SOME NOTES ON
HARRY HARRISON'S DEATHWORLD 1
After two forays into classic fantasy, I set out for the stars in the first of Harry Harrison's Deathworld trilogy. Described on the back cover as "A coldly thrilling piece of science fiction" (The Spectator) and "Hard to put down" (New Scientist), we embark on a deadly adventure.
On the planet Cassylia we are introduced to Jason dinAlt, an interplanetary gambler of some reputation. Such is his 'fame' that he resorts to changing his name every time he moves to a different planet. Jason is not a cheat, per se, but he does have an 'edge': he has mild psychic, or psi, talent, which manifests as telekinetic ability, which he can use to manipulate dice on the craps table.
He is approached by Kerk Pyrrus a man who, at Jason's first glance, looks like a "retired wrestler". Kerk has a proposition: take a bankroll of 27 million and turn it into 3000 million. Anything in excess of that, Jason can keep. It's a challenge Jason can't turn down.
The game is played and Jason uses his psi power to control the dice. His winnings steadily accumulate. Of course, the house doesn't like to lose and have a cheat of their own. They switch out the dice but Jason suspects something is afoot. Inspecting the new dice, he realises five of the faces are normal, while the sixth is painted with an iron-based compound, making it susceptible to magnetic fields, allowing the house to skew the dice rolls. Jason exposes the cheat and wins big: 3000 million for Kerk, plus almost 16 million for himself.
The house can't take that loss and chase Jason and Kerk, intending to get their money back. In an escape planned with almost military precision, involving car-swaps and a diplomatic incident, the pair manage to get off-planet in safety.
Kerk describes Pyrrus, with its 2.0G gravity, vicious weather, volcanic activity, twin satellites causing massive tidal fluctuations but the most stirring description is of the flora and fauna:
"Armour-plated, poisonous, claw-tipped and fang-mouthed. That describes everything that walks, flaps or just sits and grows."
Deathworld 1, Harry Harrison
This description has stayed with me in the (over 30) years since I first read the book.
Jason convinces Kerk to take him to Pyrrus, certain that he can beat the challenges of the world. En route to Pyrrus, Jason meets Meta, the pilot, and herself a ferocious warrior. He sees the joy on Kerk and Meta's faces as they open the crates bought with the money Jason won: weapons of every description, needed to fight for survival on Pyrrus.
When the ship arrives on Pyrrus, Jason and all of the crew are sealed in metallic tubes. This is to protect them from the hazards that have evolved on the planet in the time they have been away. Consider that for a moment: evolution on Pyrrus is in fast-forward, so much so that those plants and animals the crew knew before they left have been out-evolved by more lethal species. All the crew are given reorientation courses to acquaint themselves with the new lifeforms.
Jason, however, has to start at the beginning. First, he is given muscle-building drugs and a series of injections to boost his immunity. Then the training begins. Jason is subjected to the same six-year training regime that native Pyrrans are given. As an adult, he can learn more quickly than a child but it still takes months before he is allowed out of the adaptation clinic. He learns about the native life forms in a series of progressively more dangerous environments. In the first, a facsimile of a plant might generate a nettle-like sting. The same plant in later classes might render Jason unconscious or cause searing pain. The training also covers the Pyrran technology, including the automated medikit and the ever-present forearm-mounted gun, with it's automatic draw mechanism. All in the name of survival.
Throughout it all, Jason is plagued by nightmares of fear and hatred, though the impact is minimised by a cocktail of prescribed drugs.
When he is finally finished with his training and allowed to leave the adaptation clinic, Jason is assigned a bodyguard. To add insult to injury, his protection takes the form of Grif, an eight-year old Pyrran boy, who is faster with a gun than Jason.
Jason's curiosity is piqued. Why are all lifeforms so hostile to humans? He convinces Kerk to let him investigate the planet's history. Assisted by Meta, a young woman who is also a space pilot, he begins work in the Investigations and Research department. Pyrrus has a technical library, fully automated but geared towards maintenance of Pyrran technology. In the basement, however, is a cache of historical documents. Amongst the decaying, rat-chewed books is a sealed log box, dating to the arrival of the first settlers, 300 years ago.
The log is from the Stellar Transport Pollux Victory, a ship which brought 55000 colonists to Pyrrus. It's a hard truth for Meta to bear: the population of Pyrrus is now 30000. After reading the log, Jason comes to a conclusion. Something has turned the animals and plants against humankind and Jason intends to find that something.
An attack on the Pyrran city leads to a number of deaths. Kerk is incandescent with rage and confines Jason to the adaptation clinic, to be deported off-planet when the ship returns. Jason has two weeks to find a solution.
He talks with Poli, old and severely crippled, the librarian and Jason learns of the 'grubbers' and a man called Krannon. Tracking down Krannon adds another piece to the puzzle: 'grubbers' are barbarians, humans who live outside the city. Jason hitches a ride with Krannon on his next meeting with the grubbers. He starts a false firefight with a non-existent creature and uses the confusion to bolt from Krannon. His goal is to contact and befriend the grubbers.
Jason is captured by a grubber, Naxa, and is astonished to see him using a high-tech communicator. He is taken to see Rhes and is further astonished to see that the grubbers have tamed and trained one of the native Pyrran animals to use as a riding beast. He meets Rhes and cures the man's life-threatening illness using the medikit. Jason learns a lot from Rhes.
There is a fragile trading relationship between the grubbers and the city-Pyrrans, whom the wilderness-Pyrrans refer to as 'junkmen'. The grubbers trade farmed food for technological items from the junkmen. Weapons and medicines are on the forbidden list. There are no records of what caused the split between the city and the wilderness.
Naxa is a 'talker'. He has a talent for communicating with the native animals. Jason realises that Naxa has a psi talent and experiments with his own power. He reaches the conclusion that the Pyrran animals, and probably the plants as well, are sensitive to psi radiation. As they approach the city, Jason feels hatred and fear directed at the city.
Naxa and Rhes aid Jason's return to the city and he tells Kerk that psi-radiation is being directed at the city. He convinces the Pyrran leader to let him build a psi-detector, to track back to the source of the hatred. Meta pilots the space ship through Pyrrus' atmosphere, while Jason scans with his psi-detector. Eventually the signal is tracked to a small chain of islands. Jason reports back to Kerk who resolves to destroy the source of the threat once and for all: with an atomic bomb.
An assault team of Pyrrans attacks the cave. Twenty-five men are lost fighting against hordes of beasts. The 'leader beings', huge plant-like lifeforms, are located in a cave. The last surviving Pyrran commando triggers the bomb.
The plan has not worked. The animals near the city renew their attack, the most savage it has ever been. Enraged that the raid has failed, Kerk attacks Jason, blaming him for the dire situation. Jason flees and steals one of the ship's lifeboats. He plummets into the jungle.
It seems all is lost as Jason staggers through the forest, enduring his injuries from the crash landing and a bout of pneumonia. Attacked by a horde of animals, he fights until he is out of ammunition. At the last minute, he is rescued by grubbers.
Eight days later, Jason wakes to find that Rhes has saved him using junkmen's medicine. Rhes had killed Krannon for the man's medikit, an action that would surely bring war between the grubbers and the junkmen. Under pressure to come up with a plan that would avoid a war, Jason's train of thought is derailed when an earthquake warning arrives. It seems the psi talents of the grubbers are not limited to animals: a man called Hananas can detect incoming tremors.
As they flee the quake, Jason notices something. The animals' natural instincts are forgotten as predator and prey flee together. Putting two and two together, Jason concocts a plan.
Mustering the grubbers' talkers, those who have a psi talent with the animals, on one side of the city to launch a ferocious attack. As the attack mounts, Jason leads a team and captures the Pyrrans' space ship. There follows a tense negotiation. Jason says he will destroy the ship, the Pyrrans' only link to the greater galaxy. Without it, the city Pyrrans will be unable to resupply their weapons and equipment. They will be fighting a losing war against the rest of the planet.
Jason explains his reasoning and the history of Pyrrus. Every life form on the planet is psychic, to a greater or lesser degree. Psionic species were genetically selected as survivors. They compete naturally but cooperate when danger threatens. The first human settlers were deemed a threat and the planet fought back. The psi powers triggered rapid mutations, leading to more savage animals. The settlers upgraded their weapons for protection. The whole cycle repeated over 300 years.
A demonstration is arranged. Naxa, the talker, captures a stingwing. Brucco, the city-Pyrran in charge of the adaptation clinic, reaches out and pets the creature, which does not see him as a threat.
Jason's plan, then, is to buy a spaceship of his own, recruit some Pyrran volunteers and go into the business of exploring new planets.
The story ends with Rhes and Kerk shaking hands in a spirit of cooperation in the future.
What have I learned?
Some mechanism of Faster Than Light (FTL) travel exists in the Deathworld series. This is not the almost-instant 'hyperspace' in the Star Wars sense. In Deathworld, such travel might take weeks to reach other planets but it is certainly faster than conventional rockets or even the speed of light itself.
The concept of psionic powers - telepathy, telekinesis, danger senses and so on - is widely used in science fiction and paranormal tales. The 'Force' powers used in Star Wars movies are hugely powerful. Impressive on screen, yes, but could the human mind alone generate such effects, regardless of the user's 'midichlorian' count?
In the Deathworld stories, however, psi is in its infancy. Using his mild telekinetic power at the gaming table drains Jason and leaves him soaked in sweat. Psi also has a side effect: it leaves Jason susceptible to mental attacks, nightmares and severe headaches. Perhaps most interestingly, psi also works better in groups. An entire planet wages war against the human inhabitants. A group of grubber 'talkers' team up to stage an animal attack on the Pyrran city.
Does this concept of groups working together ring any bells? In Swords Against Deviltry, described earlier, Fafhrd's mother, Mor, and lover, Mara, work in a coven of snow witches to magnify their power.
