Phoenix Prime: Ted White's first novel. Soon after Maxwell Quest discovered he was an unsuspected superman, he found out there were Others like him. They had already divided up the world between themselves, and didn't want a new player. When Max would not go along with their requests, they kidnapped his girlfriend Fran and sent her essence to another dimensional reality. They told him if he wished to pursue her, he could seek her in this other world - Qanar. But they tricked him - for in this desert world, his newly discovered powers did not work - the Others intended for Max to die there. But Max had no intention of giving up or dying. He wounded, then befriended a wolf - one that had been tamed before, whose collar gave a clue to the rulers of this world. Before a great Cataclysm, there had once been a mighty civilization on this world, with wizards and portals that gave instant transportation. Max found and followed traces of Fran, only to find she'd gone through another portal ahead of him. Passing though the same portal brought Max to Zominor, where the only woman to come through the portal was Sorceress! Though she was not Fran, she helped Max anyway, for she was stranded in this world as much as he was, having come from Zominor's past, when it was at the height of its power. He finally learns his goal is in Qar, the first new city in a thousand years. Yet even when he is reunited with Fran, there are still troubles, and the treachery of the Others finally made plain.

[Based on "Phoenix" by Ted White & Marion Zimmer Bradley - from Amazing February 1963.]