Richard Bessière made his mark on 1960s French science fiction through a number of novels that featured an original blend of horror and SF. Two of his best works of the period are The Seven Rings Of Rhea (1962), in which Earth is described as seven concentric spheres with Hell at its core, and The Gardens Of The Apocalypse (1963) picturing a nightmarish post-cataclysmic Earth invaded by alien life forms, where survival is all but impossible.
This edition also includes an illustrated bibliography and introduction by French SF scholar Rémy Le Chevalier. Translator Brian M. Stableford has been a professional writer since 1965. He has published more than 60 science fiction and fantasy novels, as well as several authoritative non-fiction books.