Harry Harrison

Planet of the Damned Harry Harrison

Brion Brandd is the superhuman champion of the Twenties, a competition of 20 tasks, both physical and cerebral. He also works for the Cultural Relationships Foundation, a private body which exists to 'promote peace and ensure the sovereign welfare of independent planets. His task in this story is two avert war between two planets which orbit the same sun: one is a highly developed culture, the other, on the planet Dis, is a barbaric one. The Disans have only one desire: to kill. Brandd must find out why. Dis was a harsh, inhospitable, dangerous place and the Magter made it worse. They might have been human once - but they were something else now. The Magter had only one desire - to kill everything, themselves, their planet, the universe if they could. Brion Brandd was sent in at the eleventh hour. His mission was to save Dis, but it looked as though he was going to preside over its annihilation. Brion Brandd also features in a sequel, Planet of No Return.