"As Good as an Action-Adventure Story can Be!"
So Isaac Asimov, science fiction grandmaster, said of Henry Hasse's classic space opera when it first appeared in magazine form just prior to WWII. Now, in its first-ever republication, you can read this fast-moving novel set against the conflicts of the early years in the exploration and colonization of the solar system.
Dave Randall needs money—so when a well-respected figure asks him to deliver an important diplomatic package to Mars, in secret, he accepts. But from the first moment he sets foot on the spaceship Martian Princess, danger and intrigue pile up around him.
First, there is the attack on his life. Then, his encounters with the enigmatic Thalia Martian, who may be the innocent she seems, a secret ally, or an agent of the unknown forces who want the package Dave has in his safekeeping. Next, the Martian Princess is attacked by the infamous pirate, Hogarth, who takes the letter and Thalia.
Determined to recover the one and rescue the other (if she needs rescuing), Dave begins an epic quest that will plunge him into peril on three worlds, in space, and finally amid the red sands of Mars.
Complete in itself, here is the first of at least six volumes chronicling Hasse's nearly forgotten thirty-story future history series, Chronicles of the Six Worlds.
