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Armchair Fiction presents fully illustrated, extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. “All Aboard for the Moon” is a fine tongue-in-cheek sci-fi adventure by Harold M. Sherman. There it stood in the middle of a massive hangar—a big, beautiful silver rocket ship. Its destination: the moon! On board would be Hollywood playboy/rugged explorer Gil Benson, along with his two trusted partners in adventure, engineer Jerry Torrence and Professor Crowley, the latter a noted atomic scientist. Everything was set…the rocket was ready to go. But two jealous women seeking goodbye kisses is never a good thing—especially on board a spaceship that’s about to blast off. So in the blink of an eye Gil Benson’s entire venture was turned upside down. No one would have ever guessed that a playboy bachelor, a pretty red-head, and a Hollywood press agent would end up in a rocket ship together heading for the moon; but there was no turning back—a lunar adventure was ahead for them all. Who would then have imagined that these three unlikely people would be the ones to save Earth from possible extinction…? This double novel’s second tale is “The Metal Emperor” written by Raymond A. Palmer, longtime editor of magazines like Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures, and Other Worlds. It appeared in the November 1955 issue of Imaginative Tales. It was his last published work of fiction. From out of Earth’s forgotten past sprang a terrible menace to all mankind. Sweeping down from the black void of outer space came an invading horde known as the Rif. The Rif was led by a monstrous machine made of metal, standing higher than the tallest skyscraper. This monstrosity was known simply as “The Metal Emperor.” Though metal it was, encased in its giant skull was the brain of a human—a malicious brain with evil intent, thousands of years old. Its plan was simple: exterminate the human race! With Earth’s leadership incapacitated, it was up to a lowly engineer and a beautiful mistress with a fantastic mind-probing device to save Earth from total destruction.
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