Paperback 980: Away and Beyond / A.E. Van Vogt (Berkley F812)

Paperback 980: Berkley Medallion F812 (1st ptg, 1963)

Title: Away and Beyond
Author: A.E. Van Vogt
Cover artist: Richard Powers

Estimated value: $10-15
Condition: 7-8/10 (near perfect, but w/ smushed corner on back cover)

Best things about this cover:

• I feel like a crucial part of this scene is *just* off-cover: what is the humanoid figure holding / pointing toward / squeezing? Another humanoid? A Nobel Prize? Pancakes?
• Powers could basically draw anything and it looked amazing. Who has any idea what is going on here? Who cares?
• Loopy laser lines swooping in and out of figures. Structural, skeletal, electric.

Best things about this back cover:

• August Derleth ... is not a dynamic writer.
• Those samples are Unevocative. Scare quotes don't do what you think they do, copywriter.
• Only way you're buying this is if you already like Van Vogt. Or are bored and will take a flyer on anything that looks this cool.

Page 123~

[from "Film Library"]

Mr. Arlay said, "Careful, Tania. We're almost at rock bottom."

Next time someone goes too far, forget "Slow your roll" or "TMI"—just tell 'em "Careful, Tania."

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 975: The House That Stood Still / A.E. Van Vogt (Paperback Library 63-016)

Paperback 975: Paperback Library 63-016 (2nd ptg, 1968)

Title: The House That Stood Still
Author: A.E. Van Vogt
Cover artist: Uncredited

Estimated value: $8-10
Condition: 9/10

Best things about this cover:

• "Pete... do you see that?" "What?" "That house ... it's not moving. It's just ... sitting there." "Dear God! You're right! Call for backup."
• "DO NOT LOOK BEHIND THE MASK OR YOU WILL SEE THE TERRIFYING VISAGE OF ... Shelley? Shelley from Accounting? What are you doing here?"
• That ziggurat is gonna want to have that growth looked at.

Best things about this back cover:

• "Obliterate the universe from the heavens"? This doesn't sound ... right.
• Immortals are always trashing shit and running away.
• That last sentence needs a huge spoiler alert. Why would I want to read now?

Page 123~

"What's the good of having a forty-year-old heart and a ninety-year-old liver?"

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 772: The Mind Cage / A. E. Van Vogt (Tower 43-503)

Paperback 772: Tower Books 43-503 (1st ptg, 1965)

Title: The Mind Cage
Author: A. E. Van Vogt
Cover artist: uncredited

Yours for: $10


Best things about this cover:

• "No, God, no!!! Take me instead!!! Space Capades on Ice needs Debra!"
• Her false eyelashes unlocked the door to … The Mind Cage!
• "Voltaged?"

Best things about this back cover:

• "Transplantation?"
• "He?"
• "His body tingled in a peculiar and nameless manner." — "That's perfectly normal, son. You're becoming a man, and …"

Page 123~

Marin returned to the laboratory, sobered by his own antics.

"That's perfectly normal, son. You're becoming a man, and …"

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 760: Slan / A.E. Van Vogt (Dell 696)

Paperback 760: Dell 696 (1st ptg, 1953)

Title: Slan
Author: A.E. Van Vogt
Cover artist: [Richard Powers, per William H. Lyles, Dell Paperbacks, 1942—Mid-1962]

Yours for: $20


Best things about this cover:

• "I Was a 22nd-Century Gun Moll!"
• Her mouth! Is she talking? Hissing? Shouting "Slan!"?
• I have seen the future. It is full of 8th graders' atom diagrams.
• Pretty bold to paint right on top of a well-used bandage.
• Quintessential mid-century sci-fi cover art. Iconic. Beautiful. Perfect.

Best things about this back cover.

• Why aren't people named "Groff" any more? Or "Jommy"?
• Idea: Western / Scifi epic with a hero named "Slim Tendrils"…
• I'm guessing that's not "Jommy" on the cover. But who knows what the future holds…

Page 123~

The impression smashed into fragments. Granny.

That has to be the weirdest two-sentence sequence in literary history.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]