An astronaut named Jack Donley has joined a space flight on a freighter called Meteoric. The reason he joined the voyage is in hopes that he can somehow learn more about his lover, Mera, and her strange disappearance on an earlier flight using this same trajectory. The Meteoric is on a customary trading flight but suddenly finds itself being vacuumed into another orbit and headed to a planet called Ormin. Donley is excited that the voyage is now reflecting the same incident that led to Mera's disappearance.
As the Meteoric makes a slow gravitational orbit onto Ormin the crew becomes frightened and experiences high levels of panic. However, an odd pulsating sound is introduced from the planet that seems to make the ship's passengers slip into a catatonic state. Donley, an admirable co-hero named Randle, and a Martian are three of a dozen or so passengers and crewmen that aren't affected by the sounds. They coordinate a proper and safe landing on Ormin.
On Ormin, the crew and passengers of the Meteoric travel into a domed city. There they are introduced to Apdar, an Ormin being that explains the planet was divided eons ago into two warring factions. The two factions annihilated the planet with nuclear weapons and half the planet now lives in an underground network of tunnels. The other half remains topside under the safety of the domed enclosure. Apdar's pulsating signal is putting this area of the cosmos into a deep sleep. The reason is that he telepathically can see that the immediate future features a large asteroid or planet colliding with Ormin and killing everyone. To prevent physical and mental pain Apdar is taking it upon himself to end everyone's suffering. Is it a mad power grab? A doomsday cult?
Donley and the crew get a different story from the leader of the underground beings. They see that none of this is actually happening and that Apdar is incorrect. Donley finds his lover as one of the hibernating sleepy people that Apdar has put down. Thankfully, with the help of the underground leaders, Donley has a chance of getting everyone awake again. The different portions of the narrative include Apdar's mission to keep everyone asleep, three rogue crewmen that have committed a heist, Donley's quest to find his lover, and a various chain of events that does rock the planet – just not an apocalyptic one.
The Doomsday Planet was like an original Star Trek episode. It was presented as if Donley was Captain Kirk trapped on this wacky planet where people submit to an ideology. The book was written during the heights of the Cold War as well as America's segregation based on race. Vincent injects a cautionary warning of big government, nuclear build-up, and the inevitable violence that occurs between classes and races of people. The finale of the book features a “Watcher” type of being that addresses the planet's history and warring factions. This watcher being praises the efforts of both parties to reach an agreement of co-existence by the book's end. It isn't necessarily preachy, but the message is on the nose – get along to get along.
If you enjoy vintage science-fiction that is breezy, with little mental taxation, then this book should do the trick. It isn't amazing. It isn't abysmal. It's an average read with a page-count of 148. You could do a lot worse. Get it HERE.
