Books: Never Too Old to Dream

A MARTIAN ODYSSEY (289 pp.)—Stanley Weinbaum—Fanfasy ($3).

Ham Hammond was in a tight spot. Adventurous Ham, who had rocketed to the planet Venus to hunt xixtchil, a scarce, rejuvenating drug, searched desperately for a way to save himself and his lovely companion, Pat Burlingame. They had been backed into a fearsome dusky canyon by the "doughpot," one of the most monstrous creatures on the whole planet. A white mass of nauseous protoplasm weighing several tons, the doughpot had neither intelligence nor any fixed form: it just rolled itself instinctively toward anything edible.

Even Ham Hammond's mighty flame-pistol could kill it only by...