When I was around 10-years old, I started reading SF novels by “Andrew North.” I loved them. There wasn’t much science fiction for kids in 1959. Then, I discovered more thrilling SF novels by “Andre Norton.” A few years later, I discovered, to my surprise, that “Andrew North” and “Andre Norton” were the same person: a librarian named Alice Mary Norton. The first four books in the Solar Queen series are told in the Point of View of Dane Thorson, an apprentice-Cargo Master, who is learning the ropes of Free Trading aboard the Solar Queen. The all-male crew confronts a confounding mystery in Sargasso of Space. In Plague Ship, the Solar Queen is struck by a disease and the crew who are resistant need to find a solution before the Space Patrol destroys their ship. In Voodoo Planet, the crew confronts an alien who possesses “magic” powers. My favorite novel in the Solar Queen series is Postmarked the Stars. The Solar Queen wins a contract to deliver mail but this seemingly easy mission becomes complicated quickly by a series of mysteries. The final three books in the series were written by other writers probably from an outline by Norton. A female crew member joins the Solar Queen in Redline the Stars. An alien joins the crew in Derelict for Trade. More mysteries need solving in A Mind for Trade. I enjoyed the entire series, but they are aimed at the Young Adult market so factor that in.
THE SOLAR QUEEN SERIES:
Sargasso of Space (1955, as by Andrew North; reissued 1957 as an Ace Double with The Cosmic Puppets by Philip K. Dick)
Plague Ship (1956, as by Andrew North; reissued 1959 as an Ace Double with Voodoo Planet)
Voodoo Planet (1959, as by Andrew North; issued only as an Ace Double, first with Plague Ship and in 1968 with Star Hunter)
Postmarked the Stars (1969)
Redline the Stars (1993), with P. M. Griffin
Derelict for Trade (1997), with Sherwood Smith
A Mind for Trade (1997), with Sherwood Smith
Love the covers George – I have not read any of her books so far (for shame).
Sergo, Andre Norton was prolific during the 1950s and 1960s. She “partnered” with a number of writers in the 1970s and 1980s where they wrote SF novels based on her outlines. Most of her early work was aimed at teen readers.
I loved Andre Norton’s books when I was a kid, too. Haven’t read one in a long time, though.
Bill, reading these Andre Norton books was a nostalgia-fest!
I must admit she is one of those authors I never read. I guess I was reading mysteries then.
Jeff, in the mid-1960s I went through a mystery period where I read a dozen Agatha Christies, a bunch of The Saint paperbacks, the DELL Mike Shaynes, carter browns, and a ton of Perry Masons.
Sounds similar to the stuff I was reading, plus I read theJames Bond books, Shell Scott and the ersatz Shell Scott, Burns Bannion by Earl Norman.
Jeff, I had another mystery binge in the 1970s just before I joined DAPA-EM. My SF reading tapered off in 1980s.
I have those first three on the shelf, same cover, same edition. I first read them when I bought them new off the spinner rack. I ought to reread them. Great stuff.
Rick, I probably read those first three Solar Queen novels about the time you did. Great stuff, indeed…especially if you’re a 12-year-old.
George, sometimes, at least mentally, I still feel like a 12 year old.
Rick, I know that feeling.
George. I’d love to read these paper editions of Andre Norton’s books. I have seen her ebooks in public domain but haven’t been sufficiently tempted to read them, especially not now after these lovely covers. I’m going to look for some real books.
Prashant, Andre Norton published plenty of books in the 1960s with ACE Books. They have the best covers. Later, Norton switched to TOR Books who published her new titles and omnibus editions of her older titles.
Hi George and all the readers here too!
I just discovered this site searching for Dumarest and I am really thrilled. Andre Norton was also one of my favourite space opera writers back in the 60s and 70s (I’m German and I was born in 1943) when I came to London regularly to buy SF books at “Dark they were and golden eyed”, the Fantasy Centre and later Forbidden Planet.
I built up a large collection of mainly British and US SF books over the years (around 10 000 titles) and am now thinking of selling them because no one in my family is interested in them.
Does anyone have any ideas what I should do?
Thanks in advance!
wolfi
Wolf, I donated 30,000 books to SUNY at Buffalo. You can visit the web site at: http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/kelley/
Others may have recommendations on selling the collection. I’m sure a 10,000 volume collection would be worth quite a bit of money!
I’ve never read much skiffy but I love these kinds of covers.
Bob, I have a fun book of SF covers I’ll be featuring in an upcoming FFB. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the retro covers!
The term you’re using is only used as a derogatory remark these days, Bob, though it has history Len Moffat would have used it, for sure.
It sure sounds as though that a good many of us were reading all of the same books back in the 50s and 60s and none of us knew each other then. I’ll have to dig out the books in this series again. I had them then, and I still have them now.
Steve, as I recall there wasn’t much SF aimed at young adults back then. “Andrew North” and “Andre Norton” had the teen market pretty much to themselves…except for The Flight to the Mushroom Planet.
Rick, Skiffy was rekindled about 20 years ago as an honorific and I’ve heard it used at Corflu by trufans in the near past. I also read an editorial in one of the s-f digests urging people to go back to their roots and begin using skiffy again. Some people object to the term sci-fi (rhymes with high-fi) but it doesn’t bother me much.
Th,anks, George!
I’m a pensioner now – not too rich so I really thought of selling those books – most are “pulp paperbacks”. On the other hand I got (almost) all those lovely Ace doubles (Norton, Tubb, Bulmer, Dick – just to name a few authors) with their sometimes garish covers and it would pain me to see the collection dissolved – I don’t even think that some library in Germany might be interested in keeping them all.
I live with my Hungarian wife part time in Hungary now and when we come back to Germany the first thing I do is look into my library …
And I also remember how long it took me to get some of those books – looking through stalls with mainly crappy stuff in London shops and markets and later even in New York City. Went to London several times a year and later when flights were cheaper (and I made more money …) also to the US. There used to be several specialised book stores in Manhattan:
Forbidden Planet once had two locations and there were others too in Greenwich Village – anyone remember those?
You would also meet people from the SF community there – I still remember meeting Charles Brown (of Locus fame) who took me to the Corner Bistro …
Oh, those were the days …
wolfi
Wolf, I’m sure there’s a German college or university library who would be delighted to accept your SF collection. I received a very nice tax deduction when I donated mine.
George, with all the appropriate praise for the Ace cover art, I would think that Ed Emshwiller deserves a huge shout-out for the first three books you list. Not sure my memory can place the artist for Postmarked…
Reed, the cover of PLAGUE SHIP might be done by Ed Valigursky. EMSH did SARGASSO OF SPACE and VOODOO PLANET. POSTMARKED THE STARS has a Jeff Jones cover.