Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels with original illustrations. Milton Lesser’s wild tale, “His Touch Turned Stone to Flesh” is the first novel. Would you like the power to give life? To touch the statue of Aphrodite and transform it into a warm, glowing woman? You’d have to be careful though. You might have a fran¬tic female chasing you. After all, a statue has no morals. Ralph Harper, an amateur sculptor, finds himself with an amazing power. Not only was he able to capture the essence of those he sculpted, he could bring life to statues with a caress of his fingers. Some wanted to profit from Harper’s abilities; one was even willing to steal art at gunpoint. One wanted his own Venus Di Milo, to love and cherish. And others had something to prove. Since he acquired his amazing ability, everyone seemed to want something from Ralph. But all Ralph wanted was his wife’s forgiveness…and make a living at his craft. The second novel is H. Beam Piper’s “Ullr Uprising.” This is the first novel to be set in Piper’s “Federation” universe, and it’s a longtime favorite of science fiction fans everywhere. Written for a 1952 hardback science fiction anthology, “The Petrified Planet,” it was then serialized in Lester Del Rey’s Space Science Fiction magazine in 1953. Ace Books later republished it in a paperback edition in 1983. Ullr is a colony planet run by the Chartered Ullr Company. Piper’s protagonists find themselves in the middle of a native uprising. The natives are silicon-based hermaphrodite humanoids, all of whom are endowed with four arms! And when a wild uprising on a planet like Ullr adds plutonium bombs to the geek warfare, it takes something of a miracle to save the planet from being blown to pieces…
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