Skylark of Valeron and Skylark DuQuesne by E.E. "Doc" Smith (Pyramid, 1967)

The last two volumes in the "Skylark Series"!

STAR WANDERER

As the mighty spaceship Skylark roved the intergalactic world, scientist Richard Seaton and his companions uncovered a world of disembodied intelligences.  A world of four dimensions where time was insanely distorted and matter obeyed no terrestial laws... where three-dimensional intellects were barely sufficient to thwart invisible mentalities!

My Ally, The Enemy

Dick Seaton and Marc DuQuesne are the deadliest enemies in the Universe -- their feud has blazed among the stars and changed the history of a thousand planets.  but now a threat from outside the Galaxy drives them into a dangerous alliance as hordes of strange races drive to a collision with mankind!

Seaton and DuQuesne fight and slave side by side to fend off the invasion -- as Seaton keeps constant, perilous watch for DuQuesne's inevitable double-cross!

More adventures of Dick Seaton and his merry chums, as they blithely invent new and improved weapons of mass destruction and impulsively leap into interstellar wars.  I could suggest that this is a metaphor for something--but instead I'll just say that the Boys' Own Adventure style of this series and some of the views expressed by the author jarred upon my modern sensibilities.

Like the previous two books in the Skylark series I bought these at the Woden Seniors' Club book fair.  They were printed a few years earlier than The Skylark of Space and Skylark Three and it shows in the cover design.  It also shows in the cover price--which rose by a whole fifteen cents between 1967 and 1970!

The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge (Pyramid, 1973)

The clouds of civil war hovered ominously over England in 1642, as Puritan and Royalist forces gathered for bitter battle.  Caught in the midst of tumultuous events, the characters in Miss Goudge's gripping novel act out a compelling drama of intrigue and timeless romance.

Awww, look at the groovy people on the cover of this book.  She is wearing Biba and blue eyeshadow.  He has carefully styled and blow-dried hair and looks like he bought his outfit in King's Road.  They're clearly a happening couple from the 1970s.

--Wait a minute.  You're telling me that the story takes place in 1642?

Now this is an example of egregiously generic cover art: it could have been slapped on any paperback romance (and probably was).  I can hazard a guess who the people on the cover are meant to be, but they don't really resemble any of the characters in the book.  It's a pity: the author is better than average, and certainly didn't write the standard kind of hack work usually published in paperbacks of this kind.