Cirrus@Austlit

'Unable to exceed the speed of light, he found ways around the law of nature, twisting space and time to his bidding. But the lure of FTL speeds could would not be forgotten...and the crew of the Flying Cloud - casts-offs from the great civilisations of the galaxy- found themselves breaking through the barriers of the past to discover new worlds - worlds from which they could never return!'

[Source: www.bertramchandler.com]

Practical and hard-headed John Grimes is not the sort to believe in ghosts but he's willing to give psychics a chance when shapely Sonya Verrill, a commander in the Federation Survey Service, proposes a ghost-hunting expedition in the sector around Kinsolving's Planet. Out where the fabric of space wears thin, ships have encountered Rim Ghosts—apparitions of craft and crewmates from alternate universes. When Grimes organizes a séance to make contact, their ship is yanked into an alternate universe, and their only hope of getting home lies in a lost relic - a sleeper ship from the first age of space exploration.

'Gods! Dragons! Fairies! Frog Princess! Knights! and much more. John Grimes faces them all.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Orion ed.)

Alternate Orbits, also published as Commodore of the Sea, is a four-story collection from the John Grimes/Rim Worlds series, comprising 'Hall of Fame' (1969, aka 'The Kinsolving's Planet Irregulars'), 'The Sister Ships' (1971), 'The Man Who Sailed the Sky' (1971), and 'The Rub' (1970).

In a John Grimes Rim adventure, strange things happen out where the stellar medium grows thin, out where it is difficult to say if you remain within the galaxy or you're falling through the intergalactic void. Add to that strangeness an Outsider ship filled with technology so far in advance of the human as to appear magical, and the catalytic presence of Commodore John Grimes, and anything can happen... anything at all.

[Source: www.fictionwise.com]

'Because the universe was vast and they had been out beyond the Galactic Lens. Because time is infinite and they had slipped beyond their own epoch. Because in whatever universe they were in they could raise no etheric word, no telepathic beacon, no other star vessel. But for John Grimes, a veritable Commodore Hornblower of the future space seas, there had to be a way back. The first step was to locate Earth, the launching place for all humanity. But Earth turned out to be legend and myth and faith - and Grimes' rebellious crew were to enact roles already fabled before they were all born.'

[Source: www.fictionwise.com]