Ch 15: Arena

If you've read and enjoyed The Stars Are Ours, you will certainly enjoy this exciting sequel! Star Born by Andre Norton was first published in 1957, two years after the previous book and is in itself a complete and riveting read.

The theme depicts an early inter-stellar flight undertaken by people who call themselves the Free Scientists escaping from an oppressive regime on Earth. When Pax, a global authoritarian regime takes over the planet, it deems all space travel illegal. However this small group flees before the rules come into force. Their spaceship runs into trouble while traveling over the remote planet Astra. The people on Astra are welcoming and friendly and the spaceship mission head, Kurbi discovers that they are descendants of Earth people who were once refugees like him. However, after the initial cordial reception, Kurbi discovers a sinister plot aimed at eliminating all human beings regardless of their origin. He meets Dalgard, a humanoid who is desperately seeking a way to counter these diabolical plans and save his people. How the two young men work together and discover their own sense of identity and honor forms the rest of this exciting book.

Andre Norton, whose real name was Alice Mary Norton used several other pen names like Andrew North, Allen Weston etc. She started writing when still in her teens and began publishing in 1934. Her extensive body of work won her many awards and today she is known as the Grand Dame of Sci-Fi. Her science fiction writing was mostly published under the name of Andre Norton and she wrote in what is today termed the Golden Age of Sci-Fi, namely the 1950s. Apart from 23 series in sci-fi, she also wrote nearly fifty single titles and  many short stories which were published in omnibus editions. Her work has been read and loved by four generations of sci-fi enthusiasts. An extremely prolific writer, she also wrote historical and romantic fiction and collaborated with many other writers in fantasy fiction.

Her work is characterized by a clear focus on the characters and their experiences, which prevents her books from becoming dated like many other sci-fi writers, whose focus on technology and experimentation made them look old-fashioned to modern readers. In Star Born, she portrays many different species besides humans and this makes the interaction between them very interesting. Star Born is in many ways a coming-of-age tale, in which two youngsters grow and evolve into adulthood.

This short novel (just 157 pages) also explores important themes like slavery, draconian governments, racial prejudice and many other human evils like war and destruction. A great read indeed!