Tag: Andre Norton

Atlantis Endgame (Time Traders #7) DNF@5%

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azure_90d7dd70d3dc806252c9cb9ac453740fThis review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge’s Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

 

 

 

Title: Atlantis Endgame

Series: Time Traders

Author: Andre Norton, Sherwood Smith

Rating: 0.5 of 5 Stars

Genre: SFF

Pages: DNF

Format: Digital scan

 

My Thoughts:

The following quote from the book epitomizes why I abandoned this piece of betraying filth.

“Ross took her face in his hands so he could gaze down into those lovely brown eyes flecked with tiny bits of gold. I could swim in those eyes, he thought…”

 

The first 4 Time Trader books, by Norton alone, were wonderfully fun adventure stories. These previous 3 books were romance stories that hijacked the characters I had come to like and turned them into romantic caricatures of themselves. The Ross Murdoch of the Time Traders I liked would NEVER utter or think such things as the above. He was a man on a mission.

The Time Traders were betrayed by these collaborations and I for one am sick because of it. These last 3 books have now tainted the first four books for me. Good job Smith, you Chamberlain; Hitler would be proud.

Echoes in Time (Time Traders #6)

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 c21056d48fabcd382a8e5c4ce15f0721This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge’s Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

Title: Echoes in Time

Series: Time Traders

Author: Andre Norton, Sherwood Smith

Rating: 2.5 of 5 Battle Axes

Genre: SFF

Pages: 288

Format: Kindle

 

Synopsis:

Ross, his new bride Eveleen and a bunch of other Time Agents, both American and Russian, head to the world where they originally found the Baldie chrome ship.

A russian group of time agents have already been dispatched and have disappeared so Ross and Co must solve that mystery and figure out if it is some Baldie plot to destroy humanity.

 

My Thoughts:

My phracking goodness, relational, relational, relational. Ross and his wife. Americans and Russians. Agents and agents. Agents and aliens. Aliens and… you name it, Sherwood sticks it in there.

The previous TT book I disliked because it was a romance, plain and simple. This was worse, in many ways, because it was all about feelings and self-introspection and solving deepseated issues. I can like those kinds of books, but Time Traders was about raw, powerful men getting a raw deal and then fixing it. Preferably with large amounts of violence of one sort or another while at the same time using their brains to keep things under control.

I feel that I was riding a Harley motorcycle for the first four books and then suddenly, when I stopped for gas, someone switched it out with a pink vespa. You don’t change vehicles mid-ride. It is one thing to restart a series, but to change the tone this drastically, well, you might have done better to start a new series altogether because you sure lost this fan.

There is one more TT book and I plan on reading it but as far as I’m concerned, there are only 4 Time Traders books.

Firehand (Time Traders #5)

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ea1b762f1bb395129b34e070b2119dd9This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge’s Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

Title: Firehand

Series: Time Traders

Author: Andre Norton, P.M. Griffin

Rating: 3 of 5 Battle Axes

Genre: SFF

Pages: 282

 

 

 

Synopsis:

Ross Murdock and Co head to a world that in the future opposes the Big Brains and win. The Big Brains burn the world in the past and Ross must prevent that from happening, all the while hiding Earth’s involvement.

And he gets involved with some chick.

 

My Thoughts:

This was a disappointment. Who ever P.M. Griffin is, this collaboration did not work for me, at all.

This was a bloody romance. I don’t have a problem with those, but I do when it is completely different from the previous FOUR books in the series. I enjoyed this as a standalone story, but not as a part of the Time Traders.

I don’t know if I want to read any more. I believe the rest of the Time Traders are collaborations as well and this one just turned me right off.

 

Uncharted Stars (Murdoc Jern #2)

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cover This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer

Title: Uncharted Stars

Series: Murdoc Jern #2

Author: Andre Norton

Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars

Genre: SFF

Pages: 232

 

Synopsis:

Murdoc and Eet are blacklisted by the Patrol and the Guild, so how are they going to survive? Kidnap a drunk former space pilot, hook up with an alien and solve the puzzle of where the Zero Stones come from of course!

 

My Thoughts:

This had to be some of the most stoic writing ever.

And Murdoc continues to distrust Eet, afraid that he’ll take over his mind or use him or “something”. He makes several stupid decisions on this alone and gets the whole crew in trouble.

But in spite of that, things were kind of rolling along, right up until the end,

where Eet, with the power of a whole planet of Zero Stones, turns into HER original form and is of course, a beautiful woman.

(hide spoiler)

I could not believe that. Both books were focused on friendship, companionship, duty, etc, etc without even a hint of romance. And then that. It was like taking a big bottle of Heinz Ketchup and squirting the whole bottle on a fillet mignon steak, to “make it palatable for everyone”.

Kind of glad there are no more Murdoc Jern books so I won’t even be tempted to read them.

The Zero Stone (Murdoc Jern #1)

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coverThis review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer

Title: The Zero Stone

Series: Murdoc Jern #1

Author: Andre Norton

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Genre: SFF

Pages: 250

 

Synopsis:

Murdoc Jern, son of a famous jemologist, is pushed out on his own, with only an unknown stone as his inheritance.

Plying his trade as an apprentice, his master is murdered and Murdoc is on the run. From the Guild, the Patrol and other sources. He hooks up with an alien, born from a cat, named Eet to find out what the Zero Stone is.

 

My Thoughts:

This was typical Norton, with brains being the most important thing. Action happened, but it was described so stultifyingly that it was a relief to get to other stuff.

I did enjoy the overall story but there are times that Norton’s style grates. It is a testament to her writing skill and storytelling ideas that even with that, I still keep reading her stuff. I love the story and the idea of exploring space for Lost Civilizations is cool.

I liked this enough that I am now in the middle of the second book.

Elvenborn

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ElvenbornElvenborn

Halfblood Chronicles #3

Andre Norton & Mercedes Lacky

3 of 5 Stars

 

Read January 2003

Re-Read October 2012

2012 Review
A very good wrap up to the Elvenbane series. Not that is meant to be the final book, since Lackey and Norton left tons of strings dangling for potential sequels, but as this was published in 2002 and Norton is dead and Lackey doesn’t talk about it, it is ok to say this is the final book.

And it works. Mysteries of the Elves are explored and laid to rest, many of the antagonists meet their end in deliciously just ways and protagonists find hope and love. Enough is resolved to leave you feeling ok. And I don’t want any more to be honest. I think any more would just muck things up. Leave the rest to my imagination…

Elvenblood

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ElvenbloodElvenblood

Halfblood Chronicles #2

Andre Norton & Mercedes Lackey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

This second book continues right along with the same style of the first. If you didn’t like The Elvenbane, then you won’t like this either.

However, if you did enjoy Elvenbane, chances are pretty good you’ll enjoy this book. Same set of characters thrown in with a new set so the authors don’t have to worry about creating complex, deep characters. Make ’em and use ’em.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book for what it is, a shallow fantasy book that has no pretensions of being epic. You need those sometimes…

The Elvenbane

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The ElvenbaneThe Elvenbane

Halfblood Chronicles #1

Andre Norton & Mercedes Lackey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

A story of elves, dragons, mages and half elves/humans.

I really enjoyed this. While a bit shallow, I never felt like rolling my eyes or putting the book down.

I found it quite interesting to see dragons as tricksters and elves as the bad guys.

Time Traders II: The Defiant Agents & Key Out of Time

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The Defiant Agents
Key Out of Time
Time Traders #2
by Andre Norton
Ebook, 384 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First story bordered on the “ignorant rascism” for me, but maybe that is because I’m a product of the times and am overly sensitive [I suspect that is true].

Second story was more in the vein of the Time Traders I was used to. Enjoyed it very much.

Time Traders

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TIME TRADERS
Time Traders #1
Andre Norton
Epub-400 pages
4 Stars
Scifi

A book with 3 separate short stories all tied together by common characters. Basically, humanity finds the ability to time travel and the Americans are going through history trying to find the Russians, who seem to have found some advanced tech way in the past. Turns out it was from an alien spaceship. The russians get all their bases destroyed and the americans start tiptoeing.

Ends with a group of americans finding an intact spaceship and making a trip to the aliens world. The alien empire seems to have fallen and humanity looks to have a free hand.

I really enjoyed this. Norton writes in the classic scifi style and it was nice to have some straight forward adventure stories without all the psychological baggage.