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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable story about post-nuclear war world,
By
This review is from: Daybreak - 2250 A.D. (Ace No. G-717; Orig. title: Star Man's Son) (Mass Market Paperback)
Originally released in 1952 under the name "Star Man's Son" this story is set in a post-atomic war future. While that may seem cliche, at the time it was quite original. The story focuses on Fors, who lives in a remote mountain village. As the story opens, Fors is passed over for the postion of "Star Man" - a man who goes out into the wilderness in search of ancient technology for the village. Fors blames this on the fact that his mother came from a tribe outside the village.
Fors decides to abondon his village and sets out for the wilderness anyway, accompanied by Lura - his hunting cat companion. On his journies he encounters various other tribes, mutated wildlife and ruins of the past civilization. Although one of the main messages of the book - an apocalyptic nuclear war is a bad idea - seems obvious now, it is still an enjoyable story. I think the strength of the book is that the focus is kept tightly on Fors. The book does attempt to provide a post-war history, delve into a scientific mistery or reveal a complex political stuggle. Instead it revolves around Fors' desire to vindicate his father's belief in a large undiscovered ruined city, his desire to prove himself to his village, and struggle to warn his village of the growing threat of the "beast-things" that live in the ruins. Because the book centers around the protagonist's individual struggles, it does not seem dated in the way that a more technologically focused book would have. The post-war world is revealed enough to keep it intersting, but not so much as to be tiresome. This is a fairly simple sci-fi novel, that younger readers will enjoy. Despite that it does end with some ambiguity. While Fors may experience a personal triumph, what are we to make of the fact that the humans can only be united by a common enemy?
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good novel from 50 years ago...,
By
This review is from: Daybreak - 2250 A.D. (Ace No. G-717; Orig. title: Star Man's Son) (Mass Market Paperback)
Unfortunately, the author passed away last year. Fortunately, she had time to write a good number of novels. This one, written in the fifties, is a more than average post-apocalyptic novel.
It is the story of a mutant who doesn't feel at home in his tribe. One of the early X-Men :). Even if you can read it in a matter of hours, you will find that Andre Norton had plenty to say about the actual world men lives in and not so much about the nuclear war that happened, which is fine by me. The trip of Fors in one of the ruined city and his encounter with the Beast things is very gripping. Usually, I resell the books I read. I am keeping this one.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Lonely Journey,
By Ralph Couey (Somerset, PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Daybreak - 2250 A.D. (Ace No. G-717; Orig. title: Star Man's Son) (Mass Market Paperback)
It has been almost 200 years since the global destruction wrought by nuclear war. The tools of man's technology lie rusting alongside broken roads between ruined cities. In the mountains, the descendants of people who were training to colonize other worlds when war broke out, struggle to survive.
After decades of isolation, members of the tribe who have earned the title "Star Man" have ventured back into the lowlands. While trained in combat, they are not warriors. They are seekers of lost knowledge, consecrated to the task of recovering their past. Andre Norton's book "Daybreak: 2250 A. D., originally titled "Star Man's Son," foretells a cautionary tale of the future, one in which humans still have not learned the lessons of the past. The tribe known as The Eyrie are the descendants of scientists and engineers who were sent into the mountains to prepare for life on other worlds. When the affairs of man turned critical, their mission of discovery became a quest for survival. Wary of radiation-induced genetic mutation, the tribe in those first few years took drastic steps to maintain the purity of the human race. In their fear, the Eyrie have isolated and even killed those with characteristics that drift from the norm of humanity. That fear became, over time, a cultural prejudice against anyone who came from the lowlands. Onto this stage steps a young man named Fors. He is the son of an honored explorer, a Star Man, who took to wife a woman of one of the Plains tribes. That union bequeathed to the son hair of silver, the visible flag of mutation. Ostracized by his tribe, he has been denied the honor of following in his father's footsteps. After a youth filled with rejection and bitter prejudice, climaxed by the loss of his last opportunity to be a Star Man, Fors leaves the mountain stronghold of his people and sets out alone on a trail that will change the history of not only his tribe, but all that remains of the human race. Through the eyes of Fors we are given a fascinating glimpse of a post-apocalyptic world; the remains of the last great war of technology. In this world, the survivors of the human race have separated into tribes, each jealously guarding a swath of territory. Relationships between the tribes are bound in suspicion and conflict, but all share a mutual fear of the dwellers of the urban ruins, a human-rat hybrid known as the Beast Things. All of the human tribes have striven to turn their backs on those characteristics which drove the Old Ones to war and destruction. But Norton makes it clear that suspicion and hate, and the inevitable conflict arising from them is an irrefutable part of the human make-up and despite the naive desire for "world peace," it would seem that humans will always reach first for the spear. The climax of the book, when the tribes gather for one last great battle against each other, becomes the moment when Fors steps forward and restores peace. He reminds all present that everyone faces a common enemy in the Beast Things and if humanity is to survive, that they must all band together in mutual support, or by choosing to exterminate each other, leave the planet to the Beast Things. In the ruined cities, we see in the buildings, the towering monuments to man's creativity. Yet, we are forced to come to grips with the truth that even in the face of a terrible lesson, we would still run the risk of destroying our each other. In the conflict between the tribes, we are challenged to rise above our primitive instincts and choose survival. In the travels of Fors, we find our own restless desires to go beyond the horizon; to seek knowledge of distant lands and unknown peoples. And through Fors' experiences, we discover that we can choose friendship; we can choose life; we can choose peace. There few problems with this story, the most pronounced being that it would be virtually impossible for a genetic mutation such as the Beast Things to rise to such an advanced level in less than 200 years. Perhaps 2000 years, but then there would be precious little evidence of the Old Ones left for exploration. The dialogue is pure Tolkien, and at times almost descends into Iambic Pentameter. Despite the stilted language, however, the story is clearly and descriptively told. The descriptions of landscapes and cities tantalizes the reader to consult a road atlas to identify the land where Fors traveled. The description of the big city on the Great Lake that Fors discovers sounds suspiciously like Chicago or Buffalo. At 191 pages, it is a short read, but an intense one. The book moves along rapidly from start to finish and Norton has taken the reader along for the breathless journey. Norton crafted a tale that is part Star Wars, Terminator 3, and Lord of the Rings, although its publishing date, 1952, predates all three. If you enjoyed Tolkien and Lucas, and you feel the hope that the best parts of humankind can always survive and arise from an apocalyptic future, then this book is for you. (A respectful attempt at a sequel: http://starmanssaga.blogspot.com/)
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