He Fell Among Thieves and the Princess of Arelli

📖 The Scoop

Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel is "He Fell Among Thieves" by one of the most underrated sci-fi writers of the 1950s, Milton Lesser. Nick Skinner grew up speaking Russian, so he wasn't really too surprised when his CIA superior chose him for a top-secret mission in the heart of his mother homeland. Surveillance showed the Commies were no longer interested in Uranium; they weren't working on atomic weapons anymore. There were rumors of strange goings-on, east of Moscow, in the Ural Mountains. Truckloads of laborers were being transported, allegedly to transport masses of heavy equipment. What could Stalin and his communist Russians be up to? What was more powerful that atomic weapons? And moreover, where did the technology come from? The second novel is "The Princess of Arelli" written by sci-fi veteran Aladra Septama. Our Moon is not habitable now, primarily because there's no atmosphere. But this doesn't necessarily mean Earth's satellite will always be uninhabitable. It's also possible that someday the surface of our own planet might become so unendurable that mankind will no longer be able to exist on its surface. But does that necessarily mean that all life will then cease? Hardly. Why, therefore, should we assume that because the surface of our Moon seems so unfriendly to life as we know it, that there is no intelligent life anywhere on its surface...or even within its interior? When space travel someday becomes a commonplace practice, we will finally learn conclusively what there is upon the other planets and satellites of our solar system. Veteran sci-fi writer Aladra Septama chose to speculate on these possibilities in his wonderful tale, "The Princess of Arelli," which first appeared in Amazing Stories Quarterly all the way back in the summer of 1930.

Genre: Fiction / Science Fiction / General (fancy, right?)