Milady has published new French editions of two classic Algis Budrys novels! The first, pictured above, is S.O.S. TERRE, originally published in English as FALLING TORCH. Here’s the synopsis…
Exilé de force étant bébé, Michael Wireman a traversé la galaxie pour revenir sur Terre avec un but bien précis. La vengeance. Qui consistera à abattre l’Empire Galactique qui a asservi l’humanité. Mais pour cela, il est seul. Les autres humains sont au mieux impuissants, au pire inconscients. Quant aux Centaures, ils ne valent pas mieux que l’Empire Galactique.
Dépourvu de tout pouvoir, Michael n’a donc pas d’autre choix que de trouver une arme qui lui permettra de réaliser son souhait. Mais une telle chose n’est pas facile à trouver. À moins que, durant tout ce temps, cette arme se soit déjà trouvée en sa possession.
The second, LUNE FOURBE, was originally published in English as ROGUE MOON. Here’s the synopsis…
Il existe sur la Lune une chose mystérieuse, qu’on appelle la Formation – être vivant extraterrestre ou artefact, on sait seulement que cette chose repousse ou tue tous les humains qui s’en approchent. Pourtant, il est vital de tenter de comprendre et dominer cette chose, au nom de la recherche spatiale et de la colonisation du satellite. Al Barker est-il fou de se porter volontaire pour cette mission-suicide?
Both of these novels are available in English, published by Open Road Media. Here are the English-language synopses: first, for FALLING TORCH…
Twenty years after Earth is conquered by invaders from space, the exiled US government has a chance to reclaim their lost planet
2513 AD. For the past generation, since Earth was taken over by the Invaders, the US president and his cabinet have lived in exile on a planet in orbit around faraway Alpha Centauri. The Centaurian colony has become the center of the human race, reducing Earth to a backwater region in a sprawling foreign domain. But the banished American leaders still have a powerful yearning to return home. Now, President Ralph Wireman and his government finally have the financial aid and weaponry needed to retake their native planet. Wireman’s son, Michael, is parachuted to Earth as a Free Terrestrial, where the military-trained warrior is thrust into battle not between human and alien, but among factions of outlaw earthlings who demand nothing less than his total surrender.
A novel about war, politics, and assimilation, Falling Torch also presents an incisive portrait of one man’s aspirations of greatness and leadership.
And for ROGUE MOON (Hugo Award nominee for Best Novel in 1961)…
Humanity struggles to understand a killing labyrinth discovered on the Moon in this science fiction adventure about death and rebirth
A monstrous apparatus has been found on the surface of the moon. It devours and destroys in ways so incomprehensible to humans that a new language has to be invented to describe it and a new kind of thinking to understand it. So far, the human guinea pigs sent there in hopes of unraveling the murderous maze have all died terrible deaths. The most recent volunteer survived but is now on suicide watch. The ideal candidate won’t go insane even as he feels the end approaching. Al Barker has already stared into the face of death; he can handle it again. But he won’t merely endure the trauma of dying. Barker will die over and over — even as his human qualities are preserved on Earth.
With its cast of fascinating characters — like brilliant scientist Edward Hawks, who is obsessed with rebirth — Rogue Moon is a rare thriller that doesn’t just make you sweat. It makes you think.
Open Road Media also publishes MICHAELMAS, WHO?, THE FURIOUS FUTURE and HARD LANDING.
Zeno represents Algis Budrys on behalf of the Budrys Estate.
