Vice Counsul Retief an ambassodor from the CDT, negotiates control of the Sirenian system, settles a conflict between settlers and natives, and solves a labor shortage on the planet Lovenbroy

Between the lines of the official histories of the frontier worlds of the 29th Century lie myriad confidential accounts of the boners, near-catastrophes, and interstellar crises that were bound to occur when human meets non-human. The adventures of CDC (Corps Diplomatique Terra) diplomat Jame Retief loom large in six highly classified missions where brain and brawn save land and lives despite red-tape bound superiors amid conspiracy and conflct across alien planets - guaranteed astounding, amazing, startling, galactic, weird, and thrillingly wonderful.

Armchair Fiction presents extra large paperback editions of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel, "Earth Quarter," written by Damon Knight, is an exciting look at the dark side of human nature. When it came down to it, death and hardship were no obstacle to the people of the Quarter. Obviously, patriotism has a price... The second novel, "Envoy to New Worlds," features six short stories featuring author Keith Laumer's famed sci-fi diplomat, Retief. Contained here are several accounts of Retief's contributions to the peace of the universe-written in the hope that the injustices committed by the history books will thus be rectified.

Between the lines of the official histories of the frontier worlds of the 29th Century lie a myriad "confidential" accounts of the boners, near-catastrophes, and interstellar crises that were bound to occur when human meets non-human. The adventures of the interplanetary diplomat Retief loom large in those highly classified reports. They also loom large in the eyes of devoted science-fiction readers because the cosmic tight-rope diplomacy of Retief compose a body of science-fiction adventure guaranteed to be astounding, amazing, startling, galactic, weird, and thrillingly wonderful. ENVOY TO NEW WORLDS was the first book to present Retief's adventures to the s-f public.

Across the galaxies, against wrongdoers and rogues! Only Retief - the indomitable champion of the underdog and 27th-century diplomacy - can seal the peace between the battling earthlings and the lobster-like aliens known as the Haterakans. In constant peril, the daring spacewarrior must join a pirate band, cross the fatal boundaries of the Terran Defense League, and take on his arch rivals Foulbrood and Bloodblister. Facing certain torture, double-dealing, and ruthless espionage, he passes within inches of death. But he must emerge victorious - or the Hatracks will waste no time in executing their berserk plan to raise earthlings as a food supply!

When Marl Judson, fleeing a rapacious government that wanted not just his fabulous wealth but his life, crash-landed on a uninhabited planet, he thought he was marooned without hope of rescue, so he prepared himself to live out his remaining years as best he could amidst the planet's weird hallucinogenic flora. But head-twistting flowers (which Judson learned to avoid) were only part of the planet's weirdness: it was possessed of some sort of field effect which made time play strange tricks; temporal anomalies sometimes resulted in cause preceding effect and bizarre compressions and expansions of the normal pace of events. In such an environment time had no meaning; has Jusdson lived centuries alone, or only decades? Or is it years? Or all of the above? He doesn't quite know, but when another ship crashes the strange time effects allow(ed) him to conduct an experiment aimed at producing a perfect society, a veritable Judson's Eden. The the Snake arrives in the form of the government that marooned him - and the Snake wants Judson's Eden for itself.

Invasion! At first the U.S. army - what was left of it - thought it was battling a communist invasion. The truth was much worse. It wasn't until Jeff Mallory awoke one morning to find that all his fellow townsfolk had become sleep walking zombies, and that a tower had been erected in the center of town, a tower that seemed to stretch to the stars, that the horrible truth began to unravel. Earth had been invaded - not by a race of alien conquerers, but by a disease. A disease with a brain...

Even after the set had been turned off, the TV blared the announcement: "Citizens of Earth, I am Tersh Jetterax. It is my pleasure to announce to you that a new government has taken over the conduct of all public affairs." And thus the US was in the hands of the Monitors, the strangely polite yellow-clad beings whose powers were such that they could render everyone helpless - without shedding one drop of blood. Who are they? The Russians? An alien race from another planet?

"In the next few days you will master the rules and techniques for every activity, skill, talent, sport and art ever mastered by any human being anywhere. You will be as expert at clipping flints as at architectural drawing. You will be able to juggle, walk a tightrope and add the numerals on the sides of passing freight cars as fast as any idiot savant. You'll absorb all the information in all the books - the human race's entire heritage of knowledge..." This was only the beginning of the experiment that was to turn a petty thief into the mos brilliant and powerful man ever to hold the earth in thrall. This was only the first step on the path of conquest mapped out for - THE ULTIMAX MAN.