(My Amazon.com review.)

I read and re-read my original paperback containing the three novels until it was tattered and torn. I recently received a shipment containing many of my old books, including this one. When I saw its condition, I wanted to replace it, but found it was out of print. Then I stumbled on a copy of this edition in a specialty bookstore and had to have it.

The books are classics—the main character, Jason dinAlt, is a gambler and a scoundrel, with an ability to influence luck in his favor. He’s recruited to help raise money for the inhabitants of Pyrrus, and has to follow the girl sent to arrange the deal to see the place for himself.

In the second book, dinAlt is kidnapped by a self-righteous man angry at his home planet’s making dinAlt a hero, inspiring others to gamble. He plans to take dinAlt back to face trial, but things go awry and they both end up enslaved on a primitive desert world. DinAlt’s luck and knowledge allow him to survive.

In the third and final book, many of the key people from Pyrrus join dinAlt in taming other planets. Their first assignment is a tough one, a planet of fierce nomadic warriors. DinAlt must learn their ways in order to defeat them.

This volume also includes “The Mothballed Spaceship”, a short story featuring dinAlt and other Pyrrans not included in the original volume.