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Rating: 
Summary: 2 excellent SF stories: one a safari, one a hunting preserve
Review: The two novellas herein do not form a novel when put together; they're both set in the Council / Confederation universe, but don't involve the same characters. Why they've been allowed to be out of print so long passes my understanding."Star Hunter" - Ras Hume was blacklisted as a star pilot, courtesy of the craziness of the drug addict who was 3rd owner of the Kogan-Bors-Wazalitz line, which left him with high-profile commendations (the records couldn't be wiped after the Patrol got them), a pension, and a plasta-flesh hand. In his new career as a member of the Out-Hunter's Guild, he's been able to console himself with exploring new planets to open for safaris for the rich. On the newly-discovered world of Jumala, he found (and didn't report) something that may let him extract some payback from the company that cost him his career - if he can bring together a scheme involving port-rat Vye Lansor and crime boss Milfors Wass. Vye Lansor is really the focus of the story: one of the down-and-out youngsters who appear often in Norton's work. On the occasions when they manage to scramble out of the pits into which life has tossed them, they don't live happily ever after, but they manage to build a life for themselves - if they survive. "Voodoo Planet" - Over the years, this has been the hardest to find of all the _Solar Queen_ stories, fitting into the narrow gap between the end of _Plague Ship_ and the beginning of _Postmarked the Stars_, when the Queen is being refitted to pick up her new contract as a mail ship between Xecho and Trewsworld. Only Captain Jellico, medic Tau, cargo apprentice Dane Thorson, and Sindbad (ship's cat) are aboard when a Chief Ranger from Khatka, Xecho's sister planet, comes calling. Tau, as a hobby anthropologist specializing on 'magic', is fascinated by Khatka's people rather than its legendary hunting preserves. The original colonists broke out of a concentration camp in Africa during the Second Atomic War, then started a reverse-apartheid system. (That aspect of their culture appears to have been eliminated by the time this story opens, though.) Now somebody has dug deep into their cultural weaknesses, and is using 'magic' to psychologically drive key men in Khatkan politics to their deaths. Tau is asked to bring Jellico and Thorson along, and try to uncover whoever is behind this reign of sabotage and murder. If planetary cultures of African origin interest you, try Norton's _Android at Arms_, which deals with another such planet at greater length and in more detail.
Rating: 
Summary: TWO NORTON TALES...BOTH UNSATISFYING
Review: This book collects two of Andre Norton's novellas in one package. Both have to do with planets where safaris are conducted for the pleasure of wealthy offworlders, and both leave the reader wanting more in terms of either explanation or detail.
The first, "Star Hunter" (1961), is the better of the two. In this one, the safari leader on the planet Jumala has cooked up a scheme whereby he can exact revenge on the space syndicate that has done him dirty. His scheme involves planting a young man on the planet with a set of conditioned memories, and passing the young man off as a lost heir. The scheme goes awry when unsuspected native life on the planet rises up and starts setting traps for the safari men. The story certainly moves quickly, and there is no dearth of action and monsters and color. But in the end, there is also no explanation for any of the mysteries we have witnessed--only a vague hinting at best--and this reader was left extremely disappointed. Rather than being left with that "wonder of space" and the mystery-of-the-cosmos feeling that Norton might have been trying to convey, all that most readers will be left with, I feel, is a sense of being gypped.
"Voodoo Planet" (1959), at 62 pages, might not even be considered a novella; more like a long short story. This tale constitutes the third installment of the Dane Thorson/Solar Queen series, and is a rather weak entry in this otherwise terrific bunch of books. Here, Dane, Captain Jellico, and Medic Tau are stranded on Khatka, a planet that had been settled many years ago by Africans after the Second Atomic War. Our boys fight off many alien creatures in the wilds of Khatka--the fight with the rock apes is a highlight of the story--and help conquer the evil witch doctor who is trying to overthrow the legitimate government. Magic is thrown about left and right with only a superficial, mumbo-jumbo explanation of how things are done; something about ancestral memories. When all is said and done, the reader has enjoyed the sequences with the alien monsters but is left shaking his/her head at the implausibility of the magical elements. What might have worked in a tale of the "Witch World" somehow doesn't fly in this tale of hard sci-fi survival.
And let's not even go into how Norton makes up words such as "discordinate," constantly uses the word "turgid" instead of "turbid" (as in "the water was turgid"), and constantly uses expressions such as [the other figure was] "still very still." Her early works certainly did lack polish, but even here, in some of her lesser early work, the Norton flair for telling an exciting tale with color and drive comes through.
Rating:
Summary: TWO NORTON TALES...BOTH UNSATISFYING
Review: This book collects two of Andre Norton's novellas in one package. Both have to do with planets where safaris are conducted for the pleasure of wealthy offworlders, and both leave the reader wanting more in terms of either explanation or detail.
The first, "Star Hunter" (1961), is the better of the two. In this one, the safari leader on the planet Jumala has cooked up a scheme whereby he can exact revenge on the space syndicate that has done him dirty. His scheme involves planting a young man on the planet with a set of conditioned memories, and passing the young man off as a lost heir. The scheme goes awry when unsuspected native life on the planet rises up and starts setting traps for the safari men. The story certainly moves quickly, and there is no dearth of action and monsters and color. But in the end, there is also no explanation for any of the mysteries we have witnessed--only a vague hinting at best--and this reader was left extremely disappointed. Rather than being left with that "wonder of space" and the mystery-of-the-cosmos feeling that Norton might have been trying to convey, all that most readers will be left with, I feel, is a sense of being gypped.
"Voodoo Planet" (1959), at 62 pages, might not even be considered a novella; more like a long short story. This tale constitutes the third installment of the Dane Thorson/Solar Queen series, and is a rather weak entry in this otherwise terrific bunch of books. Here, Dane, Captain Jellico, and Medic Tau are stranded on Khatka, a planet that had been settled many years ago by Africans after the Second Atomic War. Our boys fight off many alien creatures in the wilds of Khatka--the fight with the rock apes is a highlight of the story--and help conquer the evil witch doctor who is trying to overthrow the legitimate government. Magic is thrown about left and right with only a superficial, mumbo-jumbo explanation of how things are done; something about ancestral memories. When all is said and done, the reader has enjoyed the sequences with the alien monsters but is left shaking his/her head at the implausibility of the magical elements. What might have worked in a tale of the "Witch World" somehow doesn't fly in this tale of hard sci-fi survival.
And let's not even go into how Norton makes up words such as "discordinate," constantly uses the word "turgid" instead of "turbid" (as in "the water was turgid"), and constantly uses expressions such as [the other figure was] "still very still." Her early works certainly did lack polish, but even here, in some of her lesser early work, the Norton flair for telling an exciting tale with color and drive comes through.
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