Forty Days Has September & The Devil's Planet — Milton Lesser

Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel is another gem by Milton Lesser “Forty Days Has September.” An eviction notice from the stars…That's what Earth was faced with. The creatures who had inhabited our planet eons ago were returning to reclaim their home, and mankind was going to be sent packing, literally, to another planet in another galaxy! But the human race was given one final chance. Her only hope lay with a tough ex-boxer who found himself in a battle of wits with the most beautiful dame he'd ever laid eyes on -- a beautiful dame who underneath the glitter and gloss was the most ruthless she-devil the galaxy had ever known…Milton Lesser was a constant presence in the sci-fi literature world of the 1950s, and he remains one of the genre's most underrated and under-appreciated authors. This novel, “Forty Days Has September,” is smart, snappy, raw, yet stylish science fiction. Engrossing and enjoyable from start to finish, it is undoubtedly one of Lesser's very best tales. The second novel is “The Devil's Planet” by David Wright O'Brien. Cardigan and Bennett had developed a helluva business. It was a lucrative mining operation for vardium on the distant planet of Igakuro. And the Federation always bought everything they brought up out of the ground -- at high prices, too. Little did they suspect, though, that they were being targeted by a band of interplanetary pirates. The pirates' leader, a merciless outer space thug named Satan, had plans of taking over their entire operation -- and he didn't mind using an atomic pistol and taking a few lives in doing it. Making things even more complicated was the arrival of a space missionary and his beautiful daughter on the eve of the pirates' attack! They soon found out what hell was really all about..! David Wright O'Brien was one of the best writers in Ray Palmer's stable of writers for Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures in the early 1940s. His work is largely forgotten, but there's no doubt that Wright (the nephew of Weird Tales founder Farnsworth Wright) knew how to spin wildly entertaining yarns. He died in 1944 at age 26 in a bombing raid over Berlin. “The Devil's Planet” is a grand outer space adventure tale and a fine example of his story-telling prowess.