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The planet was a sponge of stone and metal, honeycombed with millions of narrow passages, hidden lightless caves, and scurrying pale colonists who hated the stars and the men who came from them.

Somewhere amid the lightless maze there was a newly found treasure a thing, nobody knew just what, that what make its owner either richer than any emperor had ever dreamed, or give its finder power beyond any imperial army's weapons

Grainger, pilot of the starcraft HOODED SWAN, was down there in the darkness hunting Not for himself, but for the unscrupulous men who held his soul in bondage.

But the alien second mind that was parasitic to Grainger's owed no other human allegiance. To its inscrutable way of thinking, the potency of the unknown discovery could be a lever to move a universe.

Cover by Kelly Freas.

Published in 1973 by DAW.

Dedicated to Jack Spratling

Grainger, pilot of the Hooded Swan, comes to Rhapsody with Titus Charlot, the big boss himself. The race is for the planet's secret wealth, and it accelerates when sixteen refugees from Rhapsody's false logic join in.

A planet outside the Law. Armed rebels who officially don't exist, Can the wind, Grainger's mind parasite, solve his problems, or is it more of a problem itself? Together they duped Charlot on Grainger's first assignment, in Halcyon Drift. But the pale people of Rhapsody's dark world are more subtly dangerous.

Cover by Bob Marchant

Published in 1975 by Dent.
ISBN:0-460-04222-x

Hooded Swan was the best starship in the Galaxy, and Grainger the best pilot.

The trip to Rhapsody brought nothing but trouble. The poverty-stricken fanatics who lived in its subterranean labyrinths had found a source of riches.

In the race for the planet's secret wealth, Grainger found it could destroy civilization.

Grainger didn't picture himself and his alien mind-parasite alone in the planet's black depths, pursued by outcasts and rebels - but that was before he became Rhapsody's public enemy number one ...

'Brian Stableford keeps up a lively pace and has one of the best lines around in exobioiogy' -- TRIBUNE

Cover by Angus McKie.

Published in 1976 by Pan.
ISBN:0-330-24646-1

In omnibus Swan Songs.
Translated into French as: Rhapsodie Noir.
Translated into German as: Der Schatz des Schwarzen Planeten; also in omnibus Die Saga vom Raumpiloten Grainger.
Translated into Japanese.

Review by Ian Braidwood

Cast of Characters:
Grainger, Titus Charlot, Bayon Alpart, Tob, Rion Mavra, Mathew Sampson, Angelina, Jad Gimli, Akim Krist and a certain mind parasite.

It's hard to imagine a greater contrast between this book and The Halcyon Drift. The first book was basically an introduction to the Hooded Swan, Grainger and his galaxy, with a space race tacked on to the end.

Rhapsody in Black takes place in the caverns of a Mercury like world, so close to its star that its atmosphere has been completely blown away. Its home to an ascetic religious community, The Church of the Exclusive Reward who consider even bright light sinful.

There is nothing on Rhapsody to attract spacefarers, so the church's austere isolation is safe until rumours of a discovery bring the Star Cross Company and The Hooded Swan, complete with exiles from Rhapsody's oppressive regime.

The unwelcome visitors are immediately imprisoned and Grainger escapes, hoping to discover the mystery and buy his way out of bondage.

There is some thoughtful consideration here of how dogma constrains and oppresses the descendants of a religious community - useful in these times where religion is seeking to tighten its cold grip upon us.

The relationship between Grainger and his mind parasite is explored, as is Grainger, who is revealed as a disillusioned cynic, rather than the type who uses scepticism to excuse their misdemeanours.

This is where I came in twenty years ago and I can still see what I liked about it.

The Brian Stableford Website