THE GAME OF WORLDS
"I'll beat you the second game," was the Earthman's challenge to the planet Velda - whose culture was indeed based on a complicated super-chess of skill and concentration. A Human and a Veldian could meet over a game board, but was there any other ground for understanding?
For the code of Velda was strange and savage, based on a concept of honor no Earthman could comprehend. The men were warriors and the women were - mysteries.
One world was challenging a galaxy, as one man was challenging that world. And in the contest for a universe, would there be a second game?
About Vintage Paperback Pulp Fiction:
A new revolution was underway at the start of the 1940s in America - a paperback revolution that would change the way publishers would produce and distribute books and the reading public would consume them. In 1939 a new publishing company - Pocket Books - stormed onto the scene with the publication of its first paperbound book. Unlike hardback books, these pulp paperbacks were inexpensive and readily available everywhere. The American public could not get enough of them.
During the 1940s, mysteries and romances were the hot sellers. In the early 1950s, new pulp fiction subgenres emerged - science fiction, westerns, gay & lesbian fiction, juvenile delinquent and "sleaze", for instance - that would tantalize readers with gritty, realistic and lurid stories never seen before. Publishers soon came to realize that sex sells. In a competitive frenzy for readers, they turned from straightforward "tasteful" cover images to alluring covers that frequently featured a sexy woman in some form of undress, along with a suggestive tag line that promised stories of sex and violence within the covers. To this day, the pulp cover art of these vintage paperback books is just as sought after as the books themselves were sixty years ago.
We are excited to make these wonderful pulp fiction stories available in ebook format to new generations of readers, as a new revolution - the ebook revolution - is in full swing. We hope you will enjoy this nostalgic look back at a period in American history when dames were dangerous, tough-guys were deadly and dolls were downright delicious.
"I'll beat you the second game," was the Earthman's challenge to the planet Velda - whose culture was indeed based on a complicated super-chess of skill and concentration. A Human and a Veldian could meet over a game board, but was there any other ground for understanding?
For the code of Velda was strange and savage, based on a concept of honor no Earthman could comprehend. The men were warriors and the women were - mysteries.
One world was challenging a galaxy, as one man was challenging that world. And in the contest for a universe, would there be a second game?
About Vintage Paperback Pulp Fiction:
A new revolution was underway at the start of the 1940s in America - a paperback revolution that would change the way publishers would produce and distribute books and the reading public would consume them. In 1939 a new publishing company - Pocket Books - stormed onto the scene with the publication of its first paperbound book. Unlike hardback books, these pulp paperbacks were inexpensive and readily available everywhere. The American public could not get enough of them.
During the 1940s, mysteries and romances were the hot sellers. In the early 1950s, new pulp fiction subgenres emerged - science fiction, westerns, gay & lesbian fiction, juvenile delinquent and "sleaze", for instance - that would tantalize readers with gritty, realistic and lurid stories never seen before. Publishers soon came to realize that sex sells. In a competitive frenzy for readers, they turned from straightforward "tasteful" cover images to alluring covers that frequently featured a sexy woman in some form of undress, along with a suggestive tag line that promised stories of sex and violence within the covers. To this day, the pulp cover art of these vintage paperback books is just as sought after as the books themselves were sixty years ago.
We are excited to make these wonderful pulp fiction stories available in ebook format to new generations of readers, as a new revolution - the ebook revolution - is in full swing. We hope you will enjoy this nostalgic look back at a period in American history when dames were dangerous, tough-guys were deadly and dolls were downright delicious.
Used availability for Katherine MacLean's Cosmic Checkmate