Search Worlds Without End

Icy, desolate, and sharply carved by hurricane-force winds, Tran-ky-ky is a terrible place to crash-land. But a botched kidnapping aboard the interstellar transport Antares sends Ethan Frome Fortune and a handful of his fellow travelers tumbling toward the stormy planet. Stranded and cut off from civilization, the castaways struggle to survive.

In this page-turning trilogy, Fortune confronts vicious predators (even the plants want to make a meal of him) and forges an alliance with a native Tran. As he searches for a way off Tran-ky-ky, he helps the Tran gain admission to the Humanx Commonwealth and learns about their troubled history. Just as Fortune accepts that he'll never escape the harsh planet and acclimates to its relentless winter, he learns that scientists have detected rising temperatures in the atmosphere. This sinister change leads Fortune to a thrilling and unexpected final adventure.

Including:

• Icerigger (1974)
• Mission to Moulokin (1979)
• The Deluge Drivers (1987)

Ethan Fortune was simple salesman -- knowledgeable and civilized . . . a sophisticated traveler between many worlds. But he had certainly never thought of himself as a hero.

Skua September, on the other hand, never thought of himself as anything else.

A matched pair, if ever there was one!

When the two of them were suddenly stranded on a deadly frozen world, Ethan Fortune incredibly found himself cast in the role of Leader.

And he didn't find that at all amusing . . .

Ethan Frome Fortune had been on Tran-ky-ky long enough... too long, in fact. He wanted out. He wanted to get back to business. He wanted to go home. So he and his sidekick Skua September headed their giant Icerigger toward Brass Monkey, the busy off-world trading post where they were sure they could book passage home.

But when they discovered that their Tran friends were being victimized by ruthless profiteers, they decided to stick around and organize the isolated city-states into a functioning confederation... a governing body that the Commonwealth Council would have to recognize and protect.

But the Tran had enemies - deadly ones, at that - and Skua September and Ethan Fortune quickly found themselves back aboard the icerigger Slanderscree, leaving a crimson wake on the frozen seas and hurtling toward the most chilling encounters either had ever known!

It looked as if Ethan Fortune was stuck on the icy world of Tran-ky-ky, never to enjoy the warm comforts of civilization again. But when the scientists at the outpost of Brass Monkey detected an odd atmospheric phenomenon, things began to heat up.

Only the great icerigger Slanderscree could make the dangerous journey to the isolated southern continent, and only Ethan could convince the primitive Tran that the mysterious warm spot was worth the trip. Nothing could have prepared Ethan and his Tran and human companions for what they encountered as they sped southward, for its like had not been seen for thousands of years -- open water on the ice oceans of Tran-ky-ky!

But the worst was yet to come. This was no natural phenomenon. Someone was systematically raising the temperature of the frozen planet. If Ethan and crew of Slanderscree couldn't stop the process, soon Tran-ky-ky would become a paradise for humans -- and a living hell for the Tran