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Star Born (Large Print Edition)

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When the oppressive global dictatorship of Pax took over the Earth they put a stop to space exploration. Still, a few rebels escaped in the sleeper ships to found free new colonies- or perish in the attempt. Those few colonies that reached inhabitable worlds and survived were cut off for centuries. It was during these centuries of isolation and freedom that they were able to develop the mysterious mental powers that "civilization" had all but destroyed.

Finally, when Pax had been eradicated from Earth by the Federation of Free Men, the rockets began to rise once more. This time they they possessed the faster than light drives that would enable them to make up for lost time. One such ship was the RS-10. This ship and its crew stumbled upon the world of Astra and it's strange, ruthless, degenerate, inhuman inhabitants. The Terrans did not trust these creatures but there was much that they could learn from them. Making a temporary alliance the expedition accompanied the aliens to a strange treasure city to help exploit its wonders. It was there that they discovered that the aliens had good reason to fear going to the treasure city alone. It was protected by Free Men who had arrived centuries before....

The classic Ace edition of this sci-fi classic has probably the best painted cover of a conventional space ship that I've ever seen.

If there had been no other creator of science fiction and fantasy in the second half of the twentieth century, Andre Norton would have been enough.

Story a sequel to (The Stars Are Ours) 3 to 4 generations in the future. Dalgard Nordis of the colony with a Merman Sssuri are on a scouting trip to investigate some old ruins that were rumored to have been visited be the evil former inhabitants only to see a space ship in the sky land near there. After discovering the old ones looting the city for lost technology Dalgard finds the people from the star ship to be of his race. Good sequel, Classic Andre Norton

When I read this book during the mid-1950s I was lucky enough to be forced to read it as a sequel. The book hadn't been released when I read The Stars are Ours. There weren't many SF books on the library shelves in those days, so I returned to recheck the first one and discovered Star Born. Felt I'd died and went to heaven.

I reread both a number of times through the years, always hoping Norton would add a few more sequels, assuming it was an obvious target for a series. It never happened.

So, you're stuck with these two, which will probably cause you to join me in my wish Norton had written more.

What would happen if space explorers stumble upon a lost colony of humans on a distant planet? Are they still human, or has the separation of time and space made them something else? Andre Norton uses this backdrop to examine questions of who is human, what advanced civilization means, and what is or isn't alien, all wrapped in a a non-stop action adventure. The sequel to The Stars Are Ours, Norton again gives us two seemingly insignificant people - space pilot Raf Kurbi and colony scout Dalgard Nordis - who manage to change the future of an entire planet. And if the ending doesn't choke you up, maybe you're not human either.

Andre Norton has always been the best. The story line will have everyone smiling and crying at one time or the other. This is a great book for younger readers and adults too. The world she makes is so real and the characters so very alive. I recommend this book and author to all sci-fi fans.

Star Born

Star Born (1957) is a sequel to (The Stars Are Ours) 3 to 4 generations in the future. Dalgard Nordis of the colony, with a Merman, Sssuri, are on a "man-Journey", sort of like a continental tour, to gather knowledge and a scouting trip to investigate some old ruins in the North that were rumored to have been visited by the evil former inhabitants only to see a space ship in the sky land near there. After discovering the old ones looting the city for lost technology Dalgard finds the people from the star ship to be of his race. Good sequel.

Highly recommended for fans of Classic Andre

Gunner, June, 2009

Star Born (1957) is the second SF novel im the Astra duology, following The Stars Are Ours. In the previous volume, the Terran refugees found a habitable planet, which they named Astra. It had evidence of a prior civilization. Still, the Terrans had little choice except to settle the planet, for their ship was not capable of taking them any further.

Although the technological civilization seemed to be defunct and its inhabitants to be extinct, some of their experimental animals still remained. One breed -- the mermen -- had since achieved sapience. The Terran colony had made peaceful contact with these amphibious creatures and traded with them.

In this novel, Dalgard Nordis is making his man-journey into strange lands. With him goes Sssuri, a merman and his knife brother. 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.

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.

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.

Raf meets a fellow pilot and is invited to tour their only remaining longrange ship. He also is shown the remains of another alien who was savagely attacked with a spear. Later, Raf sees the aliens burn down members of another alien species armed with such spears.

Dalgard and Sssuri find a hopper that is afraid of them. Since the hoppers have not been scared of them in the past, Dalgard and Sssuri wonder if Those Others are out wandering the land. Then they find the bodies of slaughtered hoppers and know that Those Others have been hunting for sport.

Sssuri searches the minds of the nearby animals and discovers that Those Others are no longer present. Dalgard and Sssuri paddle an alien boat across the river to enter the alien city. There they find a lair of snake devils in an ancient arena.

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.

Unlike the previous novel, this tale includes mutations among the Terran settlers from the long centuries of spaceflight. These mutations allow them to communicate mentally with the mermen and hoppers. They can even communicate with Those Others to some extent.

This tale heralds the beginnings of the spread of humanity to the stars. Moreover, it also relates the initial development of psionic talents among humanity. This duology lays the foundations for most of the later SF novels by the author. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Norton fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of strange civilizations, alien motivations, and telepathic powers.

-Arthur W. Jordin

If you like Norton, you will like this book! It is a continuation in a way of one of her other books, but there are several generations in between, so don't worry about that. Just enjoy!

While this book is a nominal sequel to The Stars Are Ours(1954), being set in the same universe/alternate future history, its events happen so much later (two hundred years) than those of the first book that it can easily be read as a stand-alone, without any loss of context or meaning.

The Terran refugees of the first book are now long established colonists of their new planet home, and have developed a culture fitting to the planet and to their much lower level of technology than their ancestors had. It's a culture fitted to the ecology of the planet, and has established an excellent partnership relationship with the native partial sea-dwellers. But there is also a great amount of evidence of another race that once ruled the planet, from their ruined cities and abandoned farms, and who apparently still exist, though now a very small group of entities that the colonists and their mermen sea-partners hope will stay safely far away on another continent. But two young people, the Terran Dalgard and the merman Sssuri, while on Dalgard's 'man-trip' of exploration, discover evidence that the former planet rulers are once more making forays near the colony's location.

A second plot thread is the arrival of a new ship from Terra, crewed by members of The Federation of Free Men, a group that came into being with the overthrow of the Pax, the tyrannical government that the colonists originally fled from. The new group, technologically oriented, finds and attempts to form a partnership with the old planet rulers.

With these two threads as starting points, Norton weaves a very good adventure tale, which, while not excessively deep, can provide a great deal of entertainment and involvement in the final outcome. As is almost immediately obvious, the two plot threads eventually have a meeting point, with a conclusion that while foreseeable is also satisfying. Along the way towards that conclusion, she throws in items that would become something of hallmarks for her, from telepathic bonds with animals to a certain distrust of technology, along with a warning that not all alien races would be either approachable or understandable, that some ways of thinking will always be antithetical to normal humans.

I think I first read this a couple of years after its first publication, and was deeply enthralled by this great adventure. Reading it again today, I find that while it is still a very good adventure, some of its magic has gone away, and that it hasn't stood the test of time as well as some of her other excellent science fiction adventures from this period, such as her Star Rangers (aka The Last Planet) (Central Control, Bk. 1), being too much a straight-forward adventure and without enough character development or her masterful hints of 'otherness' that often permeate some of her other books.

Certainly readable by just about any age, but most adults will find this just a little too light in intellectual meat.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Star Born

Star Born (1957) is a sequel to (The Stars Are Ours) 3 to 4 generations in the future. Dalgard Nordis of the colony, with a Merman, Sssuri, are on a "man-Journey" sort of like a continental tour to gather knowledge and a scouting trip to investigate some old ruins in the North that were rumored to have been visited by the evil former inhabitants only to see a space ship in the sky land near there. After discovering the old ones looting the city for lost technology Dalgard finds the people from the star ship to be of his race.

Good sequel. Highly recommended for fans of Classic Andre Norton, science fiction and good storytelling.

Gunner November, 2008