Rastignac the Devil By Philip Jose Farmer

"[...]Philip Jose Farmer [...].""

After the Apocalyptic War, the decimated remnants of the French huddled in the Loire Valley were gradually squeezed between two new and growing nations. The Colossus to the north was unfriendly and obviously intended to absorb the little New France. The Colossus to the south was friendly and offered to take the weak state into its confederation of republics as a full partner...

Drawn from the leading pulp magazines of the 1950s — Galaxy, Amazing Science Fiction Stories, and Fantastic Universe — these eight groundbreaking selections offer spellbinding science-fiction tales of encounters with Martians and other extraterrestrials. "Youth," by Isaac Asimov, recounts two friends' discovery of a pair of strange little animals the morning after mysterious thunder without a storm. Philip José Farmer's "Rastignac the Devil" tells of a fight against despotism 300 years in the future, and in "Year of the Big Thaw," by Marion Zimmer Bradley, a Connecticut farmer explains why he doesn't know the actual birthplace of his phenomenally gifted son. Other selections include "Warrior Race," by Robert Sheckley, which focuses on breaking an enemy's spirit; "Alien Offer," by Al Sevcik, concerning a risky chance to save Earth's children; Clifford D. Simak's "The World That Couldn’t Be," in which a farmer must hunt down the unusual creatures destroying his crops; "Earthmen Bearing Gifts," by Fredric Brown, telling of an attempted exchange by the red and blue planets; and Stanley G. Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey," a tale that changed the course of science fiction.

In the tradition of the old "Ace Doubles" two-in-one books (flip one over to read the second title) -- here is the third Wildside Double . . . "Rastignac the Devil," by Philip Jose Farmer and "Despoilers of the Golden Empire," by Randall Garrett. Two oldtime science fiction authors at their Golden Age best!