32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The First Interstellar Settlement, March 10, 2008
Star Flight (2007) is an omnibus edition of the two SF novels in the Astra series. It includes
The Stars Are Ours and
Star Born.
In The Stars Are Ours (1954), mankind has reached the Moon, Mars and Venus, but found little to justify terraforming. However, the three space stations provided a number of services. One of these stations was invaded by unidentified armed men who turned certain installations into weapons which they unleashed against the planet. A major portion of the planet was completely devastated and the loss of life was incalculable.
Among the survivors was Arturo Renzi, who had lost his entire family. He began to preach the evils of science and was welcomed as a great leader throughout the world. However, his message was too liberal for some of his followers and he was assassinated, apparently by a Free Scientist.
For three days after the assassination, Renzi's followers engaged in a furious purge against scientists and techneers. Then Saxon Bort, one of Renzi's chief lieutenants, assumed command of the leader's forces and established the tight dictatorship of the Company of Pax.
In this novel, a decade or so later, Dard Nordis is the son of a Scientific family, living with his older brother, Lars, and his niece, Dessie. Lars and Dard, together with Lars' pregnant wife, Kathia, had fled the purge, but the escape had left Lars a twisted cripple and his wife an amnesiac. After Dessie was born, Kathia retreated into her own dream world until her death.
Now Dard, Lars, and Dessie live on a farm far from any population center. The only nearby farm is Hew Folley's place. Dard doesn't trust Folley, for he wants their farm.
Then one night, a Pax 'copter lands in the snow just before the house and armed Peacemen surround the building. Dard has the others gather food and supplies and sends them down into the cellar, then torches the house. Moving aside some rotting bins, he uncovers a tunnel, sends Dessie ahead, and helps Lars struggle down the passage.
After the Peacemen leave, Lars sends Dard out to leave a packet for his Scientific underground contact. Dard hears a shot shortly after he drops the packet and runs back to find Folley clutching a squirming Dessie. Dard throws his knife and fatally injures Folley, then discovers that Lars is dead.
This story is another of the author's post-apocalyptic works, but the emphasis herein is on spaceflight. Mankind had achieved interplanetary flight and was working on interstellar flight when the terrorists destroyed civilization. Other fanatics then ripped up civilization into even smaller pieces and tried to ensure that ignorance would reign forever. The Scientific community, however, was working on a stardrive and that work was continued in hiding.
In Star Born (1957), the Terran refugees have found a habitable planet, which they named Astra. It has evidence of a prior civilization. Still, the Terrans have little choice except to settle the planet, for their ship was not capable of taking them any further.
In this novel, Dalgard Nordis is making his man-journey into strange lands. With him goes Sssuri, a merman and his knife brother. Dalgard and Sssuri intend to explore a city of Those Others that is shunned by most of the mermen. The city is one of the accursed sites, only a rumor to the merman and unknown to the Terrans. So they will be the first to investigate the ruins.
The two are traveling by outrigger along the coastline when they sight a break in the cliffs. They paddle their boat into the cove. While Sssuri slips into the sea with his spear, Dalgard waits by a stream broadcasting a feeling of friendship and goodwill. When he makes mind contact with a hopper -- a twenty inch high animal with some mental talents -- Dalgard trades some crystal beads for dried fruit. After Sssuri returns with a fish, they prepare their meal.
After they finish eating, Sssuri notices the presence of runners in the dark, primitive primates distantly related to the mermen. Usually the runners are nocturnal, but something has excited them. They have left their hunting grounds to seek new territory.
Seeking the cause of the runner migration, Dalgard and Sssuri travel inland to the central plains. They are observed by hoppers and notice a small herd of duocorns. Finally they discover a running stream and settle down to await the runners. As night falls, they see a streak of fire cross the sky from east to west.
In this story, centuries have passed, the Pax has fallen, and Earth is once again trying to reach the stars. Experimental overdrive ships are being built and sent into space every five years. None have returned, but the latest venture has brought the RS-10 to an unknown planet.
The crew soon discovers that the new world has cities. When they set out to explore the nearest city, they also find natives. Although Raf Kurbi is suspicious, his crewmates seem to accept the aliens as benign survivors of a great civilization.
This story has the aliens looting a store of alien technology within the abandoned city. The ship crewmen have come with the aliens to see these artifacts and learn about the technology. Eventually Dalgard and Raf discover each other in the alien city.
This duology contains several of the characteristic signatures of the author's space adventures, including mutations, psionic talents and aliens. And it heralds the beginnings of the spread of humanity to the stars. But it does not include symbiotic animals.
These works lay the foundations for the civilization that ends in
Star Rangers. The story is a little dated, but it is still a pleasure to read.
Highly recommended for Norton fans and anyone else who enjoys tales of interstellar flights, alien civilizations, and strange powers.
-Arthur W. Jordin
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