(Found) Vietnam soldier, power of always getting home, alien princess, lottery

[JoeShoo]

Paperback from 1970s/80s. Cover might have had a beautiful woman, on a green hill.

I work in a library and we're used to specific-but-vague queries but I have to say this one has stumped us - any ideas???

 

[Pyan]

Sounds a bit like Glory Road, by Robert A Heinlein...

Evelyn Cyril "E.C." Gordon (also known as "Easy" and "Flash") has been recently discharged from an unnamed war in Southeast Asia. He is pondering what to do with his future and considers spending a year traveling in France. He is presented with a dilemma: follow up on a possible winning entry in the Irish Sweepstakes or respond to a newspaper ad that asks "Are you a coward?". He settles on the latter, discovering it has been placed by Star, a stunningly gorgeous woman he has previously met on the beach. Star informs him that he is the one to embark on a perilous quest to retrieve the Egg of the Phoenix....

 

[hitmouse]

Has nothing to do with Vietnam obvs. NEL liked a bit of gratuitous flesh in their covers.

 

[JoeShoo]

awesome! I'll pass the info on to the chap and see if these fit the bill - it is possible he's talking about two books at the same time
Thanks loads and all other suggestions welcome too
Joe

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

That Burroughs blurb reads like an entry in the 'Write an opening that would put you off reading a book' challenge.

 

[hitmouse]

That Burroughs blurb reads like an entry in the 'Write an opening that would put you off reading a book' challenge.

Terrible blurb for a terrific book, allowing for a large number of very dated attitudes.

 

[Toby Frost]

I'm unconvinced by "utterly realistic".

I like the way that Burroughs appears to be having a look at Thuvia.

 

[JoeShoo]

Success - it was Glory Road Thanks all for your expertise. Very impressive!!

 

[Pyan]

That Burroughs blurb reads like an entry in the 'Write an opening that would put you off reading a book' challenge.

"utterly realistic"??

 

[hitmouse]

"utterly realistic"??

Yes. That cover photo was taken by the NASA Mars Rover.

 

[Ravensquawk]

Holy cow, is amnesia this bad?
When I used to go to the local drugstore and buy another Heinlein book, I brought along a small notebook with the names of the ones I'd already read with me before it got to a dozen or so. Even flipping through them to recognize/not recognize plot details got tiresome - and faulty.
Reading the Wikipedia summary on Glory Road is like something new - or something read during a blackout sleepwalk that might as well be new.

Hoping it wasn't just my memory at fault.

(The Martian furball who recorded and played back every sound around it solving a crime was fun, though.)

I'd start rereading some of them, but so far I'm a tad repulsed by memories of alarmingly competent women - eidetic memory, True Witnesses, trained warrior spy couriers and so on - practically wiggling and squirming to have lotsa babies and saying "Yes, Boss" a lot.

 

[hitmouse]

Holy cow, is amnesia this bad?
When I used to go to the local drugstore and buy another Heinlein book, I brought along a small notebook with the names of the ones I'd already read with me before it got to a dozen or so. Even flipping through them to recognize/not recognize plot details got tiresome - and faulty.
Reading the Wikipedia summary on Glory Road is like something new - or something read during a blackout sleepwalk that might as well be new.

Hoping it wasn't just my memory at fault.

(The Martian furball who recorded and played back every sound around it solving a crime was fun, though.)

I'd start rereading some of them, but so far I'm a tad repulsed by memories of alarmingly competent women - eidetic memory, True Witnesses, trained warrior spy couriers and so on - practically wiggling and squirming to have lotsa babies and saying "Yes, Boss" a lot.

No, I had the same reaction. I read Glory Road 3 or 4 years ago, thought it was rather disappointing, and promptly forgot about it to the extent that the op query did not fire a single spark of recognition.

 

[JoeShoo]

Well, either way there's a very happy library user thanks to you lot