Customer Reviews

Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids

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This is the second volume in the Lucky Starr series, the sequel to "David Starr, Space Ranger" (1952). Asimov originally published it under the pseudonym Paul French. In this story, David Starr must locate and bring to justice pirates working out of the asteroid belt. In addition, he has to thwart a possible invasion. Asimov uses the book to help teach interesting facts about asteroids.

I grew up reading the Lucky Starr series and though it's been twenty-five years or more since I've even seen one, I can remember practically every word. For me, Asimov never got better than this!

In the 1950s Isaac Asimov wrote a series of six (I think) science fiction books for children called the Lucky Starr series. For whatever reason Asimov used the pen name Paul French, but the books were later republished under Asimov's own name. Asimov strove to create plausible and action packed adventure stories. He also wanted his writings of space travel and planetary bodies to be factually correct and consistent with known science. In later editions he included a preface for each book to explain what aspects of scientific knowledge had changed in the intervening years and what factoids from that book are now known to be wrong. Asimov never dumbed down his books or condescended to his audience.

Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids is book 2 in the series. A group of pirates has taken refuge in the asteroid belt, making commerce and transport difficult for anyone trying to go past Mars into the outer solar system. The problem is that no one knows where in the asteroid belt the pirates have their base. Space Ranger Starr concocts a plan (against his superiors' knowledge or wishes, kind of like James Bond) to fly to the asteroid belt and use his ship as bait to locate the pirate base and destroy it. Meanwhile he learns that the leader of the pirates is the man who killed his parents.

"Pirates" is the first Starr book I ever read (even though it is #2 in the series), and I never read it until recently, as an adult. I had no problem understanding what was going on even without having read the first book. As an adult I find this book to be enjoyable light reading. Nothing special, but it is exciting and entertaining. Best of all Asimov never asks you to suspend disbelief and just go with it. He tries to make all of his books conform to the known universe, and this one is no exception.

But Asimov wrote this book for children, and I think that is where it would really shine. I read a lot of adventure and science fiction stories as a kid - Tom Swift, Hardy Boys, Three Investigators, Choose Your Own Adventure, The Hobbit, and even a bit of Robert Heinlein. I think I would have loved the Lucky Starr books as a kid.

David "Lucky" Starr infiltrates pirate-infested asteroids in a desperate bid to prevent galactic war. Not one of the better Lucky Starr books, albeit the only one grounded on astrophysical science with which Asimov still felt entirely comfortable after 25 years of additional observations. Asimov's concept of pirates based in the practically ungovernable asteroid belt has a ring of accuracy in the light of colonial Caribbean history.