2006-05-03
Star Rangers
Author: Andre Norton
I'm catching up on logging books here, and probably won't be doing good reviews. I've finished four books since the last post.
Star Rangers is the second novel in the omnibus Star Soldiers. It's now 8054 AD, and the galactic empire is breaking up. A Patrol scout ship crashes on a distant planet, far off any existing star chart, and their ship is damaged beyond repair. Luckily, it's a good world, full of water and food and with a suitable climate for both the humans and non-humans in the crew. The world must be uncivilized -- the animals have never seen and have no racial memory of superior life forms. (Some of the castaways are telepathic and can tell this.) So it's a surprise when they find an advanced, but abandoned, city in the distance, and a bigger surprise when it isn't entirely abandoned.
My complaints about Norton from the previous story are now in the past. This work, a distant sequel to the other one, has everything desireable. Humans and non-humans, cosmopolitan planets and boondocks, telepaths and non-telepaths, and prejudice in every direction keep the characters interesting if difficult to sort out at first, and the plot proceeds towards a defined goal: will the stranded crew be able to make a new life for themselves and figure out the mystery of the abandoned city? A satisfying conclusion caps a well-paced journey. This story is recommended on its own -- no prior knowledge of the First Galactic Empire seems necessary.
Read Star Soldiers at the Baen Free Library.
I'm catching up on logging books here, and probably won't be doing good reviews. I've finished four books since the last post.
Star Rangers is the second novel in the omnibus Star Soldiers. It's now 8054 AD, and the galactic empire is breaking up. A Patrol scout ship crashes on a distant planet, far off any existing star chart, and their ship is damaged beyond repair. Luckily, it's a good world, full of water and food and with a suitable climate for both the humans and non-humans in the crew. The world must be uncivilized -- the animals have never seen and have no racial memory of superior life forms. (Some of the castaways are telepathic and can tell this.) So it's a surprise when they find an advanced, but abandoned, city in the distance, and a bigger surprise when it isn't entirely abandoned.
My complaints about Norton from the previous story are now in the past. This work, a distant sequel to the other one, has everything desireable. Humans and non-humans, cosmopolitan planets and boondocks, telepaths and non-telepaths, and prejudice in every direction keep the characters interesting if difficult to sort out at first, and the plot proceeds towards a defined goal: will the stranded crew be able to make a new life for themselves and figure out the mystery of the abandoned city? A satisfying conclusion caps a well-paced journey. This story is recommended on its own -- no prior knowledge of the First Galactic Empire seems necessary.
Read Star Soldiers at the Baen Free Library.
