1958’s The Secret of ZI, aka The Patient Dark is one of more than 150 novels written by British sci-fi author Kenneth Bulmer under his name and more than a dozen pseudonyms, but we doubt any of them have cover art quite this evocative. It’s by Brian Lewis, who we’ve never heard of but who did a bang-up job here with his painting of a hapless prisoner with a salad bowl on his head. So, what is the secret of ZI? Apparently, it’s the knowledge that will enable humanity to defeat an evil race that’s holding the Earth in slavery. They’re from Wall Street, er, we mean, the Planet Alishang. Anyway, we’ll dig into this one and get back to you. Maybe ZI’s secret will work in the real world.
Okay, we'll get you numbed up and— Oh, wait a sec. Are you my 2:00 p.m. cavity filling, or my 2:15 brain extraction?