Galactic Derelict [Mass Market Paperback]

Andre Norton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1978

Ace 8th printing features "reversed" Davis Meltzer cover (see backwards signature at bottom!) "Time-travel for archaeologists was a well-guarded secret; but when the remains of an interstellar spaceship are uncovered along with the usual fossils, the time agents must call on a modern Apache Indian, Travis Fox, to guide them in the ways of his ancestors in their trip to the past. But the explorers become trapped in space as well as time, on a mad journey on an automatic starship; not even Travis Fox can tell whether any of them will ever see Earth again."

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Ace Books (1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441272290
• ISBN-13: 978-0441272297
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,301,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Juvenile Sci Fi at its Best, March 18, 2000

By 

Jay Rogers (Buda, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Galactic Derelict (Hardcover)

When I was 11, Andre Norton was my god. I think I read every Norton book in the Beaumont Public Library. I remember how shocked I was when I learned "Andre" was a SHE! Somehow the books were never the same...I had identified so strongly with all those youthful male heroes, to learn that they sprang from the female imagination was a little unnerving to my adolescently male mind.

The time travel books were awesome...Galactic Derelict, The Time Traders, Key Out of Time, all ranged wildly into strange alien technologies and vistas, and there was plenty of danger and suspense. I'm a little sad to learn that so much of Norton's ouvre is out of print.

If you catch this somewhere, pick it up.

Oh, and by the way, it wasn't an original 1979 edition as mentioned in another review here, the original was written in 1959.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read., August 31, 2007

By 

Bonnie R. Cox - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Galactic Derelict (Paperback)

Classic, I love her. This book is full of high adventure, interesting characters, and far away places.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Through Time and Space With Travis Fox, July 23, 2011

By 

Paul Camp (Chattanooga, TN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Galactic Derelict (Paperback)

_Galactic Derelict_ (1959) is the second solo time agent novel by Andre Norton, and the only one that features all of the main characters-- Gordon Ashe, Ross Murdock, and Travis Fox-- on stage together. And let me say at once that they manage to get into one devil of a predicament!

The previous time agent book was _The Time Traders_ (1958), and the two follow-up novels are _The Defiant Agents_ (1962) and _Key Out of Time_ (1963). I pass over later books in the series written "in colaboration" with another author; this doubtless means that Norton did little or none of the actual writing.

The point-of-view character is a young Apache cowboy and archeologist named Travis Fox who stumbles onto a site manned by various time agents. After some communication over the radio, Fox is told: "Headquarters checked you out all along the line" (26) and that he has been cleared. I once applied for a routine clearance to do some historical research at the U.S. Air Force Base near Montgomery, Alabama. I was told that it would take _at least_ two months. To be sure, it makes sense to speed things up for the sake of the story. But it does seem to me that for a project as huge as the time travel program, recruits are taken in on a pretty casual basis.

But perhaps Fox was the right man to recruit. He has a number of Apache survival skills and is a "time guesser". He can tell the age of an object by handling it. The Americans plan to outmaneuver the "Reds" by going back in time, locating an alien spaceship, boarding it, and transporting it into modern times. Everything goes more or less according to plan... up to a point. But when the agents board the ship, a timer preset by the Baldies goes off. The ship takes off with the agents inside, and they are literally lost in space and time.

The original World hardback and Ace paperback had a great cover by Ed Emshwiller. It depicts Travis Fox climbing a spaceship ladder, while behind him are spaceport buildings, a robot, and something that looks like a scarlet snake (but which isn't). This cover was reprined on the Gardner Dozois anthology, _The Good Old Stuff_. Get it if you can. If you can't, keep your eyes open for this scene in the novel.

_Galactic Derelict_ is the best of the time agent novels.