The Solar Queen - Hardcover

Norton, Andre

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0765300540 ISBN 13: 9780765300546

Publisher: Tor Books, 2003

Synopsis

Adventure in Space

In 1955, Norton introduced Dane Thorson, an apprentice cargo-master who signed on with the independent cargo ship Solar Queen looking for a career in off-world trade. Here are the first two star-spanning tales of Dane Thorson and the Solar Queen.

In Sargasso of Space, the free-traders of the Solar Queen win exclusive rights to all tradable goods discovered on the planet Limbo. The crew arrives to find the planet's surface charred, signs of life sparse. Worse yet, a strange pulse emanating from the planet itself may keep the Queen from lifting off. The traders find a secret valley with life, but others may still lurk in rocky caves below. The traders must solve the mysteries of Limbo if they hope to escape the planet, let alone come away with some saleable goods.

In Plague Ship, the Queen travels to Sargol, homeworld to a race of sentient felines, the Salariki. Sargol promises a wealth of exquisite gems to trade-if the crew can overcome the natives' mistrust. But their troubles have only just begun. When a mysterious soon overtakes all the crew except the four youngest, the Galactic Patrol labels the Queen plagued and orders it to be destroyed on sight. The apprentices discover alien beings aboard the Queen, and realize the illness may be connected to the aliens. With every ship in the galaxy searching for them, the crew has one chance to save the Solar Queen: broadcast their plight throughout the galaxy. But the one station able to do this is on Earth, at Patrol headquarters, which ordered the Solar Queen's destruction!

About this title

About the Author

For well over a half century, Andre Norton has been one of the most popular science fiction and fantasy authors in the world. Since her first SF novels were published in the 1940s, her adventure SF has enthralled readers young and old. With series such as Time Traders, Solar Queen, Forerunner, Beast Master, Crosstime, and Janus, as well as many stand-alone novels, her tales of action and adventure throughout the galaxy have drawn countless readers to science fiction.

Her fantasy, including the best-selling Witch World series, her "Magic" series, and many other unrelated novels, has been popular with readers for decades. Lauded as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, she is the recipient of a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention. Not only have her books been enormously popular; she also has inspired several generations of SF and fantasy writers, especially many talented women writers who have followed in her footsteps. In the past two decades she has worked with other writers on a number of novels. Most notable among these are collaborations with Mercedes Lackey, the Halfblood Chronicles, as well as collaborations with A.C. Crispin (in the Witch World series) and Sherwood Smith (in the Time Traders and Solar Queen series). An Ohio native, Ms. Norton lived for a number of years in Winter Park, Florida, and now makes her home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where she continues to write, and presides over High Hallack, a writers' resource and retreat.

From the Back Cover

In 1955, Andre Norton wrote Sargasso of Space, the first novel in what would become one of the best known science fiction series of all time. The free-traders' adventures on unknown worlds in that novel and then in Plague Ship, were enormously popular, garnering legions of enthusiastic readers and spawning sequels that continue to attract new readers to this day.

Each of these novels sent the traders rocketing into action, with exciting, unique adventures across the galaxy. Now, together for the first time, the first two novels are published in a single volume for the discovery of a new generation, as well as for fans still young at heart. This is rousing space opera at its most entertaining.


Praise for Andre Norton and the Solar Queen Series

"Nobody can top Andre Norton when it comes to swashbuckling science-fiction adventure."
--St. Louis Globe-Democrat

"There have been few new Solar Queen adventures in recent years, and the field is the poorer for the lack of them. Anyone who wants to understand what 'sense of wonder' was all about should read this book."
--The Orlando Sentinel

"One of the most distinguished living SF and fantasy writers."
-Booklist

"Could there be any greater pleasure for a science-fiction fan that re-reading the genre's classics? If you cut your teeth on space adventures, reading this book will carry you back to that time in its first few pages. If not. . . welcome aboard, shipmate. This is what it's all about."
--Rapport

"One of the most popular authors of our time."
-Publishers Weekly

Edition details

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0765300540
• ISBN 13: 9780765300546
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384