Equation of Doom is a science fiction novella by Randal Garrett, first published in 1957 under the pen-name Gerald Vance.
They grounded Ramsey’s ship on a hostile planet hoping he would starve to death, so the first thing he did was give most of his money away and lose the rest gambling. Then he picked a fight with the Chief of Police and joined forces with a half-naked dream-chick who was seemingly bent on self-destruction. The stakes were big--a planet or two-but it all added up to an----Equation of Doom
What starts out as a battle of wits between an Earthman on an alien world and that world's police force turns into a chase across hyperspace with a couple of sex-objects to the primal inhuman source of all human life in the universe. And a love story.
As far as a story with a brave Earthman and evil aliens goes, this one is better than average. Good characters, and women who do more than simper.
Randall Garrett (1927–1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was a prolific contributor to Astounding and other science fiction magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. He instructed Robert Silverberg in the techniques of selling large quantities of action-adventure science fiction, and collaborated with him on two novels about Earth bringing civilization to an alien planet.
