Vulcan's Hammer by Philip K. Dick / The Skynappers by John Brunner (Ace 1960)

The thing about the Lifeline Bookfairs is you never know what you're going to find.  So my heart skipped a beat and I think I gave a little "squee!" of happiness when I visited the bookfair one time and found rows of Ace Doubles spread out on the science fiction table:

CHOOSE - THE DEADLY TRUTH OR THE VITAL LIE!

Vulcan 3 was the supreme head of Unity, the perfect world government that had evolved out of chaos and war.  Vulcan 3 was rational, objective and unbiased ... as only a machine could be!

Theoretically there should have been nothing but peace under such a rule--and for a century or so there was.  Until the crackpots, the superstitious, the religious fanatics found themselves a new leader to follow.

Then the discontent began to explode again.  But this time there was a third side involved, a machine that could not accept any emotional viewpoints.  The people of the world began to realize that they had created a vicious paradox: they had to make peace between themselves or be stamped out by the ever-growing claws of VULCAN's HAMMER.

(Need I point out that you don't strike things with the claws of a hammer?)

 

PAWN OF THE STAR PLOTTERS

When Ivan Wright stepped out of his mountain cabin, rifle in hand, to investigate the sound of a strange helicopter, he stepped right into the middle of a galactic crisis.

For the crew of that odd aircraft were not men such as he'd ever seen before--and when he tried to oppose them, he found himself hurled uncontrollably into oblivion.

He awoke to find himself considered a kidnapped barbarian from a backward planet in a galaxy of advanced civilizations--yet one who somehow held in his own hands the ey to all their futures!

Everyone has heard of Philip K. Dick.  All his books are still in print (even the ones that haven't been made into movies).  So I'm going to write about John Brunner instead...

 In the late 60s and early 70s John Brunner started writing highly regarded, socially and environmentally aware science fiction (Stand on Zanzibar won a Hugo Award, and  The Sheep Look Up and The Jagged Orbit were both nominated for Nebulas).  However I must confess to a decided... affection for the space operas he wrote earlier.  (Many of them were published as Ace Doubles.)   Brunner didn't suddenly start writing well in the late sixties--he honed his skills producing potboilers from the early fifties onward.  So yay! for well-written escapism.  These books are excellent entertainment if you can get your hands on them.