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What if you could use ESP to influence the outcome of games of chance in your favor? That's the unconventional money-making scheme that intergalactic gambler Jason dinAlt, the protagonist of Harry Harrison's Deathworld, uses to fund his adventures. Can he outwit one of the universe's largest governments to amass an unprecedented fortune -- and survive a sojourn on the deadliest planet known to humankind?.
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This classic work by Harry Harrison unfortunately suffers from lack of an editor's eye, as well as anvilicious messages. The storylines are all engaging and the world-building is well done, but most everything else is sub-par.
Harrison's love for the incomplete sentence is showcased in Deathworld I. The editor of Deathworld II must have caught on and cleaned up the most glaring examples in that entry of the series, but they return with a vengeance in Deathworld III.
Harrison also loves to use his books as soapboxes. Unfortunately, the three books have three different points, some of which are trite while others are offensive to me. Deathworld I argues that peace and understanding will win out over violence and war. show more Deathworld II argues that morality is secondary to survival, and ends in a Shoot the Dog moment in which protagonist Jason dinAlt orders his love interest to kill the insufferable and uptight comic relief. Deathworld III argues that societal evolution is inevitable, and that war and brutality are to be encouraged in order to encourage a stable society in the future.
All of this worked when paired with vicious satire in Harrison's Bill the Galactic Hero (then again, I read Bill in grade school). Deathworld is played completely straight. In addition, Bill was laughably naive. Jason dinAlt is a Gary Stu who understands every situation and can do no wrong; his one weakness appears to be a surprise knock to the head. He's surrounded by one-dimensional characters, most of which are anti-intellectuals of one sort or another. He's also psychic, which affects the plot exactly twice, and both in Deathworld I. show less
This classic work by Harry Harrison unfortunately suffers from lack of an editor's eye, as well as anvilicious messages. The storylines are all engaging and the world-building is well done, but most everything else is sub-par.
Harrison's love for the incomplete sentence is showcased in Deathworld I. The editor of Deathworld II must have caught on and cleaned up the most glaring examples in that entry of the series, but they return with a vengeance in Deathworld III.
Harrison also loves to use his books as soapboxes. Unfortunately, the three books have three different points, some of which are trite while others are offensive to me. Deathworld I argues that peace and understanding will win out over violence and war. show more Deathworld II argues that morality is secondary to survival, and ends in a Shoot the Dog moment in which protagonist Jason dinAlt orders his love interest to kill the insufferable and uptight comic relief. Deathworld III argues that societal evolution is inevitable, and that war and brutality are to be encouraged in order to encourage a stable society in the future.
All of this worked when paired with vicious satire in Harrison's Bill the Galactic Hero (then again, I read Bill in grade school). Deathworld is played completely straight. In addition, Bill was laughably naive. Jason dinAlt is a Gary Stu who understands every situation and can do no wrong; his one weakness appears to be a surprise knock to the head. He's surrounded by one-dimensional characters, most of which are anti-intellectuals of one sort or another. He's also psychic, which affects the plot exactly twice, and both in Deathworld I. show less
2.5/5
In full transparency, these opinions are based on my reading of the first of the Deathworld stories, and more cursory glances at the second and third. That, in and of its self, should be some indicator as to what I think about them. At the center of them all is Jason dinAlt a struggling psyonic gambler, whose boredom and hubris land him on the planet Pyrrus, where the environment, the flora, and the fauna are in constant, hellish combat with the dwindling human settlement. This constant state of war has a produced a society that values stoic strength, hard-nose stubbornness, and combat ability above all else. Jason is alone in his skepticism and curiosity about the origin of this war and the mysterious "grubbers", a people who can show more somehow live outside in the wilds of the planet.
At first my reading experience was surprisingly pretty enjoyable. Deathworld is really smartly self conscious of what it is, cuts all of the fluff out and delivers by going over the top with its central premise, which while pulpy is fun in a youthful sort of way. Jason is also surprisingly incompetent for a leading male character at this time period. He struggles to survive on Pyruss, living by the grace of those around him. Yet he's also the only character able of any complex thought, the only one able to piece the puzzle together after hundreds of years. So, definitely mixed on the character front.
If I were being charitable, I would say that Deathworld does have some standout thematic work. War begetting war, the cycle of violence, humans as the aggressor, humans in the wrong. But, somehow, these themes feel inadvertent, since the rest of the book is written like a pulp adventure flick. It's really obvious that this was a serialized work that was only later collected together. The writing is sometimes surprisingly dark for the magazines, but not so much as to be a defining feature.
After struggling to finish the first Deathworld story, I decided to poke my nose into the sequels to see if the format was changed significantly enough to merit further exploration. Sadly, no. While the setting may change, these stories are really more of the same with lower quality prose work.
Decisively not as impressive as Harrison's main attraction Make Room! Make Room!, but might be worth it if you're interested in campy and self aware action drama with all of the trappings of 1960's SF. Had Harrison limited himself to the one foray with Jason and Pyrrus I might've felt more positively about the whole thing, but the sequels seemed more or less unnecessary to begin with. show less
In full transparency, these opinions are based on my reading of the first of the Deathworld stories, and more cursory glances at the second and third. That, in and of its self, should be some indicator as to what I think about them. At the center of them all is Jason dinAlt a struggling psyonic gambler, whose boredom and hubris land him on the planet Pyrrus, where the environment, the flora, and the fauna are in constant, hellish combat with the dwindling human settlement. This constant state of war has a produced a society that values stoic strength, hard-nose stubbornness, and combat ability above all else. Jason is alone in his skepticism and curiosity about the origin of this war and the mysterious "grubbers", a people who can show more somehow live outside in the wilds of the planet.
At first my reading experience was surprisingly pretty enjoyable. Deathworld is really smartly self conscious of what it is, cuts all of the fluff out and delivers by going over the top with its central premise, which while pulpy is fun in a youthful sort of way. Jason is also surprisingly incompetent for a leading male character at this time period. He struggles to survive on Pyruss, living by the grace of those around him. Yet he's also the only character able of any complex thought, the only one able to piece the puzzle together after hundreds of years. So, definitely mixed on the character front.
If I were being charitable, I would say that Deathworld does have some standout thematic work. War begetting war, the cycle of violence, humans as the aggressor, humans in the wrong. But, somehow, these themes feel inadvertent, since the rest of the book is written like a pulp adventure flick. It's really obvious that this was a serialized work that was only later collected together. The writing is sometimes surprisingly dark for the magazines, but not so much as to be a defining feature.
After struggling to finish the first Deathworld story, I decided to poke my nose into the sequels to see if the format was changed significantly enough to merit further exploration. Sadly, no. While the setting may change, these stories are really more of the same with lower quality prose work.
Decisively not as impressive as Harrison's main attraction Make Room! Make Room!, but might be worth it if you're interested in campy and self aware action drama with all of the trappings of 1960's SF. Had Harrison limited himself to the one foray with Jason and Pyrrus I might've felt more positively about the whole thing, but the sequels seemed more or less unnecessary to begin with. show less
Harry Harrison was a writer who understood his audience. He always gave them what they expected and just a little bit more. Deathworld, Harrison’s first novel, begins by establishing its hero, Jason dinAlt, a gambler with a psionic edge. He also has the aplomb to carry off his bluffs. He would be right at home in an Ian Fleming novel. When the plot takes Jason to the ominously named planet Pyrrus, Harrison gives us something special, a well-worked-out planetary ecology and social system. Harrison still reads well after more than 70 years. 4 stars.
I've read this book a couple of times now. I find it enjoyable in part because Harrison is very good about presenting an overly capable character(s) (that should be able to handle anything you throw at them) and finding situations to put them in that are both challenging and plausible.
Harrison does get a little preachy in the second story, but other than that, the stories are pretty straightforward adventures about solving some unusual problems.
This is classic (old) sci-fi, with much of its faults and charms, and therefore may not appeal to some people. (4/5)
Harrison does get a little preachy in the second story, but other than that, the stories are pretty straightforward adventures about solving some unusual problems.
This is classic (old) sci-fi, with much of its faults and charms, and therefore may not appeal to some people. (4/5)
Jason dinAlt, a witty gambler with psionic abilities who tackles the galaxy's most hostile environments.
Deathworld 1: Jason visits Pyrrus, a planet with extreme gravity, violent weather, and predatory wildlife designed to kill humans. He discovers the ecology is evolving rapidly to eliminate colonists and attempts to end the cycle of violence.
Deathworld 2, The Ethical Engineer: Jason is kidnapped by a Pyrran and crashes on a primitive world where he must use his intelligence and wits to survive, escape, and outsmart a largely low-tech but cruel society.
Deathworld 3, The Producer: Jason leads a group of Pyrrans to a new, incredibly dangerous planet to create a colony, facing off against organized, well-armed locals on the planet Felicity.
Deathworld 1: Jason visits Pyrrus, a planet with extreme gravity, violent weather, and predatory wildlife designed to kill humans. He discovers the ecology is evolving rapidly to eliminate colonists and attempts to end the cycle of violence.
Deathworld 2, The Ethical Engineer: Jason is kidnapped by a Pyrran and crashes on a primitive world where he must use his intelligence and wits to survive, escape, and outsmart a largely low-tech but cruel society.
Deathworld 3, The Producer: Jason leads a group of Pyrrans to a new, incredibly dangerous planet to create a colony, facing off against organized, well-armed locals on the planet Felicity.
About as good as HH ever gets, and thus, a pleasant evenings' sojourn in Darwinism, on the planet Pyrrus.
Written as a pair with The Invisible Code.
I did manage after some encouragement from the ranks to get over that and I'm glad I did. It's a good bad-book. The Wildside edition I read was horribly proofread, but not nearly as badly as the academic books I've been reading lately. Nothing, at any rate, that distracted me from a punchy story, good characterisation as sci fi goes and a really interesting idea for world in which the story takes place.
As it happens I next picked up The Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler. I thought this was going to be another good bad-book for a few pages, but it doesn't take long to discover it's a bad bad-book.
Rest here:
http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/harry-harrison-and-christo...
I did manage after some encouragement from the ranks to get over that and I'm glad I did. It's a good bad-book. The Wildside edition I read was horribly proofread, but not nearly as badly as the academic books I've been reading lately. Nothing, at any rate, that distracted me from a punchy story, good characterisation as sci fi goes and a really interesting idea for world in which the story takes place.
As it happens I next picked up The Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler. I thought this was going to be another good bad-book for a few pages, but it doesn't take long to discover it's a bad bad-book.
Rest here:
http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/harry-harrison-and-christo...
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Harry Harrison was born Henry Maxwell Dempsey on March 12, 1925 in Stamford, Connecticut. He was drafted into the U. S. Air Corps in 1943 and became a sharpshooter, a military policeman, a gunnery instructor, and a specialist in the prototypes of computer-guided bomb-sights and gun turrets. After being discharged, he graduated from Hunter College show more with a degree in art. By the end of the 1940s, he was running a small studio that specialized in selling illustrations to comics and science-fiction magazines. He then moved on to editing some of the magazines. As the market for comics began to shrink, he started writing for science-fiction magazines. He wrote short science fiction stories and novels including Deathworld, Captive Universe, Montezuma's Revenge, Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers, Stonehenge, West of Eden, Stars and Stripes Forever. He also wrote the Stainless Steel Rat series and the Bill, the Galactic Hero series. His novel Make Room! Make Room! Was the inspiration for the movie Soylent Green. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Hank Dempsey, Felix Boyd, Wade Kaempfert, Cameron Hall, Philip St. John, and Leslie Charteris. He died on August 15, 2012 at the age of 87. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Todeswelten
- Original title
- Deathworld I; Deathworld II; Deathworld III
- Original publication date
- 1960 (Deathworld 1) (Deathworld 1); 1964 (Deathworld 2) (Deathworld 2); 1968 (Deathworld 3) (Deathworld 3); 1973 The Mothballed Space Ship - short story (may not be included in all omnibus editions) (may not be included in all omnibus editions)
- People/Characters
- Jason altDin; Kerk Pyrrus; Meta
- Important places
- Pyrrus; Felicity
- First words*
- Mit einem leisen Zischen stieß die Rohrpostanlage einen Behälter aus.
»Augenblick«, sagte Jason in das Mikrofon, drehte sich kurz um und erlegte einen Stechflügel.
Leutnant Talenc zog das Scherenfernrohr zu sich herab und stellte es auf größere Lichtstärke ein, um die beginnende Dämmerung zu kompensieren. - Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Aber dann tauschten sie doch einen festen Händedruck, weil sie beide echte Männer waren.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Nicht ein einziger Schuß fiel, aber sein heiserer Schrei und der dumpfe Aufprall seines Körpers bewiesen zur Genüge, daß Mikah der Pyrranerin nicht gewachsen war.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Danach gab es nichts mehr zu sagen. - Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- Collects Deathworld, Deathworld 2, and Deathworld 3.
The editions titled "Deathworld" with an ISBN of 1932100415 are omnibus editions and belong here not with Deathworld volume 1.
Other titles
Todeswelte... (show all)n (ISBN 3453066294/3453312163/345387952X)
Doodsstrijd op Pyrrus - in Appsala - op Voorspoed (ISBN 9029014652)
Deathworld le monde de la mort : l'intégrale (ISBN 2915549699 / 9782915549690)
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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