Three short story collections and one novel from my Texan hunting grounds.  I enjoyed Merril’s short story collection Daughters of Earth (1968) so I quickly snatched up another…  I’ve been disappointed with Brian M. Stableford before but multiple fellow readers have claimed that The Halcyon Drift (1972) is worth reading.  We shall see…  And one can never have too many Sheckley and Anderson short stories…

1. Out of Bounds, Judith Merril (1960)

(John Schoenherr’s cover for the 1963 edition)

From the back cover: “These… Tommy, he wasn’t going to take “No” for an answer — not when he could read minds where the answer was always “Yes.”…  Anita, aloe on a spaceship with five me — and she knew what she was there for… Joe, he met the aliens head-on, and discovered what they were really like — too late… Edna, her husband was dead — but livelier than he’d ever been!  Margaret, she lived in heartbreak — but never knew it… and many others.”

2. Homeward and Beyond, Poul Anderson (1975)

(Richard Powers’ cover for the 1976 edition)

No blurb on back cover or inside flap.

3. Notions: Unlimited, Robert Sheckley (1960)

(Uncredited cover for the 1960 edition)

From the back cover of a later edition: “Notions: unlimited, human beings wired for spontaneous love… Machines intercepting murderers before they kill… An organization that makes hangover nightmares come true..  A killer organism that feeds on atom bombs and thrives on being blown up from time to time!”

4. The Halcyon Drift, Brian M. Stableford (1972)

(Jack Gaughan’s cover for the 1972 edition)

From the back cover: “S. O. S. From the Dark Nebula.  Grainger had acquired a second mind — he didn’t want it and it had never asked him for permission.  But the disembodied mentalism had invaded his brain during the crack space pilot’s castaway months on the edge of the Halcyon Drift.  The Halcyon Drift was a dark nebula within whose electronic chaos the laws of physics were distorted that space ships could not explore within its vast borders without near-certain catastrophe.  But somewhere within the cosmic darkness was the steady distress signal of a vessel lost many years before — a vessel laden with a treasure cargo that could make its finders powerful and wealthy.  And it could be that Grainger’s mental parasite might be the means by which he alone could penetrate the impenetrable.”