Doomed Planet

by Lee Sheldon

  Even at a distance, it's obvious that Mr. Lee was an interesting man.

  Lee's only science fiction novel, Doomed Planet, was published by Avalon Books in 1967. Avalon was, at the time, a small but significant player in the world of sci fi publishing, with a strong focus on hardcover editions and breaking new stories and new authors. Avalon did good work, and it's fascinating if not ironic that in June of 2012, just about when Singularity&Co was beginning to take shape, it was announced that Avalon, which in the decades after the 1960s had focused more on mystery and romance, was being sold to Amazon, which intended to publish the company's many back list titles.

  Doomed Planet, a story of a band of rather inept explorers from Earth meeting a shape-shifting race called the Illustrians on a quite literally doomed planet, however, seemed unlikely to receive this treatment. It had not been reissued since it's first publication, and it's author, who for his own reasons had chosen to release it under a pen name, had moved on to other things, never, so far as we know, revisiting the genre.

  But the fact that Doomed Planet has until now been largely forgotten does not mean that it is forgettable, or that it should be forgotten. It's a prime example of the moment in time in which it was created, a piece of otherworldly escapism that embodies so much of what we love about pulp, while at the same time demonstrating the limitations of the moment in which it was written.

  From the moment we spotted Doomed Planet's unforgettable original dust jacket (which formed the inspiration for much of Singularity&Co's early promotional artwork) on a used bookstore shelf, the book has been a special one for us. When we knew we would be moving forward with this grand experiment, it was one of the very first we tried to track down.

  It wasn't easy. The usual suspects knew nothing about Mr. Lee's estate, or who might be able to speak for his work. Avalon was effectively gone, absorbed into the colossus that is Amazon, never to be seen again. After much searching, and many unanswered emails, we finally managed to make contact with Sue Story Truax, writer of Lee's obituary for the Omaha World-Herald, but despite having spoken to Lee's sons Charlie and Sheldon about their father at length, she no longer had their contact information, and was only able to offer the names of the towns in which they lived.

  More research finally lead to what we hoped were phone numbers for each of Lee's sons. There always comes a point in the story of the books we rescue where we must reach out to complete strangers, and demonstrate to them our good intentions. But to do that, we need to get their email address, or get them on the phone. Once we do, however, it is almost always worth it. Months after entering "Doomed Planet by Lee Sheldon" into a search engine for the first time, and indeed months after first getting his sons on the phone, we received a letter out of the blue granting us permission to share with you this edition of Doomed Planet, the first since its one and, till now, only.

  If that's not what this whole endeavor is all about, I don't know what is.

  Thanks for reading, and for supporting us. I hope you enjoy Doomed Planet as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

  - Ash Kalb, November, 2012

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Save the SciFi

  Chapter I

  Chapter II

  Chapter III

  Chapter IV

  Chapter V

  Chapter VI

  Chapter VII

  Chapter VIII

  Chapter IX

  Chapter X

  Chapter XII

  Chapter XIII

  Chapter XIV

  Chapter XV

  Chapter XVI

  About the Author and This Edition