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19th out of 296 books
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189 voters
The Time Traders (Time Traders / Ross Murdock #1)
If it is possible to conquer space, then perhaps it is also possible to conquer time. At least that was the theory American scientists were exploring in an effort to explain the new sources of knowledge the Russians possessed. Perhaps Russian scientists had discovered how to transport themselves back in time in order to learn long-forgotten secrets of the past. That was wh...more
Audiobook
Published
November 7th 2012
by LibriVox
(first published 1958)
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This is one that can be had in e-pub format from Baen Books Free Library. Being the first in the series, the hope is that you will enjoy it enough to buy other volumes. This is a real piece of classic Sci-Fi, first published in 1958 or so--time being flexible in this tale.
This is the first of the Ross Murdoch books. Ross is a street-wise petty criminal, young and defiant, but very resourceful. He is given a choice, face the music in court or "volunteer" for some unspecified project. This is the...more
This is the first of the Ross Murdoch books. Ross is a street-wise petty criminal, young and defiant, but very resourceful. He is given a choice, face the music in court or "volunteer" for some unspecified project. This is the...more
The first of a series, Time Traders feels like two novellas forced into one package. The first "novella" features the protagonist's induction into a covert operation into humankind's early history in order to discover artifacts left by aliens in a van Daniken-like scenario. There is a cold war overtone to this time travel as, to use a cliche, the protagonist's group is not alone. The time travel aspects are similar to those in Clifford Simak's Mastodonia because time travel is limited to pre-his...more
This book is not set in the late 50s when it was written. Internal chronology places the starting date at 1982 (25 years after Sputnik).
Anachronisms abound, unsurprisingly. The (anti?)hero expects to see black-and-white tv. The (vague and undefined) Soviet Union has changed, as has the West--but it's not really clear how. Attempts at space travel are defined as unsuccessful, after a promising (threatening?) start. No real ecological information is included (for example, a base under Arctic ice i...more
Anachronisms abound, unsurprisingly. The (anti?)hero expects to see black-and-white tv. The (vague and undefined) Soviet Union has changed, as has the West--but it's not really clear how. Attempts at space travel are defined as unsuccessful, after a promising (threatening?) start. No real ecological information is included (for example, a base under Arctic ice i...more
Ross Murdock is a small time criminal who has been in and out of scraps with the law. About to pull some serious prison time, he is offered an opportunity to volunteer for a secret government project. What he doesn't know is that the project involves searching the past for the source of illicit technological innovations. Sent back to prehistoric Britain, he finds that the Russians are there also. When they destroy the U.S. base of operations in Britain, Ross and his two comrades are left to surv...more
Ah, nothing like a great character to remind you how lacking YA seems to be in that area lately. Like, really, what's up with all these annoying, spineless "heroines". There was something refreshing at the fact that the adventure wasn't thrust upon his reluctant self or that doesn't have super powers of any kind or that the balance of the world rests on his shoulders. No, Ross Murdock is not "the one" of anything, he's just a guy with a very bad rep doing his best to come on top on any given sit...more
The Cold War escalates when Western forces discover that the Reds may be using time travel to access alien technology from artifacts located in the indeterminate past. Ross Murdock is a criminal with a special skill set, captured and volunteered for a trip back in time in the hopes of finding the location of the Red base and with it the source of this alien technology.
This is time travel in its purest adventure form with the focus on the destination, not the technology used to get the character...more
During the Cold War, writers used this subversive conflict as a base for literally thousands of novels. An archenemy was the ticket to the best seller list. The Time Traders combines science fiction with Cold War intrigue and takes the reader back to almost the beginning of time. Ross Murdock, as a young prisoner is offered a chance at redemption. If he joins a secrete program, his sentence will be commuted. Figuring that almost anything will be better than wasting away where he is, accepts and...more
My second Andre Norton book! Unfortunately, I didn't really like it. It's sci-fi, which is what she's famous for, so that's good. There's time travel! I like time travel, generally. And there's also aliens(?) and lots of Cold War stuff, which can both be interesting.[2. especially if you're interested in xenophobia and social movements and whatnot.] However! Despite all the good stuff, I just couldn't get into this book.
I think my main problem was that even though it's set roughly 60+ years int...more
I think my main problem was that even though it's set roughly 60+ years int...more
Another audio book to keep me entertained while driving across the country. Turns out, this was a great library find!
Without paying much attention to the description, I began listening to The Time Traders and was soon sucked into a futuristic time travel story. I was engaged and happy to move though the fast paced and exciting adventure. It was only when I got home and signed onto Goodreads that I realized this book was written in 1958, and that Andre Norton is really none other than the ground...more
Without paying much attention to the description, I began listening to The Time Traders and was soon sucked into a futuristic time travel story. I was engaged and happy to move though the fast paced and exciting adventure. It was only when I got home and signed onto Goodreads that I realized this book was written in 1958, and that Andre Norton is really none other than the ground...more
Having no prior knowledge of this author and having chosen to download this book amongst several others, simply because of its title, I hadn't appreciated she was regarded as a writer of "young adult" fiction. It's an awful tag but I know what they meant after reading the first chapter. Nevertheless, I found it engaging enough to read on.
It's a sci-fi action hero adventure, pure and simple. There is no philosophical message, no metaphorical devices - and, come to think of it, there isn't a lot o...more
It's a sci-fi action hero adventure, pure and simple. There is no philosophical message, no metaphorical devices - and, come to think of it, there isn't a lot o...more
Read this on vacation since I ran out of the books I brought with me and this was on my Kindle. As entertaining as I remembered from those long ago days when I first read it as a teenager.
Ross Murdoch is a bad egg and given the chance to choose either military service or prison, he takes the military. What he doesn't know is that he's been evaluated as the type of adventurous soul who would do well in a very dangerous new venture. Time travel. Going back in time to both study history and also c...more
Ross Murdoch is a bad egg and given the chance to choose either military service or prison, he takes the military. What he doesn't know is that he's been evaluated as the type of adventurous soul who would do well in a very dangerous new venture. Time travel. Going back in time to both study history and also c...more
Holds up fairly well considering the passage of time; though it still is very much of its own period, with the Reds as antagonists and Our Hero being of the "misfit because society no longer needs heroes - until now!" variety.
There was, if I recall correctly, approximately one woman in the whole novel, which is quite a feat considering the range of small communities Our Hero travels through willingly or not; a greater range of races were included even though (England/Europe being chosen as the p...more
There was, if I recall correctly, approximately one woman in the whole novel, which is quite a feat considering the range of small communities Our Hero travels through willingly or not; a greater range of races were included even though (England/Europe being chosen as the p...more
A favorite re-read from 43 years ago in my high school days, and the first book in a series -- America's greatest adversary is sending its agents back through time! And someone or something unknown to our history is presenting them with technologies -- and weapons -- far beyond our most advanced science. We have only one option: create time-transfer technology ourselves. --- First book in the Time Traders series which includes (1) The Time Traders (1958), (2) Galactic Derelict (1959); (3) The De...more
It was a captivating read, but I couldn't get past the author referring to the main character as his first name, then his last and sometimes his tribal name, at any given point in a paragraph. It reminds me of my boyfriend. I just don't know what to call him in different crowds, sometimes his first name, last name or nick name, or all three at one dinner sitting. Nobody knows who I'm talking about half the time, and it's his fault! He introduces himself as one, his friends call him another, he d...more
I read this book when I was in my teens and just reread it in the past two days and thoroughly enjoyed it. Norton's writing style at times felt more like a synopsis than actual story-telling, but that worked well for a rollicking ride of adventurous fun. Some of the details of squaring off against "the Reds" may strike the contemporary reader as unintentionally funny (on the one hand, the bad Commies are supposed to be diabolical, and yet on the other they are supposed to have compunctions agai...more
Some great stuff here, and some that doesn't work. Ross Murdock is a delinquent who gets one last chance to avoid hard time - Operation Retrograde. He's not told anything else, but it turns out that it's an experiment in time travel, and the US is facing up against the Russians. The book is really two shorter stories in one, the second one about what happens on the second time travel mission. This one is told from the perspective of Travis Fox, an Apache rancher who has to be let into the secret...more
I'm not sure which book was the first SF novel I ever read, but this might be it. I read it as a teenager in the 1960's. I liked it a lot then and have fond memories of it and its sequel. I'm not sure how much I'd like it as an older adult with many years of SF and science reading behind me. I have an ebook of it from Baen that I got thinking I'd give it a try, but haven't done it yet.
I haven't had any children of my own, so I'm not familiar enough with how this compares to modern YA reading. Bu...more
I haven't had any children of my own, so I'm not familiar enough with how this compares to modern YA reading. Bu...more
In The Time Traders , Norton crafts a Cold War world in which both sides have discovered time travel. Somehow, the Russians have technology beyond their capabilities, and so it is Operation Retrograde's job to investigate. When Ross Murdock, ignorant of all of this, is given the option to either "volunteer" or be sent to a rehabilitation centre feared by all convicts, he choses the first one. Little does he know that the world as he knows it is about to be turned upside down... and backwords in...more
This I quite liked, when it comes to doing time-travel right, Andre Norton knows what she's doing.
Here we have something stirring around the time of the Cold Wars, with the Russians and their allies getting weapons that they couldn't have invented; and when Ross Murdock traces them back in time with Ashe - his partner and mentor in the program - they find a ship that crashed a very, very long time ago. Andre Norton is always vague about the details in just such a way that I think her "Baldies"...more
Here we have something stirring around the time of the Cold Wars, with the Russians and their allies getting weapons that they couldn't have invented; and when Ross Murdock traces them back in time with Ashe - his partner and mentor in the program - they find a ship that crashed a very, very long time ago. Andre Norton is always vague about the details in just such a way that I think her "Baldies"...more
For such a chilling intro, the protag is not the best at anything or the scariest of characters.
The book is interesting for its level and gives you some thoughts.
1. An interesting twist on the idea of time travel, it seems like they only have 1 shot at interacting with past events, much different from other kinds of time travel displayed across all fiction.
how could that be explained?
2. Do people actually try to sleep in dead logs to stay warm?
The book is interesting for its level and gives you some thoughts.
1. An interesting twist on the idea of time travel, it seems like they only have 1 shot at interacting with past events, much different from other kinds of time travel displayed across all fiction.
how could that be explained?
2. Do people actually try to sleep in dead logs to stay warm?
An interesting time traveling tale. A government organization, secret of course, send youth with a particular mindset back in time to discover what the "Red" are looking for. By mind set just let me say the main character feels he shouldn't have to conform to the society norms and often finds himself in front of a judge. The book is very 50s, and better be since it was written in 1958. There is a bit of a twist near the end with the introduction of a third faction. If you can get past some of th...more
Unfortunately, this book was just a bit too fond of the reversal-of-fortunes trope, along with a dearth of detail on the actually interesting bits, like how the time travel worked, interactions with people from the past, pretty much any characterization, interactions with people from other planets. Add to that a nearly complete absence of female characters for no observable reason and a stilted narrative voice and the book was a slog.
Time Traders proves that good science fiction can withstand the passage of time. The 2012 audio edition that I listened to was originally published in 1958. I was riveted to the story for several nights in a row by nothing more than a good story and a good narrator... no special effects needed. It's the beginning of a series that I hope to continue. Definitely a good listen!
Jan 30, 2013
Kirsten
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction,
time-travel-fiction
When I was in middle school, Andre Norton was my favorite author. Though, to be sure, I'd never read this one. I think mainly because I was more of a fan of the alien worlds type books she wrote.
This one kept my attention and was quite enjoyable. But I still think her other books like The Beast Master were better.
This book takes you back to a simpler time. When it was us versus the Reds. Ah, the good old days, right? Then again, no time was as simple as we think it in our memories.
Back to the...more
This one kept my attention and was quite enjoyable. But I still think her other books like The Beast Master were better.
This book takes you back to a simpler time. When it was us versus the Reds. Ah, the good old days, right? Then again, no time was as simple as we think it in our memories.
Back to the...more
Feb 25, 2009
Kam Oi
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
fans of YA adventure and SF
Recommended to Kam Oi by:
read it as a teenager and stumbled across it again recently
Shelves:
time-travel,
ebooks
Delinquent misfit Ross Murdock is recruited for a secret project involving time travel to the Bronze Age, where he must play the part of a traveling merchant of the Beaker people. The mission: to find and control the source of advanced, possibly alien technology before the Reds do! It's a really fast paced adventure with constant action. I enjoyed it.
This was an offering from Kindle that contained The Time Traders and The Galactic Derelict both written by Andre Norton in the 50's I think. Well-written, classic Sci-fi. It's fun to see areas where our current tech has surpassed what was imagined back then, such as their use of spools of tape for computers... now we use a simple flash drive.
Nice historical sections in this sci-fi story. I missed female characters (any one might have been nice...) and a certain depth of characterization. Also the chase/slog that make up nearly the entire second half of the book was a bit too monotonous for me. Nice to read another classic author, though.
Another rather dated book from SF Master Andre Norton. Two novels re-released together. In each, an outsider stumbles into the clandestine government Cold War time travel program. Some interesting stuff, but nothing that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Nostalgic fun though.
Okay, I skimmed the 2nd half. It got boring. As sci fi from 1958 tends to do (if it's not Dick). I think it's so cool that Andre Norton was a woman and I really wanted to like this. I read a story by her I thought was okay. This wasn't bad. Just boring. Not everything holds up at the same rate.
Jul 22, 2008
B. Zedan
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Folks who like action that doesn't end
Shelves:
gutenberg-downloads
Ha, nothing like conscription as the start of a story. This wise-ace, street bastard is forced to join these time travellers fighting the REDS. God, I love it. It's like an wormhole onion of espionage. My thing lately has been combinations of feudal/hunting/medieval society mixed with The Science of Future (a lot of the short stories I was reading last month by Everett Cole on Gutenberg follows that sort of line). This has that, since they bounce around a bit between Now and Then and some people...more
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| Merge multiple GR entries for this book? | 2 | 7 | Apr 09, 2009 12:28am |
Born February 17, 1912 in Cleveland, Ohio, Alice Mary Norton has always had an affinity to the humanities. She started writing in her teens, inspired by a charismatic high school teacher. First contacts with the publishing world led her, as many other contemporary female writers targeting a male-dominated market, to choose a literary pseudonym. In 1934 she legally changed her name to Andre Alice....more
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Nov 07, 2011 11:41am