You Can't Escape from Mars / The Man with Five Lives

Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel “You Can’t Escape From Mars” is a terrific tale by E.K. Jarvis. For space jockey Jerry Utah, putting the new spaceship through its testing phase was nothing unusual. But, when he unexpectedly saw a beautiful woman’s face through the viewport, he lost control and crashed—on Phobos, a moon no one was welcome on. There was something was wrong on this tiny Martian satellite—and Utah was in a perfect position to find out just what it was. The Martian Priests, who ruled the Red planet itself, also held this little moon in a grip of deadly fear with strict customs and an iron-clad policy of no interference. But what were the priests so keen on protecting? What secrets lay hidden on Phobos’ pock-marked surface? Utah knew his curiosity might get him into trouble, so instead of helping him, the Priests were going to kill him. However, something Utah said changed their minds. It would be much more entertaining for them to keep him alive…for now. The second novel “The Man With Five Lives” is from the man who gave us “Empire of Jegga,” David V. Reed. Don’t try to figure out what this means without reading the story. You’ll understand it (maybe) by the time you get to the last chapter. “The Man with Five Lives” may well be one of the strangest science fiction novels ever written. It deals with the evil that lies within the souls of all men and man’s attempt to expel this evil (albeit accidentally) through scientific means. This tale was the brainchild of David V. Reed (David Levine) one of editor Raymond A. Palmer’s best writers for his pulp magazine, Fantastic Adventures. In many ways this tale is a precursor to the Richard Shaver stories that Palmer championed so fiercely in the mid-to-late 1940s. Reed and Palmer present this tale as being essentially “true.” The lead character is a fellow named Clyde Woodruff. The author of the story (as first published) was also Clyde Woodruff—a pseudonym Dave Reed would use more than once. Palmer himself is one of the central characters and actually wrote one of the later chapters. This tale is filled with scientific speculation and enough mystery and intrigue to fill a dozen whodunits. In its own weird way, “The Man with Five Lives” is a very engaging and entertaining opus, and certainly one of the most bizarre tales Armchair Fiction has ever published.


Genre: Science Fiction