Customer Reviews

Derelict for Trade: A Great New Solar Queen Adventure

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

 

 

I was surprised to have enjoyed this book so much, even though it was a science fiction with a cheesy cover. Sherwood Smith is great, he needs to send his material to publishers right NOW!

This is a somewhat Swashbuckling tale set on the fringes of the galaxy, and is another adventure of the Solar Queen and its crew. Overall the book is quite good, but the authors do not fully develop a good description of the setting for the readers. The orbiting Trade city, Exchange, is developed in pieces that never fully come together into a single picture. Some references are made to information from previous books, but the story line stands alone very well as a separate novel. The crew of the Solar Queen has some interesting adventures on Exchange, and acquire a very interesting new crew member. If you liked Andre Norton's previous books, you will definitely want to read this one.

I am a professional woman and much too cool to carry a book with this cover in my briefcase. However, I was interested in the further adventures of the Solar Queen so found myself carrying it with me everywhere - cover be danged.

Better than Redline the Stars, the alien habitat is well conceived, truly different, and yet a place I would love to visit. The aliens themselves are 3-dimensional. That is not to say they could not have been more complex, but I never got the feeling we were simply on another Earth.

The story was also more complex, unfolding over the course of several weeks. This allows time for the development of a few more of the many crewmembers and the a better sense of what it means to be a free trader.

I liked this book. Another fun read but not too challenging. What I did not like were the inconsistencies from the previous book to this one. What happened to their wealth? The promise of their cargo? Their good reputation? That was not credibly explained. And the romance...such potential that was wrapped up in a few pages at the end like an afterthought. Better to tease it into the next book.

"Sargasso of Space" (1955) and "Plague Ship" (1956) were the first two books in the 'Solar Queen' Free Trader series, told from the viewpoint of Dane Thorson, an apprentice Cargo Master who is introduced 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.

Norton wrote the further adventures of the Solar Queen's crew in "Postmarked the Stars" (1969) and the novella, "Voodoo Planet" (1959). Norton's four-book series about the crew of the Solar Queen ended in 1969 with "Postmarked the Stars" but alas, lesser authors have butted into the series, presumably with Norton's permission, before she died in 2005.

One Solar Queen rip-off to avoid at all costs is "Redline: the Stars" (1994) which was co-authored by P.M. Griffin, although I don't believe Andre Norton wrote anything but the introduction.

"Derelict for Trade" (1997) is a continuation of "Redline: the Stars" with a different co-authoress: Ms "Sherwood Smith" (a pseudonym.) Although this 'Solar Queen' adventure is superior to 'Redline' it still features a character named Rael, who comes across as a combination of Mother Theresa and Miss Universe. In this book, she heals the oppressed, psychoanalyzes Captain Jellico for the benefit of another crew member, and proposes marriage to him. At least he gets to save her life this time around. If I were the good captain, I'd take a space walk without a space suit before hitching up with Rael the Wonderful (another reviewer's nickname for this character), but I didn't write this romance.

Neither, I think, did Andre Norton. I couldn't find her anywhere in 'Derelict.'

It's still a decent SF adventure story, when 'Solar Queen' crew members other than Rael inhabit the spotlight, clicking about in their magnetic space boots and chasing villains through peculiar gravity wells. If you're a 'Solar Queen' fan who has run out of real Norton novels to read, go ahead and give 'Derelict' a once-over.

Yes I could stand outside of a Grocery Store and sell Papers for a nickel. after I sold twenty papers I had enough to buy one of these books which ran a whopping 40 cents each back then. dray

I have read many of Andre Nortons works and have not been disappointed yet! She captures your imagination and makes you wish you were there. This work is no exception

Since very childhood I enjoyed Andre Norton's books. Her have always been my favourites. Now I've read her lalest 2 novels - written together with other authors. And was disappointed when I saw that there has appeared a woman in the list of characters. There were no female characters in the previous novels of the Solar Queen series, and that was the reason it was so popular. She was really ahead of her time shaking the stereotype of these female cuties in every sf novel. A. Norton should have kept to this line when writing her new novels. Thanks God there are no bed scenes in them! And thanks God again that this god-knows-what Rael marries yhe old captain at last, and not one of the young characters.