Amazon.com description: Product Description: Planet of the Damned is a 1962 Hugo Award nominated novel by the American science fiction writer Harry Harrison. It was serialised in 1961 under the title Sense of Obligation and published under that name in 1967. Once in a generation, a man is born with a heightened sense of empathy. Brion Brandd used this gift to win the Twenties, an annual physical and mental competition among the best and smartest people on Anvhar. But scarcely able to enjoy his victory, Brandd is swept off to the hellish planet Dis where he must use his heightened sense of empathy to help avert a global nuclear holocaust by negotiating with the blockading fleet, traversing the Disan underworld, and cracking the mystery of the savagely ruthless magter.