Reviews for Star Born

The average rating for Star Born based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-11-30 00:00:00 Christian Karanicolas About five hundred years have passed since Dard Nordis and his fellow free-scientist colonists in The Stars Are Ours fled persecution from the Company of Pax, who were the new rulers of Earth, and established a colony on the planet Astra. Most of that time was spent in suspended animation during the trip. Star Born opens three generations after the colonists arrive on Astra. Now Dalgard Nordis, Dard's descendent, sets out with his merman friend and knife brother, Sssuri, to explore an unfamiliar part of the planet to fulfill the challenge that will welcome him to manhood. The colony hasn't fared too well because sometime earlier a plague killed quite a few of the colonists. Now the colony numbers only about 250 people. Dalgard's quest for manhood quickly changes to one for survival when he and Sssuri discover evidence that Those Others - the original inhabitants who enslaved the merpeople and destroyed themselves in a vicious war - are making a comeback. So Dalgard and Ssuri decide to find more evidence of their threat to both the colonists and their merpeople friends so they can warn everyone back home. Meanwhile, two hundred years ago back on Earth, Pax was overthrown and replaced by the Federation of Free Men. The Federation had heard rumors of Free Scientists putting themselves and their families in suspended animation and fleeing to other planets in starships during the rule of Pax. After inventing a hyperdrive that will let them travel outside their solar system without suspended animation, the Federation began sending out starships to explore other planets and perhaps find the Free Scientists' descendants. Nine starships were sent out, one every year, but none have returned. Raf Kurbi is part of the crew in the tenth starship that was sent out. They land on Astra but discover more than they expected when they come across Those Others. Impressed by Those Others' advanced technology, Raf and his fellow star travelers want to become friends with them. But Those Others might have plans in mind that could threaten Delgard and the other colonists, the merpeople, and Raf and his fellow crew members. I mostly read science fiction when I was in junior high and high school. Andre Norton was one of my favorite science fiction writers and Star Born was one of my favorite science fiction novels. Along with her The Stars Are Ours and a few other science fiction novels by other writers, Star Born has been sitting on my bookshelf as an ACE paperback for over fifty years. I reread it for old time's sake and to see if it stood the test of time. Norton's writing style is a bid antiquated now. But I really have to judge her style by the standards of the time back half century ago. I'll probably reread some more of her books that were my favorites. By the way, Andre Norton's real name was Alice Mary Norton, who was a librarian. Andre Norton was her pseudonym because publishers were reluctant to take on female science fiction writers. I'm sure glad things have changed since then.)

Review # 2 was written on 2010-04-29 00:00:00 Bob Grove From my little blog pulpaweek.blogspot.com Right from the start 'Star Born' was an enjoyable read- chapter one has space refugees, stoic merpeople, giant lizards, an ancient evil civilization, and telepathic bunnies! Andre Norton is somewhat respected in Sci-Fi circles, so I did a little research on him. Well, it turns out 'Andre' was actually Alice Norton's pen name, and then later she legally changed her name from Alice to Andre. This lady wrote about 300 books, most which involved swords or lasers or laser swords in some fashion. I will definitely be picking up some other books by her. Star Born is a book about race relations and the follies and misunderstandings associated with them. Kind of. A human ship lands on a planet, home to three races- mutated exiled humans who had come generation before to escape a dystopian style regime, the fur covered mermen who allied themselves with the exiles and predominantly communicate with their minds and an ancient race of slave masters who are pretty much evil to the bone. The newcomers make contact with the slave masters first, and are sickened by the way the evil bastards are trying to exterminate any mermen they see, primarily with flame throwers and shit. Once the slavers had ruled this planet, but a nuclear war had devastated their population, which is similar to what happened to the iron fisted regime on Earth. The mermen live in peace on the string of islands, living in fear of their once malevolent masters and alongside the near human telepath mutants of Homeport. The chapters switch off between Delgard- one of the exiles and a 'knife brother' with one of the mermen, and Raf- a pilot for the newcomer humans who develops sympathy for the mermen early on.The root of this story is about race, as the four races have different ideologies and cannot come to a peaceful agreement with one another. This point is dulled by the slavemasters being an out and out evil race, but I suppose you can't expect a conflicted villain out of a pulp novel. Towards the end the already shaky alliance between the space explorer newcomers and the ancient aliens is broken, as it is obvious they are stockpiling weapons to kill off the sentient merpeople. There are some battles with spear throwing merpeople. There are ray guns. This is a pretty cool book for 1962. Some people will have trouble getting past the typographical and grammatical errors- Star Born is chock full of sentences like ' He closed the hatch behind. Them.' and typos including 'Warrier.'. Personally, I found these errors to be a little charming, this isn't high brow literature after all. I rarely wish a book to be longer, but at just 180 pages and a fun setting, Star Born could have used a bit of padding. An enjoyable book for fans of the genre, but still not the classic I am searching for.