Sign-In
Cart
The Time Traders
Hardcover
Science FictionClassic Fiction
Publisher: Bibliotech Pr
Published: Nov 3 2023
Pages: 148
Weight: 0.77
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The Time Traders is a science fiction novel by American writer Andre Norton, the first in The Time Traders series. It was first published in 1958, and has been printed in several editions. It was updated by Norton in 2000 to account for real world changes. It is part of Norton's Forerunner universe.
The Time Traders introduces the premise: a confrontation between Western heroes and the Reds, AKA the Soviets, plus the Baldies, a mysterious alien race that has used time travel to alter Earth. This novel alternates among the present day, a trading tribal society in Britain, 2000 B.C., and a glacial outpost in the last ice age.
In her Time Trader novels Norton tacitly assumes that the physics of time travel differs so significantly from the physics of space travel, especially hyperdrive-propelled interstellar flight, that a civilization that discovers the technology of one simply will not discover the technology of the other. Earth's physicists have discovered the secret of time travel, but the engineers and scientists who built and use the time transporters have devised a clever way to obtain the secrets of space travel: if it is not possible to discover the secrets, we get them from someone who did.
Floyd C. Gale wrote that Traders gets Miss Norton back solidly and admirably on her track of excellence, and was one of her topnotchers.
In the Saturday Review for 1958 Nov 01, the reviewer, identified by the initials A. O'B. M., wrote:
This exciting story is set in the last quarter of this century, but the action takes place in several levels of time and periods of history and prehistory. A young convicted criminal becomes a volunteer in a government program which trains men to do research in these various eras. Object: the discovery of scientific secrets lost before the dawn of history. The hero is pictured as a kind of commando personality, a nonconformist in civilized society but the ideal man in primitive times.
In Kirkus Reviews for 1958 Oct 01[5] an unidentified reviewer wrote:
At the end of this century Ross Murdock is given the choice between prison and a dangerous role in a secret mission. Accepting the latter, but determined to escape at the first opportunity, the intelligent young man finds himself involved in a project which demands that he be projected back to various periods in history. For the Americans, aware that the Russians, somewhere in time, have learned the secret of space travel, must for the sake of national safety, obtain the same secret. Hurled back into the earliest ages of man, Ross' volatile intelligence is, for the first time, stimulated as he risks death, posing as a member of prehistoric worlds. By the time the Americans gain control of the secret, Ross is rehabilitated and is a willing participant in the benevolent army of the future. An interesting idea, well handled by Andre Norton, science fiction expert, who projects his (sic) reader deftly both backwards and forwards in time and injects his (sic) narrative with considerable and interesting historical information. (wikipedia.org)
24 different editions
Also available
Also from
Norton, Andre
Women of the Golden age Super Pack#1: A Positronic Book
Norton, Andre
Merril, Judith
Brackett, Leigh
Hardcover
Women of the Golden Age Super Pack #1: A Positronic Book
Merril, Judith
Norton, Andre
Brackett, Leigh
Paperback
Ralestone Luck: A Classic Mystery Adventure of Family Secrets, Lost Treasure, and Southern Intrigue
Norton, Andre
Hardcover
Also in
Classic Fiction
James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales Vol. 1 (Loa #26): The Pioneers / The Last of the Mohicans / The Prairie
Cooper, James Fenimore
Hardcover
Four Comedies: The Taming of the Shrew, a Midsummer Night's Dream, the Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
Before Gatsby: The First Twenty-Six Stories
Baughman, Judith
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Bruccoli, Matthew J.
Paperback
The Princess Bride Deluxe Limited Edition: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
Goldman, William
Paperback
The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paperback
The Lord of the Rings Illustrated by the Author: Illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Hardcover
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
Goldman, William
Hardcover
The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Revised and easy-to-read)
Vermilye, Alan
Bunyan, John
Paperback
Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Stoker, Bram
Shelley, Mary
Paperback