Unnecessary Revisions Weaken a Classic

books:

	• Time Traders: The Time Traders & Galactic Derelict Andre Norton Baen, 2000 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Classic young adult SF

Russ Murdock has lived by his wits for years. Sure they seem to have him now, but he's sure he can wiggle his way free from whatever the law wants to do with him. He's quick to volunteer for a project rather than be sent to jail but he doesn't anticipate that the project will put him somewhere inside the artic circle, or that he's been selected as one of the group of Americans sent back through time to try to learn how the Russians have been getting a jump on American scientists.

In the Bronze Age, disguised as one of the Beaker People, Russ learns that the Russians have learned the disguises the Americans are using--and have launched attacks on their bases. Alone in a world thousands of years in the past, Russ must not only survive, he's got to learn where the Russians have their base, whether they're learning scientific secrets from some Atlantan civilization--or from some strnager source, and then make contact with his fellow Americans. It's a tall order--but all of those years of sneaking and criminal activity turn out to have some benefits after all.

In the second volume in this two-in-one omnibus, Russ is joined by Apache rancher Travis Fox in the search for an alien spaceship set in the distant past. But when they try to return the ship to the present, something goes frighteningly wrong and their party blasts off into galactic space. Will they find advanced civilizations waiting to pounce, or has civilization faded--and a new galactic dark age ensued?

Author Andre Norton writes a wonderful young adult-oriented adventure. I first read these novels (they were initially released as two separate volumes) when I was an early teen--the 'golden years of science fiction' and remember it fondly. I wondered when I picked up this more recent edition, whether my memories were true, or if I've become more discriminating (or harsh) over the years. Norton's sense of adventure was dead-on in these stories, though, with plenty of twists, dangerous moments, and cliff-hangers.

When I first read this book, I was blown away by Norton's description of a computer game. Remember, this was written in the 1950s. In this edition, the computer game has been updated a bit (more graphical) but I don't know that this update was necessary. After all, who else was thinking about computer games back then? The concept of time travel is nothing new, but combining time travel with space was a nice touch.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, much of Science Fiction targeted the young adult reader. Clearly, from recent the Harry Potter explosion, this market still exists and has an appetite for exactly this kind of story. Some of the science is dated, the technology Norton describes is a bit laughable (do we really think aliens who develop hyperdrives will really have cockpits lined with wires?), and coincidence plays too big a role, but these didn't bother me as a young adult and they're only minor quibbles now.

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Still Strong After All These Years

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!

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Through Time and Space

Time Traders (2000) is an omnibus edition of the Time Traders series, including The Time Traders and Galactic Derelict. These novels are set in the near future when the Russians have discovered time travel and the Americans duplicated their efforts. Yet the Russians have discovered other new technologies that do not seem to be related to any previous research.

The Time Traders (1958) is the first novel in this series. In this novel, Ross Murdock is a young man with a bad record. He is held in detention and subjected to a series of psychological tests, then called back into the courtroom for sentencing. Ross is offered a chance to volunteer for an unidentified government project as an alternative to Rehabilitation.

Ross chooses to volunteer and is turned over to someone called Major. He plans to run at the first opportunity, but the Major takes him up to the roof of the building where they are picked up by a helicopter. They land on an airfield, change to flying suits, and leave in a sleek flying machine that departs straight up. By the time they reach their destination, Ross has learned that the Major is named Kelgarries, but has no idea where they are, except that it is thoroughly covered in snow.

Within the base, Ross is subjected to a series of tests, including a full day of physical examination. The rest of the time he spends in a cell-like room by himself on a very comfortable bunk. After the speaker in his room brays an announcement in the Major's voice, Ross is startled to see the opposite wall disappear, revealing an outdoor scene with mountains and fir trees, the scent of pine trees, and the moaning of the wind.

He hears a wolf howl, senses gray shadows in the trees, sees a wolf come toward him, hears it growl, and then sees it crouch down to leap. A bow twangs and the animal leaps into the air, then falls and bites at an arrow in its side. By this time, Ross has the blanket wrapped around his arm and is crouched down himself, waiting for the wolf's leap. Puzzled, he carefully walks to where the wall had been and discovers an unseen but solid surface at that location. He assumes that something new in image viewing has been developed and lies down to enjoy the remainder of the show.

In this story, Ross learns that he is teamed with Doctor Gordon Ashe -- an archaeologist -- within Operation Retrograde. Its mission is to search the past for clues to the source of the new Russian technology. Ashe takes him to mess call, where he finds other team members with the appearance of Tartars and Vikings. After a great deal of training, Ross finds himself in Stone Age Britain.

Galactic Derelict (1959) is the second SF novel in this series. In the previous volume, the project has found that the Russians discovered a starship in the past. Now Operation Retrograde is searching for a starship of their own.

In this novel, Travis Fox is an Apache. His friend Chato is an old man whose grandfather was born among the Apache holdouts in a hidden canyon about 120 years before. Travis has long wished to combine the lore of his ancestors with the knowledge of the white men, but then he is fired from an important archaeological expedition because of the prejudice of the major contributor.

A year later, Travis is looking for a reliable source of water for the herds on his brother's ranch. Based on information from Chato, he checks out the hidden canyon and comes across white eyes camping there. Scouting out the intruders, Travis is caught by Ross and brought to the other white men at gun point. Travis knows of Doctor Gordon Ashe, but Ross and the radioman Grant are unknowns.

These men are setting up a time viewer within the canyon. Naturally, they are not going to let Travis go free until their operation is completed. Yet Travis doesn't want to be released before he learns more about their mission.

In this story, Travis goes with Ashe and Ross to scout out a spaceship located a short distance away and fifteen millennia back in time. The huge spherical spaceship has crashed and holes gape in its sides. Then the men are caught in a rainstorm and take shelter in the nearby hills.

After the storm, they climb a hill and look around. Travis notices something shiny in the next valley and they check it out. The shine comes from another, smaller globe. Its lock is open and the bodies of the crew lie at the foot of the access ladder. They are wearing Baldy uniforms and are guite dead.

The scouts send back word of the second ship. A working party comes through the time pprtal and starts preparing the alien globe ship for transfer forward in time. When the nearby volcano erupts, the scouts take shelter in the alien ship. Then the time transfer grid around the ship is activated and they are thrown forward in time. But the shift in time initiates the takeoff sequence and the ship heads for space.

This series has changed over the years to adapt to the political upheaval in Russia, but the real enemies in this series have always been the Baldies. When faced with a superior technology from a group of hostile aliens, the political differences between humans looks less important. Thus, the cooperation with the Russian time travel project has been almost inevitable by the logic of this series.

This series has always been more complex than it appears on the surface, for lurking in the background is a vision of the probability multiverse such as found in Crossroads in Time. Change the past and forever lose your future. Thus, it raises the issue of how much change is required to spawn a new timeline.

This series is a prime example of the author's storytelling skills. It is a fascinating tale of time travel and alien technology. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Norton fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien civilizations, time transfer, and travel among the stars.

-Arthur W. Jordin

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Unnecessary Revisions Weaken a Classic

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.

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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...

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