"Star Soldiers" is the republication of two old Norton scifi juveniles: "Star Guard" and "Star Rangers." The books have no connection with each other. I still have the old paperback publications of these books which deal with opposite ends of time: man's conquest of the stars and his retreat. It seems to me that everything from the original publication is here.
"Star Guard" is a book that has stuck in my memory from my youth. It featured Norton's patented great action and strong characters. I hadn't read the book for years and expected it would lose something on this rereading. And it did, to some degree...it seemed much shorter now. I realized as I retraveled an alien world with the human mercenary troops of the "Star Guard", trapped, abandoned by "Central Control" and dying but always striving, how sophisticated Norton's juvenile's were and are. A happy ending for the hero, yes, but plenty of trial and loss along the way.
I have a slight preference for "Star Guard" over "Star Ranger." The mercenaries of the first book may be taking their lumps but they're considered a "young" race. The humans of "Star Rangers" seem old and tired. Not so much our young heroes but the civilization as a whole which I found rather depressing when I was a kid and still do now. Still the action and great character development is here. It is in "Star Rangers," I believe, in which Norton first writes about the strong human/alien bonds, team work and tolerance which will become signiture features of her later books.

One thing I did notice as I reread these books was the absolute
gender bias in these early books that I was not aware of as a teen. There are no women characters in the first book and virtually no females until the end of the second book. Although strong female characters soon appear in Norton's novels, these early works were "supposed" to be written for boys by boys...thus "Andre." The dark secret of the sex of noted women scifi writers is laughable today but seemed important back then. I was considered odd for reading scifi. If you don't own these books, I would suggest getting them to complete your Norton collection...and as a good introduction to her juveniles for all your teen friends.

My first encounter with Andre Norton came around age 11 or 12 when I bought "Star Guard," a story loosely based on Xenophon's "Anabasis." It proved a rollicking good yarn. Earthlings had gone to the stars and met with a powerful empire under Central Control. Earthlings being too backward for anything else, they were allowed into the empire as mercenaries. "Star Guard" follows the adventures of a unit of mercenaries sent to serve a usurper on a backwater world. Their boss loses and they have to fight their way to freedom across a hostile world. I read and re-read the story several times, and I still have the old thirty five cent Ace paperback lovingly tucked away on a shelf in my library. "Star Guard" forms half of the book "Star Soldiers."

The other half comes from another novel I read multiple times as a preteenager--"Star Rangers." This book also found its inspiration in a historical incident (or at least a historical legend). During the decline of Rome an Emperor decided to rid himself of a pesky legion. He ordered them to march east; they obeyed; and they marched right off the pages of history. Some 6,000 years after that Emperor's edict, it is repeated by another crumbling civilization. Central Control is losing its grip on its far flung galactic empire. The Star Rangers are somewhat of a nuisance to Central Control, so it sends them off on a fool's errand of exploration. "Star Rangers" chronicles the history of this last mission.

The Central Control of "Star Guard" was very similar to the Central Control of "Star Rangers," but try as I might, I could never reconcile the dissimilarities enough to say that "Star Guard" and "Star Rangers" both occurred in the same fantasy universe.

The two stories are aimed at juveniles, their "science" is bankrupt, and they are little more than space opera. But they entertain, and that is all that they were intended to do.

If you haven't got the original books, get this copy. Or if you have more than one child, get one for each.

I grew up on Andre Norton books. Her young adult books have
lost none of their relevance to children today, and I raised
my sons on the very same books I read. Yes, the early books have
male characters, probably because it was hard enough for a woman
to get science fiction published then. Heinlein, if you notice,
managed to get away with writing strong female characters.
I was an oddity for a female in those days - refused to read/
couldn't stand the "Sweet Valley High" type stuff that was
published for girls, and Andre Norton's books, even if they
had male characters, at least dealt with problems of growing up
and with struggles to remain honest, honorable. Star Rangers
gave aliens a fair deal and they seemed alien enough to me then,
but also characters I could understand and admire. Took me years
to realize the message I'd absorbed - judge the person by what
they are and how they act, not by what they look like. That
message still needs to be delivered, and this is a great, enjoyable way to deliver it to young people.

These are two books from the early 60's that were originally published as Juveniles (current category is known as Young Adult).

The Defiant Agents has not worn as well as the second book mainly because it is built around a Cold War inspired race between the US and Russia to colonize space. The thing that really saves this book from being dated though is Norton's distrust of all big government.

The US team was sent into space under Redax, a conditioning that returns their thought processes to that of their ancestors-- Apaches living in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Although they were volunteers for experimentation and exploration, they were not made fully aware of what they were going to be used for by their superiors. Consequently, when their space ships cracks up on entry the survivors. some thinking they are living in the past, some more aware of the present are confronted with a puzzle. They must figure out how to survive in an alien world where their neighbors are escapees from the Russian mind control project-- and the Russians want their people back.

Key Out of Time moves to the water world of Hawaikan. Ross Murdock, a character from the earlier books, is thrown into the past of this world when a storm blows up while they are setting up a time gate. The Russians are only mentioned in the beginning so the book feels less dated than Defiant Agents. The action here involves a struggle among the ancient people of Hawaikan to escape the influance of the mysterious aliens whose wrecked ship provided the technology that let the people of Earth reach into space.

These books are well worth reading. Individually I gave Defiant Agents a 4 and Key Out of Time a 5. The first one was pulled down by the Russian/US conflict that probably doesn't resonate with current attitude toward the Russians.

Andre Norton's TIME TRADERS is actually two of her books The Time Traders and Galactic Derelict, published 1958 and 1959, respectively. Though published over 40 years ago and times have changed it is an excellent read. This is the kind of writing that inspired us all to think of the future and what it could hold. Who knew the USA and Russia would become friends?

To gain perspective on when these novellas were released, Kennedy is President and Khrushchev is in power. The first moon walk has not occurred yet and the Mets winning the world Series is several year away when these two classic novellas were released. Both hold up well even with four decades of incredible gains by the scientific and technological communities, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some Cold War vestiges may seem outdated, yet nicely fit into the two story lines.

"The Defiant Agents". Travis Fox and crew land on planet Topaz where they must reach inside to their Apache heritage to battle a difficult climate and a Russian team of explorers who likewise dig deep into their Mongol heritage.

"Key Out of Time". Time Agent Ross Murdock needs to unite three radically different cultures and potential enemies into one force to repel the dangerous invading Baldies.

The anthology remains strong and actually shows how the great Andre Norton influenced future science fiction authors. Tales like these are why she remains one of the best loved writers of the twentieth century and now the twenty-first century.

Harriet Klausner

Andre Norton, the Grande Dame of Science Fantasy, the unparalled story teller, the most politically ignored science fiction writer has colleted together three of her most imaginative and thrilling tales. Long before the "Pop" culture and "New Wave" she was relating para-psycholobical and extra-terrestial concepts to the exploits of the most characterologically developed humans, aliens and animals. Her imagination is so expertly prsented thatt the reader will wonder whether the stories might nnot be real. Excitement on every page, from the first to the very last; an ability which few other authors have mastered. (And personally, she is a wonderfully kind and considerate woman.)

Warlock is a compilation of three novels -- Storm Over Warlock, Ordeal in Otherwhere, Forerunner Foray -- which have long been out a print in hardbound form, although frequently reprinted as paperbacks.

These novels have the signature characteristics of the early Norton stories: courageous young persons coping with adversity on their own. Her science fiction stories often added aliens and animals, telepathy and other psionic powers, the Thieves' Guild and the Patrol, and refugee survivors from interstellar wars, all of which are found in these novels.

Storm Over Warlock is the story of Shann Lantree, a contract laborer from the Dumps of Tyr, who is working on Warlock for the Terran Survey Corps. When Throgs attack the camp, he escapes with a pair of mutant wolverines. Later, he finds Ragnar Thorvald, the expedition leader, who had been away, but returned to Warlock only to be shot down by the Throgs. Lantree and Thorvald raid the Throg-occupied Survey camp for equipment and supplies and then head off to find the natives. The natives, however, do not want to be found and have a way of getting into people's head and making them do things against their will.

Ordeal in Otherwhere is about Charis Nordholm, a virtual slave of an illegal trader, Jagan. She has been acquired to act as liaison with the natives on Warlock, for the planet is a matriarchy. The female Wyverns are scaly and saurian, but have great psionic powers. They help Charis to escape from Jagan, provide her with a disk of power, and teach her some basic psionic skills, including telepathy and teleportation. On an impulse, she teleports to Jagan's camp site and finds it has been raided by an unknown force. She is discovered there by Shann Lantree, who is now a cadet in the Survey Corps. They pool their knowledge and decide that the male Wyverns, who have no psionic powers, are rising up against the matriarchy. Moreover, offworlder are using a psionic nullifier to block the matriarchs' power.

Forerunner Foray is about Ziantha, a sensitive from the Dipple who has been trained by the Thieves' Guild. She finds a compelling object during a foray into the treasure trove of High Lord Jacundus and develops a psychic tie with it. Her mistress, Yasa, a Salarika, and Ogan, a renegade parapsychologist, discover that the object is of Forerunner origin and is highly charged with psychic energy. They organize an expedition to discover its origins. On Wayfarer, they discover that the object has come from the tomb of Turan. Using her mind seach abilities, Ziantha guides them to the tomb, but is overwhelmed by the memories in the object. She awakes in the body of Vintra, war-captive of Turan, and Turan is occupied by someone else's mind.

Forerunner Foray is not about Warlock, per se, but reminders of Warlock and the Wyverns pop up throughout the novel. These stories were written during one of the most productive periods of Andre Norton's career. During this time, she wrote the first 12 Witch World stories, the first 4 Time Traders stories, the Magic series for younger children and many others. She also co-edited the Gates To Tomorrow anthology for young people. Although still ignored by the critics, she began to attract wider notice among the fans, not only for her juveniles, but also for her adult fantasies.

Warlock is recommended for all Andre Norton fans and anyone who likes stories about young people, and their animal friends, successfully coping with a hostile environment and even more hostile sentients.

The first book is Storm Over Warlock. The lead character, Shann Lantee, is the lowest ranking member of a survey team. When the team is attacked he escapes with two trained wolverines into the wilderness that is Warlock where he discovers the race of Wyvern who excel in illusions.

Ordeal in Otherwhere was Andre Norton's first juvenile where the the lead character was female. I understand her publisher was dubious about the idea. He shouldn't have been-- there was a population of readers who was ready to share the adventures of her heroine.

Brought to Warlock as a slave to communicate with the Wyvern who will not deal with men, Charis Nordholme finds herself stranded. However, there is more than surviving in a low tech world to worry about. The Wyverns, the warlock natives, are undergoing social unrest and a questioning of their matriarchal values as the Wyvern males attempt to throw off the control of the Wyvern matriachs.

One of Norton's enduring themes-- the ills of polarization of a society and the strength to be found in pulling together rather than pulling against one another, is worked out in these two books. The Wyverns, because of inequities in their society. have opened the door to greedy offworld interests, who definitely do not have the good of the Wvyerns at heart.

Forerunner Foray only has a tangential connection to the first two novels. It was published about ten years later, but it is still an entertaining book about Ziantho, an employee of the Thieve's Guild, who during a covert raid stumbles onto a Forerunner gem which she is mysteriously drawn to, as she is drawn to the esper, Ris Lantree, who "hears" her first attempt to discover the secret of the gem by mental power.

The gem is a focus of power belonging to a long dead race and they find themselves fleeing across space and time as they follow the history of the gem back to it's beginning. Altogether a darker book, but well worth reading.

Story about some important people of different races kidnapped and possibly replaced by androids for some unknown purpose. After a power failure they find a way to escape only to realize that as much as 50 years have passed and they dont seem to have aged which brings up the question that maybe they are the androids. Prince Andas with the help of Yolos a Salariki tries to undo what has been done only to find them selves transported to a Parallel home world devastated by some uknown power where Prince Andas finds himself as there only hope. Classic Andre Norton .

This book is set in the Psychocrat universe - those mad-scientist dictators whose experiments in human behavior used worlds as laboratories (see Norton's _Ice Crown_ for an example). In _Android at Arms_, the Mengians, heirs of the Psychocrats, have snatched about a dozen VIPs from their homeworlds over a period of years, always on the brink of momentous events - e.g. important trade negotiations, designations of heirs. Each victim was replaced by a ringer - an android duplicate. Now a gigantic electrical storm has disabled the security of the prison where they've been held (in some cases, for many years). None remember their capture or imprisonment, having been held in suspended animation and subjected to hypnocasters.

Or have they?

Which are the androids, and which are the originals? How can you tell, when the androids were crafted to be *perfect* duplicates?

We follow Andas, heir presumptive to the throne of Inyanga, a world settled many centuries ago during one of the first "outspreads" from Earth. By chance, Inyanga is closer to the prison planet than any other captive's homeworld, so the escapees head for sanctuary - only to find that even more time has passed than they thought, and that captivity hasn't united them.

Andas, having formed a friendship with Yolyos, a Salariki fellow prisoner, takes Yolyos into the secret ways of Inyanga's Triple Towers, the sprawling palace complex from which the Emperor rules a world - a city within a city. They venture even into the Flower Courts of the women - where death 'stalks more ruthlessly than the Emperor's dungeons.'

Inyanga's culture is drawn from African elements, rather than the more usual European-based fantasy. Exploring the culture and the political problems faced by Andas will keep you entertained as the prisoners try to cope with the Mengians' riddle - what is the nature of a man?

If you can't tell which is the android and which is the man - does the difference really matter?

This is a great, even epic poem, but it can not be considered the definitive ninteenth-century work by any means. It can not be considered in any way to measure against such other epic poems, such as the classics (Homer, Vergil, Langland, Chaucer, etc.), later epics along the lines of Pope's "The Rape of The Lock" or Goethe's "Faust," and, most especially, Milton's "Paradise Lost," the great English epic poem above all others (if somewhat more esoteric to nowaday's "well-read" intellectuals). The "Aurora Leigh" has also unfortunately suffered the stigma of being a work solely concerned with feminism and social commentary. But I digress. The "Aurora Leigh" is an amazing work to explore, a true landmark, despite its flaws (of which there are honestly a few), in both the English language and ninteenth century studies. The Norton Critical Edition is wonderful, complete with well-organized and relevent supplementary literature (such as interpretive notes, essays, etc.). A great work to explore, though remain aware that this is a single interpretation of the ninteenth century, and that E.B.B., for all her gifts, was not the "shining light" of the time (there are writers just as good from the period, such as her husband Robert Browning).

E.B.B. set out to outstrip Milton and does so in an amazingly original way. Aurora Leigh is a novel in blank verse that is actually longer than Paradise Lost! She combines the genre expectations for a woman writer--the novel--with an audacious bid for poetic immortality. The book tells a good story but it also works as a formidable reminder to her contemporary poets that the novel is taking over and poets must make sure that they are writing in the spirit of the age.

How many books have you read that you remember thirty-six years later? Ben Franklin's insights into principles of self-improvement, and his love for the adventure of life were not only inspiring to me when I discovered his autobiography in the Holmesburg Library in Philadelphia at age 14, but they still remain motivational for me at age 50! Ben Franklin was the Dale Carnegie of his age. He realized that by following basic core value principles, and by constant practice in the adventure of life, he could not only creatively change himself, but he could positively impact those around him as well. Ben Franklin led a purposeful, creative life. I am thankful that he had the foresight to pass his exhuberance along to us in this his autobiography. It was fun to read. I think I'll read it again. Thanks, Ben.

Anyone who has ever taken a literature class in college knows the Norton Critical Editions: an absolutely first-rate version of the text, a healthy supply of contemporary responses and letters, and the best essays yet written about the text. This edition of Benjamin Franklin's "Autobiography" is no exception. The quintessential American Enlightenment figure, Franklin is far more complex than most people think, and far funnier. When it came time to write the Declaration of Independence, the Congress wouldn't give it to Franklin alone, in large part because they were afraid he'd hide a joke in it. One of his most infamous pieces of writing was under the guise of a prostitute being brought before the court for having yet another illegitimate child -- and then attacking the court for making it necessary for her to pursue her profession! And the letter Franklin wrote his own illegitimate son about how to keep a mistress is a classic in and of itself. The only great flaw in the autobiography is that it stops before Franklin ever reaches the Revolutionary War, and thus we don't have the inside story of that perilous time. But anybody wanting to understand Franklin's life, the means to wealth, or the evolution of a brilliant mind will love this text. It's mandatory reading for every American, in my mind.

"Clearing the Air" is a page-turner for readers who are at all sceptical of EPA's messianic zeal. It gives a thorough, broad overview over the great breadth and variety of environmental regulatory responsibilities which face state regulators and EPA. Its inside revelations of aggressive environmental politics are shocking and sobering.

Ms. Dunlop also makes a persuasive case for EPA and the Justice Department to look to the states as laboratories for innovative regulatory and enforcement approaches. In addition, Ms. Dunlop shows the importance of innovative thinking to EPA regulation, given that Congress not infrequently provides EPA very broad authority but inadequate guidance on environmental regulation and enforcement. For example, the book records that while she was chief environmental regulator in Virginia, Ms. Dunlop proposed innovative, environmentally-protective alternatives to the Washington-mandated centralized emissions testing and against a requirement to require the Northeast to implement a limited part of a program tailor-made for California (the zero-emission-vehicle mandate).

Finally, the book recognizes the importance of science that is transparent and open to the public in environmental rulemaking.

"Clearing the Air" will be provocative to readers who believe that environmental regulatory challenges can be addressed only by federal regulators and are distrustful of state regulators and citizens, but even such readers will find that the book identifies some serious problems in the way federal environmental regulation proceeded in the 1990's and identifies thoughtful alternate approaches.

For anyone wanting to understand environmental politics, this is a must read!
I have worked for over 25 years as one of the "regulated". This is the most enlightening book I have seen yet that deals with the the reality of environmental regulation and the EPA. Environmentalism started out 30 years ago as movement to help our environment. But since then, those seeking political control have perverted it into a power trip. The general public does not understand what is really going on regarding government regulation, particularly the federal government (though she does not discuss other agencies in detail, I assure you that the Fish & Wildlife Service and Army Corps of Engineers have similar MO's). Ms. Dunlop reveals this more convincingly and compellingly than anyone so far. It is also heartening that she has taken the high ground, genuinely espousing real environmental protection. When I started my environmental career, that is what I hoped we as a society would be about. Whenever I am tempted to become cynical, I plan to go back and read about her victories and regain my hope that real environmental protection is still possible -- not just politcal tyranny hiding under an environmental halo.

This writer ought to be read by a vast audience. Her stories are gripping accounts of lives lived on the edge of sanity or reason. The story "Let Them Call It Jazz" is worth the price alone. Read it and weep.

Despite Rhys' near-constant theme of the "kept" woman who is now too old and paying her dues, she was a fabulous writer with a wonderful way of describing a woman's feelings. Highly recommended to anyone interested in great women writers of the last century.

Having recently re-read this book, I find it's explanations of various concepts relatively clear, if a little verbose. The book is 50% of the time quite good at explaining something, and 50% of the time exceedingly dull and tedious, obviously large parts of boilerplate text must have been cutted and pasted into various parts of the text.

What the book does not give you, is an introduction to concurrent programming. This is a pity, because most programmers aren't especially well trained in tackling concurrent programming. The mindset involved is different, and formal proofs suddenly becomes more important than debugging.

To make matters worse, the examples in the book is completely and utterly useless. In the first half of the book, they typically exercise one API function at the time, with 5 lines of comments per api call. In the latter half, sometime, you can see a few API calls in sequence, but none of the examples in the book will help you getting ideas for how to structure a complete multithreaded application.

On the bright side, to someone already knowledgeable about concurrent programming, the discussions in the book of the same issues related to pthreads make it possible to gain a thorough understanding of how to program pthreads safely.

Would I recommend the book? Yes, I am not aware of that many other pthreads books, but this book clearly has a lot of useful content. But it certainly has a split personality. Half the time, targetting the idiot who can't even figure out how to call an api function given the prototype and a description of it's semantics, and half the time giving actual useful information on issues regarding the use of pthreads and its interaction with processes, signals, and other parts of the unix environment.

Best book I've seen on the subject of POSIX thread programming. My only criticism is that the examples are lame. They excercise the API calls described in the preceeding text without adding any helpful context, insight, or details.

The author would have done better to provide one or two fairly complex case studies as examples, with analysis of their design process and tradeoffs. Instead there are small examples of every little detail of the API, that they add nothing of value to the book.

That criticism aside, it is a well-written, useful book, which I highly recommend.

This seems to be the only good book I have come across on the basics of thread programming. Focused on POSIX, comparison is provided between process and threads, which slowly but surely convinces the reader the significance of using threads and also, when to use them. Finally, the best feature I liked was that each topic is discussed and then the use is illustrated by a small independent program (sometimes 'extern' functions have been used which might require use of a previous source code). Overall, best book I have come across for getting introduced to thread programming. If there are even better ones ( beginners level) I am interested to know.

This is a very good book, but it only covers the first three-quarters of the century. Minimalism is the latest movement that it really covers comprehensively. After that, most composers recieve only two or three lines of text. This is, of course, understandable, given when this book was written. Just be warned that more recent developments in music are often ignored or not given the attention they deserve.h

Morgan's book is the best that I have found for an overview of the entire 20th century in "classical" music. He divides his analysis into 3 logical sections:

Part 1. Beyond Tonality: From 1900 to World War I

Part 2. Reconstruction and New Systems: Between the Wars

Part 3. Innovation and Fragmentation: From WWII to the Present

This allows for some nuance that a simple list of composers often misses. For instance, Schoenberg's "atonal revolution" is covered in Part 1, along with the "new tonalities" of Stravinsky and Bartok. Part 2 covers the origin of the "twelve-tone system," but makes clear that it did not become influential until years later with the "serial revolution" in France, led by Messiaen and Boulez, in Part 3.

As others have noted, Morgan is not as strong on the more recent period, partly because the book was published in 1991 and thus misses such phenomena as Schnittke's surge of popularity, especially in Russia and Europe, after the collapse of the Soviet regime. I recommend two other books along with Morgan: 1) Gann's "American Music in the Twentieth-Century," which covers developments in the U.S. in greater detail, thus including for instance one of my favorites, Roger Reynolds, and 2) Griffiths' masterful "Modern Music and After," which begins after the Second World War.

As we end the 20th century, we may not realize that 20th century music covers the same time span as the 19th century Romantic music period. Have we grasped the meaning of modern music. To do this one needs to understand the history as well as the dynamics of 20th century music. Here is a book that fills the bill. Not only does Mr. Morgan discuss the growth and change in 20th century music but he does it in it's historical context of our maturing as a world. For many the atonality of 20th century music is hard to grasp, especially when concert artists and orchestras continue to emphasize in their repatoire 19th century music. But as the world changes so will music. A book to awaken your interest in 20th century music and the composers who were the leaders of this period.