Double in Space [US]

From the front flap of the Doubleday first edition: "Settle back for a double-barreled volume of superspeed thrills as a past master of science fiction leads you on two separate expeditions into the universe of tomorrow, and the day after. Project Excelsior, the first of two novels included in this book, centers on an Allied space station, from which atomic torpedoes can be loosed on the Earth, if necessary. In another, more distant orbit an enemy satellite is located, and naturally the enemy are extremely anxious to learn the secrets of the Allied operations without revealing their own. When this interespionage painfully interrupts a blossoming romance between Duruy Lambert, member of the Allied satellite crew, vacationing in Brazil, and the beautiful but mysterious Senhorita Tina Castelhoso, it is obvious that both sides are playing for keeps. But back at the space station, with disaster imminent, even the coldly impersonal scientific world of the future finds it expedient to bow to love. The Wanderer's Return recounts the strange adventures of a United Planets fleet of twelve space ships, en route home after the successful devastation of Ilya. Although it is vitally important for Commodore Lortud, leader of the force, to return to Earth as soon as possible, he continually meets unaccountable and frustrating but apparently unavoidable delays. The interplanetary fleet variously visits the religious fanatics of Asmara, the drug addicts of Kushan, the lobster men of Star H.D. 92111, the Haurakian philosophers, and the hedonists of Calla, before an astute space psychologist pinpoints the devilishly clever criminal campaign at work."