Leigh Brackett

A FICTION HOUSE PRESS REPRINT: Grimly Eric John Stark slogged toward that ancient Martian city-with every step he cursed the talisman of Ban Cruach that flamed in his blood-stained belt Behind him screamed the hordes of Ciaran, hungering for that magic jewel-ahead lay the dread abode of the Ice Creatures-at his side stalked the whispering spectre of Ban Cruach, urging him on to a battle Stark knew he must lose!

"Enchantress of Venus" continues the planetary adventures of mercenary Eric John Stark, one of Leigh Brackett's most iconic creations. Eric John Stark arrives on Venus in search of his friend, Halvi. Approaching the town of Shuruun he is ambushed & falls overboard, and eventually makes his way to the town. But there is something mysterious happening in Shruun, and it seems the Lhari--the elite rulers & slavemasters of the town--are at the center of it. Can Stark find his friend and save the townsfolk, while preventing the rulers from unearthing dangers from Venus' ancient past? It will take all his abilities to incite a successful rebellion when the very townsfolk consider him untrustworthy.

A stunning novel of a post-nuclear world by one of SF's early greats. Introduction by Pat Cadigan.

Armchair Fiction presents extra large paperback editions of classic science fiction double novels, complete with original illustrations. The first novel, "Operation Square Peg," is a gripping account by Frank Belknap Long and Irving W. Lande of Earth's battle against an alien invasion. Earth's forces had finally seemed to gain the upper hand over the invading alien forces. Then one day the Enemy devised a new weapon and Earth's space pilots began succumbing to wild, irrational fear while in the midst of combat. The second novel, "Enchantress of Venus," tells of love lost and found by Leigh Brackett. She cast him down into the hideous depths, beneath the seas of flaming gas, to where dead blossoms swayed, whispering, over strangely jumbled ruins... But there he found the secret of her power, and came surging back-up from the depths, from the slime, the tortured swamps-to storm her forbidden temple and seek her within.

Mel Gray flung down his hoe with a sudden tigerish fierceness and stood erect. Tom Ward, working beside him, glanced at Gray's Indianesque profile, the youth of it hardened by war and the hells of the Eros prison blocks.A quick flash of satisfaction crossed Ward's dark eyes. Then he grinned and said mockingly."Hell of a place to spend the rest of your life, ain't it?"Mel Gray stared with slitted blue eyes down the valley. The huge sun of Mercury seared his naked body. Sweat channeled the dust on his skin. His throat ached with thirst. And the bitter landscape mocked him more than Wade's dark face."The rest of my life," he repeated softly. "The rest of my life "He was twenty-eight.Wade spat in the damp black earth. "You ought to be glad -- helping the unfortunate, building a haven for the derelict. . . ."