Deathworld

A science fiction written by Harry Harrison in 1960
Reviewed edition by Wildside from 2009
A trade paperback has 150 pages
ISBN 1-4344-5035-X

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From your favorite psionic dictionary: "telekinesis: the ability to influence objects by thought." Now, would not that be a nice thing to have ?

Jason dinAlt actually does.

Not much of it, not very reliable, but enough to nudge the dice in the proper direction.

Now, it probably does not come as much of a surprise that Jason is a successful gambler. Of course, the talent has its drawbacks - for one thing, he does not stay in one place for very long - but overall, life is good. Except then Jason meets Kerk, a trigger happy character that brings a large sum to bet with and requires an even larger win.

Shortly after winning (easy, really), Jason finds himself on the run with Kerk, who explains that the money will buy weapons for colonists on the planet Pyrrus. The colonists are in a constant fight with the surrounding jungle, which, as Kerk does not forget to mention, would kill soft men like Jason in seconds. And Jason, the vain man he is, decides to test that ...

Review

The story of Deathworld has been initially serialized in three issues of the Astounding Science Fiction magazine. Perhaps that is why it totals only 150 pages - with the norm these days being somewhere between 400 and 500 pages, having the action start on the very first page is a nice change. Another notable feature are the requisites of the story - the psionic powers and the automated medikits bring the vintage feeling of old science fiction (luckily without looking too awkward in these technologically advanced days). All in all, this makes for a pleasantly compact read, whose faults (if any) are easy to forgive in the golden oldies atmosphere.

Rated as good by Ceres on 2009-12-13

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