Rating: 
Summary: Same tired old stuff
Review: I've probably read most of the books written just by Norton plus quite a few of the collaborations. While I really liked her books when I was much younger they now seem so formulaic; this book is no exception. Beast master problems with telepathic links, the Xiks, cooperation in order to defeat the threat and new-found love between what seem like antogonists at the beginning of the tale. I am also annoyed at what seems like constant repackaging of her older works. I really think that this mine is just played out and that Miss Norton should hang it up.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the movie
Review: If you are expecting something like the Beast Master movies and TV series - don't. Although supposedly based off of Norton's original Beast Master novel, those were fantasy and these books are strictly SciFi. The only thing in common between them is a man that has bonded with a team of animals that work together to fight a common foe. The character development is stronger and more complex with no one perfect hero. It is a real joy to have a new story in this series.
Rating: 
Summary: I Love It!
Review: One of the very first Andre Norton titles I ever read, more than 25 years ago as a 7th grader, was a science fiction story titled "Lord of Thunder", featuring Beast Master Hosteen Storm and his furred or feathered companions Baku the eagle, Surra the dune cat and Hing the meerkat. It was set on a desert planet called Arzor peopled with a fascinating mixture of humans and horned natives called Norbies, along with their wilder, more formidable cousins the Nitra. I became hooked on Ms. Norton's writings, and have been a major fan of hers ever since. In fact, I just did an inventory of her books on my shelves, and counted exactly 100 of them. This includes "The Beast Master", the first of the Hosteen Storm series.For those who do not know her work, Ms. Norton is positively legendary in the sci-fi/fantasy field. Born in 1912 as Alice Mary Norton, her first published work was (I think) in 1939. In those days, it was not considered proper for women to write science fiction, so she took on the pseudonym Andrew North and, later on, Andre Norton. Here we are now, some 64 years later, and she is still writing, at the age of 91. This in itself is most remarkable. True, her recent works tend to have co-authors, but this is true of younger writers as well. Anne McCaffrey, another of my favorites, comes immediately to mind. Unlike some other reviewers on this page, I do not in any way believe Ms. Norton's mental abilities have declined one whit with age. With my brand-new paperback copy of "Beast Master's Ark" in hand, I began a marathon session, rereading the first two books of the series, then plunging directly into the new one. One thing that struck me at once was the stylistic continuity. I know Ms. Norton's voice very well, and it rang true. Co-author Lyn McConchie may have helped out, but I don't see how she could have done the bulk of the work. Not unless she's an excellent mimic. Granted, given the forty years since "Lord of Thunder" came out, there have been some changes in the terminology used. None of the writers of the '50's and '60's, it seems, could have dreamed of the tremendous advances in computer technology and genetics which have developed in recent years. These, extrapolated into the future, play an important role in this new story. And "lasers" have replaced "slicers", but what of it? One thing which has always struck me about Ms. Norton's work has been her emphasis on tolerance and harmony, both between the races of humanity and between humans and the other intelligent beings in the galaxy. She has to have been one of the very first writers in her field to delve into the (still very relevant today) themes of overcoming prejudices. Hosteen Storm is a full-blooded Navajo, and other major characters are also of Navajo or Cheyenne extraction. This plays an important role in all three of the "Beast Master" novels, as in how Native American spiritual values mesh with those of the Norbies. I cannot say for certain how accurate Ms. Norton's portrayal of these beliefs are; I can, however, say that she has always treated them with the utmost respect. And what of Tani, the new female character introduced in "Beast Master's Ark"? I have no objections to her at all. She was completely believable and sympathetic. Both Storm and Tani have similar issues: they are in a sense incomplete. Both have their animal companions, but Storm has a problem: what to do about mates for Baku, Surra and Hing? Terra (Earth), their homeworld, has been fried to a cinder by the evil Xiks. Beast Masters have very close bonds with their companions. What will happen when these grow old and die, or meet with an untimely accident? This has happened already with Hing's mate, Ho. And Storm himself is a bit of a loner. Where will he find his counterpart? Tani, on the other hand, is an orphan. Her father was a Cheyenne Beast Master, killed in the war against the Xiks, while her mother, of Irish extraction, driven past the bounds of sanity in her grief, has filled Tani with a hatred of all other Beast Masters, believing that they treat life callously, all too willing to throw it away for all the wrong reasons. Tani's aunt and uncle, master geneticists, have given her a home on the spaceship known as Beast Master's Ark, a vast, traveling repository of genetic material rescued from Earth just before its destruction. But they are absorbed in their work, and do not give her all the attention she needs. Naturally, a crisis erupts on Arzor which will throw Storm and Tani together. Somehow they will have to overcome their differences, identify the nature of the inimical Death-Which-Comes-in-the-Night, and neutralize it. The idea for this ruthless killer, and the driving force behind it, is quite clever. But, as any veteran of 100 Andre Norton novels can testify, the ending in many ways is quite predictable. Still, it left me feeling good, and looking forward to the next installment in the series, "Beast Master's Circus". In fact, I'm so taken by these characters that I may very well buy "Circus" in hardback, something I very seldom do. My only regret is that the publishers haven't yet reissued the first two books of the series. For those who can't wait, there are always the used book stores.
Rating: 
Summary: misleading & disappointing
Review: Since this book purports to be a sequel to the original Beast Master novels (Beast Master, Lord of Thunder), I was expecting a new story focussing on Hosteen Storm, the Beast Master. No go. This book may be set in the same universe/time frame, with all the right characters, but it is not primarily about any of them. Rather, it is about the new character, Tani, & her interactions, mostly with other new characters. Unfortunately, Tani is a little too perfect for my tastes, & basically not very interesting; worse, not only is she herself one-dimensional, but so is her involvement with the established, interesting characters I do want to read about.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Some of the continuations of Andre Norton's worlds have been gems, and some of them have been disappointments. Beast Master's Ark is the worst to date. The original Beast Master was one of my favorite books, with Norton's classic complexity of phrase, her textured and troubled main character, and her believable yet alien world. This sequel has simplistic language, startling to someone expecting Norton's turn of phrase, and no plot to speak of. The story never generates tension, and there is no climax. McConchie does a great job with characterization, but good characters are not enough. There must be some story. To add insult to injury, there are multiple typos, and some editing mistakes like tense switching that add to the general sense of a book that is not well written. I am sorry that Andre Norton put her name to this one.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Some of the continuations of Andre Norton's worlds have been gems, and some of them have been disappointments. Beast Master's Ark is the worst to date. The original Beast Master was one of my favorite books, with Norton's classic complexity of phrase, her textured and troubled main character, and her believable yet alien world. This sequel has simplistic language, startling to someone expecting Norton's turn of phrase, and no plot to speak of. The story never generates tension, and there is no climax. McConchie does a great job with characterization, but good characters are not enough. There must be some story. To add insult to injury, there are multiple typos, and some editing mistakes like tense switching that add to the general sense of a book that is not well written. I am sorry that Andre Norton put her name to this one.
Rating:
Summary: Teamwork, both with Animals and Co-Authors, Sometimes Works
Review: The first two volumes in this set, The Beast Master and Lord of Thunder, are some of the best of Norton's science fictional work. So it was with some trepidation that I picked up this sequel, written with a co-author and many years after the original two, as my experience with this type of thing has not been good. I was pleasantly surprised. The story picks up almost immediately after the events of Lord of Thunder, with Hosteen, Brad, Logan, and Dumaroy still much in evidence. A new major character, Tani, is introduced, child of another Beast Master, but mainly raised by her gene-scientist aunt and uncle. Her father was killed during the Xik war, and her mother, believing his death was a product of high command malfeasance and most beast master's attitude of treating their teams merely as tools, inculcated in Tani a belief that beast masters were not good people and that animals should never be used for war purposes. The Ark, a gene bank of just about every Terran species, was put together during the war as a fail safe to ensure that life forms were not permanently lost. Tani and her aunt and uncle bring the Ark to Azor, both to collect new gene specimens and to possibly create mates for Hosteen's animal team. But on Azor, a strange set of killings, both of animal life and Norbie/humans, has started to occur, seemingly originating out of the Deep Blue, causing some Nitra tribes to move into the area around Hosteen's ranch. This sets the stage for Tani to become deeply involved in the Norbie tribal culture, and for her to find and use her own beast master talents to combat the threat. Tani is a well realized character, with enough background to allow understanding of her feelings and positions, who changes during the course of the action in a believable manner. Hosteen also shows some development, to a mature man who knows at least some of what he wants out of life. The plot is comparatively simple, but there are certainly enough thrill points and dramatic moments to hold your attention, and it is not just another re-hash of plot lines Norton has used many times in the past. Thematically this work does not tread much new or deep ground. Those familiar with Norton's work will certainly recognize her themes of the sacredness of life balanced by practical necessity, of the need for honesty and the room to be distinct individuals, of the value of cultural heritage, of respecting the beliefs of others, and the sometime power of belief in the unseen. This is not necessarily bad, as profoundness of philosophical thought in this work would have worked against its basic nature of being an adventure tale, and the level provided still gives enough food for thought to be useful. The ending was perhaps a little too pat, with certain relationships easily predictable, and the primary mystery's resolution too easy given the earlier books in this series background. Also, I found myself missing any real involvement of the ancient vanished alien race that created the Sealed Caves that was so prominent in the first two books. Not as strong as the first two books in the set, but a very nice addition, and has helped restore my faith in sequels written with co-authors. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Rating:
Summary: She's still got it
Review: The reviewer below whose review labels this book schizophrenic really peeved me. First being 90 doesn't presuppose senility or incompetence, and I've never seen an aging male accused of that when they write until the age they leave this planet. Second she has written several novels within the last three years without a co-writer and which were fully up to her old style, which shows that the writer of that review didn't bother to do his homework. It has become remarkably common for even midlife or younger famous authors to take on writing companions or partners to keep up with audience demand, publishing schedules and/or find a way to get the overwhelming number of plots and characters coalesced. This was one of my very favorite series of her that I was overjoyed to see a sequel be published. Her characters have become part of my psyche's inner population. As others have said on this board some co-writers are more personal favorites than others, and we probably would all have different ones, so that says something too.
Rating:
Summary: She's still got it
Review: The reviewer below whose review labels this book schizophrenic really peeved me. First being 90 doesn't presuppose senility or incompetence, and I've never seen an aging male accused of that when they write until the age they leave this planet. Second she has written several novels within the last three years without a co-writer and which were fully up to her old style, which shows that the writer of that review didn't bother to do his homework. It has become remarkably common for even midlife or younger famous authors to take on writing companions or partners to keep up with audience demand, publishing schedules and/or find a way to get the overwhelming number of plots and characters coalesced. This was one of my very favorite series of her that I was overjoyed to see a sequel be published. Her characters have become part of my psyche's inner population. As others have said on this board some co-writers are more personal favorites than others, and we probably would all have different ones, so that says something too.
Rating:
Summary: Updates don't always work
Review: This book is a sequel to the two books in the "Beast Master" series (NO resemblence to the movie/TV version, which is good) about the discharged stellar commando Hosteen Storm. As with many other recent books by Norton, she has a co-author here, who probably wrote most or all of the book.
In general the style of Miss Norton's old SF novels is kept too, but the writing seems a little different, and the dialogue less natural.
The attempt to update the technology with lasers instead of blasters does not work for me, sticking with the original would have been better. Similarly, the discussion of how Earth was "burned off" makes no sense.
The other break from the original is that the Xiks are back as a power, albeit a constrained one. I got the impression the Xik worlds were destroyed from the originals. In the final fight with the Xik "aper" in the first book Storm distracts him by taunting him that he is alone, his home destroyed. But I guess that wouldn't be PC these days.
Overall a decent read, but not as good as the original.
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