History Literature / Deathworld

* SpaceColdWar: Cassylia and Darkhan are planets in the same star system. Being at the same level of development, they're bitter rivals. After a destructive war between them 200 years before the events of the first novel, they're maintaining a ColdWar-like state. Each ship visiting the other world is equipped with a SelfDestructMechanism with buttons all over the ship. A single press of the button overloads the ship's reactor and blows it to kingdom come, along with half of whatever city happens to be nearby. This prevents local authorities from violating the neutrality by illegally searching and seizing ships. Nothing is revealed about Darkhan in the official novels. In ''Deathworld vs. Filibusters'', the planet is portrayed as a MiddleEast-like place with religion playing the primary role and the planet's economy maintained by easily-accessible resources. Hence their hatred of the Cassylians and their sinful ways. Naturally, when Kerk and Jason are running away from Cassylian authorities, who want to take their casino winnings from them, the best ship to flee the planet is on a Darkhan ship. A Cassylian cop tries to force his way aboard only to be smugly reminded by a ship's officer of the SelfDestructMechanism.

'''''Deathworld''''' (first novel published in 1960) is a series of three novels and a short story by the American science fiction author Creator/HarryHarrison. The novels are set in the distant future. The hero, Jason [=dinAlt=], is a ProfessionalGambler who possesses erratic PsychicPowers which he uses to cheat at casinos (he justifies that the casinos stack the odds in their favor anyway, he's just making it fair). While on a gambling trip to the casino on the planet Cassylia, he is approached by a man named Kerk Pyrrus (who is the ambassador and de-facto leader of colonists on planet Pyrrus). Kerk wants Jason to turn a large sum of money (27 million credits) into an immense sum by gambling at the government-run casino. Using his weak MindOverMatter abilities, he is able to turn the dice just the right way and win over 3 billion credits. Kerk and Jason manage to get off the planet just in time, despite the officials' efforts to take back the money. Being intrigued by Kerk's description of his homeplanet as the [[DeathWorld deadliest world ever colonized]], Jason decides to follow Kerk.

Pyrrus's gravity is double that of normal, its extreme axial tilt results in severe weather. It's also very tectonically active, with frequent volcanic erruptions and earthquakes. Two large moons create enormous tides (sometimes even flooding active volcanoes, which makes the weather even worse). Many stars in the vicinity have gone supernova, and many planets are too radioactive to settle. Pyrrus is the only planet only ''mildly'' radioactive, and the Pyrrans' main export is radioactive ore.

All native life is predatory, capable of killing any human without warning. Large animals can crush vehicles, while small ones are invariably venomous. All plants are carnivorous. Even microorganisms act like acid to insufficiently-protected tissue. Natural selection is so feverish, that the speed of evolution is taken UpToEleven, so much that all Pyrrans returning home (even after a few days) have to be re-trained to survive.

The settlers are engaged in a constant fight for survival. Despite generations of acclimation and TheSpartanWay (actually, the Pyrran training is even harsher), humans are losing. The population is in a steady decline, although mentioning the fact triggers a BerserkButton and usually results in the person being shot by the trigger-happy Pyrrans. There is only one city on the planet, called the Perimeter, as it is surrounded by high walls with [[KillItWithFire flamethrowers]] constantly keeping the flora and fauna away. Any victory is a literal PyrrhicVictory.

Jason finds out that there are two groups of people living on the planet: the "junkmen", or city-folk, and the "grubbers", who live on a farm far from the city in harmony with nature. While the junkmen are under constant attack by the wildlife, the grubbers are able to live in relative peace thanks to their "talkers", people who can telepathically communicate with animals and domesticate them. He finds out that, a long time ago, native life wasn't so hostile to humans, but a natural disaster has forced the animals to run straight into the path of the city-dwellers, who shot at them with guns. Since all life on the planet is psychic, humans in the city were immediately classified as a natural threat, with the overriding directive for all animals and plants being "KILL THE ENEMY!". The high radiation on the planet results in constant mutations, all of which are geared to killing humans. Not only that, but the junkmen's thoughts are focused on killing, which only feeds the flora and fauna's desire to kill them. The grubbers only kill in self-defense and for food, just like animals, and are thus treated the same as other animals.

Jason proposes that the two groups begin to take steps to coexist, such as allowing grubbers access to other worlds and having junkmen learn and teach each other grubbers' methods. Eventually, the city will be overrun, but the children of junkmen and grubbers will be one people again, living in harmony with nature. Those junkmen who cannot adapt can instead become "professional pioneers", colonizing other worlds too harsh to settle by humans on less hostile worlds.

''Deathworld 2'' (AKA ''The Ethical Engineer'', 1964) has Jason, who has become a full-fledged Pyrran, be abducted by a self-righteous man named Mikah Samon who wants to bring him to justice for his various crimes (apparently, gambling is a crime for him). Jason forces a crash-landing on a LostColony, where humans have regressed to barbarism in some areas and Medieval city-states in others. What remains of technology has been split up among the various clans, each one guarding its knowledge from the others, resulting in MedievalStasis. Jason uses his knowledge to trade for protection from one of the clans. He then finds another clan that has knowledge of electricity and convinces its rules to start a campaign to conquer the others in order to bring all technology together, hopefully re-starting progress. He also creates a primitive radio-transmitter in order to signal any passing ship. By the end of the novel, Jason is stabbed by a sword and is dying from infection. Meta arrives on the Pyrran ship after tracking Mikah's flight path and detecting Jason's signal. She uses advanced medicine to save him. Jason, his captor, and the local woman Jason gets close to (much to Meta's chagrin) leave aboard Meta's ship. Mikah once again attempts to force Jason to come with him, but Meta intervenes.

''Deathworld 3'' (AKA ''The Horse Barbarians'', 1968) has Jason inviting Pyrrans on their first "professional pioneer" adventure. The planet Felicity is rich in mineral ores but attempts as re-settling it (it's also a LostColony) were foiled by the local nomadic clans, who despise any permanent structure with religious fervor. The nomads are heavily reminiscent of the [[TheHorde Mongols]] before their invasion of China. The clans are joined by a charismatic and powerful leader named [[UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan Temujin]] to fight off the invaders. Jason and the Pyrrans pretend to be yet another clan with Kerk as the chief of the clan and Jason as a WanderingMinstrel who married into it (Jason, try as he might, doesn't look like a Pyrran). However, Temujin unmasks Jason and throws him into a pit. Jason survives the fall and finds a passageway through cliffs to the coastal lowlands (which are normally inaccessible to the nomads living on the plateau). There he finds a whole other culture of farmers with primitive firearms. Jason comes back to Temujin, pretending to be a demon, and offers him the chance to conquer the rest of the continent. Meanwhile, the Pyrrans receive a distress call from Pyrrus and rush back home, leaving Jason. Unfortunately, they're too late, and the city is overrun by the animals and plants with few survivors beyond those living among the grubbers. After helping with relief efforts, they rush back to Felicity. Jason leads the horde through the cliffs onto the unsuspecting farmers, whom Temujin conquers with ease. However, the chief is smart enough to realize that this conquest has done to his people what the conquest of China has done to the Mongols. The nomads have tasted the comfortable life of the farmers and have settled down. The nomadic way of life is no more. For this, Temujin puts Jason into a prison, believing that the demon can't be killed by any weapon. Kerk arrives, frees Jason, and kills Temujin in a duel.

''The Mothballed Spaceship'' (1973) is a short story written in the same 'verse. A hostile armada is on its way to Earth. The Earth government contacts the Pyrrans and asks them to reactivate an ancient [[TheEmpire Imperial]] battleship that was mothballed after the First Galactic War, which is cheaper than building a fleet from scratch. Unfortunately, the ship's defense systems are programmed to destroy any object approaching it. Since no one knows the code to deactivate the defenses, Jason and Kerk must use other means of getting aboard with only weeks until the armada arrives to Earth. Jason and Kerk direct a swarm of meteors past the ship in order to trigger its defenses, while approaching on small rocks in order to get past the cannons' firing arcs. Once they get aboard, Kerk dispatches the onboard defense systems, which try to fight off the intruders. However, when they get to the control center, the ship initiates a self-destruct sequence to keep it out of enemy hands. Jason and Kerk are unable to stop the countdown. It's Meta who saves the day, figuring out the correct code just in time, as Jason has told her that it would have to be something simple and straightforward (just like the mind of an Imperial soldier). Meta realizes that the word is "haltu" ([[UsefulNotes/EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage Esperanto]] for "stop").

* AbsentAliens: While Jason suspects that the native life on Pyrrus is following psychic commands of intelligent beings, this turns out to be not the case. No actual aliens are mentioned in the original series. Averted in the unofficial sequels.

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: A variation. Since all life on Pyrrus is psychic, anything that humans think has an effect on it. Since all junkmen train from childhood to kill native life and develop an intense hatred for it, that life does everything it can to eliminate them. By contrast, the grubbers try to live in harmony with Pyrran nature (as much as it is possible on this planet), only killing for food or in self-defense (with no malice in their thoughts), and are thus treated no differently than animals or plants.

* DeathWorld: The planet Pyrrus has very harsh environmental characteristics: twice earth gravity, very high tectonic activity, a 42° axial tilt, and the occasional 30-meter tides. Life could only survive by cooperating temporarily during crises, so every single living thing (plant, animal, microbe...) is psychic. Not just that, but the high radioactivity causes them to mutate and evolve very rapidly. When humanity settles on the planet, they accidentally piss off the local wildlife during an earthquake, causing every living thing to treat humanity as a continuous "natural disaster", driven by one mutual psychic mandate: "KILL THE ENEMY!". By the start of the story, the escalating war has remade everything into dedicated living war machines (tree roots are now venom fanged CombatTentacles, etc.).

* HandCannon: The junkmen use powerful handguns kept in a holster on the upper arm with a chip inserted in the gun hand that senses certain muscles for tension. The gun then jumps out into the hand and immediately fires (the gun has no trigger guard), before returning to the holster using a cord. All this can take less than a second.

* HolierThanThou: Mikah Samon in the second novel abducts Jason from Pyrrus in order to bring him back to Cassylia to stand trial for his crimes and be executed (even though nothing Jason has done warrants capital punishment, at least on Cassylia). It's not that the guy wants to punish Jason. It's just that the casino that Jason has won 3 billion credits from has decided to make him a poster boy to show people that anyone can win at their casino. The guy hopes that by having a public trial and execution, the casino (and the government that supports it) will not be able to get away with such behavior. Even while Jason saves his life numerous times, the guy keeps spouting moral rules and how fallen Jason is. In the end, [[spoiler:this gets Mikah killed]].

* MindOverMatter: Jason is such a good gambler because he can slightly move the dice (and even a roulette wheel) with his mind. It's a fairly weak and fickle ability, though.
* NeckSnap: Being {{Heavy Worlder}}s, the Pyrrans are strong enough to easily snap an off-worlder's neck, not to mention other bones. In the first book, a security guard at the casino is about to grab Jason for having a lucky streak (although Jason is using MindOverMatter to load the dice). Kerk calmly walks up through the crowd and snaps the guard's hand reaching for the gun like a twig.
* ObstructionistPacifist: Mikah Samon is a "pacifist" who opposes Jason's plan to foment revolution (and later a war of consolidation) on [[Film/StrandedInSpace the planet they've crashed on]], even though in the existing political system most people are slaves and all the factions are too busy keeping a tight grip on their own technological monopolies for anyone to actually make any progress. His "principled resistance" led him to betray Jason twice (once to the gang he was undermining and again later to his chosen victors' enemies), the second time causing Jason to take a wound he [[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow wouldn't have survived if rescuers from his homeworld hadn't found them.]]

* SelfDestructMechanism: In ''The Mothballed Spaceship'', the protagonists are trying to reactivate a derelict battleship that has been set to self-destruct to prevent it falling into the hands of anyone who doesn't have the correct codeword. Just in time they discover what the codeword is; [[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish a simple five-letter word]] in [[UsefulNotes/EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage Esperanto]] -- "Haltu" or, "Stop".

* TriggerHappy: All junkmen are this out of necessity. They train for a very young age to shoot without thinking, as their very survival depends on this. They're deadly accurate, able to hit an insect from many yards away.

* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: In the second novel, Jason crash-lands on a regressed LostColony and is enslaved by a barbarian named Ch'aka who literally keeps all his slaves on a leash. He kills Ch'aka and tells all the slaves they're free. The slaves calmly look at him and tell him something like "We serve you now, Ch'aka". So not only does he inherit Ch'aka's slaves and territory but also his name.

[[/folder]]

* {{Crossover}}: With Harrison's own ''TheStainlessSteelRat'' series, although the connection is shaky. Both 'verses share a similar background: a vast [[TheEmpire Empire]] collapses, leaving many [[LostColony Lost Colonies]] and a single unifying language. Also, the Special Corps is present in both 'verses with Inskipp at the helm. However, a key difference involves the existence of Earth as a major power in the ''Deathworld'' 'verse and the fact that Earth has been destroyed millennia before the events of ''The Stainless Steel Rat''. While some fans try to reconcile that by claiming that ''Deathworld'' takes place earlier than ''The Stainless Steel Rat'', one novel in the latter series clearly states that Earth was destroyed by He long before the Martian colonists started spreading to the stars (to the point where most can't even recall the name of the planet, thinking it was called "Dirt" or something).

* SpaceColdWar: Cassylia and Darkhan are planets in the same star system. Being at the same level of development, they're bitter rivals. After a destructive war between them 200 years before the events of the first novel, they're maintaining a ColdWar-like state. Each ship visiting the other world is equipped with a SelfDestructMechanism with buttons all over the ship. A single press of the button overloads the ship's reactor and blows it to kingdom come, along with half of whatever city happens to be nearby. This prevents local authorities from violating the neutrality by illegally searching and seizing ships. Nothing is revealed about Darkhan in the official novels. In ''Deathworld vs. Filibusters'', the planet is portrayed as a MiddleEast-like place with religion playing the primary role and the planet's economy maintained by easily-accessible resources. Hence their hatred of the Cassylians and their sinful ways.

* ObstructionistPacifist: Mikah Samon is a "pacifist" who opposes Jason's plan to foment revolution (and later a war of consolidation) on [[StrandedInSpace the planet they've crashed on]], even though in the existing political system most people are slaves and all the factions are too busy keeping a tight grip on their own technological monopolies for anyone to actually make any progress. His "principled resistance" led him to betray Jason twice (once to the gang he was undermining and again later to his chosen victors' enemies), the second time causing Jason to take a wound he [[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow wouldn't have survived if rescuers from his homeworld hadn't found them.]]

'''Co-authored by MikhailAkhmanov:'''

''Deathworld 3'' (AKA ''The Horse Barbarians'', 1968) has Jason inviting Pyrrans on their first "professional pioneer" adventure. The planet Felicity is rich in mineral ores but attempts as re-settling it (it's also a LostColony) were foiled by the local nomadic clans, who despise any permanent structure with religious fervor. The nomads are heavily reminiscent of the [[TheHorde Mongols]] before their invasion of China. The clans are joined by a charismatic and powerful leader named [[GenghisKhan Temujin]] to fight off the invaders. Jason and the Pyrrans pretend to be yet another clan with Kerk as the chief of the clan and Jason as a WanderingMinstrel who married into it (Jason, try as he might, doesn't look like a Pyrran). However, Temujin unmasks Jason and throws him into a pit. Jason survives the fall and finds a passageway through cliffs to the coastal lowlands (which are normally inaccessible to the nomads living on the plateau). There he finds a whole other culture of farmers with primitive firearms. Jason comes back to Temujin, pretending to be a demon, and offers him the chance to conquer the rest of the continent. Meanwhile, the Pyrrans receive a distress call from Pyrrus and rush back home, leaving Jason. Unfortunately, they're too late, and the city is overrun by the animals and plants with few survivors beyond those living among the grubbers. After helping with relief efforts, they rush back to Felicity. Jason leads the horde through the cliffs onto the unsuspecting farmers, whom Temujin conquers with ease. However, the chief is smart enough to realize that this conquest has done to his people what the conquest of China has done to the Mongols. The nomads have tasted the comfortable life of the farmers and have settled down. The nomadic way of life is no more. For this, Temujin puts Jason into a prison, believing that the demon can't be killed by any weapon. Kerk arrives, frees Jason, and kills Temujin in a duel.

* TheHorde: The Mongol-inspired barbarians on Felicity fear permanent structures and destroy them on sight (as they do with the mining rig set up by the first re-settlers). In fact, the leader who gathers the clans together is named after GenghisKhan (born Temujin). After being tricked into conquering the lowland farmers, the nomads settle down, just like the Mongols eventually settled down after conquering China and forming the Yuan Dynasty (although it was Genghis Khan's grandson). Temujin is smart enough to realize that their nomadic way of life is over, but he's powerless to stop it.

'''''Deathworld''''' (first novel published in 1960) is a series of three novels and a short story by the American science fiction author HarryHarrison. The novels are set in the distant future. The hero, Jason [=dinAlt=], is a ProfessionalGambler who possesses erratic PsychicPowers which he uses to cheat at casinos (he justifies that the casinos stack the odds in their favor anyway, he's just making it fair). While on a gambling trip to the casino on the planet Cassylia, he is approached by a man named Kerk Pyrrus (who is the ambassador and de-facto leader of colonists on planet Pyrrus). Kerk wants Jason to turn a large sum of money (27 million credits) into an immense sum by gambling at the government-run casino. Using his weak MindOverMatter abilities, he is able to turn the dice just the right way and win over 3 billion credits. Kerk and Jason manage to get off the planet just in time, despite the officials' efforts to take back the money. Being intrigued by Kerk's description of his homeplanet as the [[DeathWorld deadliest world ever colonized]], Jason decides to follow Kerk.

* HotMom: Meta tells Jason in the first novel that she had two children before they met. One of them died. This is the [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment last we hear of this]]. Then again, Pyrrans aren't big on familial ties. Of course, it's likely she had them when she was very young.

''The Mothballed Spaceship'' (1973) is a short story written in the same 'verse. A hostile armada is on its way to Earth. The Earth government contacts the Pyrrans and asks them to reactivate an ancient [[TheEmpire Imperial]] battleship that was mothballed after the First Galactic War, which is cheaper than building a fleet from scratch. Unfortunately, the ship's defense systems are programmed to destroy any object approaching it. Since no one knows the code to deactivate the defenses, Jason and Kerk must use other means of getting aboard with only weeks until the armada arrives to Earth. Jason and Kerk direct a swarm of meteors past the ship in order to trigger its defenses, while approaching on small rocks in order to get past the cannons' firing arcs. Once they get aboard, Kerk dispatches the onboard defense systems, which try to fight off the intruders. However, when they get to the control center, the ship initiates a self-destruct sequence to keep it out of enemy hands. Jason and Kerk are unable to stop the countdown. It's Meta who saves the day, figuring out the correct code just in time, as Jason has told her that it would have to be something simple and straightforward (just like the mind of an Imperial soldier). Meta realizes that the word is "haltu" ([[EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage Esperanto]] for "stop").

* EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage: Harrison's love for the language is evident in the fact that he puts it into many of his "distant future" sci-fi stories. In-universe, it the language of the [[TheEmpire Old Empire]] and the lingua franca on most worlds.

-> ''Not to be confused with the trope DeathWorld, though this series is named for the concept.''

'''''Deathworld''''' (first novel published in 1960) is a series of three novels and a short story by the American science fiction author HarryHarrison. The novels are set in the distant future. The hero, Jason [=dinAlt=], is a ProfessionalGambler who possesses erratic PsychicPowers which he uses to cheat at casinos (he justifies that the casinos stack the odds in their favor anyway, he's just making it fair). While on a gambling trip to the casino on the planet Cassylia, he is approached by a man named Kerk Pyrrus (who is the ambassador and de-facto leader of colonists on planet Pyrrus). Kerk wants Jason to turn a large sum of money (27 million credits) into an immense sum by gambling at the government-run casino. Using his weak MindOverMatter abilities, he is able to turn the dice just the right way and win over 3 billion credits. Kerk and Jason manage to get off the planet just in time, despite the officials' efforts to take back the money. Being intrigued by Kerk's description of his homeplanet as the [[{{Deathworld}} deadliest world ever colonized]], Jason decides to follow Kerk.

* BadassGrandpa: Kerk is one of the oldest Pyrrans in the world. Like all Pyrrans, he is a crack shot and can easily kill anyone in hand-to-hand combat. Rhes, the leader of the grubbers, is also this trope. Neither of them are stated to be actual grandfathers, as all of Kerk's children are dead.

''Deathworld 2'' (AKA ''The Ethical Engineer'', 1964) has Jason, who has become a full-fledged Pyrran, be abducted by a self-righteous man named Mikah Samon who wants to bring him to justice for his various crimes (apparently, gambling is a crime for him). Jason forces a crash-landing on a LostColony, where humans have regressed to barbarism in some areas and Medieval city-states in others. What remains of technology has been split up among the various clans, each one guarding its knowledge from the others, resulting in MedievalStasis. Jason uses his knowledge to trade for protection from one of the clans. He then finds another clan that has knowledge of electricity and convinces its rules to start a campaign to conquer the others in order to bring all technology together, hopefully re-starting progress. He also creates a primitive radio-transmitter in order to signal any passing ship. By the end of the novel, Jason is stabbed by a sword and is dying from infection. Meta arrives on the Pyrran ship after tracking Mikah's flight path and detecting Jason's signal. She uses advanced medicine to save him. Jason, his captor, and the local woman Jason gets close to (much to Meta's chagrin) leave aboard Meta's ship. Mikah once again attempts to force Jason to come with him. Realizing there's no other way, Jason kills him.

[[caption-width-right:200:''Return to Deathworld'' cover]]

''Deathworld vs. Filibusters'' (1998) involves the remains of the armada from the short story turn to piracy under the leadership of Captain Henry Morgan. The Cassylian casino is robbed by the pirates for a sum even larger than Jason won from them. They ask Jason to help them get their money back. Morgan is onto him, however, and captures Jason and Meta, taking them to a cloaked planet, which is home to the pirates. Jason realizes that the only way to defeat and capture Morgan is to lead him to Pyrrus for an UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny with the fearcest warriors in the galaxy. Naturally, the Pyrrans win and claim Morgan's flagship (after killing him) as their prize.

* FlockOfWolves: It turns out that pretty much the entire leadership of the pirates are secretly working for one agency or another. Henry Morgan is a DeepCoverAgent for the Special Corps. Of course, they're also all murderers and rapists, so the Pyrrans have no problem killing Morgan and his female bodyguard, Special Corps be damned.

* HeroicSacrifice: Shortly after Jason's arrival to Pyrrus, the Perimeter is breached by an attack from underground. Ignoring advice, Jason decides to try and help, only to be nearly killed by a [[CombatTentacles tree root]]. He is pushed out of the way by [[spoiler:Kerk's son]], who himself is crushed by the tentacle.

* HeroicSacrifice: Shortly after Jason's arrival to Pyrrus, the Perimeter is breached by an attack from underground. Ignoring advice, Jason decides to try and help, only to be nearly killed by a CombatTentacle. He is pushed out of the way by [[spoiler:Kerk's son]], who himself is crushed by the tentacle.

The settlers are engaged in a constant fight for survival. Despite generations of acclimation and TheSpartanWay (actually, the Pyrran training is even harsher), humans are losing. The population is in a steady decline, although mentioning the fact triggers a BerserkButton and usually results in the person being shot by the trigger-happy Pyrrans. There is only city on the planet, called the Perimeter, as it is surrounded by high walls with [[KillItWithFire flamethrowers]] constantly keeping the flora and fauna away. Any victory is a literal PyrrhicVictory.