of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where the Project Blue Book was headquartered (the U.S. government's official investigation into UFO sightings). Deis traces the public's interest, and awareness, of UFOs to magazine format in the Spring 1948 issue of Fate.  Later, the 1950 issue of True contains one of the most significant stories on UFOs, authored by Major Donald E. Keyhoe, which Deis examines in detail. This issue contains that article in its entirety, which is just fascinating. Deis goes on to outline UFO articles that appeared in Real, Man's Magazine, Saga, and Argosy among others. 

There are amazing magazine covers of various issues of True Strange, an odd men's adventure magazine, with an introduction by Deis for the article "Are They Hiding the Truth About Flying Saucers?" by Frank Edwards. 

Gary Lovisi, who's an amazing voice of vintage fiction, has an article titled "Space Sploitation", which examines the Flying Saucer phenomena as it relates to paperbacks published by the likes of Popular Library, Panther, and Fawcett Gold Medal. 

"The Way-Out World of Mr. Adamski" is an article by W. Douglas Lansford. It first appeared in Climax in October 1961. That article is in its entirety in this issue with an introduction by Deis explaining the history of George Adamski, a man who released a photo of a cigar-shaped UFO to the press in 1947. He claimed he saw 184 UFOs fly over California's Palomar Observatory. 

This book is chock-full of UFO articles, including "UFO Agents of Terror" from an October 1967 issue of Saga which discusses the government's attempts at silencing people that speak out about UFO phenomenon. Another interesting one is "The New Menace of U.S.O.'s" in the November 1974 issue of Male. This talks about the frequent sightings of UFOs being seen underwater. 

Popular British paperback collector Jules Burt has an article in this issue about Gerry Anderson's UFO TV series. He goes into the history of the show and the extension into paperback fiction, comics, and movies. There's also a gallery of actresses from the show. Plus this issue's gallery pages captures a lot of beautiful women that have performed in science-fiction movies like Forbidden Planet, Devil Girl from Mars, and Tarantula.

There is just so much to enjoy in this issue even if you aren't a UFO fan or believer. The vintage artwork, magazine covers, movie posters, actress pin-ups. I mean what's not to like? This is another solid issue and I highly recommend it. 

Get the issue HERE

Paperback Warrior Hits Music City, USA

Is there more than just country music in Music City? Nashville, TN will never be the same when Eric hits an antique mall, Half Price Books, and Landmark Booksellers in search of rare paperbacks. There's book covers, authors, novel history, world famous hot chicken, the iconic Grand 'Ole Opry, and the fake Parthenon in this must-see shopping spree! View below or directly on the YouTube channel HERE.

The Sun Eater #01 - Empire of Silence

Christopher Ruocchio of Raleigh, North Carolina authors giant space opera fantasy novels that his fans and critics cherish. He wrote a six-book (thus far) epic series and related in-universe works under the series name, The Sun Eater with the first volume being the 763-paged Empire of Silence (2018).

Our hero is Hadrian Marlowe who lives in a future long after Earth was evacuated by humans who then colonized the universe. We are told that Hadrian was a hero in a battle against an alien force called the Cielcin that harvested humans for meat as they destroyed entire planets. It was Hadrian that won the war and beat back the aliens by exploding their home star with an impossible ship, cementing his lore as The Sun Eater.

But this act of heroic genocide was in the past. When we join Hadrian, he is living far away from anyone as a recluse. The inhabitants of the Sollan empire assume he is dead, which is the official story. All of this is fronted in Chapter One, and then Hadrian goes back to tell the reader how he got here.

As our narrator, Hadrian takes the reader through his life story, including the childhood lessons from a sword master and the obligatory rivalry with his own brother. He is the son of a wealthy and cold industrialist in the uranium mining business - not glamorous nobility - but a harsh man of business ruling his planet of workers, a place called Delos.

During Hadrian’s young adulthood, the Cielcin were already laying waste to entire planets far from Hadrian’s home. Like distant wars in our own world, Hadrian was able to disassociate atrocities from galaxies far away. As telegraphed in the opening chapter (why do that?) Hadrian’s extended coming of age story and rise to greatness is a windy road to his saving of humanity and destruction of the enemy race.

As a science-fiction space operas and thick fantasy epics go, this one is readable and compelling. The buyer’s market for this genre seems to demand 800-page epics, but Empire of Silence would have been stronger and faster-moving at half the size. Regardless, Ruocchio is a fine author who embraces the “rise to greatness” trope and executes it quite well. Dune and Star Wars and countless other media have told variations of the same plot, but genre fiction relies on these familiar story arcs as comfort food — no penalties assessed.

The downside to Empire of Silence is that it could have been titled, "Hadrian: The Early Years". The novel ends with Hadrian setting off on another adventure for which we may be another six books away from resolving. As good as this first novel was, I may not have the stamina for another 4,000 pages to reach a resolution. We’ll see. 

Get the book HERE.

Deathworld #02 - Deathworld 2 (aka The Ethical Engineer)

In Deathworld, readers were introduced to series star Jason dinAlt, a professional gambler who has psychic powers. By the book's end, Jason is living with his girlfriend on a mining planet called Pyrrus. Deathworld 2 begins on Pyrrus as Jason is watching a vehicle enter the planet's atmosphere and touch down. When he greets the ship he is captured by a crazed man named Mikah. Apparently Jason's casino winnings on the planet Cassylia (taking place in Deathworld) using psychic abilities has made him a wanted fugitive. Mikah's intention was to take Jason to Cassylia so he could pay for his crimes. But, in an attempt to escape, Jason smashes the ship's steering and the craft crashes on a barbarically neanderthal planet. 

Both Mikah and Jason are slaved by a warring clan and are forced to escape. However, their escape leads to another enslavement by a rival clan. Jason then tricks the clan and manages to escape only to be captured again by another rival clan. Do you see where this is going? Jason then manages to escape that clan, bring electricity to a rival clan and send a rescue beacon for a possible rescue. 

There are so many things wrong with Deathworld 2. I contemplate whether Harrison actually wrote this novel as a sequel to Deathworld. Perhaps he wrote the meat and potatoes of this novel and then carefully just changed the main character's name to Jason and added in a page or two at the beginning to bridge the books. This version of Jason doesn't seem to possess any psychic ability, but instead has an abundant knowledge of engineering – something that wasn't elaborated on in the series debut. Jason can create electricity and build spaceships while retooling complex engines and factory machines. If Jason was an engineer of this magnitude then there was really no reason for him to be a professional gambler/criminal in Deathworld. The characterization isn't uniform.  Additionally, Harrison just recycles the basic plot design – capture, trick, escape – repeatedly. There is also an injection of machismo and a philosophical debate on religion and faith. 

As much as I love Harry Harrison's writing style, Deathworld 2 is a real clunker. Skip this book. 

The Island of Doctor Moreau

H.G. Wells (1866-1946) is widely considered the father of science-fiction. He authored over fifty novels, some of which are still being adapted today into mixed media formats. Sci-fi, fantasy, and even horror writers often cite Wells as an influence on their work. His most popular novels include The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), War of the Worlds (1898), and the subject of this review, The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896). 

In the novel's beginning, Edward Prendick and two other passengers board a lifeboat as their passenger ship sinks into the southern Pacific Ocean. Eventually Prendick, a dehydrated starving husk, is the only survivor. A ship spots Prendick and rescues him, but in a wild turn of events Prendick is forced from the vessel and placed in a dinghy where he must face the very real possibility that his terrifying ordeal is recycling. Thankfully, a passenger on the ship named Montgomery takes pity on Prendick and allows him a stay on a very strange island. 

Prendick, who possesses a scientific education, learns that this eight-mile island is a type of laboratory owned by Dr. Moreau. Prendick remembers that he had read about Moreau's macabre experiments in vivisection and his subsequent banishment from England. Here on the island Moreau continues his work with the assistance of Montgomery and a surgically altered manservant named M'ling. 

Wells' narrative submerges Prendick into the Hellish world of a mad scientist with delusions of Godhood. Prendick learns that Moreau is surgically combining humans and animals. Disgusted and frightened he escapes Moreau's compound only to discover that the island hosts Moreau's terrifying lab result – beast folk. These beasts include humans merged with bears, dogs, sloths, hyenas, wolves, and ape. These beast folk have a bestial lust for Moreau which plays havoc on Prendick's escape.

The Island of Doctor Moreau is a horror novel like no other. Wells ignites a sense of terror as Prendick slowly pulls the curtains from Moreau's freakish lab and discovers the nightmarish prison that he has now joined. There's panic and then a heightened frenzy as Prendick attempts to disable Moreau and Montgomery while also becoming a new “god” for the Beast Folk. Wells easily transforms the mood from moments of somber solitude into grueling action and gun play. The finale is a type of role reversal that was fitting for the nature of the story. 

In a time when humans are now receiving animal organs to survive (ex. Towana Looney), The Island of Doctor Moreau is a grotesque vision of the future. Wells was ahead of his time in predicting favorable medical revolutions through painful trial and error. Gene edits and lab-created organs were a thing of the future but Wells was mired in the wonder. The author presents some trigger-points on Darwin's evolution, animal cruelty, and mankind's pursuit of an animal-state of freedom and survival – no gods, no masters. 

The Island of Doctor Moreau is a classic for a reason. Get your copy HERE.

A Short Stay in Hell

A Short Stay in Hell is a 2012 short novel of speculative science-fiction by an evolutionary biologist and philosopher named Steven L. Peck about a guy who goes to a very unusual version of Hell.

Our narrator is Soren Johansson, who lived a perfectly reasonable and ethical life but nonetheless awakens in Hell after his death. At orientation, Soren is informed by a demon that Hell is actually temporary, and he will eventually get to Heaven if he completes an unusual task.

Soren’s Hell is a vast library filled with shelved books as far as the eye can see. Soren’s task is to go through the books and find the one among them that chronicles his life on earth. There are others in the library working on the same task along with Soren.

The setup for a vast library of this nature filled with mostly nonsensical and irrelevant books was borrowed by the author from a 1941 short story from an Argentinian librarian and author Jorge Borges called “The Library of Babel,” but Peck’s version is more of a smart, humorous, and tragic science-fiction meditation on the pitfalls of living forever.

Can the residents of the library work together to use process of elimination to find their biographies? How big is this library, anyway? There’s adventure and sorrow and romance in these pages wrapped in some serious Big Ideas making this one of the finest short novels I’ve ever read. Highest recommendation. 

Get the book HERE.

Paperback Warrior Conversations - Brian G. Berry

Today, Paperback Warrior introduces an exciting new segment to its video and podcast programming called Conversations. In this inaugural episode, Eric sits down with horror author Brian G. Berry to discuss his action-adventure, horror, and science-fiction novels, his unique writing style inspired by cult cinema and trash VHS, and the recent controversy surrounding his novel's removal from store shelves and his dismissal from Encyclopocalypse Publications. Stream the audio portion only HERE. Watch the visual version HERE or stream below:

Stainless Steel Rat #01 - The Stainless Steel Rat

One of Harry Harrison's most successful series titles was the Stainless Steel Rat. The first published Stainless Steel Rat novel occurred in 1961. The series ran through 2010 with a total of 12 installments. Loving Harrison's series To the Stars as well as his Brion Brandd hero, I decided I needed to explore another of Harrison's titles. As a newbie to SSR, I decided to read the series debut simply titled The Stainless Steel Rat.

In a far-flung future world, James di Griz operates as a smooth criminal traveling solar systems and planetscapes searching for the next heist. In many ways he's no different than any criminal found in the books by Dan Marlowe, Donald Westlake, or Lionel White. He's a cool operator with a penchant for highly stressful and highly productive payoffs. But, where does the rat thing come from exactly? Here's how Harrison cleverly describes the series title and structure:

“Some don't show their weakness until they are adults, they are the ones who try their hand at petty crime – burglary, shoplifting, or such. They get away with it for a week or two or a month or two, depending on the degree of their native intelligence. But sure as atomic decay – and just as predestined – the police reach out and pull them in. That is almost the full extent of crime in our organized dandified society. Ninety-nice percent of it, let's say. It is that last and vital one percent that keeps the police departments in business. That one percent is me, and a handful of men scattered around the galaxy. Theoretically we can't exist, and if we do exist we can't operate – but we do. We are the rats in the wainscoting of society – we operate outside of their barriers and outside of their rules. Society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as the old wooden buildings had more rats than the concrete buildings that came later. But they still had rats. Now that society is all ferronconcrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps between the joints, and it takes a smart rat to find them. A stainless steel rat is right at home in this environment.”

The beginning of the novel has diGriz knocking over an armored car full of money. Just when he thinks he has perfected the heist he is nabbed by the cops. They appreciate his criminal mind so much, and his historical reign of terror, that they make him a free man in exchange for working for The Special Corps. This is a branch of the League (that's space law) that takes care of the troubles that individual planets can't solve. What better asset to the cause than a criminal?

The first assignment for diGriz is the investigation of a mysterious battleship that is being secretly constructed on a peaceful planet in a tranquil part of space. diGriz's attempts to stop the construction leads to a conflict with a female mastermind of equal dexterity – a sexy seductress named Angelina. She's in the midst of creating a unheard of revolution on a peaceful planet free from problems. When diGriz abandons the Corps to go after Angelina alone it sets off a wild series of interstellar adventures that are perfectly penned by Harrison. 

Anyone worth their salt can see rave reviews online for the Stainless Steel Rat series. I'm here to tell you that all of their applause and approval is justified. This novel is just delightful in its simple plot, furious action, hilarious political intrigue, and the introduction of a marvelous literary character. The Stainless Steel Rat rings a crime-fiction bell complete with genre tropes made bigger and more outlandish with spaceships and planetary travels. If this debut is any indication, then this series is going to be a fantastic reading experience. I'm distancing myself from reading them all back to back. Good things come to those who...well you know what I mean. Highly recommended! Get the book HERE.

The Body Snatchers

Author Jack Finney (1911-1995) authored a number of short stories for glossy magazines like Collier's and Cosmopolitan. His career kick-started when he won a literary award from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. His first novel was 5 Against the House, originally published as a serial in Good Housekeeping in 1953 and compiled into a novel in 1954. He followed that success a year later with what is arguably his most well-known work, The Body Snatchers. It was originally published in Collier's from November through December of 1954 and then as a Dell hardcover novel in 1955. The book was such a hit that it was adapted into a film in 1956 using the familiar title Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It would be adapted to film three more times through 2007.

The Body Snatchers takes place in the northern California county of Marin. The main character is a twenty-something divorced doctor named Miles. In the beginning of the book Miles receives an office visit from an an old high-school flame named Becky. She is also divorced and the two still have a romantic chemistry. Becky is worried and explains to Miles that her cousin believes that the man claiming to be her uncle is no longer really her uncle. He looks the same, acts the same, talks the same....but something is just different. 

Later, Miles receives more patients claiming that there friends or loved ones have been replaced by an identical person (or thing!). Miles feels this is all ridiculous and could be linked to hysteria. But, he visits a guy named Jack and the narrative then takes a spin into some really dark places. 

Inside Jack's home, Miles discovers a nude body draped upon a pool table. Oddly, the body doesn't have any identifying features, as if it is still in the process of being formed or made. Jack shockingly claims that the body was infant-sized a few hours before Miles arrival. The idea is that this body is growing to eventually become a duplicate of Jack or his wife. 

Eventually Jack, Jack's wife, Miles, and Becky find seed pods around town that suggest aliens are being created to look like humans in an attempt to integrate themselves secretly into human society. The narrative's first half is built on shock, awe, and suspenseful discovery. The concept is mysterious and spirals into a paranoid sense that the town is consumed by alien beings. 

The second half of the book is a frenzied plot-development as the characters find themselves in a fight or flight situation as they prepare to leave town. Miles, again as a doctor, feels that it is his obligation and oath to protect the town. Together with Becky, he eventually talks with the alien impostors to discover their overall plan. 

As much as I loved this book and the characters, the ending was extremely disappointing. This is a common complaint with anyone who has read this book. Finney just doesn't stick the landing and it doesn't have a suitable ending. His scientific explanation for the aliens arrival doesn't make any sense when you compare it to the book's ending. But, nonetheless it doesn't ruin the entertainment factor.

There are essays and detailed reviews of this book everywhere and one can journey down any rabbit hole to find influences and critical praise of the book's underlying message. As a fan of Finney's heist novels, I've noticed that the author often creates characters that wish to be something they are not. Often young characters will dream of being wealthy and independent which spurs them into committing crimes before facing defeat, rejection, and guilt. In many ways this book has that same central theme as the alien impostors explain how things are different (better?) when the humans give into the transfer of losing themselves to become this alien form. There is also quick references about the town planning on revitalization with a proposed interstate that will bring with it more traffic and commerce. Also, Miles complains that the replacement of the town's telephone operator for an automated system seems to be a sign that humanity is replacing itself. I loved the subtext that Finney injects into his narrative. 

You owe it to yourself to read The Body Snatchers. Despite the ending, the book is frightening, thrilling, and influential to many of the “invasion” angles you see with science-fiction and horror genres to this day. Highest possible recommendation.