Thursday, March 17, 2005

Andre Norton

I was sorry to hear that science fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton passed away earlier today at the age of 93. I was never a huge fan of her books, but she was one of the first real SF authors I ever read, back in that long-ago summer when I was also discovering Heinlein and Asimov. I'm fuzzy on the details after all this time, but I read both of her books about the Navajo spaceman who had a telepathic link with several animals, and another series about time travelers, and at least one post-apocalyptic novel by her in an Ace Double edition (DAYBREAK 2250 A.D. might be the title; I'm not up to the research tonight). I always intended to read the Witch World books but never got around to them. The local library still has all of them, so I might give the first one a try.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Isn't the classic movie BEASTMASTER based on one of those Norton books?

Anonymous said...

James:

The time travel series you're thinking of is probably the Ross Murdock series that was originally comprised of four novels. The Time Traders; Galactic Derelict; The Defiant Agents; Key Out of Time. Starman's Son, renamed Daybraeak: 2250 was her first published SF novel [1952] and it was an apocalyptic novel.

To answer Bill's question, yes, the movie was loosely based on the book... very loosely. I understand that Andre was extremely upset about what they did to the story. Andre's sequel to The Beastmaster was Lord of Thunder.

Steve Everett

James Reasoner said...

Steve,

Thanks for the information on Andre Norton's books. Yes, it was the Ross Murdock series I was remembering. That name is familiar, and so are the titles of the books, especially GALACTIC DERELICT, which is a great title.