A Science fiction novel

When the first moon-bound rocket blasted off from the Earth's space station in 1983, it was as ready for every eventuality as scientists and engineers could make it. But neither the crew nor the authorities were prepared for the last-minute switch in the ship's complement that upset carefully planned replacement schedules. Instead of a highly trained Air Force Academy graduate as the fifth man in the pioneering crew, the inaugural rocket headed into space with teen-age Ted Baker, an Academy senior. Around a tragic misunderstanding, Richard Marsten has traced a tale of high excitement from the Earth's gleaming satellite space station to the ragged surface of a hostile Moon. His story of how a teen-ager crash lands a crippled ship on the Moon, far from its base of supplies, is not only an unexcelled description of space flight but a tense personal drama of a young man who proves his worth to a hostile crew. A thousand-mile trek on foot across the face of the Moon, the discovery of organic matter on the planet's airless surface, the slow depletion of irreplaceable supplies, the effect of the Sun on a planet that lacks atmosphere, stud this story of a strained relationship between stranded crew members with fascinating detail. Climaxed with a rocket blastoff that vindicates the judgment of one young earthling, ROCKET TO LUNA is as gripping a flight into space and the future as any contemporary author has written.

Taken from the cover flap of the novel SON OF THE STARS by Raymond F. Jones: "This person is not even human. It's impossible for me to diagnose the injury or illness of such a structure as his!" With these words and a worried frown, Doc Smithers sums up the case of the strange creature that lay on Ron Barron's bed. For the boy, Clonar, is like nothing earth's medical books have ever cataloged. And the day Ron Barron found him, staggering away from the wrecked metal disk that lay hidden near Longview, is one that put earth's existence in jeopardy! In SON OF THE STARS, Raymond Jones has written of a forthright friendship between a young castaway from space and his earthly counterpart. How a cold and suspicious military, recognizing Clonar only as an alien from an astonishingly advanced civilization, turns friendship into treachery that threatens earth's existence, makes this an electrifying story with a thought-provoking theme. In scenes uncomfortably vivid, you'll meet soldiers and citizens of a typical American city; people like calculating General Gillispie and frightened Mrs. Barron, whose reactions to an "interplanetary" situation bring the world to the brink of destruction. Clonar's words, "They're coming to destroy your world!" refer to a planet whose wars and strife might shortly spread to other worlds. Climaxed with a scene of power and drama unmatched in science fiction, SON OF THE STARS is a breath-taking book you won't put down until the very last page - and won't be able to forget until men reach the stars and learn for themselves!

It wasn't his ship, or his job, or his problem ... but suddenly Jerry Blaine was behind the controls of Earth's Last Hope and blasting off for the galaxy's most savage space race. His brother Dick had planned to be the rocket jockey in the family, but a freak accident had taken him out of the running, leaving only Jerry to carry on. Now, speeding from planet to planet, moon to moon, wrestling with dangerous unknown forces of space and attempting to outwit the invidious Martian contenders, Jerry realized that what was at stake was more than a racing championship for Earth...what was at stake was his life!

On the day that the theft of the solar system's light begins, Burl Denning is with an archaeological expedition in the Andes, only a few miles from the source of the "disturbance." Within hours the United States Air Force has ordered the expedition to investigate the strange phenomenon that is causing a dimness and a drop in temperature throughout the world. This is the start of a fantastic adventure that eventually takes Burl, a high-school senior, on the first circumnavigation of the solar system. On planet after planet, he and the crew of the Magellan, a gleaming, powerful, and virtually untested spaceship, discover the weird trappings of a brilliantly-designed Sun-tap station. Each planetfall brings unexpected hazards, as the ship draws closer and closer to solving the mystery of the theft. The author has based his story on science fact. Researchers are actually at work on the possibilities of just such a circumnavigation, and on another surprising theory brought out in this book. Donald Wollheim, an established science fiction writer, is the author of THE SECRET OF SATURN'S RINGS and THE SECRET OF THE MARTIAN MOONS.

When a planet, moving faster than Earth, entered the Solar System out beyond Pluto, the reporters, for want of a better name, termed it "Planet X." "Planet X, that astronomical curiosity," became, in a few short weeks, an object of stark terror to the billions of men scattered on the planets around our Sun, from blazing Mercury to frigid Pluto. To Bob Griffith's father, Commander of the Ninth Wing of the Solar Federation's Space Navy, fell the task of investigating the strange visitor whose black ships moved through space without rocket exhaust, and whose weapons literally melted spaceships out of the heavens. As his father's aid, aboard the gleaming LANCE OF DEIMOS that led the reconnaissance fleet, Bob watched in horror the first incident that would start a war which the Solar Federation "could not win." This gripping tale that rockets from Neptune's tiny moon of Outpost, base of the Federation's Navy, to the orbit of an Earth threatened with destruction, features a young space cadet and his father, who, while preparing for war, desperately search for peace. How Bob Griffith finds himself a captive on the mysterious planet, Thule; details of life on a world that has learned how to overcome the forces of gravity and momentum; the discussions that rage over the acceptance of a "wandering planet" into the Solar alliance come alive in a book that vividly creates a troubled era in a fascinating universe of the future!

When the strange hourglass-shaped time machine crashed out of the twentieth century and into the Caribbean Sea of fourteen hundred years ago, Neil Falsen realized how unprepared he was to head the expedition that his father had organized back through time. Of the four men who had flown through centuries to solve the mystery of an ancient Mayan god, two had died in the shattering crash. Only Neil and ship's pilot Dave remained to cope with the language and customs of a people who had disappeared into the darkness of history. It was confusing enough not to know which century the machine had fallen into. But Neil was sure his eyes were playing tricks when he spotted a Norse ship cutting proudly through southern seas. How ancient Vikings, Mayas and two twentieth-century Americans met - and fought - amid the splendors of a civilization that today dots the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico with its ruins, makes a tale as unique in telling as it is in content. In scenes that throb with drama and thunder with excitement, Dave and Neil found frightening evidence of the approaching Mayan collapse. With a common modern device, Neil stepped into a tense religious ceremony to prevent human sacrifice. Without realizing it, he discovered the secret of the white god among the Mayan Indian dieties. One of history's most intriguing suppositions forms the basis for this tale of the secret behind the legend of a lost civilization.