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Somewhere on the storm-ridden unapproachable surface of such a monstrous gas giant an abandoned Gallacellan warship was lying. It was reputed to te armed with the device known to legend as the Fenris weapon.

Such stories attract adventurers thirsting for power. Such tales also attract the masters of the HOODED SWAN who sought knowledge rather than power. And when they gave orders, Grainger of the double-mind had no choice but to obey.

It was up to Grainger therefore to take a little walk where no man had ever gone before in a hell of nature's making and man's ambitions.

Cover by Kelly Freas

Published in 1974 by DAW.

Dedicated to Crad & Wendy Owen

On one of these planets there lies the wreck of a Gailacellan warship - the vehicle of the oldest spacefaring race in the galaxy.

Aboard the wreck is a legendary weapon - The Fenris Device ... a legend strong enough to attract the masters of the Hooded Swan in their thirst for knowledge.

When the orders came, Star-Pilot Grainger could only obey, taking his ship to the inhospitable terrain where no man had ventured before...

Cover by Angus McKie.

Published in 1978 by Pan.
ISBN:0-330-25401-4

In omnibus Swan Songs.
Translated into French as: Le Fenris.
Translated into German as: Das Götterdämmerrungs - Programm; also in omnibus Die Saga vom Raumpiloten Grainger.
Translated into Japanese.

Review by Ian Braidwood

Cast of Characters:
Grainger, Stylastet, Ecdyon, Maslax, Titus Charlot, the wind, Eve Lapthorn, Johnny Socoro, and Captain Nick delArco.

Mission five aboard the Hooded Swan involves Grainger with a race of aliens called the Gallacellans; a species evolved - like Peirson's Puppeteers - from herbivorous ancestors.

Like Niven, Brian concentrates on the alien's psychology, but comes to very different conclusions about how they'd think. Whereas Niven plays the puppeteers as the ultimate in cowardice, Brian portrays the Gallacellans as chronically xenophobic and rigidly hierarchical. Their fear of other races is so extreme that they only allow low caste Gallacellans to learn human language and refuse to teach those who do certain aspects of their own culture.

Grainger becomes involved when Stylaster, a high caste Gallacellan, hires the Hooded Swan to land on Leucifer V, because it is the only spacecraft which can. The intention is to recover the Varsovien; a massive starship which was abandoned long before humans ever expanded into space.

The plot of this novel pivots around Gallacellan psychology and it is by coming to some understanding of it, that the mystery of the Fenris Device is finally solved.

Very, very nearly as good as The Paradise Game.

The Brian Stableford Website