Original Novel, only published in the US. Based on an unpublished (non-1999) novel by Rankine called Forgotten Rocket, written in 1974.
Pocket: (nbr 10; pp7-159) | 0-671-80764-1 | Nov 1976 ; $1.50 |
Powys Revised text | With foreword by John Mason | 1 October 2012 |
A lush, green planet beckons from Main Mission Control's star-scanning screen ... and to the homeless Alphans, it looks like Earth. But descent reveals a wasteland of towering, silent cities, mute testimony to an atomic holocaust!
Two pockets of civilization survive: the drug-controlled inhabitants of Caster, and the freedom-loving people of Hyria. Soon the Alphans find themselves caught in the treacherous quicksands of civil war, their only allies a beautiful Hyrian with golden-brown eyes and an ancient man, the last custodian of the old wisdom.
Stepping out of of the wreckage of Eagle Seven, Commander John Koenig knew they were in deep trouble. Trapped on a hostile post-apocalyptic world, the Alphans were caught bang in the middle of a centuries-old battle between the peace-loving free people of Hyria and the violent mind-controlled citizens of Caster. If this was truly to be their new home, Koenig knew, for a start, he must end the conflict and bring freedom back to Caster. But there was another power on the planet, one which had the knowledge of the past and its own plans for the future.
In the Powysverse, late Year 1.
Copyright Martin Willey