THE GODS OF CERUS MAJOR was published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1982. It told the story of Commander Jason Smith of the United Earth Starforce and his crew as they tested an experimental new spacecraft using "space leap" technology to visit a newly contacted alien culture in a distant part of space.  A diplomat, Oleg Rondell, is aboard to make official contact with the alien race, but his prime mission seems to be to needle Jason Smith about a mishap in the previous interstellar war in which Jason and his same crew served bravely aboard the Adrian Dar, a sleek fighting cruiser of the Twelth Stellar Fleet.

Something goes terribly wrong during the space leap jump, and instead of materializing in the part of space that they intend to, they abruptly find themselves in an unknown sector, screaming down toward a crash landing on a strange world they know nothing about. But though their ship cannot be repaired, their adventure is just beginning in their journey across a weird world filled with hideous monsters, dangerous aliens and mysteries that seem to defy explanation.

Jason Smith's name was inspired by both the hero of the mythological adventure classic, "Jason and the Argonauts" and the writer who invented Space Opera, E.E. "Doc" Smith.

An acrylic painting by the author depicting Commander Jason Smith and Laneena, daughter of the leader of the lost human colony on the world on which Jason and his crew have crashed.