Ace (#67020) [1st printng] 1976 paperback. Cover by Michael Whelan (!), $1.50 cover price, 116 pages. Condition is Fine: very tight and square with flat spine; mild uniform age tanning (consistent with its vintage.) No stamps marks or writing - a clean copy that looks unread.

Marion Zimmer Bradley: The Planet Savers: a "Darkover" novella, with an added short story "The Waterfall" (original to this edition.) The main novella first appeared in Amazing November 1958, and then as half of an Ace Double in 1962. For this first "single" appearance, Ace commissioned a new, 14 page story featuring Sibyl-Mhari Aillard.

Dr. Jay Allison was a surgeon specializing in the parasitology of the planet Darkover. Antiseptic hospital walls were the limits of his world - the virgin ranges of the planet, and its people, were abhorent to him. Jason was Dr. Allison's opposite - headstrong and impulsive. Raised by the semi-human Trailmen, he loved Darkover as his only known home. A deadly epidemic threatened the planet, one that could destroy both Terran and Darkovan populations, and the only hope for a cure lay somewhere in the unknown vastness of Trailmen territory. Only Jason could lead them safely through that dangerous land, and only Jay Allison could develop the cure - but it was impossible for them to work together… for the 2 were different personalities in the same body.

This is the first written of the Darkover series, and takes place late in the series as developed. What I find surprising is how well it holds up when compared with the rest, and what a wonderfully fertile background this made for Bradley to return to and develop or explore. In this volume we are introduced to representatives of groups so important to the series: Kyla Raineach- a Free Amazon, and Regis Hastur - heir to the Comyn rulers of Darkover, and a living legend.