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Title: Sargasso of Space by Andre Norton ISBN: 0-441-74986-0 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: September, 1985 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: First Solar Queen adventure
Comment: "Sargasso of Space" (1955) and "Plague Ship" (1956) were the first two science fiction novels I ever checked out of our local library (I can still close my eyes and see that one dinky little shelf, crammed with some of SFs' greatest juvenile authors: Norton; Heinlein; Del Rey; Nourse).
"Sargasso of Space" is the first of four 'Solar Queen' adventures, followed by "Plague Ship,""Postmarked the Stars," and the novella, "Voodoo Planet." Norton's four-book series about the crew of the Solar Queen ended in 1969 with "Postmarked the Stars" but beware! Lesser authors have butted into the series, presumably with Norton's permission since this remarkable Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and the Nebula Grand Master is still writing (her first novel was published in 1934, her latest fantasy in 2002).
One Solar Queen rip-off to avoid at all costs is "Redline: the Stars."
Norton's Solar Queen stories are told from the viewpoint of Dane Thorson, an apprentice-Cargo Master who is introduced to us in "Sargasso of Space" as a "lanky, very young man in an ill-fitting Trader's tunic." Most of this author's heroes and heroines are young, uncertain of themselves, shy, with a tendency to trip over their own enthusiasms and load themselves up with guilt at the slightest opportunity. They are very likeable and their adventures are narrated in remarkably lean prose with just the right touch of description.
After ten years of schooling, orphan Dane Thorson is assigned via a computer analysis of his psychological profile--not to a safe berth on a sleek Company-run starship that his classmates were vying for--but to a battered tramp of a Free Trader. To say that the 'Solar Queen' "lacked a great many refinements and luxurious fittings which the Company ships boasted" was an understatement. But she was a tightly-run ship and what she lacked in refinement, she made up for in adventure. Dane soon settles in under Cargo Master Van Rycke and learns "to his dismay what large gaps unfortunately existed in his training."
Sometimes I just want to give Dane a big hug.
The crew of the 'Solar Queen' risk their meager capital in a gamble at a Survey auction, and win trading rights to a barely explored planet with the unlucky name of Limbo. When they view a microfilm (okay, the technology is a bit dated in these books) of their new prize, it appears as though they have purchased ten years of trading rights to a planet that was burned to cinder during the heyday of the mysterious Forerunners, who predated humans in space.
Just when the Queen's fortune seems to be at its lowest ebb, a tough-looking archeologist shows up who is supposedly an expert on Forerunner artifacts, and charters her for a voyage to Limbo.
It might have been better for the free traders if her captain had kept his ship planeted and declared bankruptcy after the disastrous Survey auction.
This 'Solar Queen' novel is a prime representative of Norton's lean action-packed brand of story-telling. If you haven't read "Sargasso of Space" since you were a teen-ager, I urge you to try it again. For a few pleasant hours, you will be immersed in the adventures of a likeable, feisty band of free traders on an exotic, carefully-drawn alien world.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Man of Trade
Comment: Sargasso of Space is the first novel in the Solar Queen series. This volume and the next two Solar Queen novels were first published under the pseudonym of Andrew North.
In this novel, Dane Thorson is a newly graduated cargo-apprentice from the Trade Training Pool reporting for his first assignment. As he waits with some of his former classmates for the Psycho computer to match him with a Trade organization, the others are assigned to interstellar companies -- Inter-Solar and the Combine -- and even the local Martian-Terran Incorporated line, but Dane is assigned to the lowest of lows, a Free Trader ship, the Solar Queen. However, the demeaning attitude of the other recruits only triggers Dane's stubbornness and determination to succeed in his assignment.
After he has a not very enjoyable last meal with his former classmates, Dane is joined by two crewmen from the Solar Queen who have overheard the name of their ship. They introduce themselves as Rip Shannon, astrogator-apprentice, and Ali Kamil, engineer-apprentice, and accompany him back to their ship. There Dane meets Captain Jellico, Cargomaster Van Rycke, Astrogator Wilcox, Com-Tech Tang Ya, Chief Engineer Stotz, Jetmen Kosti and Weeks, Medic Tau, Cook-steward Mura, the ship's cat Sinbad, and the Captain's Hoobat.
The first port of call is Naxos, where the Solar Queen buys ten-year trading rights to a planet, Limbo, in a Survey auction. The planet has been burnt off, but not completely. While their prospects don't look promising, a charter from an archaeological expedition interested in the Forerunner artifacts on Limbo will pay for the voyage, so they blast off to Limbo the following morning. On Limbo, the Solar Queen crew finds ancient ruins, strange machines, wrecked ships, and space pirates. They have to use all their skills, ingenuity, and courage to survive.
This novel has some of the signature characteristics found in many of the author's SF works, with Dane being an orphan and an outsider who eventually finds a niche of his own, but it differs from most later works in that Dane starts to feel at home on the Solar Queen even before going aboard. However, Dane becomes part of a human team, as in Star Guard and The Crossroads of Time, so alien sentients do not occupy a central role in this novel as in Star Rangers. Moreover, the animals, while playing an important role in the series, are more valued adjuncts rather than team members.
As with other novels of this period, the tale emphasizes teamwork over individual accomplishment. Each contributes their own unique expertise and viewpoint to strengthen the team. As with Star Rangers and Star Guard, this novel starts with a high degree of acceptance and companionship among the Solar Queen crew; in later works, such as Storm Over Warlock, active cooperation and good feeling is exceptional and occurs only at the end of the tales after much hard work and good fortune.
This story is one of the author's best accepted works, as witness the number of sequels. In many respects, this series is the positive side of the author's worldview. Despite the many hazards and trials of his chosen career and ship, Dane is part of a tight-knit group that freely gives acceptance and respect to each other. Many of the other tales by this author feature young persons who are desperately trying to obtain such relationships.
Highly recommended to Norton fans and anyone who enjoys tales of young persons striving for competence and success within a SF setting.
Rating: 5
Summary: A great classic SF yarn
Comment: I am a 45 year-old electrical engineer, yet I have re-read my copy of this "juvenile" level paperback so many times that the paper is coming apart. Andre Norton's introductory story of Dane Thorton and the Solar Queen is close to timeless.
This SF action story from the 50's does have some dated technology (the "Psyco" asignment machine and the "Trade Center" Computer installation come to mind) but these are mostly obsured by not getting into their details too closely - No huge vacuum tube computers here! Later stories in the series have their technologies smoothly brought into the present (projected into the future) without losing their original series contexts. Very skillful.
I am hoping that "Sargasso of Space" and its next few successors are treated to the same updates that have been lavished on other Norton novels from this time period. In the mean-time, by all means go ahead and read this classic pulp!
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Title: Star Hunter/Voodoo Planet by Andre Norton ISBN: 0441781942 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: February, 1980 List Price(USD): $1.95 |
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Title: Uncharted Stars by Andre Norton ISBN: 0451452321 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: March, 1993 List Price(USD): $4.50 |
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Title: Zero Stone by Andre Norton ISBN: 0441959652 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: September, 1983 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
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Title: LORD OF THUNDER by Andre Norton ISBN: 0345313968 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 January, 1984 List Price(USD): $2.95 |
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Title: STAR GATE by Andre Norton ISBN: 0345311930 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 November, 1983 List Price(USD): $2.25 |
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