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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two entertaining Forerunner tales, March 24, 2006
"Voodoo Planet" and "Star Hunter" have both been reprinted recently but were previously published together as "The Space Adventure Novels of Andre Norton." These two very short novels are not related to each other, except that they're both set in Andre Norton's Forerunner universe. As humans explore the far reaches of the galaxy, they keep finding the ruins of highly advanced alien civilizations that have vanished. Some planets have not been well explored, some have been colonized, and some are home to aliens. (Click on my name to see the list of about 40 books in this universe.)
"Star Hunter" is a typical Andre Norton buddy story about two characters who don't like each other very well. In fact, one of them has had the other brainwashed, to be passed off as the heir to a fortune .. and to be used as someone's puppet. They end up trekking on foot across an unexplored planet, pursued by bizarre creatures, trying to figure out a mysterious alien device that has entrapped and killed all the humans who have come before. The relationship that develops between these two characters is the strong suit of this tale. If you're a fan of Andre Norton, you will probably enjoy it. I give "Star Hunter" four stars because it's entertaining but very much like many others by this author.
The second novella, "Voodoo Planet," is the third installment in the Solar Queen series. The Solar Queen is a small spaceship that usually makes cargo runs, but in this story, three of the crew members (Dane, Medic Tau, and Captain Jellico) are invited to a hunting safari on a planet colonized by people from Africa. They run afoul of a local voodoo priest, who stalks them through the jungle. Luckily, Tau has studied magic as a hobby and is able to counter some of the weird attacks as the expedition tries to get back to civilization. For me, the adventures were fun, although the magic was not entirely convincing or well explained. This is not compelling science fiction, but I give it four stars instead of three because it's part of the Solar Queen series.
This is the entire Solar Queen series:
1. Sargasso of Space (1955)
2. Plague Ship (1956)
3. Voodoo Planet (1959)
4. Postmarked the Stars (1969)
5. Redline the Stars, with PM Griffin (1993)
6. Derelict for Trade, with Sherwood Smith (1997)
7. A Mind for Trade, with Sherwood Smith (1997)
Sargasso of Space" and "Plague Ship" were reprinted recently in a single volume called "The Solar Queen."
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two Norton SF stories that have little to do with each other, May 9, 2010
"Star Hunter" was first published in 1961 and is one of the few 'straight' science fiction novellas (96 pages) of Lifetime Grand Master of Fantasy, Andre Norton, who passed away on March 17, 2005 after a long and extremely fruitful career. Her first novel, "The Prince Commands" was published in 1934, and her last, "Three Hands for Scorpio" in 2005. Her magically detailed world-building skills and upright, against-all-odds characters will be sorely missed.
"Star Hunter" is a forerunner of Norton's Dipple series, starring dispossessed planetary outcasts (usually orphans), who are sometimes gifted with mysterious psi talents. These likeable, self-reliant young men and women start off in the cesspool of galactic civilization (the `Dipple' of later novels), and fight their way to freedom through a series of adventures with inscrutable, powerful aliens and evil, grasping humans.
Vye Lansor is a malnourished swamper (janitor) in a down-and-outers' bar near Nahautl's starport. Part of his job involves cleaning up the burned and bloody bits after a typical night's brawl. He can't believe his luck when an Out-Hunter (stellar big game hunter) offers to take him on as a gearman on his next frontier-world safari.
He is right to guess that his fortune has not changed for the better. When he next wakes up, Lansor is on a strange planet, implanted with a set of false memories about a young castaway named Rynch Brodie.
Okay Norton fans, we're on a strange planet but in otherwise familiar territory: a young outcast pitted against an alien wilderness, hunted by mysterious, unsavory characters--this time consisting of a big-game safari, and the even more deadly aliens of Jumala's humid jungles. This author keeps us turning the pages, not only for the cliff-hangers that Lansor gets himself into, but also for tantalizing clues as to the nature of the aliens, who seem to have turned an entire planet into a death-trap for out-worlders.
"Voodoo Planet" (1959) follows "Sargasso of Space" (1955) and its sequel "Plague Ship" (1956), and precedes "Postmarked: the Stars" (1969) in the series of `Solar Queen' space adventure novels, starring Dane Thorson, a lanky young apprentice-Cargo Master.
After ten years of schooling, Dane had been assigned via a computer analysis of his psychological profile, to a battered tramp of a Free Trader. To say that the 'Solar Queen' "lacked a great many refinements and luxurious fittings which the Company ships boasted" was an understatement. But she was a tightly-run ship and what she lacked in refinement, she made up for in adventure. Dane soon settles in under Cargo Master Van Rycke and learns "to his dismay what large gaps unfortunately existed in his training."
"Voodoo Planet" weighs in as the slightest of the four original `Solar Queen' novels at 159 pages, and features only Dane, Captain Jellico, and ship's medic, Tau out of the original crew. While the `Queen is being fitted up for her new job as an interstellar mail carrier, the three crew members are invited to Khatka, a planet settled by African refugees from Terra's ancient racial wars.
Norton's fascination with magic is woven into this novel via a witch doctor gone over to the Dark Side. Lumbrilo is in league with poachers who are stripping the planet of its native animals. Captain Jellico, Medic Tau, and Dane team up with Khatka's Chief Ranger and his men to track down the off-world thieves and their powerful sorcerer, after their flitter crash-lands in a remote game preserve.
Minor Norton but a must for `Solar Queen' fans.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Minor Norton but a must for `Solar Queen' fans., July 8, 2009
"Voodoo Planet" (1959) follows "Sargasso of Space" (1955) and its sequel "Plague Ship" (1956), and precedes "Postmarked: the Stars" (1969) in the series of `Solar Queen' space adventure novels, starring Dane Thorson, a lanky young apprentice-Cargo Master.
After ten years of schooling, Dane had been assigned via a computer analysis of his psychological profile, to a battered tramp of a Free Trader. To say that the 'Solar Queen' "lacked a great many refinements and luxurious fittings which the Company ships boasted" was an understatement. But she was a tightly-run ship and what she lacked in refinement, she made up for in adventure. Dane soon settles in under Cargo Master Van Rycke and learns "to his dismay what large gaps unfortunately existed in his training."
"Voodoo Planet" weighs in as the slightest of the four original `Solar Queen' novels at 159 pages, and features only Dane, Captain Jellico, and ship's medic, Tau out of the original crew. While the `Queen is being fitted up for her new job as an interstellar mail carrier, the three crew members are invited to Khatka, a planet settled by African refugees from Terra's ancient racial wars.
Norton's fascination with magic is woven into this novel via a witch doctor gone over to the Dark Side. Lumbrilo is in league with poachers who are stripping the planet of its native animals. Captain Jellico, Medic Tau, and Dane team up with Khatka's Chief Ranger and his men to track down the off-world thieves and their powerful sorcerer, after their flitter crash-lands in a remote game preserve.
Minor Norton but a must for `Solar Queen' fans.
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