Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Paperback 643: The General Zapped an Angel / Howard Fast (Ace 27910)

Paperback 643: Ace 27910 (1st ptg, 1970)

Title: The General Zapped an Angel
Author: Howard Fast
Cover artist: Karel Thole

Yours for: $6

Ace27910

Best things about this cover:
  • "They call this 'Blood Lake'. I forget why."
  • That looks way worse than "zapped."
  •  I have no idea why I bought this, except perhaps the kooky title, the fact that I recognized Fast's name from earlier work, and some vague idea that later in life I would turn my attention to cover art of the '70s...

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Best things about this back cover:
  • Text. Text text text. Text. Louis Untermeyer. Text.
  • Mother Earth!? So *that's* what She looks like. Again, I'm gonna say the situation on the cover looks *way* worse than mere "wounding."
  • I buy that he was "bestselling," but "world-famous?" Maybe this back cover blurb is its own science-fictional alternate universe-type story...

Page 123~

"Vacation?"
"No, no indeed. You know, I thought I would do one of those Jewish comic-tragic things about a Miami Beach hotel. You know the kind of thing, mostly schmaltz and bad jokes and maybe two percent validity so your audience will shed a tear or two if they're in the right mood."

"Oh, one of *those* things," he nodded politely while smiling and backing away.

~RP

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1 comment:

DemetriosX said...

Well, considering he wrote the novel that Spartacus was based on and his other books sold well in the English-speaking world at least, "world-famous" may not be too much of an exaggeration.

This cover may not necessarily reflect anything specific in the book. Ace was certainly better than Berkeley, which just slapped any old science-fiction-looking picture on the covers of their SF. It may be that this is a compilation of things from some or all of the stories in the book.