70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

So, when I married Jack, I also married his stuff. He is the ultimate geek and as a lady geek, we are in geek heaven most of the time. One of the times we weren't was when he unpacked his paperback collection. Pity the poor paperback - so ephemeral in its cheapness, and stinky after thirty years in a box.

"They were just throwing them out!" he said in their defence. Now of course, I love books as much as any bibliophile, but not when they were gross and smelly and falling apart.

But, ten years of marriage later, my view has softened. The time is now right to snark on old things, so here you have it - 70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans! I queued up several posts of gems from Mr. Potenti's collection to share with you! And the first one is...

Time Snake and Super Clown 

Sounds completely awesome, right? Let's see what's outside and inside...

The important new novel by the talented author of Candy Man, Vincent King, now makes its first appearance in Britain. It explores, through the eyes of a mysterious central figure, the concept of who or what is the alient among us and how do we know we all see the same thing.

As the Watcher moves through a series of times and worlds of his own, omnipotent, invulnerable, guarding the Zone against the Alien, he tries to understand why the wraiths, the fragile humans, feel no threat from the universe.

And the answer, when he finally learns it, is one which is both tragic and hopeful for the destiny of mankind.

When I saw the spine on the shelf, I pictured some crazy buddy adventure, starring two dudes named Time Snake and Superclown. So wacky 70s! Unfortunately I never made it past the first chapter because it was so awful. As far as I can tell, the Watcher is the clown, because a prostitute laughs and calls him that. Thanks to the Internet, it turns out that Vincent King was the pen name of an artist and English teacher, Rex Thomas Vinson. It looks like he only dabbled in writing in the late 60s to 70s. I should give it another try sometime - especially so I can find out if there's any relation between the story and the cover, which is pretty respectably sci-fi looking. And as you probably know, that happens a lot...and maybe next Saturday!

If you made it this far, I'd like to offer you a coupon good on Smashwords for my book. Just enter NP24K when you check out on Smashwords. Click here! Buy now! Quantities are unlimited!