Terry Carr

As Jack Eskridge sped through the night toward Chicago, the sky was suddenly lit with a flash of brilliance. Jack stopped the car and ran toward the light. He was greeted by a fantastic sight: a huge, weirdly glowing arch, through which were pouring strange-looking tanks, airships and metallic-clad soldiers carrying sinister weapons. Jack knew he had to get away and warn the country of the invasion. But before he could reach Chicago all the major cities in the United States had been conquered by the aliens. No one knew where they came from or what their evil purpose was. Only one thing was certain-they had to be stopped before the whole of mankind fell under their domination.

Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel "Special Effect" is a terrific tale by J. F. Bone. His name was Martinelli, and his passion was music. He was also a well-known conductor of classical compositions. Then one day he received the opportunity to conduct the premiere of the greatest symphony ever composed, the "Nine Worlds Symphony" by Nicolai Ilarionovich Raposnikov. Only there was a fantastic catch to it all: He must first obtain original recordings of some of the most bizarre special effects imaginable, which were then to be intermixed with the symphony's final score. Unfortunately, it meant journeying from one end of the Solar System to the other to obtain them. Even worse, the recording of these sounds in some instances was nearly impossible, and in other instances might well result in a horrible death It was up to a seasoned space captain and his crew to make it all possible-but could they do it in the amount of time they were contractually allotted? More importantly, would they even come back alive? The second novel is "Warlord of Kor" by veteran sci-fi author Terry Carr. Horng sat opposite the tiny, fragile creature who held a microphone, its wires attached to an interpreting machine. He blinked his huge eyes slowly, his stiff mouth fumblingly forming words of a language his race had not used for thirty thousand years. "Kor was...is... God... Knowledge." He had tried to convey this to the small creatures who had invaded his world, but they did not heed. Their ill-equipped brains were trying futilely to comprehend the ancient race memory of his people. Now they would attempt further to discover the forbidden directives of Kor. Horng remembered, somewhere far back in the fossil layers of his thoughts, a warning. They must be stopped If he had to, he would stamp out these creatures who were called "humans."