Customer Reviews

Galactic Derelict

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

 

 

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.

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

_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.

Galactic Derelict
(1959)

This is the second book in the Time Trader Series by Andre Norton, following The Time Traders(caution there is an omnibus called Time Traders Time Traders: The Time Traders & Galactic Derelictand a single novel with that name)

You met in the Time Traders:

Ross Murdock

Ashe

Major Kelgarries,


In this book you learn about:

Travis Fox , a Time guesser, one who can guess the approximate age of an object simply by holding it. Travis is definitely the protagonist in this story. He will need all the Chiricahua Apache skills that he honed under the tutelage of Chato, his mentor.

Renfry, a technician, his name is mentioned so seldom, I had to go back and look to get it, several times the author just refers to "the technician"; he was inadvertently on board the ship when it took off.


Operation Folsom

I wonder what is the difference between a Clovis point and a Folsom point. The both look the same to me, but I've only seen pictures of them. I never held either one.

This book is about being stranded on a very sophisticated star ship set on what we would call "auto-pilot". It even makes several stops, one for refueling, others for who knows what purpose.

* Since it is the second book in the series it can have more action than the first on. Most of the background was in the first book, Time TradersISBN-13: 978-1421827346
.

The next book in this series is The Defiant Agents


Galactic Derelict (1959) is the second SF novel in the Time Traders series, following The Time Traders BN-13: 978-0671319526.

To me this book is about the angst felt by the crew by being trapped on a star ship not knowing where it was going or even if they could get off at one of the stops along the way without being marooned on an unknown planet.

I highly recommend this book for Andre Norton fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien civilizations and time travel and space travel and above all adventure. Be sure to read the next book in the series is Defiant Agent. You can see all the books on this series by going to my Listmania Andre Norton Time Trader Books.



Gunner February, 2010

I have read most sci fi books available, especially Andre Norton books they were always full of action and were hard to put down....Too bad this one is out of print so soon......I still have the original 1979 version and will read it again sometime.....

This book, along with two others, launched me into a lifelong love of science fiction, most notably science fiction from the golden years of the genre (50s and 60s). If I ever need an escape of the mind and a revisitation to the reading thrills of my teenage years, I re-read this book along with Rocket To Limbo and Raiders From The Rings, both by Alan Nourse.

Travis Fox, Ross Murdock and others embark on a time travel mission to prehistoric earth, where they hope to recover an alien ship. It was believed to have existed in a particular region at that time, and the plan is to (for the first time) bring an entire ship back to present time for study. When sometihing goes wrong, the time agent team becomes stranded on board the mysterious abandoned vessel as it suddenly lifts off into space. The crew watches helplessly as earth is left behind, and they must find some way to survive while not knowing where they are headed, or if they can ever return home.

It's an inventive premise, and there are plenty of imaginative moments as the crew encounters strange worlds and stranger abandoned alien outposts. If you have read any of the time trader books, you'll know what to expect here. Solid entertainment, competent writing and action and suspense are provided. There isn't much development or background for characters, but the story is all about the adventure. If you have read any other ones with these characters, you'll have a little more background knowledge. If not, you should still enjoy it. It's quick, and well worth reading.

Galactic Derelict is easily the best of the Time Traders series actually written by Andre Norton (which I believe comprises the first four books).

Four time travel agents are accidentally whisked into space by an over-eager auto-pilot mechanism, leaving them to wonder if they can ever return home. In the process they find a bit more about the space faring civilization encountered in the first book of the series.

I highly recommend this book, although I do not feel it stands on its own. It is also quite acceptable to stop reading the series after this book, as 3 and 4, written by Norton, do not match up to the quality of this book, and do not directly follow up on the events in which this book leaves you. Books in the series starting with 5 (Firehand) were not written by Norton. 'Firehand' is an abysmal excuse for fiction. The 6th and 7th books are by a second "guest author". While better than Firehand, in the end they were not very satisfying reads to me. My time could easily have been better spent.

Galactic Derelict will certainly keep your interest, and has all of the elements you'd have loved to see more of in expanded form in the rest of the series. Sadly, that never happens.