Planet of the Damned

Every now and again I go through a sci-fi reading phase. Discovering the availability of a bunch of old Harry Harrison books and stories on feedbooks seems to have kickstarted another one of them. This first of my glut is set in the type of classic space opera universe popular in the mid-20th century. Mankind is scattered across the universe, many on planets which have forced evolution of people to match an inhospitable environment. Here, people who have adapted to a desert planet and devolved socially, find them selves at odds with a neighboring world who is reluctantly preparing to destroy the planet to avoid their own destruction. Only the new member of shadowy organization bent on ensuring mankind's apotheoses has a chance of averting the war.