Forerunner

Rating:
Summary: search for a missing archeologist on a Guild-dominated world
Review: Don't confuse this book with _Forerunner Foray_ (public libraries sometimes mix them up). They're not part of the same series, in that they don't deal with the same characters or locales - just the same universe.

"Forerunner", in this setting, is a term used to refer to ancient artifacts of extinct species ('ancient' can be millions, or billions, of years). Forerunner artifacts may be gemstones, tumbled ruins - or massive automated installations, no telling, since there's no one 'Forerunner' civilization; it's just a catch-all term indicating both great age and alien culture. In this universe, archeologists compete not only with legitimate government agencies over custody of their finds, but with the Guild, that shadowy, loose organization of the Galaxy's criminals.

On the backwater, low-tech world where this story begins (if one can speak of real beginnings where roots run so deep), Kuxortal, favored by its location, draws not only on the sea trade and the trade of the continent drained by the river Kux, but the ships of the offworlders. While Kuxortal doesn't offer goods to attract the great combines who take the cream of interstellar trade, that in itself appeals to other elements - ships run by men who want a port where they can warehouse and exchange goods without awkward formalities like customs inspectors (as long as they pay due respect, and other proper dues, to the Guild Lords who run the city).

But the Guild Lords' palaces in the high reaches of Kuxortal are not the whole city - a city so old that its origins are lost in time, where any space vacated by the collapse or destruction of a building is speedily filled again, gradually raising the city ever higher above the river and the shore. In the depths, lie the Burrows - the basements, tunnels, and so on left by long built-over ruins, occupied by the lowest rung of the city's social ladder, scavengers who can only trade their pickings at the humblest of markets, who compete fiercely for any hope of a better life.

Odd things turn up in the burrows: lore that would surprise the lords, artifacts, and people - people sometimes resulting from such a mix of races that it seems that new species might almost be born from this cauldron - or even old ones from embers of an age long past. One such oddity is the foundling Simsa, of unknown parentage - whose startling silver-white hair is usually covered or darkened to match her blue-black skin, with weapons never seen until it's too late. (The edition illustrated by Barbi Johnson captures her appearance quite faithfully.)

So it is that after the death of her mentor Ferwar - the old crone who was both respected and feared as one who dealt in cures and old artifacts, with a fearsome command of curses - Simsa acts not just defend her place among the Burrowers, but to try to finagle her way into the upper city (or at least into a better grade of slum). The choicest of the artifacts left by Ferwar may, if traded to some offworlder, finance the venture.
Unfortunately, the man who stops to bargain with her isn't an ordinary crewman, but a scholar seeking not only Forerunner traces, but his brother, who vanished here seeking the same thing. Simsa, like everyone else, remembers the mad outlander who spat in the face of luck by venturing out into the desert.

Alas, even streetwise Simsa can't distance herself from Thom fast enough to escape the attention of the Guild Lords - those canny men who either wouldn't believe such a tall tale (and thus use 'interrogation' to find the real story) or who would seize any treasure for themselves and remove the witnesses. Like it or not, joining Thom in his search looks like the only way out...

Rating:
Summary: Good old Andre Norton...
Review: I first read this book when I was in my early teens and would read virtually anything with a "sci-fi" or "fantasy" prefix. I became far pickier now :) Forerunner is set in one of two main worlds of Norton's, the same one where the Solar Queen traces the sky and It (or EEt, not sure of english spelling :) ) roams the uncharted stars. Like most of Andre's stories, this one is character driven, other things being secondary, while still masterfully executed. It is not too exciting, but I will recommend it to any Sci Fi or Norton fan, along woth many of her earlier books.

Rating:
Summary: Good old Andre Norton...
Review: I first read this book when I was in my early teens and would read virtually anything with a "sci-fi" or "fantasy" prefix. I became far pickier now :) Forerunner is set in one of two main worlds of Norton's, the same one where the Solar Queen traces the sky and It (or EEt, not sure of english spelling :) ) roams the uncharted stars. Like most of Andre's stories, this one is character driven, other things being secondary, while still masterfully executed. It is not too exciting, but I will recommend it to any Sci Fi or Norton fan, along woth many of her earlier books.

Rating:
Summary: Simsa searches for her true origin
Review: Other Andre Norton books which include her Forerunner theme are "Sargasso of Space" (1955), "Exiles of the Stars" (1971), "Forerunner Foray" (1973), "Moon Called" (1982), and "Forerunner: The Second Venture" (1985). In most of these SF novels, Norton describes the ancient Forerunner ruins as vast, underground high technology installations where ordinary human beings can be driven crazy just by the odd angles to the walls, the mazes and tunnels where they're always getting lost, or by the harmful emanations from the ancient and only partly understood machines.

In "Forerunner" (1981) and its sequel, "Forerunner: The Second Venture" (1985), author Norton veers off the super technology highway and onto the mythical road of nature/nurture goddesses. All of a sudden, Forerunners (at least one of them) bear a strong resemblance to Ceres, Persephone, and (if you follow the Witch World novels) Gunnora. In Andre Norton's universe, there was more than one race that preceded humans into space. I just wish that she had differentiated between the technology-based Forerunner civilizations, and the Forerunner civilization that is explicated in this novel, which seems very anti-technology.

"Forerunner" begins in the ancient port of Kuxortal, which has built and rebuilt itself upon the ruins of ancient and decayed civilizations. The lowly Burrow-dwellers sometimes discover artifacts from the past as they tunnel beneath the current city's towers.

Simsa had been a runner and fetcher for an old Burrow-dweller, "until the mists of the riverside burrow bit so far into Old One's crippled bones that her body at last gave up..." She buries her mentor, who had probably rescued Simsa off of a garbage heap as an infant. The old cripple never revealed Simsa's origin to her, but it was obvious that the girl was different from any of the other Burrow-dwellers. Simsa tries to hide her differences--her platinum hair combined with blue-black skin, but she must flee from her only known home when scavengers attempt to loot the treasures that Simsa's ancient mentor had purportedly hidden there. The scavengers also consider Simsa part of the loot, but she fights her way free with the assistance of her retractable claws and her pet zorsal.

Zorsals are one of the best features of this book. They are cute, bat-like creatures with four paws and feathery antennae. Simsa is able to communicate with them on a very primitive thought-band, and they play an integral role in her adventure.

Now that Simsa has been driven from Ferwar's burrow, she attempts to sell her mentor's treasured artifacts to an off-world man who has come to Kuxortal in search of his missing brother. He in turn persuades her to accompany him to the deadly Hard Hills where his historian-brother was last seen.

After a long, difficult journey through the desert, where Simsa and her zorsals almost perish, she and Thom, the outworlder reach the Hard Hills and discover an ancient, alien city. It is here that Simsa learns of her true origin.

There are nice Norton touches in "Forerunner:" the zorsals; the underground healing pool; Simsa's hard and dangerous life in the Burrows; her difficult journey through the desert with Thom. However, the plot is muddied up with too many villains--greedy Guild Lords and skyjackers ('jacks' in Norton's terminology), and too many variations on the nature of the Forerunners.

I also preferred the Simsa at the book's beginning to the Simsa at the end.

However, the zorsals were wonderful throughout.

Note: "Forerunner: the Defender" has the same publication date (1981) as this novel, and I'm betting it's the same story under two different titles.

Rating:
Summary: Simsa searches for her true origin
Review: Other Andre Norton books which include her Forerunner theme are "Sargasso of Space" (1955), "Exiles of the Stars" (1971), "Forerunner Foray" (1973), "Moon Called" (1982), and "Forerunner: The Second Venture" (1985). In most of these SF novels, Norton describes the ancient Forerunner ruins as vast, underground high technology installations where ordinary human beings can be driven crazy just by the odd angles to the walls, the mazes and tunnels where they're always getting lost, or by the harmful emanations from the ancient and only partly understood machines.

In "Forerunner" (1981) and its sequel, "Forerunner: The Second Venture" (1985), author Norton veers off the super technology highway and onto the mythical road of nature/nurture goddesses. All of a sudden, Forerunners (at least one of them) bear a strong resemblance to Ceres, Persephone, and (if you follow the Witch World novels) Gunnora. In Andre Norton's universe, there was more than one race that preceded humans into space. I just wish that she had differentiated between the technology-based Forerunner civilizations, and the Forerunner civilization that is explicated in this novel, which seems very anti-technology.

"Forerunner" begins in the ancient port of Kuxortal, which has built and rebuilt itself upon the ruins of ancient and decayed civilizations. The lowly Burrow-dwellers sometimes discover artifacts from the past as they tunnel beneath the current city's towers.

Simsa had been a runner and fetcher for an old Burrow-dweller, "until the mists of the riverside burrow bit so far into Old One's crippled bones that her body at last gave up..." She buries her mentor, who had probably rescued Simsa off of a garbage heap as an infant. The old cripple never revealed Simsa's origin to her, but it was obvious that the girl was different from any of the other Burrow-dwellers. Simsa tries to hide her differences--her platinum hair combined with blue-black skin, but she must flee from her only known home when scavengers attempt to loot the treasures that Simsa's ancient mentor had purportedly hidden there. The scavengers also consider Simsa part of the loot, but she fights her way free with the assistance of her retractable claws and her pet zorsal.

Zorsals are one of the best features of this book. They are cute, bat-like creatures with four paws and feathery antennae. Simsa is able to communicate with them on a very primitive thought-band, and they play an integral role in her adventure.

Now that Simsa has been driven from Ferwar's burrow, she attempts to sell her mentor's treasured artifacts to an off-world man who has come to Kuxortal in search of his missing brother. He in turn persuades her to accompany him to the deadly Hard Hills where his historian-brother was last seen.

After a long, difficult journey through the desert, where Simsa and her zorsals almost perish, she and Thom, the outworlder reach the Hard Hills and discover an ancient, alien city. It is here that Simsa learns of her true origin.

There are nice Norton touches in "Forerunner:" the zorsals; the underground healing pool; Simsa's hard and dangerous life in the Burrows; her difficult journey through the desert with Thom. However, the plot is muddied up with too many villains--greedy Guild Lords and skyjackers ('jacks' in Norton's terminology), and too many variations on the nature of the Forerunners.

I also preferred the Simsa at the book's beginning to the Simsa at the end.

However, the zorsals were wonderful throughout.

Note: "Forerunner: the Defender" has the same publication date (1981) as this novel, and I'm betting it's the same story under two different titles.