Later printing of the paperback original novel (1969). Nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1969, and won the French Prix Apollo in 1972.

The Walker in the Valley of the Shadow H was the name he was known by. H was unique in the galaxy, for he had the healing touch. Where there was plague, sickness, pain, H was the universal cure. But H also had the slaying touch. Where he went death and disaster often followed. Where there had been health there would be left desolation and desert. The talent alternated. It reversed itself—and H always warned people of this. To live in Italbar or TO DIE IN ITALBAR, that was always the question. "Zelazny has regained his stride as a first rate writer of SF adventure." — Locus