Roller Coaster World

Roller Coaster World was written by Kenneth Bulmer and published in 1972.  It's a space romance with a heavy Aldous Huxley/Brave New World vibe, and the story of how sinner Douglas Marsden turns into a very reluctant Jesus-figure in a pleasure city on Parsloe's Planet, a nearby earth colony. Robots do all of the manual labor, so the population has unlimited free time to pursue things like sports, astrology, affairs, Exisensi ( interactive movies that play in your mind) and the 24-7 party.  They are also totally addicted to a speed-like stimulant called Parsloe's radiation, and are swiftly destroying the planet as they consume this limited resource.  Their cities on wheels score this radiation drug, leaving destruction in their wake.  The whole population is wired: they talk and do everything at incredible speeds, only sleeping two hours a day, and even then, they don't have to have their own dreams as a computer dreams for them.  It is through Marsden's struggle that Bulmer breathes life into his standard theme of transformation from drug-induced, artificial-exisensi, happy-slavery to a new frontier of drug-free, natural-reality, unhappy-freedom.   The women in here are pnumatic man eaters, so no happy hollywood ending is even remotely possible, only the "poor bastard" kind.  Regardless, this space romance is another good one from Bulmer.

The Diamond Contessa

The Diamond Contessa was written by Kenneth Bulmer and published in 1983.  It's book 7 in his "Keys to the Dimensions" series.  The series consists of:

1.  The Key to Irunium (1967)
2. The Key to Venudine (1968)
3. The Wizards of Senchuria (1969)
4. The Ships of Durostorum (1970)
5. The Hunters of Jundagai (1971)
6. The Chariots of Ra (1972)
7. The Diamond Contessa (1973)

I never read the first 6, but it was no problem as far as I'm concerned.  This novel is about Harry Blakey, who is a war veteran and a porteur (a man who can teleport himself to other dimensions.) Things move along in the novel as we are guided through portals to dozens of dimensional worlds, and meet other species along the way; there is plenty of inter-dimensional perversion, as Harry seems to bed every attractive female he encounters, and even being enslaved by the Diamond Contessa doesn't stop him from knockin' boots with her...

There is a thrilling battle at the end that where our Hero, in full armored battle suit, tries to kill the charismatic and seductive Diamond Contessa.  The battle rivals any in Starship Troopers.  She, incredibly, goes mano a mano with our hero, is defeated and lives to fight another day, but alas, this is her last fictional appearance.  This book is worth reading just for the great climax at the end, it's quite a romp, and I'll pick up the others in the series when I come across them.

The Doomsday Men

The Doomsday Men was written by Kenneth Bulmer, and published in 1965.  This is a novel that examines what it's like to live in a city that's under the shield of a protective dome, and the consequences of isolationism:

"How can we stop this country from sinking into final degradation and decadence?  You all know how everyone is going sour, rotten, the filthy practices, the murders, the seething violence, not only in the city--where thank God we can exercise a measure of control--but now seeping into the clean countryside.  We are so introverted, so much a part of our own cesspit, that we are all doomed unless we can let in the fresh clean air of the outside world!"

It's also a future/noir detective yarn, where the detectives have the technology to connect with the dying brains of murder victims, and invade their minds a la the movie Inception.  They get to relive their death and solve crimes; only some people have decided to sell the technology to young criminals so they can replay the deaths for kicks....Bulmer crafts a pretty cool book here, a little dated in a mid-60s mod squad kinda way, but rewarding nonetheless.