The spaceship Pericles returns from a manned flight to Jupiter. The surviving crew member returns with a hideously disfiguring disease. Doctor Bertolli is first on the scene, and is one of the key figures who must try and protect the human race from an epidemic which threatens it with extinction.

Dedication: To Hubert Pritchard in memory of many fine days since 117

Note: Expanded and republished as The Jupiter Plague.

Science Fantasy. #79, December 1965, p.4-60; #80, January 1966; #81, February, p.56-128.

as: La Fine Della Paura, in: Galassia #55, 1st July 1965. Piacenza: Casa Editrice la Tribuna. Translated by Lella Pollini. [Italian]

New York: Doubleday, September 1965, 207pp., hbk. Jacket: Tom Chibbaro.

London: Gollancz, April 1966, 207pp., hbk. Jacket: Yellow jacket, 'Gollancz SF Choice For April' on paper band.

New York: Doubleday (SFBC), 1967, 207pp., hbk.

as: Die Pest Kam Von Den Sternen, in: SF Utopisch Romane Sonderreihe #108. Munich: Moewig, 1968, 159pp. Translated by Fritz Maeglich. [German]

as: Plaga de Espacio. Barcelona: Molino, 1967, 192pp., pbk. Translated by M. Bartolmé. [Spanish]

New York: Bantam, July 1968, 154pp., pbk. Reprinted as: The Jupiter Legacy, July 1970, pbk.

London: Sphere, October 1972, 154pp., ISBN: 0-7221-4349-4, pbk. Cover: NASA photograph. Reprinted June 1973 (ISBN: 0-7221-4358-3); as: The Jupiter Legacy, 1978; November 1978 (ISBN: 0-7221-4443-1); 1981, 1984, 1986; February 1987 (Cover: Bob Layzell); 1987(Cover: Layzell).

as: Hotet Från Jupiter. Stockholm: B. Wahlström, 1974. ISBN: 91-32-40708-4. 160pp. Translated by Tommy Schinkler. [Swedish]

as: Tod Vom 5. Planeten. Ullstein 2000, 1978, 156pp., ISBN: 3-548-03477-2, pbk. Translated by Fritz Möglich. Cover: Eddie Jones. [German]

as: Die Pest Kam Von Den Sternen, in: Welten Der Zukunft, edited by Wolfgang Jesche. Munich: Heyne, 1986, ISBN: 3-453-31280-5. Translated by Fritz Maeglich. [German]

Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Review, October 1982. Review by Richard W. Miller.
"Harrison is a fine storyteller. His descriptions of Bellvue Hospital, the ambulance service and the disintegration of society in the face of an apparently absolutely fatal plague are realistic and compelling. For anyone who enjoys a good yarn without a lot of subtlety, The Jupiter Plague is certainly worth reading."

The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction #178, March 1966, p.46. Review by Judith Merril.
"If this book had come to me with an unknown name, from as lesser publisher, I would have dismissed it with a sentence and forgotten it. But Harrison knows better, and Doubleday, the biggest hard-cover SF publisher in this country, ought to know better ... The problem as initially stated was fascinating. As stated, it might have acquired additional significance if, for instance, the plague was the result of a mutated terrestrial virus, and if the combined forces of World Health had had nothing but their best efforts to fall back on. Or if the problem had been differently stated (how to persuade an unknown alien to release the antidote to the fatal disease he has deliberately introduced) there might have been a (very different) equally good book in it ... As it is, the only thing that might have helped is a title change: something like Doctor Kildare and the Jovian Menace."

New Worlds #164, July 1966. Review by Hilary Bailey.