Ace of Aces Books

This book is far superior to the film,in as much there is more humour. Being a fan of the latter Saint books there is more of the television style in them and would need only minor changes to them.

Book 17 of this Space Opera is the conclusion of a short quartet of adventures on Venus.

Rhodan and his crew finally rescue Thora from captivity - but not before both the rebels and Rhodan's men have a couple adventures of their own. Rhodan has Marshall contact the Venusian seals - semi-intelligent animals that live in the seas of Venus to help them get into the Venusian secret base. Meanwhile, Rhodan's enemies, the rebels against the new power, who have Thora (the Arkonide beauty) captive, are also nearing the Venusian base. Thora's captors are menaced by a Venusian Tyrex - a monster similar to the Terran Tyrannosaurus, but far larger and more voracious. There's also a cool scene with gigantic ants.

Of course, everyone knows that Perry will resuce Thora and put down the rebellion. But it's how he does it that's interesting.

The next short series begins with number 18 - "Menace of the Mutant Master", a trilogy about a man who can control mutants.

I've never been this impressed by a series. I'm reminded of old cliffhangers like "Buck Rodgers" or "Flash Gordon" when reading these marvelous books. This series is still being published in Germany and is now well over 1,800 volumes. It's too bad American publishers stopped these after only about 120 books. I had to learn to speak, read, and write German in order to continue reading Perry Rhodan.

This book also contains another editorial, another science fiction movie section, and another fan letters page. And there are three stories - one continuing adventure, similar to a serial, and two "Shock Shorts" - continuing a series of science fiction shorts at the end of each volume of Rhodan stories. Although these stories have nothing to do with Perry Rhodan, they are worth looking at. It's well worth reading the entire Rhodan series.

A Voice for Princess is the highly entertaining story of a great wizard named Kedrigern of Silent Thunder Mountain. Kedrigern discovers a toad that is actually a beautiful princess turned into a toad by a bog-fairy. He breaks the spell, only to find that it was booby-trapped. And so, the hapless princess ceases to be a toad with a princess' voice, and becomes a princess with a toad's voice! Kedrigern realizes that this magic will take greater power to break, and sets off to obtain that power.

If you like your fantasy served up with wit and humor, then this book is for you!

This wonderful book set contains the first three books in John Morressy's wonderful Kedrigern series (the remaining two being Kedrigern and the Charming Couple, and A remembrance for Kedrigern). This highly entertaining series tells the story of a great wizard named Kedrigern of Silent Thunder Mountain. Kedrigern discovers a toad that is actually a beautiful princess turned into a toad by a bog-fairy. He breaks the spell, only to find that it was booby-trapped - the hapless princess ceases to be a toad with a princess' voice, and becomes a princess with a toad's voice! And so, Kedrigern sets out on adventure after adventure, seeking the magic necessary to return the princess to her normal form.

Overall, I must say that this is one of my most favorite fantasy series. The author does an excellent job of making the stories entertaining and yet gripping. I love these books and think that you will too. So, if you like your fantasy served up with wit and humor, then this book is for you!

"Plague Ship" (1956) is the second 'Solar Queen' adventure, and sequel to "Sargasso of Space." Norton's four-book series about the trader-crew of the Solar Queen ended in 1969 with "Postmarked the Stars" but beware! Lesser authors have butted into the series, presumably with Norton's permission since this remarkable Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and Nebula Grand Master just recently passed away on March 17, 2005 after a long and extremely fruitful career (her first novel was published in 1934, her latest fantasy in 2005).

Norton's 'Solar Queen' stories are told from the viewpoint of Dane Thorson, an apprentice-Cargo Master who is introduced in "Sargasso of Space," the first Solar Queen novel, as a "lanky, very young man in an ill-fitting Trader's tunic." Most of this author's heroes and heroines are young, uncertain of themselves, shy, with a tendency to trip over their own enthusiasms and load themselves up with guilt at the slightest opportunity. They are very likeable and their adventures are narrated in remarkably lean prose with just the right touch of description.

After ten years of schooling, orphan Dane Thorson is assigned via a computer analysis of his psychological profile--not to a safe berth on a sleek Company-run starship that his classmates were vying for--but to a battered tramp of a Free Trader. To say that the 'Solar Queen' "lacked a great many refinements and luxurious fittings which the Company ships boasted" was an understatement. But she was a tightly-run ship and what she lacked in refinement, she made up for in adventure. Dane soon settles in under Cargo Master Van Rycke and learns "to his dismay what large gaps unfortunately existed in his training."

Sometimes I just want to give Dane a big hug.

"Plague Ship" takes the crew of the 'Solar Queen' to Sargol, where the enigmatic feline natives seem very reluctant to trade away their fabulous scented gemstones. When Dane Thorson discovers an herb that the Salariki are willing to swap for their gems, he fears that his eagerness to make a trade breakthrough might have poisoned a native child. That becomes the least of his worries when the 'Solar Queen' blasts off from Sargol with invisible, undetectable stowaways that would brand the free traders anathema to all inhabited worlds.

In space, the more senior members of the Solar Queen's crew succumb to a strange plague that resembles sleeping sickness. Dane and his fellow-apprentices, with the assistance of Captain Jellico's Hoobat (a sort of blue parrot-lizard, or at least that's how I've always pictured it) discover the source of the plague: venomous hitch-hikers from Sargol. "It walked erect on two threads of legs...a bulging abdomen sheathed in the horny substance of a beetle's shell ended in a sharp point." It was only about a foot-and-a-half high and could change color like a chameleon.

The Hoobat kills and eats the first creature, and then the hunt is on for others of its kind.

Even with the source of the sleeping sickness discovered, the Solar Queen's young apprentices must still convince the rest of the galaxy that they are not a plague ship--and therefore eligible to be destroyed on sight without warning.

The 'Solar Queen' novels are prime representatives of Norton's lean action-packed brand of story-telling (at least the ones she solo-authored.) If you haven't read them since you were a teen-ager, I urge you to try them again. For a few pleasant hours, you will be immersed in the adventures of a likeable, feisty band of free traders on exotic, carefully-drawn alien worlds.

******

"Voodoo Planet" (1959) follows "Plague Ship" (1956), and precedes "Postmarked: the Stars" (1969) in the series of `Solar Queen' space adventure novels, starring Dane Thorson, the lanky young apprentice-Cargo Master.

It weighs in as the slightest of the four original `Solar Queen' novels at 159 pages, and features only Dane, Captain Jellico, and ship's medic, Tau out of the original crew. While the `Queen is being fitted up for her new job as an interstellar mail carrier, the three crew members are invited to Khatka, a planet settled by African refugees from Terra's ancient racial wars.

Norton's fascination with magic is woven into this novel via a witch doctor gone over to the Dark Side. Lumbrilo is in league with poachers who are stripping the planet of its native animals. Captain Jellico, Medic Tau, and Dane team up with Khatka's Chief Ranger and his men to track down the off-world thieves and their powerful sorcerer, after their flitter crash-lands in a remote game preserve.

Minor Norton but a must for `Solar Queen' fans.

I loved these books, with a mix of martial arts, Zen philosophy, and mind powers with a scientific explanation, these books are ones I wished I had written. The charecterization is well done and I liked, hated and understood the motivation of each charecter. Well worth reading especially if you like books with scifi and martial arts combined.

The author relates a factual time in history but lessons were not learned and so it has been repeated time and time again. I just happened to read it on the anniversary of D-Day but it caused me to remember Vietnam and most certainly Iraq and what is done by soldiers following orders.

Witty as usual, Christopher Stasheff also manages to convey serious truths about the ability of mankind to control himself, as well as insights into the sources and cures of self-esteem issues. Rod Gallowglass must struggle against himself as well as his enemies in order to protect Gramarye and his family. The children are, as usual, captivating. An excellent book!

An unlikely rescue team is Gramarye's only hope! Magnus. Cordelia. Geoffrey. Gregory. With their mother's powers and their father's training, they're a match for anyone or anything from any place . . . or any time! Hickman cover art

Many of Andre Norton's most haunting stories are set in water and/or the underworld. This dark, water-bound environment is often a river of rebirth for Norton's heroes. In "Warlock of the Witch World" the hero, Kemoc is guided through a watery underworld by the amphibious, amorphous Orsya who defies her own people to aid him in his quest.

Kemoc Tregarth was born one of three triplets. His birth-sister Kaththea was gifted with witchery. His brother, Kyllan became a warrior. Kemoc himself was gifted with wisdom, but as he states it, "...my wisdom consists in knowing that I know very little, though the thirst for learning has ever been in me."

At the very least, you probably need to read "Three Against the Witch World" (1965) as a precursor to 'Warlock' (1967), in order to learn about the hidden land of Escore, the magical sister-state of witch-ruled Estcarp that lies to the forbidden East in "trembling balance between the forces of Light and those of the Dark." When Kaththea, Kemoc, and Kyllan flee to Escore, they accidentally destroy the false peace that had long abode there between the great powers of Light and Dark. "Things awoke and gathered, and the land was troubled..." and the three learn that they must fight with the forces of Light, or be utterly annihilated by the Dark.

Kemoc sets out to win allies among the Krogan, who made their homes in the lakes, rivers, and waterways of Escore. When he returns from this failed mission, there are many other battles to be fought in the now-troubled land. During one such engagement, Kemoc is wounded and is almost captured by minions of the Dark, but is saved by the Krogan maid, Orsya. When Kemoc finally reaches the safety of the Valley of Green Silences, he discovers that his birth-sister Kaththea has ridden off to the stronghold of an apparent ally, Dinzil. However, Kemoc suspects that the fair-seeming man who wooed his sister is actually a creature of the Great Dark Ones.

Off he goes on another quest into the magic-troubled land, where he meets with the gnarled Moss Wives, and Loskeetha of the Garden of Stones, Reader of Sands. Loskeetha shows Kemoc three separate futures--all which end in the death of his birth-sister, Kaththea, twice by his own hand!

A greatly troubled Kemoc continues his search for Kaththea, with the help of his web-fingered, silver-haired friend, Orsya.

This is an eerie, compelling fantasy with many allusions (intended or not) to Wagner's "Rheingold." It doesn't have a happy, fairytale ending and you must certainly read the sequel, "Sorceress of the Witch World" (1968) in order to experience a good, satisfying thumping of the Great Dark Ones.

Andre Norton is a powerful mythmaker and world-builder, and her fantasies concerning the triplets Kemoc, Kaththea, and Kyllan ("Three Against the Witch World," "Warlock of the Witch World," and "Sorceress of the Witch World") do not suffer in comparison with Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books. In fact, my own personal preference is for Norton's Witch World.