Leo P. Kelley (1928–2002)

How about this for a first-line grabber: “Well, Tok Von, like I said, I don’t ball mutants.”

Tok Von is an ET disguised as a human. His home folks think he is a malcontent. But he is enjoying the drugs and rock ‘n’ roll party scene and wondering about sex, as he watches the girls in the see-through blouses of the time. He is straightforward about who he is, but no one will believe he is an alien. Then, he meets Dr. Quest, a mad psychiatrist who runs an asylum with a high-tech show more role-playing arena with androids. Think Westworld meets Maybury.
I liked it, but I’m up for any new take on Candide, even if it ain’t so new anymore. show less

Luke's brother was murdered by four men and he has been tracking them down killing them one by one. Only Adam Foss has avoided his revenge. When his search brings him to Virginia City, he finds himself becoming a coal miner in a very dangerous mining operation. He encourages the miners to form a union and negotiate safer working conditions.

This makes him a target for reprisals from one mine owner in particular which leads him Foss. This story is more about early western mining and its show more dangers than a normal western novel theme. show less

I'm a sucker for post-apocalyse stuff, but this one is pretty bad. Bad decisions resulted in the conflagration, so the new religion has everybody carrying around a coin in their mouth and flipping it instead of making decisions. That about says it for this book, which remembered from when I was a kid (but not well enough) and tracked down a new copy.

This book says it's written by Leo F. Kelley but the real name is Leo P. Kelly. Starting in the 1960s he wrote SF and Westerns. Most of his later success was from the Westerns. He must have had some talent as he wrote at least 30 published novels. He did not win any awards.
This was an early SF effort and not very good. I couldn't justify three stars. It has a similar theme to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" but not nearly as good.
I am surveying classic SF so I may try another of his SF show more works if I come across one. show less