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The Ladder in the Sky

by Keith Woodcott

Cover artist: Edward Valigursky

Publisher: Ace

Pub year: 1962

Cover price: 40¢

 

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Book detail for The Ladder in the Sky

Cover tagline

Black magic — or unimaginable super-science?

Back cover text

Part of Ace Double: The Darkness Before Tomorrow

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Interior text

Man-puppet of the unnamable

The man in black picked up something which had been leaning beside him. A ring perhaps two feet wide ... yet when the man in black laid it down on the floor it was as large as he was tall.

The light went out. A bluish glow now emanated from the ring, revealing Bryda's face ghastly gray as she leaned forward, and Yarco's also, set and serious, and the conjurer's impassive.

And within the ring, where moments before there had been the bare planks of the floor, a shape that moved, and opened eyes glowing like coals, and spoke, "What world is this?" the awful voice inquired.

Keith Woodcott's new novel is an epic adventure in cosmic terror and interstellar super-science.

Cast of characters

Kazan
Illiterate child of a line of thieves, he became master of unimaginable powers.

Bryda
A prince's mistress, she was afraid to stake her own life — and hated the man she used as proxy.

Yarco
Lost on a bet before he was born, there was only one way he could become his own master.

Clary
She scoffed at tales of devils, which stood her in good stead when they proved true.

Snutch
Nobody questioned his talent and intelligence — except for himself.

Rureth
Faced with events that seemed impossible, he kept his head and found that they were real.

?
A shapeless blackness with eyes like embers, its voice like a gale piping in a mountain range.