This is a great read, I've read so many times. Time to read it again. ( )

Before it was politically correct Andre Norton was populating her books with minority characters and making them people with the same strengths, fears and needs as the majority. Perhaps this is why I have been drawn to her books for over 40 years. Believable characters. This is one of her shorter books and is a nice lead into the next book Defiant Agents. It is a quick read but very satisfying. ( )

Great adolescent Science Fiction story by Andre Norton. I have never been a big fan of Norton. Most of her fame is from her fantasy novels rather then SF. Some of her early works were SF and good adventures. This is the second in her "Time Traders" series and I enjoyed it as much as the first. If this book doesn't get a teen interested in SF then neither will early Heinlein or Asimov. ( )

The adventures of Murdock and Ashe continue but the main point of view character is a young man by the name of Travis Fox, an Apache who runs across the Time Agents when they set up a survey for alien star ships in his brother's land. Inducted into service almost against his will, Travis finds himself way back in time as the ancient ice sheets withdraw from North America where the trio have to evade the local wildlife and exploring tribes. When they find a near perfect ship they call through their tech team to bring the vessel through time, but this is a geologically unstable time and a massive series of volcanoes force the Project members back to their home time before the ship has been sent forward. All members of the team, that is, except Ashe, Murdock, and Fox and, a tech aboard the ship who hadn't been aware of the impending catastrophe. As it looks like they're all doomed, the time grid round the alien vessel is activated and they're dragged forward in time. But their troubles aren't over as the ship is activated by this rough handling and the four aboard are sent hurtling through the galaxy as the ship traces it's homeward route.

Most of the story is taken up with the group dynamics of the explorers as they are stuck aboard the ship, mostly from Fox's point of view and while there is little of the angst you'd see from more modern novels, there is a bit of antagonism between Fox and Murdock, the muscles of the team. ( )

Part 2 of the Time Traders series. It introduces the second protagonist of the series, the Apache Travis Fox, but apart from that this adventure seemed a bit pointless. Murdock, Ashe and Fox get accidentally lost in space when an alien spaceship they're exploring suddenly starts off on an automated journey to other systems/planets. The main objective of the story is to survive and get home again, but apart from a few fights against alien wildlife, there's not much these three can actually do. There's not much conflict between them either, so all in all it seems more like a filler to give a foundation for the following installments and the actual deliberate exploration of alien worlds. ( )