Customer Reviews

The Day of the Ness

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Day of the Ness
(1975)

In this delightful story you meet:

Hal

Gotcha's

Susie

The Great Think-Think

The Little Think-Think

The Rav

The Stalkers

The Cluster

And of Course the Ness

Hal is clearly the protagonist in this story from a Greek point of view.

Susie is the hero, in typical Andre Norton fashion, (she was a cat lover)

I highly recommend this book fort the younger Andre Norton aficionados, say about age 8 or so. It teaches an important life's lesson. The next Andre Norton juvenile is her Magic Series ( See my listmania ANDRE NORTON JUVENILES)

Gunner September, 2009
.

The Day of the Ness (1975) is a standalone SF novel for older children. It is set in the near future when lasers are used for hand weapons and scout cars fly without rotors.

In this novel, Hal is the nine year old son of a NASA trained scientist. His Dad has been investigating the crash of a small spaceship ten years before. Now only Dr. Wright, Hal and his Dad -- plus a few guards -- remain at the site.

Susie is Hal's cat. She is more alert than Hal, but has the sense to ignore problems that cannot be solved.

In this story, the scientists learned that alien creatures had escaped from the crashed ship. They discovered that the aliens would swap for small objects placed on the mountainside at Trade Rock. One of the trades had been a small radio and the aliens soon learned to use a modified morse code to communicate with the humans.

But then two local boys had snuck into the site and were grabbed by the alien Gotchas hiding under their rocks. The boys shot at the aliens and smashed at the Gotchas. The site guards caught the boys and took them back to the local jail, but the aliens quit communicating.

Today Hal is alone at the station -- except for Sargeant Homer at the gate -- when the aliens start signaling again on the radio. Hal leaves a note and hikes up the mountain with Susie to the Trade Rock. There he finds a metal notebook with morse code sketched on the pages. The message is as SOS about another set of aliens called the Ness.

Then a crack in the rocks opens up into a tunnel. Hal and Susie find a headless alien in the tunnel who can talk without speaking aloud. The Rav talks directly into Hal's mind and hears Hal's thoughts. It invites them to enter and takes them to a meeting of even more strange aliens.

This tale involves Hal and Susie in a battle to free these aliens from the Ness. The Ness are hostile and warlike. The friendly aliens are peaceful and not used to war. In fact, they are unused to making plans on their own. Hal offers to help the friendly aliens and soon is crawling around in the tight tunnels where the Ness cannot go.

Highly recommended for younger readers who enjoys tales of friendly aliens, brave boys and smart cats.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I read this book as a child and it was my favorite book growing up. I must have checked it out of the library 25 times. Unfortunately, I remembered the story, but not the title. I had a vague recollection of the author, but could never find the title. Thanks to Amazon, I can now find a copy for my daughter (and read it again myself!).

This is one of the first books I ever read when I was about five. To this day (22 years later) I still remember it vividly. The wonderful story is enhanced by frequent illustrations of the hideous Ness. Any child will love this book.