Something tells me this wasn't a fresh book out of the Sixties but another space-opera pulp reprint. Professor Jameson. "Space Adventure." The Zoromes. Well, let us google . . . Hmm.

Not prolific, and little remembered today, Jones was ground-breaking in science fiction. His first story, "The Death's Head Meteor", was published in Air Wonder Stories in 1930, possibly recording the first use of "astronaut" in fiction. He also pioneered cyborg and robotic characters, and is credited with inspiring the modern idea of cryonics.

Does this sound familiar?

The hero was Professor Jameson, the last Earthman, who became immortal through the science of the Zoromes. Jameson was obsessed with the idea of perfectly preserving his body after death and succeeded by having it launched into space in a small capsule. Jameson's body survived for 40,000,000 years, where it was found orbiting a dead planet Earth by a passing Zorome exploration ship. The Zoromes, or machine men as they sometimes called themselves, were cyborgs. They came from a race of biological beings who had achieved immortality by transferring their brains to machine bodies.

Influential indeed. Alas:

R. D. Mullen, reviewing "The Planet of the Double Sun,"commented that while many readers have found the stories memorable despite their exceptionally crude writing, he found the characters and events "of such little interest that I feel no desire to follow them through the succeeding stories."

For thier robot form, the Zoromes chose something that looked like it came from the bathroom cabinets.