:''"The Sargasso of Space" is also the title of a 1931 sf novelette by

Edmond Hamilton Edmond Moore Hamilton (October 21, 1904 – February 1, 1977) was an American writer of science fiction during the mid-twentieth century. Early life Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania. So ...

'' ''Sargasso of Space'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel by American writer

Andre Norton Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name ...

, written under the alternate pseudonym "Andrew North". It was published in

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

Gnome Press Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics. Gnome was one of the most eminent of the fan publishers of SF, producing 86 titles in its lifespan — many considered classi ...

in an edition of 4,000 copies.

Sequels

* '' Plague Ship'' (1956) * '' Voodoo Planet'' (1959) * ''

Postmarked the Stars ''Postmarked the Stars'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Andre Norton, first published in the United States in 1969 by Harcourt, Brace & World. It is part of the series about the adventures of the interstellar tramp freighter '' ...

'' (1969)

Plot

Fresh out of Training Pool, a trade school for spaceship crews, Dane Thorson discovers that his first assignment as apprentice-Cargo Master puts him on ''Solar Queen'', a Free Trader: basically an interstellar

tramp freighter A boat or ship engaged in the tramp trade is one which does not have a fixed schedule, itinerary nor published Port#Port of call, ports of call, and trades on the spot market as opposed to Freight liner (ship), freight liners. A steamship engaged ...

. At the end of Dane’s first flight the ship’s captain gains an opportunity to bid on a planet newly opened for possible trade and the crew goes all in to get the contract for a planet named Limbo. The information on the planet, which comes with the contract, does not look promising, but things look up a bit when a team of archaeologists hires ''Solar Queen'' to take them to Limbo. On Limbo the archaeologists set up camp in the ruins of a Forerunner town, a trace of the people who ran a galactic empire long before humans ventured into space and who had wiped themselves out in an interstellar war. Dane and four others go exploring, to try to find intelligent life and potential trade goods. One of the group, Ali Kamil, disappears, apparently kidnapped by people using alien technology. Spooked, a group including Dane goes to the ruins to check up on the archaeologists and finds that they have disappeared. Suspicion has them return to ''Solar Queen'' by an alternate route and they begin to find wrecked spaceships, some from thousands of years previous, that show signs of having been looted. Approaching their landing site, they find ''Solar Queen'' under siege by pirates and they discern that the archaeologists are part of the pirate gang. While watching their ship from cover, Dane and his companions capture a pirate and invade the pirates’ underground base. There they find Forerunner technology still operating. In particular, they see two of the pirates operating a machine that draws in spaceships and crashes them on the planet. They also see signals indicating that one of the pirates’ own ships is being pursued by a Stellar Patrol cruiser. Dane and his companions shut down the Forerunner base as the Patrol ship approaches and then try to fight their way out of the base. As the ''Solar Queen''s crew engages the pirates in a blaster battle, the Patrol comes in and rescues them, putting a complete end to the pirates’ operation. The Patrol insists that ''Solar Queen''s crew give up their contract for Limbo, due to Forerunner artifacts, but they are allowed to take over the contract of one of the pirates’ victims, for trade with a planet called Sargol.

Reception

Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

'' reviewer Floyd C. Gale praised the novel as "unpretentious space opera. . . . good adventure reading for a couple of carefree hours."

Anthony Boucher William Anthony Parker White (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968), better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher (), was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio d ...

was less impressed, finding ''Sargasso'' "a competent routine space opera obviously aimed at the audience whose concept of s.f. is derived from T.V. serials.""Recommended Reading," ''

F&SF ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiva ...

'', September 1955, p.89.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sargasso Of Space 1955 American novels American science fiction novels Novels by Andre Norton Books with cover art by Ed Emshwiller Gnome Press books