The Star Magicians

A prologue relates the breakup of the Carina stellar empire, beset on its borders by the barbarian Star Rovers and sinking into a dark age. One world preserves civilizations and resists the Rovers—Parlion, whose inhabitants, called the White Wizards, are deemed magicians by the inhabitants of other star systems.

The plot follows Drask of the Rim Stars, Warlord of the Star Rovers, initially encountered observing gladiatorial death struggles on a conquered world as he fondles a female slave, princess of the defeated realm. One combatant, the condemned minstrel Perion of North Hollis, excels in the arena, and Drask pardons him, inviting him to feast with the Rovers. Perion saves the warlord from a knife attack by the princess. Thwarted, she commits suicide, and the Rovers continue their feast.

Conversation turns to the subject of their principal enemy, the White Wizard Calastor, whose hidden identity, command of forgotten science, and many devoted followers make him a formidable threat. Drask selects a new plaything, the dancing girl Lurn, who also tries to stab him. Investigation reveals her to be a priestess of another of Drask's enemies, an apparently cosmic entity known as the Green Goddess of Malkh.

Evading the Rovers' clutches, Lurn later resurfaces in the company of Perion, who is now revealed as Calastor; the two escape by teleporting to the latter's spacecraft. Perion/Calastor worries over the progress of Drask's conquests, which threaten the planet the Wizards are grooming as the springboard of a revived galactic empire.

A confrontation ensues on Xulthoom, a haunted world of ancient ruins, perpetual mist, and madness. There Calastor's mechinations make the Rovers to hear voices, turning them against each other and driving them crazy. Even Drask is not immune, though the voice he hears is none of Calastor's doing, but that of the Green Goddess, threatening him with dire consequence unless he goes back to the Rim Stars.

But Drask only retreats from Xulthoom to move on to his next target world, the very one the Wizards want to save. Calastor calls in help from Parlion, and the assembled White Wizards conjure up space dragons to turn away the Star Rovers. The barbarians' shaman Abdekiel realizes the dragons are an illusion, and the ruse fails. Frantic, Calastor and his allies teleport themselves to Drask's flagship. In the final conflict, the Wizards disarm the crew through their mental powers while Calastor engages Drask in a desperate swordfight.

Then the Green Goddess intervenes. She destroys the Star Rover fleet and isolates the principal combatants. Drask is condemned, while Calastor and Lurn are preserved for a brighter fate, to wed and rule over the world that will birth the new empire.