A spaceship from Earth arrives on a planet, searching for lost human seed--ships who traveled out into the galaxy before things changed on the earth. When they arrive they discover the signs of an ancient civilization and first contact with the remnants of this civilization proves to be more complicated than it appears.

When they meet with some people who have come from Earth originally and that meeting will change everything.
I liked it, very much Andre Norton and somewhat of it's time, but it does ask questions about colonization and societal development and free will. ( )

Like 'Storm Over Warlock', this is another book with Andre mixing sci-fi and fantasy.   This time its the turn of mermen to be mixing it with the alien invaders/visitors/settlers to their planet.   And once again, Andre carries this off brilliantly, wonderfully written, classic sci-fi.

Quite thought provoking, in that it dips its toe into the early ideas of the Star Trek prime directive.   Should we interfere, should we get involved?   But if we, in the future, launch ourselves into the cosmos and into other people's societies, then haven't we already broken that prime directive?   Simply putting ourselves into space is interfering with whatever is already out there, yet here we go spewing our space junk in every direction in arrogance and ignorance not even caring what effects we may have.

There's part of this harkens back to 'Childhood's End' and the proclamation that the stars are not for humans, and that Homo sapiens would become extinct upon the Earth and never reach beyond because we simply aren't suitable and capable to do so mentally.

Maybe it's too late to realise and accept that just because we can do something physically does not mean that we should do it.   But off goes science and progress charging into the future without any care or consideration for the spiritual progress that is needed to temper our greed and wants.

Let's be honest, we aren't charging into space for the well being of our species, we're charging into space due to xenophobic paranoia that some other country will get there and exploit it first.   The space race has never been a marvel of human development, but a charge fuelled by fear, greed and paranoia to beat other's to the prize and plant a stupid flag before someone else can in order to claim that little bit of the infinite cosmos for our own little inbred sub-set of Homo sapiens.   This is not a good way to introduce our species to the cosmos.   Homo sapiens are so ****ing crass!

Available as a single book or in the collection, 'Visions of Distant Shores'. ( )

terran explorers land on a new-to-them world, and discover the friends they make have another agenda... interesting story that aged well, considering it was written in 1957. ( )

Dalgard Nordis is the descendent of the Free Scientists, who fled an Earth brutally ruled by Pax, and established a colony on the planet they called Astra. They made the journey mostly in cold sleep, and on awaking and landing, built their colony. However, they also met natives--the fur-covered mermen. The mermen, equally comfortable on land and in the water, were just starting to emerge from the water, where they had retreated when escaping the brutal rule of the species they call Those Others, who now seem to be gone.

Dalgard is traveling with his merman friend, Ssuri, on the exploration trip whose successful completion will see him welcomed as a full adult when he arrives back at the colony.

Raf Kurbi is a crew member on the tenth starship sent out from Earth after the overthrow of Pax and the creation of the Federation of Free Men. This ship lands on Astra, hoping to find one of the colonies they believe were established by escapees from Pax. The first inhabitants they encounter are,, in fact, Those Others, the former rulers of the planet, reduced in number and hunting down lost pieces of their own technology, but not all of it, and none of their determination to be absolute rules.

Initially, though, these people welcome the new arrivals from Earth, and still have some very impressive technology to display. They also have an eye on the technology that brought these new arrivals here from another planet--technology Those Others don't have.

Dalgard and Ssuri discover in their exploration that Those Others have started to reoccupy at least one of their formerly abandoned cities.

Raf and his crewmates travel with Those Others to their city, hoping that they'll share some of their technology. Instead, though, they gradually realize that the mermen the aliens are brutally killing on sight aren't the subintelligent animals their hosts, or perhaps captors, claim.

If Those Others succeed in finding what they're looking for, they'll be in a position to reassert their former control.

Dalgard and Ssuri, and Raf and his crewmates, separately start to realize the extent of the danger--and Dalgard doesn't know if these new human arrivals might be from a still-ruling Pax.

It's a story told in the manner of the middle of the last century, when it was written, It reflects, though, Andre Norton's belief that people are people, that their differences make life interesting and also offer advantages if they work together rather than against each other. In this story, it's humans and mermen, and two different human cultures who aren't sure they can trust each other. They're different, and interesting, and they're all still just people, with strengths and flaws.

Recommended.

I downloaded this audiobook free from LibriVox, and and reviewing it voluntarily. ( )

A war between a master race and a slave race, a small human colony in the middle of it and an innocent visitor from Earth who, of course, gets involuntarily drawn into the context. I always like Norton's protagonists, as singular characters they're reasonably detailed and multilayered, but unfortunately her "big picture" often falls flat. In this case, the portrayal of "The Others" as monolithic evil felt pretty forced, and I would've liked more indepth confrontation between Homeport and the RS10. ( )