Planet of the Knob-Heads and Out of the Void

Book excerpt: Armchair Fiction presents extra-large editions of classic science fiction double novels, complete with original illustrations. The first novel is Stanton Coblentz's "Planet of the Knob-heads." Newlyweds Jack and Marjorie Wainright were two of the brightest stars in the scientific world. They had it all--youth, success, and the respect of their peers. Then one evening at home they stumbled onto an amazing sight. As they looked through their telescopic reflector into the night sky, they were astonished to see a spaceship descending toward Earth! Soon the Wainrights were in search of the landing site of the mysterious alien spacecraft. They found it in the wilds of Equatorial West Africa. There the Wainrights met the knob-heads of Uuleppe--a planet near Andromeda. Unfortunately these strange visitors repaid their hosts' kindness by kidnapping and whisking them across the void. Treated as "specimens of Earth fauna," the Wainrights faced a seemingly hopeless struggle on an alien planet, with little chance of ever returning to Earth. The second novel is straight from the pages of Amazing Stories, "Out of the Void" by Leslie F. Stone. One evening as he was driving to his remote mountain lodge for a weekend fishing trip, Wall Street journeyman Carl Wooten saw something very odd. It was an ominous flash of light somewhere in the woods beyond his lodge. After entering, Wooten found the strangest of things...a beautiful ruby sitting on his dressing table, seemingly put there in payment for numerous articles of his clothing that were now missing. Upon investigating the next morning, Wooten made a discovery that would rock his senses. Sitting in a nearby meadow, in plain sight, was an enormous spaceship--the likes of which could not possibly have been made by anyone on Earth. Moments later, Wooten found himself a prisoner--captured by two humanoid creatures clearly not of Earthen origin. And before long Carl Wooten was drawn into the incredible story of an aging professor, two daring adventurers, and a rocket flight beyond the edge of the Solar System...