Those Ace 2-in-1 paperbacks ("Double Novel") are always fun to look at. They're also often surprisingly inexpensive. And every once in a while I actually read one!

Here's one I probably picked up at Bucket o' Blood.

I was interested in this one because I'd never read anything by Robert Silverberg before even though he's a big name in the genre. I seem to recall that he came across favorably in the Alice Sheldon biography and Lawrence Block also noted how Silverberg didn't try to distance himself from early pseudonymous hack writing, as Block himself had done.

I've read at least a few Leigh Brackett books and have seen several movies she wrote screenplays for, so I started with her.

The Nemesis from Terra takes place on Mars and is non-stop action. Only some futuristic technology backs op its claim to be science fiction. It's really pure fantasy, with a hero fulfilling a prophecy and breaking his chains to control the destiny of a planet.

Much of it would fit in with John Carter or Tarzan or Conan. The hero and the villain are both interested in the same woman, who of course is only interested in the hero. In addition to the fate of the planet, her own fate worse than death hangs in the balance.

There's political intrigue involving the political and corporate powers on Mars, who run mining operations that are basically slavery. (They have Venusians as their enforcers.) The hero, Rick, leads an uprising, which results in a frantic journey for him.

There are monsters and mind readers, space ships and robots. The story zips along breathlessly and it would probably crash if Brackett weren't such a creative, imaginative, skillful and deft writer.

You can read this one very quickly and enjoy it quite a bit, if it's your kind of thing. Apparently it's also known as Shadow Over Mars.

The first line is "Rick stood perfectly still in the black blind notch of the doorway".