This is one half of an Ace Double #78400.It is a later double from 1970 with a John Jakes story on the other side. First off, there is no Star Virus mentioned in the book, so I am going to assume that someone changed the title to make it more sciffy (perhaps Moorcock). Also this is Bayley’s first novel, and it shows it throughout. I assume that this was written years before 1970 and that Bayley improved after this because he was a regular at New Worlds and one of Michael Moorcock’s chosen ones. He was supposed to be influential in the science fiction New Wave movement of the late 60s, but I had never heard of him before reading this book. New Wave movement novels tend to be very good or very bad. This falls into the later type.

Interestingly enough, William S. Burroughs told Bayley at a party that he admired The Star Virus, but I am convinced that the old pervert was only making a pass at him.

One way to write a novel is to create a chase scenario. Give someone a McGuffin and send the bad guys after him. There is no need for any other conflict. Bayley does this by inventing some kind of space lens that he never explains very well, and he has an evil alien race rush around trying to get it back from the space pirate who stole it. Bayley throws the speculative fiction grand assortment of standard props at the protagonist who never seems to be emotionally involved in the whole plot thingy. The writing is nicely done more often than not, but it suffers from some sophomoric treatments of the action and characters. He seems to kill of the crew of his ship more or less randomly without any remorse. There is some mention of a back story to the protagonist, but just hints here and there that do nothing to round out the cardboard characters.

I sometimes hesitate to read Ace Doubles because one of the sides is always really bad. This means that the John Jakes story that I just started has to be very good indeed.