BOOKS: Planet Of The Damned

That damned planet!

Planet Of The Damned, Harry Harrison

Thrashed cover

    A few weekends ago, my wife, daughter, and my mother all went to a fabulous little festival in the town we live in. It's called Derryfest. It's as amazing as it sounds. It's just a big park with vendors set up under tents, basically. There are other things (a talent competition, an exotic animal exhibit, some bounce-houses for the kids, lots of food, etc), but mainly it's just walking around and visiting the tents of various local businesses. The Derry Public Library (which is directly next to this park where Derryfest was taking place) also had a tent. Well, it wasn't a tent, but they were there. You could pay two dollars and get a decent-sized bag, and you were then allowed to fill it with as many books as you could from all the available books they had outside. At first, I was like, "oh man, this is gonna be great! I'll pay two bucks and walk away with like twenty awesome books!" Well, my exuberance was a little premature. There were probably a dozen-or-so boxes of books (humorously, all the boxes were old liquor boxes), and I left there with six books (one was a book I already owned). To say the selection was awful would be an understatement. But, I was determined to somehow try to get my money's worth. I grabbed five books that looked like they might be at least partially interesting, and also looked like they might be partially sci-fi. One such book was this one here, Planet of the Damned, by the creatively-named Harry Harrison. 

    You can tell from the cover that it's thrashed. It's the worst-conditioned book I own, and I was a little concerned I wouldn't be able to finish it before pages started falling out like autumn leaves (the very first two pages fell out, plus most of the spine was ready to give out by the time I finished it. If I ever want to read this book again (improbable, but not impossible), I'll have to purchase a new copy. But hey, for essentially 33 cents, I'll take it!). But, finish it I did. This was a book that I knew absolutely zero about going in. That can oftentimes be an exciting prospect. Although, just from reading the cheesy text on the front and back of the book, my expectations were very low. But it was very short (I believe 135 pages?), so I just decided, what the hell, I'll give it a shot. 

Thrashed back cover!

    Overall, I thought this was an enjoyable book. The plot is pretty easy to follow, and there aren't a whole lot of those alien concepts thrown about that man's imagination (this man's imagination, anyway. I'm looking at you, Solaris!) can barely grasp (this is by no means "hard sci fi". Essentially, a man from a little, fairly isolated planet is recruited to help save another planet from being bombed by yet another planet. See, the planet in question that is in danger of being bombed, Dis, is full of unsociable assholes, basically. Their leaders want to drop cobalt bombs on their neighboring planet (that would be Nyjord, the aforementioned, "yet another planet"). The neighboring planet does not want bombs dropped on it, so in retaliation, they are threatening to drop hydrogen bombs on Dis. The book follows the exploits of Brion, who has been tasked with trying to save the planet Dis from total destruction. The story moves pretty fast, and there is very little down-time. From the opening chapter of Brion fencing on his home planet to win a very prestigious (at least on his planet) tournament, the action never really lets up. There are some chapters with nice violent (but not bloody or gory or anything) action, and some with speculative dialogue. 

    The descriptions of the alien planet, and the strange creatures and humanoids that live on it are good. The narration and dialogue I generally thought was decent too. The story keeps you guessing at what exactly is causing the leaders of the Disan people to want to drop bombs on their neighbors, and it isn't divulged until the last few chapters. Even the penultimate chapter has you wondering exactly what might happen to the protagonists. It's a great chapter, and a good one to (almost) end the book off with. The final chapter is the worst in the book. Without spoiling much, it's just two characters talking (in maybe some of the worst dialogue in the book), then another character joins in, and one of the characters says he wont' do something, then immediately changes his mind and says he will do it. If any of that makes sense. Even this didn't bother me much, because most of the rest of the book was good. I mean, this didn't blow me away, and it's not something that will stay with me for years, but it's a good, light, fast read. Again, for you quick readers out there, I'm sure you could blow through it in probably two days. This seems to be my shortest book post yet, but I honestly don't know if there is a whole lot more to say. Maybe that's an indictment on the book itself? Or, more likely, one on me because I can't think of anything else to write. Hell, the first paragraph was about how I bought books at our town's local festival.

    In summary, this was a good book, but not an amazing book. As far as the other sci-fi I've covered in my blog, this book ranks near the bottom. It may be on par with Orphans of the Sky, but perhaps a small notch below it. Besides that book's dumb sexism, it was enjoyable, had an interesting idea, and memorable characters. Not that Planet of the Damned doesn't have an interesting idea (it does), but the characters aren't as memorable. While I suppose you could say there's sexism to be found here, it's probably not as bad as Heinlein's book. I didn't want to mention anything about sexism, because I really don't want each sci-fi blog post about a book from the 1960's to devolve into a discussion on that, but just know there is a female character in this book, and she's instrumental in solving the book's main problem. She's handled well, but not perfectly. At any rate, it's right around Orphans of the Sky. It's not as good as Solaris, Dolphin Island, or Fantastic Voyage, but it's in no way bad. Okay, since I feel like I'm talking in circles, I'll wrap it up. 

    As far as books go, I started one a few days ago, but won't really start to get into it until next week (around October 20). Look for that post to be up around Halloween probably. Nextly, I have a few more blog posts I need to write, namely a few more Dark Souls II ones, and a brand-spanking new "B-LOG SLAYING" post. Plus other stuff. So much writing, so little time. 

I would suggest this book to fans of sci-fi that focuses on strange alien planets and creatures. It won't blow you away, but it's fast and fun. 

Broken spine