Pawn Of The Omphalos

For Mark Carodyne, all of life was a gamble. For money, for sport, for knowledge, for danger. That's why he had come to Krait for the skimming races he knew would make him rich. Or broke. Or dead. Krait. It was dominated by the pulsing quivering kaleidoscopic Omphalos that filled the sky above. An unmeasurable mass that was said to have the power to swallow whole planets - even galaxies. Indeed, seven ships had been sent to explore its mysteries and none had returned. Now there were those who believed that Krait was about to come into its path. And Mark Carodyne had agreed to gamble his life to obtain the scientific data that might save the planet from destruction. One man. In a single ship. Skimming the edge of the unknown . . .

Space-wanderer Earl Dumarest is on the planet Toy to consult the giant computer which may contain information on the whereabouts of Earth, his lost home-world. But soon he realises Toy is a place that gives away nothing for free. Before Dumarest can gain the information he needs, he must take part in the Toy Games - must fight like a tin soldier in a vast nursery. And there is nothing playful about the Games on Toy. The pain is real enough; the wounds, the blood - and death. (First published 1969)

Venus was a goldmine, a planet rotten with mineral wealth and unexploited resources, and tales filtered back to Earth and Mars, were whispered in the Domes of Mercury and wondered at in the dives of the outer planets. Venus was new and strange and a man, with luck and a little ruthlessness, could make his pile and retire to terrestrial luxury. But what if a man didn't have any luck? What if everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, and left him stranded on a strange alien world? What then?

Starships are grounded, interrupting vital inter-stellar commerce, all the highly-developed industries have stopped, man turns to the primitive sources of animal fat and wood for light and heat. With civilization waning, the young scientist Kleon, sentenced to death for using precious conserves of power in an attempt to generate vast energy from dead matter, makes a spectacular bid for the freedom of the whole universe.

Earth and its colonies on Mars and Venus are ruled by an authoritarian post-World War III world state which plans to take control of a new method of space travel when it has been perfected by a Martian scientist. When they fail to secure the invention, the world state's Coordinator decides to destroy the Mars colony with "radi-germ bombs.

For countless years the enigmatic city of Klagan had rested beneath the racing moons of ancient Mars. Forbidden, guarded, sheltered in the cup of the Blue Mountains and surrounded by waterless desert. It rested there, a place of a thousand rumours and whispered fantasies, and gave birth to muttered tales of incredible wealth and riches. To this city came Halmar, the guide; Lorna, the dancer from Venus; and the man called Smith. Defying the ban of the Terran Authorities, the fanatical Drylanders, and the harsh desert, they reached the crystal walls of the strange city. There they found a tremendous mystery, the deserted artefacts of a vanquished civilisation - and found themselves snared in an incredible trap. For Klagan was more than a city. It was. . . What it was and how the intrepid adventurers solved the incredible secret of the mysterious city makes this an exciting tale of science and plausible speculation, action and human motivations.

It was the last planet left for men to conquer - a planet rich in priceless urillium ore, yet no man laid a finger on this wealth that was for the taking. For the planet Vendor could not be conquered. Space-men tried time and time again, but always the Voices drove them mad and destroyed them. Some intangible power kept men away from that taunting prize - until a scientist on Deneb IV perfected a blanketing device to protect his shop through the barrier. It took him twenty years to do it and every penny he possessed, but at last his voyage to Vendor began. It was the voyage of a gambler who knew that only two alternatives faced him...illimitable wealth and glory, or failure and death. But the journey to Vendor brought hazards that neither he nor his crew had foreseen, and before its conclusion a force was unwittingly released that could have swept life from the Universe - the indestructible and horrifying force of THE METAL EATER.

Zabul was no ordinary world. It was a private religious sanctuary - location secret, visitors unwelcome. It was a world fanatically dedicated to one belief and to one goal. The belief that mankind originated on a single world . . . the goal was to find it. To find Earth was a goal that Earl Dumarest shared. But how much did he really have in common with the zealot Terridae, who slept in caskets decorated with the zodiacs and dreamed of soaring towers of crystal and floating cities? And what were their despotic Guardians really after? (First published 1981)