Lord of Thunder - Andre Norton (1962)

 

Rating: Admirable

Having recently moved house, which involved packing and unpacking dozens of boxes of books, I realised just how many unread books I have dating back decades. Time to read them then, and so I grabbed Lord of Thunder off one of my new book shelves. I've had this slight science fiction novel in my possession since the 1970s, perhaps since I was ten years old. Although I loved the cover, and still do (just look at it! It's a fantastic example of sleek minimalism), I remember trying to read it and realising that it was beyond my capabilities. By the time I noticed it again, in my twenties, I thought it beneath my capabilities, and so it lay dormant, saved only by its cover. What I didn't realise was that Lord of Thunder is a YA novel, before publishers realised that there was such a thing. What I also didn't realise it that Andre Norton was a woman, Alice Mary Norton, who used a male pen name in order to smooth her way in the male dominated world of science fiction. Alice Norton wrote both science fiction and fantasy, publishing at least a dozen different series, most notably the Witch World series, which began in the 1960s and was still going in the 1980s. Lord of Thunder is the sequel to The Beast Master (1959). Both novels feature Hosteen Storm, a 'Beast Master' hailing from Earth (Terra), who can telepathically communicate with an eagle called Baku and a big cat called Surra. Together they make a formidable team in this rather bracing adventure on the planet Arzor, populated by Norbie aliens and human settlers from Terra, apparently long since dead. 

Alice Mary Norton, cat master.

Lord of Thunder has a wild west type of vibe, with the Norbie tribes resembling American Indians, albeit with blue skin and horns. This is the kind of adventure oriented science fiction that was very attractive to teenagers back in the 60s and 70s. Hosteen is jarred out of his newly settled life when he is forced to mount a rescue operation into the searing hot landscape of the 'blue' region of the planet. Also the Norbie tribes are calling truces and heading into the blue region en masse, which alarms Hosteen, as he believes it could only mean war with the human settlers. Although it quickly became clear that Norton could turn out a great adventure narrative, with a nice pared back style that wastes no time, I was surprised at just how good Lord of Thunder turned out to be. Perhaps the nostalgia of reading a proper sci-fi adventure (I grew up reading the likes of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat novels...) made it that more pleasurable. The novel also features one of the great science fiction tropes, the ruins of a lost alien civilisation. Even better is that the ruins are underground and embedded in cave systems within mountains. Hosteen and his brother, Logan (who was living with one of the Norbie clans) become trapped within the ruins and have to find their way out. These sections are the best part of Lord of Thunder, full of tension and mystery and not overdone or melodramatic. Since reading the novel I discovered that Norton is still much admired within the fantasy community, and I can see why, she was a classy writer. However Lord of Thunder is not without its flaws, with the denouement coming across as rushed and a tad predictable, which weakens the overall impact of the plot. Despite this I really enjoyed the novel and am pleased that I held onto it for so long, which just proves that hoarding books is totally justifiable and worthwhile.

Just one of many alternate covers.