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Star Born / A Planet for Texans
Ace Double from 1958 comprising the novels STAR BORN by Andre Norton and A PLANET FOR TEXAS by H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire.
- GenresScience Fiction
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
2 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Andre Norton
695 books1,384 followersAndre Norton, born Alice Mary Norton, was a pioneering American author of science fiction and fantasy, widely regarded as the Grande Dame of those genres. She also wrote historical and contemporary fiction, publishing under the pen names Andre Alice Norton, Andrew North, and Allen Weston. She launched her career in 1934 with The Prince Commands, adopting the name “Andre” to appeal to a male readership. After working for the Cleveland Library System and the Library of Congress, she began publishing science fiction under “Andrew North” and fantasy under her own name. She became a full-time writer in 1958 and was known for her prolific output, including Star Man’s Son, 2250 A.D. and Witch World, the latter spawning a long-running series and shared universe. Norton was a founding member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America and authored Quag Keep, the first novel based on the Dungeons & Dragons game. She influenced generations of writers, including Lois McMaster Bujold and Mercedes Lackey. Among her many honors were being the first woman named Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and SFWA Grand Master. In her later years, she established the High Hallack Library to support research in genre fiction. Her legacy continues with the Andre Norton Award for young adult science fiction and fantasy.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 22, 2011
An Ace Double from 1958.
Star Born - Andre Norton
When the organization PAX had taken over Earth, the first thing they had done was bar spaceflight. A number of "outlaw" ships had escaped, filled with people that wanted to live their own lives. They had to travel the vast distances between the stars in cold sleep.
Three hundred years later, PAX had been overthrown and exploration of space had been resumed. The overdrive had been invented, making the distances shorter.
Two threads run through this book in alternating chapters. Dalgard Nordis was on his man-journey, taken between eighteen and twenty, to prove himself to the Council of Free Men. He was accompanied by Sssuri, a Merman, a native of the planet and his friend since they were cubs. The Merman were an amphibious race, short and furred with claws and fangs. They used spears and bow/arrow sets to hunt and defend themselves.
Sometime in the distant past, there had been an atomic war and the ruins of exploded cities dotted the continent, the Forbidden Zones, and abandoned cities as well.
Dalgard hoped to prove himself by exploring north in the Forbidden area.
The only predators on the continent were the flying dragons and the snake-devils, huge animals with long narrow necks. The law was if you found one, it must be tracked and killed. Poison arrows into the tender neck would take care of that quickly.
So when the pair came across tracks, they began a trail that led them to a group of three adults, two half growns, and a pair of newborns. They quickly disposed of all but one adult. It seemed to know how to not expose the vulnerable neck and managed to escape. Another thing Dalgard and Sssuri noticed was the metal bands on the limbs.
First tangible evidence the "Those Others" had returned to the continent, perhaps to loot abandoned centers of science and return to the era of weapons that had destroyed their civilization before.
the other thread is an Earth ship that finds Astra. Raf Kurbi is a pilot and he flies the skimmer that leaves the Earth ship for exploration. Raf instinctively distrusts the natives they meet, seemingly the only one who does. They are promised a share of the science discovered in their reclaiming a lost continent.
The two threads gradually come together until Dalgard and Raf are united against "Those Others" whose view of the world is everyone else is their slaves.
A superior novel by Ms. Norton, the type she does so well. Humans in a collapsed civilization working together with nature.
A Planet For Texas - H. Beam Piper & John J. McGuire
This novel takes that old notion of science fiction being westerns in space to the nth degree. After the hyperdrive was invented, humans left the planet in droves, every little group, clique, religion went out to find their own planet.
All of Texas left, even taking the Alamo with them. The first thing they did on New Texas was re-erect the Alamo and build a city around it.
The city is tuck in the nineteenth century, everyone dresses in Levis, bright shirt and vest, high heeled boots, cowboy hats, and wears guns on their hip.
Meat is the chief export. The supercow is not really a bovine, but a mammal that looks like a hippopotamus masquerading as a dachshund, the size of a diesel locomotive weighing fifteen tons and herded by tanks and light planes.
Stephen Silk is the new ambassador from Earth and the first thing he has to do is preside over the trial of the three men who assassinated his predecessor. Killing politicians who get to big for their britches on New Texas is NOT frowned upon and likely they will get off.
Silk can't allow that. Open season would be unleashed on foreign ambassadors if it did. He's got to get them off, then take care of it himself. Old west style.
A fun book.
Star Born - Andre Norton
When the organization PAX had taken over Earth, the first thing they had done was bar spaceflight. A number of "outlaw" ships had escaped, filled with people that wanted to live their own lives. They had to travel the vast distances between the stars in cold sleep.
Three hundred years later, PAX had been overthrown and exploration of space had been resumed. The overdrive had been invented, making the distances shorter.
Two threads run through this book in alternating chapters. Dalgard Nordis was on his man-journey, taken between eighteen and twenty, to prove himself to the Council of Free Men. He was accompanied by Sssuri, a Merman, a native of the planet and his friend since they were cubs. The Merman were an amphibious race, short and furred with claws and fangs. They used spears and bow/arrow sets to hunt and defend themselves.
Sometime in the distant past, there had been an atomic war and the ruins of exploded cities dotted the continent, the Forbidden Zones, and abandoned cities as well.
Dalgard hoped to prove himself by exploring north in the Forbidden area.
The only predators on the continent were the flying dragons and the snake-devils, huge animals with long narrow necks. The law was if you found one, it must be tracked and killed. Poison arrows into the tender neck would take care of that quickly.
So when the pair came across tracks, they began a trail that led them to a group of three adults, two half growns, and a pair of newborns. They quickly disposed of all but one adult. It seemed to know how to not expose the vulnerable neck and managed to escape. Another thing Dalgard and Sssuri noticed was the metal bands on the limbs.
First tangible evidence the "Those Others" had returned to the continent, perhaps to loot abandoned centers of science and return to the era of weapons that had destroyed their civilization before.
the other thread is an Earth ship that finds Astra. Raf Kurbi is a pilot and he flies the skimmer that leaves the Earth ship for exploration. Raf instinctively distrusts the natives they meet, seemingly the only one who does. They are promised a share of the science discovered in their reclaiming a lost continent.
The two threads gradually come together until Dalgard and Raf are united against "Those Others" whose view of the world is everyone else is their slaves.
A superior novel by Ms. Norton, the type she does so well. Humans in a collapsed civilization working together with nature.
A Planet For Texas - H. Beam Piper & John J. McGuire
This novel takes that old notion of science fiction being westerns in space to the nth degree. After the hyperdrive was invented, humans left the planet in droves, every little group, clique, religion went out to find their own planet.
All of Texas left, even taking the Alamo with them. The first thing they did on New Texas was re-erect the Alamo and build a city around it.
The city is tuck in the nineteenth century, everyone dresses in Levis, bright shirt and vest, high heeled boots, cowboy hats, and wears guns on their hip.
Meat is the chief export. The supercow is not really a bovine, but a mammal that looks like a hippopotamus masquerading as a dachshund, the size of a diesel locomotive weighing fifteen tons and herded by tanks and light planes.
Stephen Silk is the new ambassador from Earth and the first thing he has to do is preside over the trial of the three men who assassinated his predecessor. Killing politicians who get to big for their britches on New Texas is NOT frowned upon and likely they will get off.
Silk can't allow that. Open season would be unleashed on foreign ambassadors if it did. He's got to get them off, then take care of it himself. Old west style.
A fun book.
August 31, 2012
How can I not give this novel a 5? This was the first sf novel I ever read--at 14, in a PX in Europe, trying to find novels in English that interested me while I attended school in a fishing village in Italy--and it changed my life. I wanted to travel among the stars; I wanted to be an emissary from one galactic federation to another; I wanted to have an alien friend and fight the good fight with him; I wanted to be STAR BORN. That same year I started writing my first sf stories--and dreaming them every night in long Cinemascope adventures no adult has (drugless anyway) ever had. I've tried to find the STAR BORN of that 14 year old in the novel and can't quite do it. Half a century has passed. I can admire Norton's old-school YA craft, however, and thank her profoundly for the magic and wonder. I wasn't the only touched...and changed.
November 6, 2022
This is the book that got me into science fiction. I was 11, my form room was the library, my chair by the science fiction section. This (hardcover) book is the one I remember (orange, green) from 42 years ago. Maybe its the mix of personal nostalgia and a great writer that has raised its perception to giddy heights for me. Or maybe it really is a damned fine science fiction book. Either way I never looked back, Asimov, Harry Harrison, E.E.Doc Smith and many others… all after this book. If I could give it 6 stars I would.
November 1, 2022
Two exceptionally good stories in this Ace Double. You can't really go wrong with Andre Norton, and "Star Born" is a good, solid action story with her usual blend of humans and aliens. An Earth exploration ship goes in search of lost colonists, but run afoul of alien conquerors, while the missing humans have teamed with mer-folk on this alien world to try and save it. "A Planet For Texans" is, if anything, even better. Earth's latest diplomat sent to a planet founded by Texans discovers he's the replacement for an assassinated politician and is expected to also be killed and thus give Earth an excuse to annex the planet. Naturally, he's not too keen on this plan, and has to improvise one of his own to keep himself alive and also settle the problem.
December 3, 2017
Not anything like her best. A story of Men accommodating and living in peace with the planet peoples. They together with a scout from old earth fight the sinister Others.
August 7, 2013
Star Born is the exciting sequel to The Star Are Ours. After a nuclear was, a small band of Free Scientists breaks free of the Dark Age being imposed on the shattered Earth by Pax. In a sleeper starship some fity humans escape across space to a world they name Astra to disappear from the pages of human history. They find freedom, but not paradise, on a world that also has fallen from war. The remnants of two native species, the peaceful mer-folk, and the survivors of 'Those Others' a xenophobic race with high technology sporadically battle on Astra. The human colonists seek only to live in peace but of necessity align with the mer-folk.
Star Born review at SFReader.com
Star Born review at SFReader.com
March 9, 2013
What do you get when you take two awesome things and put them in a single package? Double awesome.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews