![]() Cover of the first edition | |
Author | Alice "Andre" Norton |
---|---|
Cover artist | Richard M. Powers |
Language | English |
Series | Beast Master; Hosteen Storm |
Genre | Science fiction |
Publisher | Harcourt, Brace |
Publication date | August 1959 [1] [2] |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardcover; abridged paperback) |
Pages | 192 (first edition) |
ISBN | 0-15-206049-9 (edition?) |
OCLC | 586722 |
LC Class | PS3527.O632 B4 [3] |
Followed by | Lord of Thunder |
The Beast Master is a science fiction novel by American writer Alice "Andre" Norton, published by Harcourt in 1959. It inaugurated the Beast Master series, or Hosteen Storm series after the main character. [1] In German-language translation it was published as Der Letzte der Navajos (de: Arthur Moewig Verlag, 1963) [1] —literally, The Last of the Navajo.
Norton wrote one sequel published in 1962 and three by Andre Norton and Lyn McConchie of New Zealand were published forty years later, one of them after Norton's death in 2005. According to McConchie, they were "written solely by Lyn from a brief collaborated outline". [4] The first two latterday sequels were named the year's best novel by New Zealand science fiction fans (Sir Julius Vogel Award). [5]
The Beast Master tells of Hosteen Storm, a Navajo [2] and former soldier who has empathic and telepathic connections with a group of genetically altered animals. The team emigrates from Earth to the distant planet Arzor where it is hired to herd livestock. Storm still harbors wrath at his former enemies, the Xik, and has sworn revenge on a man named Quade for his father's murder. According to Kirkus, he finds "life and hope" instead. [2]
In this novel and its sequels, Norton explores aspects of Native American culture, specifically the Navajo, through metaphors in Storm's life and in the culture he adopts on his adoptive planet.
Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale rated the novel four stars out of five "for youngsters", saying that they "are sure to enjoy complete enthrallment". [6]
Kirkus Reviews concluded that the "fantasy is made convincing by the author's boldness of imagination and by his ability to yield totally to the atmosphere which he creates". [2] This was one of several reviews by Kirkus from 1958 to 1963 that reveal that the reviewer presumed "Andre Norton" to be a man. Some others were The Time Traders and its three sequels.
In Norton's sequel Lord of Thunder (1962), Hosteen Storm discovers and resolves a problem with stakes on a world scale. Kirkus concluded that that story "is secondary to the fascinating description, the imaginative ideas, and the general quality of prose and dialogue. For the experienced science-fiction reader". [7]
Kirkus welcomed the continuation of the series by Norton and Lyn McConchie in Beast Master's Ark (Tor, 2002), including the promise of a fourth installment: "[T]hat's good, since this is one of the better SF series going, with Norton using stripped prose to put her stereotypes through their foredestined rounds. ... Neat, swift, and strongly detailed. Old fans will dance and howl for more". [8] McConchie claims to be sole author of the prose. [4]
The Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club (SFBC) released an omnibus edition of the 2002 and 2004 collaborations, contemporary to Tor's first edition of the latter. One year later, a few months after Norton's death, Tor published an omnibus edition of the first two books, which was also carried by SFBC. [1]
Andre Alice Norton was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name Andre Norton, but also under Andrew North and Allen Weston. She was the first woman to be Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, to be SFWA Grand Master, and to be inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
The Beastmaster is a 1982 American-West German sword and sorcery film directed by Don Coscarelli and starring Marc Singer, Tanya Roberts, John Amos and Rip Torn. Loosely based on the 1959 novel The Beast Master by Alice "Andre" Norton, the film is about a man who can communicate with animals, and who fights an evil wizard and his army.
Kate Elliott is the pen name of American fantasy and science fiction writer Alis A. Rasmussen.
Witch World is a speculative fiction project of American writer Andre Norton, inaugurated by her 1963 novel Witch World and continuing more than four decades. Beginning in the mid-1980s, when she was about 75 years old, Norton recruited other writers to the project, and some books were published only after her death in 2005. The Witch World is a planet in a parallel universe where magic long ago superseded science; early in the fictional history, it is performed exclusively by women. The series began as a hybrid of science fiction and sword and sorcery, but for the most part it combines the latter with high fantasy.
The Sir Julius Vogel Awards are awarded each year at the New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in New Zealand science fiction, fantasy, horror, and science fiction fandom. They are commonly referred to as the Vogels.
Cordelia Caroline Sherman, known professionally as Delia Sherman, is an American fantasy writer and editor. Her novel The Porcelain Dove won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award.
Ann Carol Crispin was an American science fiction writer and the author of 23 published novels. She wrote several Star Trek and Star Wars novelizations; she also created an original science fiction series called StarBridge.
Catherynne Morgan Valente is an American fiction writer, poet, and literary critic. For her speculative fiction novels she has won the annual James Tiptree, Jr. Award, Andre Norton Award, and Mythopoeic Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, the anthologies Salon Fantastique and Paper Cities, and numerous "Year's Best" volumes. Her critical work has appeared in the International Journal of the Humanities as well as other essay collections.
NESFA Press is the publishing arm of the New England Science Fiction Association, Inc. The NESFA Press primarily produces three types of books:
Planet Pirates is a science fiction trilogy written by Anne McCaffrey and two co-authors separately, Elizabeth Moon and Jody Lynn Nye. The three novels were published as paperback originals by Baen Books in 1990 and 1991, although the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club (SFBC) issued hardcover editions of each within several months. Baen published an 890-page omnibus trade paperback edition in 1993 entitled The Planet Pirates.
The Morgaine Stories, also known as The Morgaine Cycle, are a series of fantasy novels by American writer C. J. Cherryh, published by DAW Books. They concern a time-traveling heroine, Morgaine, and her loyal companion Nhi Vanye i Chya.
Elenora Rose Sabin is an author of fantasy and science fiction novels for adults and young adults, the most notable being A School for Sorcery, which is set in an invented world in a country called Arucadi. That novel in manuscript form in 1992 won the Andre Norton Gryphon Award for the best unpublished manuscript by a new woman fantasy writer. Her other works include A Perilous Power, the prequel to A School for Sorcery, and When the Beast Ravens, the sequel to A School for Sorcery, all published in hardcover as Tor Books and in trade paperback as Starscape Books by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC. An adult science fiction novel titled Shadow of a Demon is published in ebook format and as a trade paperback by Double Dragon Publishing.
These works were written or edited by the American fiction writer Andre Norton. Before 1960 she used the pen name Andrew North several times and, jointly with Grace Allen Hogarth, Allen Weston once.
Lyn McConchie is a New Zealand writer of speculative fiction, picture books for children, a nonfiction humour series, a number of standalone books and many short stories, articles, poems, opinion pieces, and reviews.
Return to Quag Keep, a 2006 fantasy novel by Andre Norton and Jean Rabe, is a sequel to the fantasy novel Quag Keep written by Norton in 1978. Although Norton and Rabe began their collaboration in the early 2000s, Norton's death in 2005 meant that Rabe had to complete the novel on her own. Many critics were not impressed with the finished work.
This is complete list of works by American science fiction and fantasy author Fred Saberhagen.
Kelly Barnhill is an American author of children's literature, fantasy, and science fiction. Her novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon was awarded the 2017 Newbery Medal. Kirkus Reviews named When Women Were Dragons one of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2022.
The Sorceress and the Cygnet is a fantasy novel by Patricia A. McKillip. It was first published in hardcover by Ace Books in May 1991, with a paperback edition following from the same publisher in January 1992. The first British edition was published in hardcover and trade paperback by Pan Books in June 1991, with a standard paperback edition following from the same publisher in May 1992. It was subsequently combined with its sequel The Cygnet and the Firebird into the omnibus collection Cygnet, issued in trade paperback by Ace Books in March 2007.
Beast Made of Night is a 2017 young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian-American novelist Tochi Onyebuchi. It is the first book in a duology set in a magical world inspired by Nigeria.
Redemptor is a 2021 young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian American writer Jordan Ifueko, published on August 17, 2021 by Abrams Books.