Ace Double January 1969 paperback (#22600, 60 cents.) Condition is Fine: tight and square with flat spine, age tanning is very mild and uniform (much less than expected for its age.) A very clean copy - no stamps, marks or writing. This looks new/unread.

An Ace Double with an early Dean R. Koontz title: The Fall of the Dream Machine, bound with Kenneth Bulmer's The Star Venturers. When Koontz started out, most of his output could be described as Science Fiction. After a number of years that he found the kind of tales that he was best suited for, and would bring him immense popularity: a mix of horror, thriller, and science fiction. This is Dean Koontz's second book, and has not been reprinted - making it one of his hardest to find titles.

The Fall of the Dream Machine (cover by Jack Gaughan, 129 pages): Mike Jorgova is a star of the Show, a total-experience medium that dominates all other forms of entertainment. He wants off, to be part of the Revolution against the Show's founder, Anaxemander Cockley, still in charge after almost 200 years. Quoting from Koontz's introductory comments: "Still, it frightens me to think of a future where all artistic outlets are electronic, where all of life becomes an open, sterile, and public thing. In this novel, I have tried to shape a society that has advanced along the lines of the predictions in The Medium is the Massage… and then advanced a little further- a little too far. McLuhan says we are drawing - via electronics - together again into a Village Society. A quick look around at television, telephones, and the recorded messages of today's pop music groups makes this seem a reasonable statement. But what will follow this Village Stage? A Household Society? And after that what will we have- and be? This is not truly a horror story. Not quite."

The other half of the Ace Double is a Kenneth Bulmer novel, The Star Venturers (cover by John Schoenherr, 124 pages.) Big Bill Jarrett had knocked about the galaxy, and could take care of himself. Until he gets knocked out in a bar and shanghaied to Merton, where a princess wants him to find the missing Prince Manrico and the man who killed the King, Styron Sinclair. The Princess doesn't care if Bill is willing or not- she has him bonded to a frug to ensure his cooperation. So off he goes, following a 20 year old trail…