Plague Ship

Again I was astonished how well these 70 year old "classics" (is it allowed to call a pulp a classic) hold up. Nowadays this novel would be probably marketed as YA SF, but all in all it's still an entertaining, solid adventure with interesting, though exclusively male (even the cat!) characters.Of course, some more alien-ness from the aliens, some more nuances especially in the side characters and perhaps a real antagonist would've been nice,but that's not what a fast-paced story like this can and wants to deliver. ( )

More adventures of the Solar Queen crew. Engaging and entertaining, even if pretty simplistic by today's standards.

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2014/11/review-of-plague-ship-by-andre-norton.h... ( )

First off - my scifi reading background for reference: I started out reading mostly contemporary 00's-10's science fiction, and occasionally read very few of the early scifi works of 1920's and 1930's.

This was my first Andre Norton book.

Even taking into the account the fact that Plague Ship was written in the 50's I found it utterly unimpressive, very flat, with highly improbable characters, aliens, and their interaction.
The story didn't have much to it. I did manage to get some salvage out of the book - like some small curious ideas mainly to do with the microecology of the ship. But in the end not a good read for a contemporary science fiction enthusiast at this day and age. ( )

The first time I read this, I was chewing my fingernails down to the bone trying to see how the Queen would get out of this one. Of course, I was maybe nine then. This time - a few tense moments, though I knew in general all would be well, and several belly laughs - on Sargol, on the ship (Sinbad's reaction to the critters, and the Hoobat's hunting technique), and the ending. I do like Dane. The oddest thing about this series is how firmly it _is_ a series; again, the end of this one sets up and foreshadows the next book. Fun. And having read later books, including the more recent co-written ones - events echo forward as well, Derelict for Trade in particular makes a lot of references to Plague Ship, from them having been Posted to what they would have done had they truly been infected. It makes things very rich. ( )