The Skylark of Space and Skylark Three by E.E. "Doc" Smith (Pyramid, 1970)

I went to a charity book fair the other weekend.  Someone had evidently been keen on traditional space opera, because I managed to find a number of vintage paperbacks containing early science fiction reprints:

IT STARTED ON EARTH...

Scientist Richard Seaton had discovered the secret of complete release of ultimate energy--the key to exploration of the Universe.  The powerful, unscrupulous DuQuesne, backed by a great industrial combine, tried every means to gain the secret.

... it ended in space, when Seaton, DuQuesne, and three others--two of them women--were marooned, countless light-years from Earth, with only one chance in a million of ever returning!

OSNOME

The first of the mighty Skylark spacecraft took Dick Seaton and Mart Crane on a fantastic tour of the galaxy and to the strange planet of Osnome.  Skylark Two returned them to Earth.  Now in this next adventure, they voyage again to Osnome to meet the deadly threat of war.

On the way, in the deeps of space, Seaton and Crane meet an alien spaceship.  From it they discover a danger more deadly and immediate than any planetary battle.  In a desperate race to mobilize the scientific talent of a score of planets, Seaton makes himself into a "superman" of knowledge and drives toward his goal of building the greatest spaceship of all time--Skylark Three!

Look up in the sky!  It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... a cosmic beach ball!  Seventies cover art meets very old-fashioned space opera, of the sort where men wield "rays" and women need rescuing.   

Rogue Roman by Lance Horner (Pan, 1970)

Found on a dusty shelf in the Green Shed:

 

Imperial Rome--centre of the world--throbbing with the white heat of violence, bloodshed and uninhibited sexuality...

Bought as an actor, kidnapped by pirates, sold as a gladiator, young Cleon's beauty and flagrant masculinity made every woman--harlots and Vestal Virgins alike--desire him.

And passion drives Cleon to help destroy a Caesar who combined the vices of his predecessors with his own special perversions--the Emperor Nero.

Soft-core sixties smut, with a plot revolving around a hero whose main attribute is... the size of his, um, main attribute:

Contux took a firmer grip on the cloth and yanked.  There was a ripping sound and the hand came away with the front of Cleon's tunic clutched in the swollen fingers...  "I take it back.  He's more than a man - he's a true stallion.  He was shouting the words and waving the cloth for all to see.

(Page 125) 

Why am I suddenly reminded of Biggus Dickus?

What Happened to the Corbetts by Nevil Shute (Pan, 1970)

 

When war came to Southampton, no one expected it to be like this - least of all the Corbetts.  Their home a ruin without gas, electricity or water, no milk for the baby, typhoid and cholera a daily threat, and bombs from the sky a nightly terror.

In a desperate attempt to save their children, Joan and Peter begin a heart-stirring journey that exchanges the dangers on land for the darkness and waste of the sea...

Written in 1938, this moving and dramatic novel of simple heroism shows a master storyteller and modern prophet at his irresistible best.

This is an oddity--a "future war" story about the Second World War... published a year before the actual war began.  So it's interesting to read this in hindsight and compare it with real life events--which were both better and worse than depicted here.  Better, because British civilians were better prepared for the Blitz and subsequent upheavals when the bombing eventually began.  Worse, because the author clearly didn't imagine how ruthless the Nazis would be and how quickly they'd steamroller over Europe.  (It's quite clear from the text that Europe is not under enemy occupation when the attack on Britain begins.)

One last really strange thing to note--though it's quite clear who the author sees as "the enemy" in this book, they are never named!