An old Sci fi story/series I read

[Phyphor]

I can't remember the name of it, but the major thing I can remember is it was on a planet with massively dangerous animals.  The people there adapted by having special holsters that would pop their guns into their hands, and the story was set up from the point of view of a person who'd just moved to this world.
Anyone ever read this?

[lee n. field]

I can't remember the name of it, but the major thing I can remember is it was on a planet with massively dangerous animals.  The people there adapted by having special holsters that would pop their guns into their hands, and the story was set up from the point of view of a person who'd just moved to this world.
Anyone ever read this?

Harry Harrison, Deathworld

There's also a holster like that in H. Beam Piper's Planet for Texans, but it was the Texans that were dangerous.  Shooting "11mm Colt-Argentine".

[AJ Dual]

I've heard the reference. I can't think of the name.

"Atomic Rocket" on Project Rho had a reference... I can cheat.

"Deathworld" by Harry Harrison.

[Gowen]

Deathworld is what I was thinking.

LibriVox recording of Deathworld, by Harry Harrison. Read by Gregg Margarite.

Harry Harrison (1925 - ) is best known for his Stainless Steel Rat stories and the novel Make Room! Make Room! which was adapted for film as Soylent Green. Deathworld is the first in a series of novels begun in 1960 and originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction Magazine. It’s the story of Jason dinAlt a professional gambler with psionic skills who finds himself on Pyrrus the deadliest planet to be colonized by humanity. Violent weather, active tectonics, heavy gravity, abundant predators, and a hostile splinter group of colonists is only the beginning of Jason’s quest to learn the truth about Pyrrus. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)

For more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit LibriVox.org.

M4B audiobook of complete book

http://www.archive.org/details/deathworld_gm_0904_librivox

here is the other book in the series:

http://www.archive.org/details/ethical_engineer_1001_librivox

[HankB]

I think Harrison's Deathworld was a trilogy . . .

[BryanP]

I think Harrison's Deathworld was a trilogy . . .

It was, but it was written back when books of that nature tended to be a lot shorter and more tightly plotted than you see these days.  I've seen the entire trilogy sold as a single combined paperback (in fact, I think that's what I have on one of my shelves) and it's under 500 pages in that format.

[AJ Dual]

And much of the content was serialized in Sci-Fi periodicals and formatted/written for that length.

[MillCreek]

I just re-read Deathworld on the Project Gutenberg site.  It was OK.  I liked the 'Rat' series much better.

[AJ Dual]

I just re-read Deathworld on the Project Gutenberg site.  It was OK.  I liked the 'Rat' series much better.

I did too. He does his best work when it's comedy and not quite as serious.

Although it's interesting conjecture that "The Corps" and Commander Inskipp is in those books as well. So that makes you wonder if Harrison intended for this to be in the same "universe" as Stainless Steel Rat. Although Earth was long forgotten by then, whereas it's still known as the original homeworld of Humanity in the Deathworld series.

There's hints that Inskipp is immortal or supernatural in some of the books though, acting as some sort of cop or guiding force for humanity, so perhaps this is set several thousand years before SSR. Although more likely, Harrison just likes the idea of Inskipp and the Corps, so he re-used it.

[Ben]