Success (i.e. infrequent purchases)!  Only three new but unknown/fascinating/and potentially interesting) acquisitions to report….

1. The Alien Way (1965), Gordon R. Dickson (MY REVIEW HERE)

I’ve not read any of Gordon R. Dickson’s substantial corpus of novels.  Yes, I need to pick up a copy of his classic work Dorsai! but, military sci-fi has never been one of my fascinations…  The Alien Way is considered a minor classic and thus, in my opinion, a good place to start.  I’ll eventually get to his most famous works after I appraise his lesser ones….

From the back cover: “This extraordinary science-fiction novel is about Earth’s first contact with aliens from Deep Space — in 2007 A. D.!  The Ruml People were highly intelligent creatures with an elaborate civilization and technology.  They had already overrun six worlds in other solar systems, exterminated the native life and colonized these planets.  But an ordinary citizen of Earth, Jason Barchar was able to penetrate the mind, think the thoughts, see the sights, feel the sensations of one f the Ruml People — the leader of the expedition which intended to conquer Earth.  So Jason Barchar had his chance to save Earth for humans — if he had time!  For the Ruml people had already dropped their spies in our world — soon they would invade!”

2. Missing Man (1975), Katherine MacLean (MY REVIEW HERE)

Katherine MacLean won a 1971 Nebula for her novella version of her novel, Missing Man.  I’m looking forward to her novel version…

From the back cover:  “George Sanford’s only talent seems to be an odd capacity for guessing rich the first time.  His childhood friends grew up advanced in school and in jobs.  But George couldn’t score well on tests, and there weren’t any jobs in The City for people like George.  Aimless, a near derelict, George meets his old friend Ahmed, now of The City’s Rescue Squad, and is swept up in the excitement of a hunt for a missing girl.  It is George who finds her, with his strange talent.  And thus begins his perilous odyssey — which will come to climax when he is captured by a near-insane young genius using George’s powers for the destruction of The City.”

3. Down To Earth (variant title: Antic Earth) (1967), Louis Charbonneau (MY REVIEW HERE)

I’ve never heard of this author — the cover is amazing — the premise intriguing — the internet yields few clues — wonderful fodder for my pen!!!

From the back cover: “The Earth was little more than a memory for them — a memory stretching over time and the black abyss of space, a memory kept alive by the huge, three-dimensional images sent up to save them from the madness of their isolation.  Everything had been arranged to protect their bodies and their minds, this family of four, alone on a tiny planet in the outer galaxy.  But one day, first insignificantly, then ever more unmistakably, the elaborate machinery began to show flaws.  And what had a first seemed inexplicable accident, inexorably began to reveal itself in all its grotesque, horrifying truth… A chilling, fantastically realistica novel of the others worlds of the future.”