A nice mix with some gorgeous Powers’ covers—some 30s + 50s pulp, three novellas in one of only a handful of female SF author anthologies ever published, and another John Brunner novel for my extensive collections (it’s an expanded novel from one of his earlier pulp works, hopefully he improved the original version).
Enjoy!
1. After Worlds Collide, Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer (1933)
(Richard Powers’ cover for the 1963 edition)
From the back cover: “When the group of survivors from Earth landed on Bronson Beta, they expected absolute desolation. This Earth-like planet from another universe had been hurtling through space, cold and utter darkness for countless millennia. All life should have perished millions of years ago. But the Earth-people found a breathtakingly beautiful city, encased in a huge, transparent metal bubble; magnificent apartments filled with every luxury; food for a lifetime in the vast, empty kitchens; but with no trace either of life—or death. Then the humans learned they were not alone on Bronson Beta…”
2. The Crystal Ship (three novellas: Vonda N. McIntrye + Marta Randall + Joan D. Vinge), ed. Robert Silverberg (1976) (MY REVIEW)
(Norman Adams’ cover for the 1977 edition)
From the back cover: “THE CRYSTAL SHIP. High over their home planet, a decadent, dying, drugged, and oblivious people hover in a huge crystal spacecraft, while below their inheritors, a new and alien race, battle for supremacy against forces of fear and superstition. MEGAN’S WORLD. The primitive planet of Taebish, where a feline race still fights with spears and worships bloodthirsty gods, should have been easy for the advanced Terrans to invade and plunder. Yet their plans go awry when a bionic woman takes the side of these alien people against her own. SCREWTOP. Isolated on a steaming, black and red prison planet, where survival was a game of chance and no one ever won, three ill-assorted beings learn to love and struggle for life.”
3. The Time Dissolver, Jerry Sohl (1957)
(Richard Powers’ cover for the 1957 edition)
From the back cover: “AT THE SUMMIT OF SCIENCE FICTION. A man awakens with a clear memory of his date the night before. He rises to go on about his business as usual—finds he is in a room he has never seen before. He looks in the mirror… it is his face he sees, all right—but ages! He went to sleep on May 15th of one year. He awoke the next day as expected—but eleven years later! The woman in the bed beside him awakens also—in terror at the sight of him. She too went to sleep on May 15… NEITHER HAS SEEN THE OTHER IN HIS LIFE.”
4. Age of Miracles (expanded from: Age of the Star Cities), John Brunner (1973)
(Uncredited—looks like Dean Ellis—cover for the 1973 edition)
From the back cover: “When suddenly all the fissionable material on Earth was exploded, Earthmen had their fist notice of the aliens’ arrival. And by the time the panic, death and chaos had all been sorted out, reports were coming in about mysterious cities scattered across the face of the planet—huge areas of flickering light and awesome free energy, disorienting to human senses and impregnable to attack. THE QUESTION WAS: WERE THEY ALIEN BASES… OR SOMETHING ELSE?”