Anderson, Poul. Earthman, Go Home. Flandry No. 11. Ace, 1960.
Tucker, Wilson. To Tombaugh Station. Ace, 1960.
Nostalgic old man alert! I miss the Ace Doubles, which were two science fiction paperback novellas published back-to-back with two front covers with the print running in opposite directions. They were common in the paperback racks in drugstores and the like in the 1950s and ‘60s and provided a second life for magazine stores by writers who were not the big three or four. The Earthman, Go Home/ To Tombaugh Station combo is still an entertaining genre romp. Poul Anderson was the best known of the writers, and Dominic Flandry stories were already magazine staples by the time Earthman, Go Home appeared. Flandry, a dashing intelligence agent for the Imperial Navy, investigates a planet that uses toxins to control its population. In the magazine version, it was titled A Plague of Masters. Flandry is James Bond in space.
Tucker Wilson’s To Tombaugh Station is a bit more original. Kathy Bristol, a no-nonsense tracker, is hired by an insurance company to investigate the accidental death of a crewman on a tramp freighter. Undercover, she buys passage on the freighter for a long voyage out to Tombaugh Station on Pluto. The pilot worries that she is setting him up to take the fall. A hardboiled detective story that should have been made into a film with Bogart and Bacall. 3.5 stars is the true rating. But give the double a four for period nostalgia. ( )