Time Traders
Author: Andre Norton
Year: 1958
Abstract:
Ross Murdock, a youth caught too many times by the law, is given an opportunity
to work for a secret project. Ross joins a group of specialists who travel back and
forth through time, tracking down the Russians. The Russians have new
technologies, and the Americans must find the source!
| Advanced Mind |  |
| Exploration/Quest | |
| Military/Fighting | |
| Horror | |
| Magic | |
| Advanced Technology | |
| Time Travel/Alternate History | |
| Science | |
| Aliens/Beasties | |
| Contemporality | |
Other books in this series: Ross Murdock
Galactic Derelict [1959]
The Defiant Agents [1962]
Key out of Time [1963]
Firehand [1994]
Spectre's Review
Good story, excellent idea, and I'd say it's quite a fun ride. I find it easy to
forgive many technical innacuracies, but some foundational scientific fact
(even well understood in the '50s) really needs to not be warped.
Classic tale of America versus Russia. This was originally written as two books, published in 1958 and 1959, at the height of the Cold War. Russia was our worst enemy, and we had to do everything we could to top them. Norton played this particular plot point very well.
General character development and dialog was about average, and nothing about the writing style stood out (and some detracted from enjoyment). But the story was good, and the plot moved along quite nicely most of the time. No major characters to sink your teeth in or become emotionally attached to, really.
2 Rockets for Advanced mind because of the Aliens and their attacks on Ross and other people. 7 rockets for exploration/quest, as the book is basically about them exploring and questing. 5 rockets for military/fighting, as there is some fun scenes with both the Russians and the aliens. 2 rockets of horror just because of some of the situations of being stuck in space without knowing where you're going, and a couple encounters with alien life. 8 rockets of advanced technology because of the attention to detail on time travel, constructing bases, spaceships, space ports, general alien architecture, and other well thought-out ideas. 10 rockets for time travel, as well, the whole book is on time travel, and they do a lot of it. 2 rockets on science, as they talked a lot about some science, but there were some egregious errors in accuracy. 7 rockets on the aliens, the mind numbing aliens, and the other various life forms throughout the book. 4 for contemporality because of the accuracy of protraying a future not too distant from the late '50s.
Date posted: 2002 07 02
Spectre's Rating
Although this was a very solid story, there were a few things missing. Minus
1 rocket for severe technical innacuracies in general scientific theory. Minus
1 rocket for a couple of ridiculous situations. Minus 1 rocket for writing style.