This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: David Starr, Space Ranger
Series: Lucky Starr #1
Author: Isaac Asimov
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 144
Format: Digital Scan
| Synopsis: |
David Starr, youngest member of the Galactic Science Council, has been sent to Mars to find out why people on Earth are being poisoned with Martian food. Going undercover as a farmboy, Starr meets various characters and comes across the idea that Mars might have native Martians living in caves underground.
Starr investigates, meets the Martians, who have moved beyond the physical and into the purely mental plane of existence and gets a special mask from them that disguises him, gives him a personal force field and allows him to create the personna, The Space Ranger.
Starr solves the mystery and the legend of the Space Ranger is born. The book ends with him picking up a sidekick and waiting for another adventure.
| My Thoughts: |
Oh my goodness. This was so much fun. Short and zippy and chockful of that 1950’s American Attitude. In Space!
These Lucky Starr books were originally written in the 50’s or 60’s and then re-released in the 70’s. Asimov wrote a new intro for the re-release where he apologizes for scientific inaccuracies since a lot more knowledge had been discovered between releases. One, it was funny to read about the advances made in 20 years from almost 50 years later and two, it did credit to Asimov that he was willing to admit his stories weren’t accurate. If more authors would be that humble, that would be good for all of us.
This was a mix of science fiction, mystery and western all rolled into one. It reminded me of the radio dramas that I’ve heard before. If this had been written today, I’d say this would fall into caricature or even satirization, but Asimov was fully serious. It works. It is written to entertain and it does that admirably.
I think the rest of the series I’ll be better able to judge if this is decent quality or not. This one has that “new but nostalgia” factor for sure.
★★★☆½
Fun to see that cover again. I read these books when I was in Middle School – the post brings back some good memories.
LikeLiked by 1 person
While I never read these back when I was in school, Asimov was one of my staples. Glad I have him as a foundation for my reading 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Funny concidering he has a book called foundation right?
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are correct. The Foundation Trilogy. He later went on to write more, but those first 3 were the best of the bunch 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
I am yet to read an asimov novel
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like “Caves of Steel”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Will see if i can find a copy somtime
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did too. I made the mistake of reading the rest of the books in that series. Asimov seemed to be fascinated by “hippy” women.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I found the society in the second or third book interesting, where people were outnumbered 1000:1 by robots and basically had almost no interaction with other people.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t claim to have exhaustive knowledge of Asimov, but I thought I was pretty familiar with what was out there to read. But I’ve never heard of these stories, something I’m gonna have to track down.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They were originally written under his pseudonym Paul French, but by the 70’s it had his name on it.
I’m wondering if there are reasons why these never became as big as some of his other series. I guess I’ll be finding out 😉
LikeLike
Nowadays this book might be labeled as YA, but with a very refreshing lack of teenager angst and (ewwwww!!!) love triangles: since my attempt to re-read the Foundation series, after a few decades, ended up badly because if felt stuffy and outdated, I’m not sure I would launch into an exploration of this one, but still you piqued my curiosity… 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, this is what I would expect a teenager to read, and enjoy.
If you had issues with a Foundation re-read then yeah, I think you’re making the correct choice to avoid these.
You can just read my reviews and feel like you’ve already read them 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed!!!! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad this was such fun! I do really want to check out Asimov 🙂 I’m always up for something entertaining!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m desperately trying to think of something snarky to say about this and tie in The Eye of the World but sadly, outside of outright lies, I just can’t think of anything. I guess this is your lucky day 🙂
The other thing I have to keep in mind is that I had just finished up that Gods of the Mountains when I started this, so it might be a case of “better by comparison”. One more reason to read the rest of the series I guess 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
hahahaha 😂
Oh fair enough 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, Asimov… it’s been some years, maybe it is time to go back 🙂 This one I’ve never read, but Foundation is one of my all-time favourites. From the classic s-f masters he is the one that aged best, in my opinion.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I should probably work in the Foundation trilogy into my tbr too. It’s been 10 years since I last read it and I only gave it 3stars back then. I’m wondering if I’d up that this time around. Being so much wiser and more well-read 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds fun hahah And so true. If authors admitted to their inaccuracies, so much more respect can be given around!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or at least if authors nowadays didn’t write about fad-theory X as if it was fact, I’d settle for that.
Our knowledge is growing so fast, that it doesn’t take 25 years anymore, a mere 5 and bam, everything has changed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As big an Asimov fan as I am, I’ve never read the Lucky Starr stories. I’ll see if I can fix that. Great write, thanks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are welcome. Before getting too excited though, I’d wait and see how the rest of the series goes. Book 2 was rather disappointing to be honest…
LikeLiked by 1 person