I have, and have read, other Edmond Hamilton paperbacks in my youth, so I bought Doomstar at my local Friends of the Library Bookstore. Mine is the January 1966 first printing, a mass-market paperback, so I had to be very careful while reading it. I didn't want to cause any pages to break free of the glue and fall out.

The book opens with our protagonist, Johnny Kettrick, at some night club with a woman named Sandra. I disliked her from the first words out of her mouth, but I disliked Kettrick as soon as the second page let readers know that he's been dating her for two years and he picked her because '... she was everything he despised in a woman and so he could have both the present flesh and the untouched memory.' Even though he's ashamed and realizes it was a shabby trick to play on her, I still dislike him for doing it. What happens to him in chapters three and four serve him right, although not chapter four.

There's a nice description of Ree Darva's Out-Quarter (slum, evidently) in chapter six. Here is where Kettrick.starts putting a crew together for his mission, learns the whereabouts of his old partner, Seri Otku, and some women's gossip about the Doomstar.

Kettrick has his crew and their old ship, Grellah. They even managed to smuggle Chai aboard. He's not able to be completely honest with his old friend, Bokar, about why he has chosen the route he has (which will include a pretty dangerous section. However, Bokar and his fellow blue Hlarkran don't believe in the Doomstar (or are they just whistling in the dark?). The fourth crew member, Glevan the Pittanese, does. We get the names of some of the planets in the Hyades Cluster as Kettridge discusses the route.

Chai talks about the death of her mate, Khitu, with Kettrick before they leave the ship for their first stop, planet Gurra. Kettrick learns something about his former partner, Seri, from the natives.