The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov (Panther, 1958)

A gift from a friend who knows me far too well:

 

A CRIME THAT COULD INFLAME A GALAXY...

A Spaceman--a specialist in robotics--has been murdered.  Lije Baley, a plain-clothesman of his age, combs the huge cave of steel for a lone fanatic, for a murderer--for the solution to an almost perfect crime.

One of the two men on the cover is a robot—I'm not sure, but I think it is the one who is unconscious.  Don't quote me on that, though!

Isaac Asimov was one of the Big Three names of the "golden age" of science fiction (the others were Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein).  Asimov is most famous for inventing the Three (fictional) Laws of Robotics:
  

"A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law."

 In The Caves of Steel he combines a science fiction novel with a detective story, a combination of genres that for some reason seldom works.  And yet it works in this one.  I put it down to the fact Asimov creates an interesting futuristic setting for his story, then makes it integral to that story rather than using it as window-dressing.  His detectives move through an overcrowded urban world where people huddle under domes and hate and fear the outdoors—and robots.  It's an almost film noir-ish setup—except Asimov was far too prissy and logically-minded to indulge in the sort of sex and violence common in most hardboiled fiction!

Need I add that one of the detectives is a robot and the resolution of this mystery lies in the world outside the domes?

I have another copy of this—also a Panther Book—but alas, it was published in the 1970s, and the cover isn't nearly as interesting.

The Escape Orbit by James White (Ace, 1965)

One of my Lifeline Bookfair treasures!

 

STRANDED ON A PLANET OF MONSTERS

When the survivors of his starship were taken prisoner by the insect-creatures against whom Earth had fought a bitter war for nearly a century, Sector Marshal Warren expected to be impounded in a prison camp like those the Earthmen maintained.  But the "Bugs" had a simpler method of dealing with prisoners--they dumped them on an uninhabited planet, without weapons or tools, and left them to fend for themselves against the planet's environment and strange monsters.  A "Bug" spaceship orbited above, guarding them.

Escape was impossible, the "Bugs" told them--but it was absolutely necessary, for reasons Warren couldn't tell even his own men.

The creature on the cover is a "battler", which is.. well, let's go with the author's description:

If it looked like anything at all, Warren thought, it was an elephant—a large, low-slung elephant with six legs and two trunks which were much more than twenty feet long.  Below the point where the trunk joined the massive head a wide, loose mouth gaped open to display three concentric rows of shark-like teeth, and above the trunks its two tiny eyes were almost hidden by protective ridges of bone and muscle.  Between the eyes a flat, triangular horn, razor-edged fore and aft, came to a sharp point, and anything which had been caught by the trunks and was either too large or not quite dead was impaled on the horn while the trunks tore it to pieces of a more manageable size.  Because it had no natural enemies and was too big and awkward to profit from camouflage, its hide was a blotchy horror of black and green and livid yellow.

—Page 64.

Now how is a self-respecting artist supposed to depict that?

Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie (Fontana, 1960)

Another from Fishermen's Wharf Markets:

 

  Murder is easy....

... so long as no one suspects you and the person in question is the last person one would suspect.

Surely you won't let Agatha Christie diddle you again--it would be again, wouldn't it?

I'm trying to figure out what's up with the woman on the cover.  I can't decide whether she is a) frightened, b) sinister or c) doing some weird kind of face toning exercise!

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Samuel L. Clemens (Masterpiece Library, 1967)

Found in the Green Shed:

A Bright, Fresh, Summertime World of Boyhood

When "Mark Twain"--as Samuel L. Clemens signed his books--was writing TOM SAWYER, published in 1876, he was already in his 40s.  The carefree days of boyhood in a small Missouri town were already far behind him.  He remembered them sharply, but the years brought a humorous perspective.  He could appreciate all the fun of being a boy.

What did small boys do in a small town so long ago, when there was no television, no telephone, no movie houses?

They went swimming, they whitewashed fences, traded marbles and other prized possessions, they formed secret societies and had adventures filling up every minute of the time.  Tom Sawyer even managed to attend his own funeral, though he was very much alive!

Samuel L. Clemens was born in 1835 and spent his youth in a small town not much different from the one depicted in the book.  Before he died in 1910 at the age of 75, he adventured across the country and around the world, and wrote many books.

 The ghost of Mark Twain looms over an oblivious Tom Sawyer—who incidentally, looks more like a teenager in this picture than a "small boy".   Still, it's a bright cheerful cover that successfully conveys the mood of the classic boys' adventure story.  The really puzzling thing about this edition of Tom Sawyer, is why the editor insists on calling the author by his birth name of "Samuel L. Clemens", rather than his better known nom de plume "Mark Twain"! 

Out of My Mind by John Brunner (NEL, 1968)

A very battered paperback found in the Green Shed:

 

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE... A wide canvas--and a wide group of stories.  All the way from the downright vicious to the most gently tender: stories rich with humour, ripe with passion.

Just two from man's short past--a blink in time.  A few more for the present we all live in.  And more from the long reach of the future.

Here is a brilliant collection of stories representing the amazing talent of John Brunner.  Read them and discover why the author is fast becoming one of the most popular science fiction writers of the sixties.

The New English Library's science fiction paperbacks had some fascinatingly odd cover art—including this one.  It really doesn't have much to do with the stories inside, all of which were either set in the present or the very near future on Earth.  It does give an impression of strangeness, however, which is perhaps the best come-on you can make to a potential buyer of science fiction!

This Is Murder by Erle Stanley Gardner (WDL, 1960)

Sam Moraine, businessman, poker player and friend of the D.A. agreed as a lark to act as go-between in a kidnapping case.  Following instructions, he went to the boat, delivered $10,000 in old bills and received in exchange a bundle of blonde dynamite named Ann Hartwell.

As they reached the mooring float, they were met by the beam of a flashlight and a man's voice saying:

"You're under arrest, both of you.  Get your hands up in the air and keep them that way."

It was the Federal boys, and when they'd finished working him over, Sam thought the case was finished.

But it was only beginning.  What had started out as a simple adventure turned into a boiling mess of crooked politicians, double-crossing cops, ex-cons, a certain lady of elegant if easy virtue - and MURDER!

 Of course it did.

This is one of Gardner's earlier novels (first published in 1935 under the name of Charles J. Kenny) and not part of any of his series.   He'd been writing for nearly fifteen years before that, however, and he'd honed his craft publishing in magazines such as Black Mask and Detective Fiction Weekly.  In other words, he was already a slick and professional crime writer by the time this entertaining yarn was first released.

Alias the Saint by Leslie Charteris (Pan, 1953)

ALIAS THE SAINT tells of three adventures of Simon Templar.  In "The Story of a Dead Man' we find the Saint supervising an office in which many irregular things take place; there is a network of mystery about the firm of Vanney's Ltd. and Pamela Marlowe, who is employed there as a secretary, is very puzzled--as indeed she has a good reason to be, for she and the Saint are soon in a very dangerous situation, shared (curiously enough) by Chief Inspector Claud Eustace Teal of Scotland Yard.  "The Impossible Crime" displays the Saint pitting his wits against a gang of smuggling crooks; there is an amazing battle in a London square, where a night porter is shot dead.  "The National Debt" opens with the Saint making a trip to a quiet seaside village, hot on the track of three men who have kidnapped a girl analytical chemist whom they hope to compel to carry out a nefarious scheme.

Oh look!  It's The Saint.  Younger readers might not have heard of him, but older readers over a certain age will probably remember him well.  They might even have watched a young Roger Moore playing The Saint (aka Simon Templar) in the TV series of the same name.

The three novellas in this collection come from fairly early on in The Saint's career.  They were first published in the early 1930s, and people who recall Templar's smoother, newer, incarnations might be surprised at how much of a roughneck he is in this book.  He is not adverse to working on the wrong side of the law, and is quite prepared to use lethal violence if he feels it is necessary.  It is quite clear that it is only his own cunning that keeps him safe from the law--as well as the villains he tackles.  Because, criminal though he is, Templar is also one of the Good Guys, and someone you'd want on your side when the going gets tough.

(This is a fairly early Pan paperback.  I only have one older in my collection!)