Reading the Ace Doubles tête-bêche books has introduced me to a wide range of authors from science fiction's "Golden Age," yet the authors of the two novels in this collection were well familiar to me. As a longtime fan of the husband-and-wife writing team of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, their novel Beyond Earth Gates (published under their pseudonym "Lewis Padgett," though with Moore's name curiously added) was the first of the two I read. It's an enjoyable story about a Broadway actor who discovers that the fantastic world described to him by his uncle when he was a young boy indeed exists, as he discovers when his clingy and nagging girlfriend gets sucked into it. Accused of murdering her, he subsequently follows her into a parallel world run by a priesthood whose power comes from their control over the mysteries of mechanical technology. While the plot itself is fairly insubstantial, it's propelled by a fun exploration of the world the authors built and the interesting moral dilemma the protagonist finds himself in as to whether he should intervene in a situation he knows nothing about.

There's no such dilemma in Andre Norton's Daybreak-2250 A.D.. Originally published as Star Man's Son, it's about the journey of a mutant human to the ruins of New York City two centuries after a war (known as "the Blow-Up") devastated human civilization. It's the best kind of adventure story, with the protagonist facing a series of trials, making friends, and gradually realizing his full potential as a person. Norton was an excellent writer, and her book reflects her skill at writing a narrative that grabs the reviewer early on and doesn't let go until the last page. Norton's novel is alone worth the price of the collection, and the other novel that accompanies it is a nice bonus that together demonstrates the sort of entertainment value that made science fiction such a popular genre in the 1950s. ( )