Dark Piper
Just finished re-reading "Dark Piper" by Andre Norton, released by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. back in 1968 as part of my "Great Re-Reading of Favorite Books from My Youth" Project.
I first read "Dark Piper" when it was re-released as a paperback book by ACE Books back in the mid-1970s in the Andre Norton section in the science fiction area of Michele's Bookstore at the Bryn Marr Shopping Center in Jacksonville, North Carolina. I got my reading copy, a discarded hardcover library book from Paxon Senior High School Library here in Jacksonville, Florida that was on the shelves in the science fiction section of Chamblin's Book Mine.
Andre Norton's science fiction universe spans thousands of years, and while I'm not sure of the time frame, "Dark Piper" is set among the collapse of humanity's star spanning civilization and may take place prior to the events chronicled in "The Last Planet, a.k.a. Star Rangers."
"Dark Piper" features her usual cast of likeable, self-reliant young men and women, who have to fight both inscrutable, powerful aliens and the evil mercenaries who attempt to erase all other human life on Beltane. There are hints of Norton's Forerunners, the mysterious beings who preceded humans into space, but this novel is mainly one of survival after the near-destruction of the Beltane colony.
Vere Collis, a young man from a military family, narrates in first-person the apocalyptic story of Beltane, a very remote Terran outpost whose human colonists are mainly scientists. As the Terran Confederation gradually disintegrates under the burden of interstellar wars, Beltane becomes more and more isolated--an easy target for mercenary soldiers who still possess the ships to travel between stars. Retired Sector-Captain Griss Lugard attempts to warn the colonists of their imminent danger. When this fails, he leads a group of youngsters (including the narrator, Vere) deep underground before a series of explosions seals them from all contact with the outer world.
Vere and his friends must return to the surface, in spite of mutants/monsters who have adapted to life underground. That which awaits them among the silent ruins of their home is even more shocking.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Piper-And...
I first read "Dark Piper" when it was re-released as a paperback book by ACE Books back in the mid-1970s in the Andre Norton section in the science fiction area of Michele's Bookstore at the Bryn Marr Shopping Center in Jacksonville, North Carolina. I got my reading copy, a discarded hardcover library book from Paxon Senior High School Library here in Jacksonville, Florida that was on the shelves in the science fiction section of Chamblin's Book Mine.
Andre Norton's science fiction universe spans thousands of years, and while I'm not sure of the time frame, "Dark Piper" is set among the collapse of humanity's star spanning civilization and may take place prior to the events chronicled in "The Last Planet, a.k.a. Star Rangers."
"Dark Piper" features her usual cast of likeable, self-reliant young men and women, who have to fight both inscrutable, powerful aliens and the evil mercenaries who attempt to erase all other human life on Beltane. There are hints of Norton's Forerunners, the mysterious beings who preceded humans into space, but this novel is mainly one of survival after the near-destruction of the Beltane colony.
Vere Collis, a young man from a military family, narrates in first-person the apocalyptic story of Beltane, a very remote Terran outpost whose human colonists are mainly scientists. As the Terran Confederation gradually disintegrates under the burden of interstellar wars, Beltane becomes more and more isolated--an easy target for mercenary soldiers who still possess the ships to travel between stars. Retired Sector-Captain Griss Lugard attempts to warn the colonists of their imminent danger. When this fails, he leads a group of youngsters (including the narrator, Vere) deep underground before a series of explosions seals them from all contact with the outer world.
Vere and his friends must return to the surface, in spite of mutants/monsters who have adapted to life underground. That which awaits them among the silent ruins of their home is even more shocking.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Piper-And...
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