Tight, flat, square book. Top edge dust stained. Edges lightly worn. Owner's marks. Pages toned, marginally darker. Spine crease and cupped. Reprinted by Jove when Harcourt bought popular library. 

"The air was crushed under the constant roar of exploding shells, the shrill racket of passing rockets, and the soft but heavy crackling hiss of the laser beams."

Contact!

The image in the battle cruiser's screens grew - and it was clear that this was a new kind of ship, a new race, the first new civilization the Federation had met in three hundred years. The crew's excitement mounted - the newcomers would be invited to join the Federation, the crew would all be heroes and be awarded enormous bonuses, and -

The stranger opened fire with an impressive battery of weapons; the cruiser's defenses cut in automatically, and in a few seconds the unidentified ship was nothing but an expanding cloud of radiant gases.

After a thousand years of peace in space, there was a war on. But who was the mysterious and deadly enemy?