Books published by publisher ThunderStruck Publishing

Ever hear of an interocitor? No? Well, don’t be surprised — neither had Cal Meacham, electronics engineer and chief of research at Ryberg Instrument. Nor had Cal ever heard of a catherimine tube with an endiom complex of plus four. Yet those, and other equally bewildering apparatus, were offered for sale in the catalogue from Electronic Service Unit 16.Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single clue in the catalogue as to how an interocitor functioned, or even what it was, yet judging from the list of parts and the accompanying diagrams, it was an enormously complex piece of equipment. Cal realized that even if he ordered a set of interocitor parts, and somehow succeeded in putting one together, he would have no way of knowing if it were operating properly or not.Was the entire catalogue some monstrous joke, of which he was the butt, or had Cal stumbled upon a technology vastly superior to our own? Cal had to know — his curiosity, both as a scientist and as a man, was aroused — and thus began Cal’s apprenticeship with the Peace Engineers. And in the surprising events that followed, Cal Meacham became involved in an adventure to stagger the imagination.One of the truly memorable science fiction experiences of this or any other year, THIS ISLAND EARTH is that rare science fiction novel which combines a sense of social responsibility and thrilling action within the framework of a cosmic struggle to maintain a barrier against an incredible invasion.Here is a book that will appeal to everyone who has ever stopped on a starry night to gaze in wonder at the vastness of the universe, and to ponder the place in infinity of this island Earth.Raymond F. Jones was an American science fiction author. Between 1951 and 1978, he published sixteen novels and dozens of stories. He is best known for his 1952 novel, THIS ISLAND EARTH, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed 1955 film.

When Bruce Robinson’s father decided to take the job offered him on the Moon, his space-loving son saw an end to his drab life as an earthbound high-school student. What neither Bruce nor the other three members of the Robinson family could foresee was that within two weeks they’d be the world’s leading experts on life upon the planet Venus.To more experienced interplanetary travelers than the Robinsons, the actions of the crew of the gleaming Moon-bound space ship, Aurora, would have seemed suspicious. But the crew’s interest in the mysterious government cargo, stowed in the ship’s hold, did not cause the unsuspecting family any serious concern. Not until the captain and his mate abandoned the crippled Aurora, as she lurched through the Venusian mists to a certain crash landing, did the Robinsons awake to their peril.Philip Latham has written a vivid and detailed novel charged with mystery and suspense about an average American family stranded on the weird and unexplored planet of Venus. Unsure of the planet’s oxygen supply, tortured by ultra-sonic waves emitted by man-size bat-like creatures, faced by carnivorous plants, the Robinsons are the focal point of a novel unsurpassed in the science fiction field for its frightening and powerful reality.In an electrifying climax, solutions to strange and forbidding paradoxes top a tale of courage and unassuming bravery.Philip Latham was a pen name used by Dr. Robert S. Richardson (1902 – 1981). He could support the suppositions that are the basis of his science fiction novels with accepted scientific theories. For he was an author who was in the business of “watching the stars.” An astronomer at Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories beginning in 1931, he started writing for magazines in the early forties. His work won such wide respect that he also had a college textbook on astronomy to his credit. Movie producers as well as publishers found Dr. Richardson’s experience too good to pass up. He gave technical assistance to a number of studios on pictures such as Destination Moon, and he wrote an article describing his work on the science fiction thriller When Worlds Collide.

Young Danny Cross couldn't understand the telegram from the Security Commission ordering him home from college. He wondered whether it had to do with the reported "death" of one of America's leading atomic scientists in a rocket explosion over White Sands. He was surprised to find that it was only another thorough security check and a change of security card - the vital "open sesame" to anyone living in the Alamogordo, New Mexico, of 1981. But Danny noticed a change in the atmosphere at the proving grounds and in the communities where its scientists and technicians lived. As more and more atomic specialists disappeared in "rocket explosions" miles above Earth - explosions that failed to scatter debris under the sites of the accidents - the former camaraderie was replaced by an air of suspicion and foreboding.The disappearance of Danny's cousin, "Jet", an ace rocket pilot, put the worried teen-ager onto a line of reasoning concerning the continuing "explosions" too close to the truth to be ignored: that a highly skilled scientific group had planned, constructed and was operating a space station that circled the Earth IN SECRET! He suspected that even his mother and father planned to desert Earth's laboratories for an extra-terrestrial life. The questions of "where did they go?" and "how did they get there?" as answered here make this a story of mounting suspense and tangled intrigue that few science fiction yarns can match.

The Gospel of Luke and Ephesians: First Nations Version has no single author, rather it is a collaborative effort of the First Nations Version Translation Council. The First Nations Version was first envisioned by Terry M. Wildman and with the help of OneBook.ca and Wycliffe Associates has expanded into a collaborative effort that includes First Nations/Native Americans from over 25 tribes and growing. This book is the introductory publication of the First Nations Version of the New Testament. A translation in English by First Nations/Native Americans, for First Nations/Native Americans. This project was birthed out of a desire to provide an English Bible that connects, in a culturally sensitive way, the traditional heart languages of the over six million English-speaking First Nations people of North America. The First Nations Version Translation Council has been selected from a cross-section of Native North Americans-elders, pastors, young adults and men and women from differing tribes and diverse geographic locations. This council also represents a diversity of church and denominational traditions to minimize bias. For more information visit www.firstnationsversion.com.

A fierce Arctic blizzard, an emergency landing in the Alaskan wilds, a party of inexperienced newsmen — and only a 16-year-old boy, using his Air Force Survival School training, between them and certain death.Young Andy Driscoll is perfectly able to handle the job of keeping himself and his tenderfoot friend John alive and healthy until help comes, but aiding the adult members of the party is a more difficult task, for the men, led by a loudmouthed bully, are reluctant to accept the leadership of a young boy. The story of Andy’s desperate struggle against overwhelming odds to save the lives of ten helpless men makes a tense, exciting, and extremely informative reading adventure.Here is a book that will appeal to all — for the vivid description of Alaskan country; for the accurate representation of approved military survival-school techniques; for the fascinating information on a little-known segment of our defense system; and, above all, for the sheer excitement of a first-rate adventure story.The author, John Ball, is best known for mystery novels involving the African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs. Tibbs was introduced in the 1965 novel IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America and was made into an Oscar-winning film of the same name. Ball's departure from the mystery genre was a bestselling what-if political thriller THE FIRST TEAM. Mr. Ball was also a member of the Aviation Space Writers Association and served for a time as the public relations director of the Institute of Aerospace Sciences. His interest in and knowledge of aviation adds a sense of authenticity to ARCTIC SHOWDOWN.

Chuck Svenson was a citizen of the Moon — and proud of it! To him, Earth, with its heavy atmosphere, even though it was the "mother" planet, was not the best place in the universe to live. As he rocketed back home from a blast off at a point high in the Andes, he anxiously looked forward to the reception he'd receive at Moon City. For he was the only citizen from Earth's satellite to be selected by the United Nations’ interplanetary commission as a crew member for the first ship to attempt a flight from the Moon to Mars.How Chuck learned that his orders had been changed, that he was to be replaced by an earthling, started a chain of dramatic and thrilling events that ended in the weird and torturous catacombs of Mars. For the spunky teen-ager would not be cheated of the universe's greatest adventure! When the Mars-bound ship rose, on a pillar of flame above the desolate lunar landscape, it carried a stowaway in its hold. What Chuck's extra weight meant to the carefully figured fuel supply, the ship's crash landing on a "lifeless" planet, the disappearance of vitally needed tools from the vicinity of the stricken ship—fill these pages with suspense and mystery.A story of bizarre adventure, MAROONED ON MARS is also the tense personal drama of a young man who shoulders the responsibility for stranding his shipmates. In a breath-taking climax, near the ruins of a long-lost civilization that suddenly comes alive with rodent-like Martians, Chuck proves the courage and bravery of one young “citizen of the Moon!"

A planet manned by robots — three human beings captured and carried off from Earth to that planet: this is the theme of Paul Capon's latest science thriller for boys. When young Stephen Craig came over from America to stay with his girl friend Daney and her father, all seemed set for a peaceful, happy holiday on the coast, with Mr. Salgado painting landscapes, Daney and Steve swimming and boating. Their weirdest dreams would have seemed tame beside the reality of what befell these three when, while swimming one morning, they were snatched out of the sea by a mechanical monster and transported by it through space.Phobos is one of the moons which revolve round Mars — so the astronomers say. In PaulCapon's story he tells us that it is really an artificial satellite set going by the Martians — a gigantic mechanical brain which controls the automatons it reproduces.To this nightmare world the three humans were taken, a world peopled by creatures which could perform superhuman tasks, but could not feel any emotion. What hope of understanding or pity could there be from them? How could Mr. Salgado, Stephen and Daney escape with their lives?Paul Capon tells the story of their dangers and eventual triumph with that mixture of the factual and the bizarre which make his stories so vivid. However exotic the fantasy it always has its roots in scientific possibilities.Paul Capon (1912-1969) was a British novelist of considerable reputation. He had over twenty novels to his credit and counted film editing and script writing as part of his experience. He traveled extensively in Europe and made a hobby of chess, book-collecting and swimming.

Moonbase One is in trouble. The first colony on the moon has only a thirty-day emergency food supply now that their hydroponic farm and its valuable store of water has been destroyed. Unless something can be done quickly, the moonbase will fail and the space settlers will have to be returned to Earth.Like all pioneering colonies, Moonbase One includes families with children. Three space-age teenagers — Tom Wood, Benny Howard and Dave Mason — participate as much in the daily routine of the colony as their parents do.In the struggle to save the moon colony and find ways of replacing the water supply, the three boys and their misfit companion, George Garrison, learn what kind of courage and skill it takes to colonize a new world. They learn how meaningless the technical skills of scientists are if the necessary human qualities are not also present. When the success of the moon colony is finally assured, the teenagers set their eyes on the distant goal of Mars.Raymond F. Jones based Moonbase One on serious proposals that some lunar rocks are probably hydrous, or water-bearing, and that this water can be extracted. Proof will have to wait for future exploration of the moon, but lunar samples from the Apollo flights contain minerals similar to hydrous minerals on earth.For over thirty years, Mr Jones wrote science fiction and science non-fiction, including numerous books for young people. He began writing science fiction as a teenager and went on to produce sixteen science fiction novels and dozens of short stories.Always interested in science, Mr Jones was a meteorological observer for the U.S. Weather Bureau. His subsequent occupation was supervising the preparation of military technical manuals on complex radar equipment and other weapons systems.

Andre Norton, one of America’s best loved and ever-popular writers of adventure tales, presents another exciting story of men and deeds on the high seas — a thrilling chapter in America’s fierce struggle for independence, when boldness and courage reaped bounties for the Yankee privateers and wreaked havoc for the British.Here is the story of a young nation, filled with the pride of freedom, bringing its war to the very shores of the mother country. This is also the story of Fitzhugh Lyon, young American scion of a powerful English family, who finds himself shanghaied aboard the Retaliation, and is suddenly thrust into the exciting life of a privateersman; of Captain Crofts, dauntless, courageous master of his ship, sailing fearlessly into the lion’s mouth; of Watts, the ship’s surgeon, a man of wit and culture among a rough and tumble crew; of Lieutenant Ninnes, whose bitter hatred of Fitz make them deadly enemies.How they crossed the wartime sea, fought for their lives, were captured by the British, and finally engineered a bold and clever escape from Plymouth’s notorious Old Mill Prison make for topflight entertainment.Andre Alice Norton (1912 – 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy with some works of historical fiction and contemporary fiction. She was the first woman to be Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, first to be SFWA Grand Master, and first inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

"This person is not even human. It's impossible for me to diagnose the injury or illness of such a structure as his!" With these words and a worried frown, Doc Smithers sums up the case of the strange creature that lay on Ron Barron's bed. For the boy, Clonar, is like nothing earth's medical books have ever cataloged. And the day Ron Barron found him, staggering away from the wrecked metal disk that lay hidden near Longview, is one that put earth's existence in jeopardy!In SON OF THE STARS, Raymond Jones has written of a forthright friendship between a young castaway from space and his earthly counterpart. How a cold and suspicious military, recognizing Clonar only as an alien from an astonishingly advanced civilization, turns friendship into treachery that threatens earth's existence, makes this an electrifying story with a thought-provoking theme. In scenes uncomfortably vivid, you'll meet soldiers and citizens of a typical American city; people like calculating General Gillispie and frightened Mrs. Barron, whose reactions to an "interplanetary" situation bring the world to the brink of destruction.Clonar's words, "They're coming to destroy your world!" refer to a planet whose wars and strife might shortly spread to other worlds. Climaxed with a scene of power and drama unmatched in science fiction, SON OF THE STARS is a breath-taking book you won't put down until the very last page - and won't be able to forget until men reach the stars and learn for themselves! Raymond F. Jones was an American science fiction author. Between 1951 and 1978, he published sixteen novels and dozens of stories. He is best known for his 1952 novel, THIS ISLAND EARTH, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed 1955 film.

Owen Spencer would never have agreed to lead the time-slip expedition back to the Jurassic period — the Age of Reptiles — had he foreseen the terrifying experiences in store for the small group making the expedition. Chartering the expedition was Dirk Masterson, a treacherous big game hunter, whose alleged purpose was to take pictures of the enormous reptiles that roamed Jurassic times. Even when Masterson smashed the jeep into the force field, destroying the only protection that stood between the group and the lumbering beasts, Owen could not be sure it was an accident.Evan Hunter has written a fast-moving tale of people stranded on earth in its infancy and forced to pit their ingenuity and strength against mammoth reptiles. It might not have been so bad if Masterson, with his mania for big game hunting had not continued to shoot at every reptile he spotted. But his madman tactics repeatedly aroused the fury of the hideous dinosaurs, whose attacks drove the farther and farther away from the relay area that would slip them back to the present when the week was up.The weird circumstances that made Owen's brother, Chuck, take over the leadership of the expedition and the even stranger adjustment of the time stream that left the party with the inexplicable feeling that somebody was missing makes DANGER: DINOSAURS! an unusual and fascinating treatment of the ever-provocative time theme. The desperate search for the relay area, interrupted by fierce fights with flesh-eating monsters, and an earthquake that creates a chaos of stampeding animals give this story action that is as alien as any distant planet.DANGER: DINOSAURS! is a juvenile science fiction novel, published first in 1953 as one of the books in the Winston Science Fiction series. The author, Evan Hunter, had a very successful writing career. He was also prolific and used a number of pen names. As Hunter, he wrote THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, a novel dealing with juvenile crime and the New York City public school system. It and the 1955 movie based on the book were highly acclaimed. He also had a successful screenwriting career, producing scripts for movies and TV, including the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's film THE BIRDS (1963). However, he is probably best known for the crime fiction he wrote using the pen name Ed McBain. His 87th Precinct series is often credited with inventing the "police procedural" genre of crime fiction. The books were turned into a number of movies and TV series.

“Only a decade away!" Yes, according to the well-known author of STEP TO THE STARS, this remarkable age that has produced rocket ships, guided missiles and hydrogen bombs will have a space station circling the Earth within the next ten years. World domination will be in the hands of the country that constructs it, and man will know, once and for all, whether he is free or slave.Such thoughts were far from Jim Stanley's mind when he was investigated by the FBI and later subjected to strange and rigorous tests. It wasn't until he satisfied the stiff requirements that he learned the United States was in the space station race for keeps and that he could count himself among the handful of men destined to breach the barriers of space in operation "Big Shush."Fascinating details of the construction and operation of the station are part and parcel of this tense and dramatic story. Treacherous sabotage by a dangerous foreign spy; Jim's almost fatal fall into the "empty, hungry depths of space"; and a savage fire which threatened the existence of the station add to the rising tide of excitement. Tying these explosive events together is a narrative that skillfully portrays the reaction of men to new and staggering experiences.Unequaled in its impact, STEP TO THE STARS is an adventure too probable to ignore. Whether you read it as a tale of the future or a forceful case for world co-operation, you can't help but feel that here indeed is the "prelude to space."