Time Traders (Mass Market Paperback)

by Andre Norton (Author) "Ross Murdock wouldn't have seemed formidable to any one glancing casually at him as he sat within the detention cell..." (more)
Key Phrases: fueling port, blue flyers, mess cabin, Ross Murdock, Old Ones, Great Mother (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
For this volume, Norton has updated The Time Traders (1958) and Galactic Derelict (1959) to take into account 40 years of political, social, and technological developments--such as computer games, a concluded cold war, and many more female characters in sf--without essentially changing them. In Time Traders, Ross Murdock has the choice of rehabilitation or volunteering for a secret research project, which turns out to be searching the past for the source of illicit technological innovations. In Galactic Derelict, Travis Fox stumbles on a time-travel project and has to be recruited for it; then he and his comrades take an involuntary trip aboard an alien starship that crashed on Earth before recorded history. The characters' can-do attitude and Norton's magic with a story have survived two generations in fine style, and these tales remain the same sort of quintessential fun as Star Wars, and with more intelligence. May there be a market for their further reprinting in 2040! Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

DRAFTED INTO THE ARMY OF TIME

Intelligence agents have uncovered something which seems beyond belief, but the evidence is incontrovertible: the USAs greatest adversary on the world stage is sending its agents back through time! And someone or something unknown to our history is presenting them with technologies -- and weapons -- far beyond our most advanced science. We have only one option: create time-transfer technology ourselves, find the opposition's ancient source...and take it dawn.

When small-time criminal Ross Murdock and Apache rancher Travis Fox stumble separately onto America's secret time travel project, Operation Retrograde, they are faced with a challenge greater than either could have imagined possible. Their mere presence means that they know too much to go free. But Murdock and Fox have a thirst for adventure, and Operation Retrograde offers that in spades.

Both men will become time agents, finding reserves of inner heroism they had never expected. Their journeys will take the battle to the enemy, from ancient Britain to prehistoric America, and finally to the farthest reaches of interstellar space... --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Baen (July 31, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671318292
• ISBN-13: 978-0671318291
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #231,892 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unnecessary Revisions Weaken a Classic, August 24, 2001

By	R. Clark (Ridley Park, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you're like me, you read these novels as a youngster in the late 50's or early 60's, and you were drawn in not just by the no-wasted-motion adventure/scifi style for which Ms. Norton became so well loved, but by the glimpses of a not-too-distant future that was clearly based on a somewhat uncertain present. The style is still there in this new edition, but the future, sadly, is gone. For reasons that elude me, the political/cultural milieu of the original near-future has been updated (the Bad Guys are no longer "Reds," they're from a post-USSR-breakup "resurgent Russia"), and the result is not a good fit. The narrative and characterizations still have that squeaky-clean Fifties feel, so the 90's references feel anachronistic. Part of the pleasure of reading classic sf is to enjoy the retro flavor; this attempt to overlay a contemporary veneer simply rings false. What's worse, the paperback edition, which I purchased, bears no indication anywhere that these revisions exist. I discovered them only as I read along and became increasingly disturbed by things that didn't fit. If you want to read a classic, and especially if you want to relive the experience of reading the classic you remember from your youth, do yourself a favor and track down the original text.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully fun stuff! [R.I.P. Andre Norton 17 March 2005], August 20, 2001

By	Steven Eldredge (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There is nothing quite like the type of space yarn that the great and greatly prolific Andre Norton wrote in the 1950s and 1960s. Well-crafted, colorful, exciting, with a wonderful sense of strangeness and awe to the settings and descriptions, these books never fail to delight, no matter how many times you read them. Even the elements which tend to date these novels add a sort of nostalgic charm that I find irresistable. Baen Books is to be applauded for its plan to re-publish a lot of her out-of-print novels in these omnibus editions. If you have yet to get into Andre Norton, now is a good time. You are bound to have a fun fun time!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still Strong After All These Years, October 27, 2002

By	Emil L. Posey (Huntsville, AL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Time Traders: The Time Traders & Galactic Derelict (Hardcover)

A reprint of the 1958 edition, this was like finding an old friend. I first read this in 1958 or 1959, when I was about 10 years old. I remembered snippets of it ever since and wondered if I would ever come across it again. The story is just as fresh as it was then. Indeed, I looked for some disclaimer that it had been updated, but found none. Other than the lack of scientific explanation underlying key aspects of the plot, thus dating its style somewhat, this was a remarkably prescient piece. And far from sophomoric in the bad sense, it appeals to the kid still inside me. I enjoyed it as much now as I did when I was 10. It has time travel, Russians, aliens, prehistoric tribes, space ships, personal struggle and triumph...what more can you want in a science fiction yarn? From over 40 years ago, it still rates 5 stars!