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In this classic space opera, when Haskell Trask, tyrant of the League of Cold Worlds (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune), seeks to conquer the democratic Alliance of Inner Worlds, freedom's last hope lies the outlaw trio known as the Three Planeteers. Secretly agents of the Alliance, the Planeteers--Sual Ave of Venus, Gunner Welk of Mercury, and John Thorn of Earth--learn that Trask possesses a terrible new weapon powerful enough to defeat the space navies of the inner worlds. All Trask needs is to locate and seize the system's only known supply of the power metal, radite. Fleeing Earth in a running space battle with the police, the Planeteers discover that the only person who can lead them safely to the radite is Lana Cain, the legendary Pirate Princess of the buccaneering Companions of Space. When the Planeteers learn Cain's real mission is to clear her father of a false charge of piracy, the four join forces, and she agrees to help them find the radite. But news of their plan leaks out to her fellow members of the Companions, and soon Lana and the Planeteers are being sought by both the Companions of Space and the League of Cold Worlds. From planet to planet, in space, on asteroids and moons, Lana and the Planeteers must battle against impossible odds to prevent the radite from falling into the wrong hands. And their only chance of success rests in the questionable loyalty of the self-pitying, pleasure-lovingin old space pirate, Stilicho Keene and the fangs of a space dog named Ool. This is the first ever book republication of this epic 1940s space adventure from the legendary pulp, Startling Stories. What Hamilton did best, according to Donald Tuck's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, "involved the creation and popularization of the classic early space operas [presenting] galaxy-spanning conflicts between humans and other races, piratical or merely monstrous, [which in turn] did much to define the field's sense of wonder?" That Hamilton did all this without ever losing the human scale, indeed, the human touch, is a tribute to his genius and evident even in such a thundering adventure as this celebrated romance of the future.
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