Galactic Derelict by Andre Norton

Galactic Derelict by Andre Norton

Science Fiction, Adventure

Age 11 and up

Grade 6 and up

192 pages, Hardcover 

c. 1959

      Galactic Derelict is the sequel to Time Traders. It can be found as a separate book but often it is combined with the first story. In my previous post on Time Traders I mentioned an updated 2000 combined edition but upon reading that volume I didn’t notice any updates.   

      Galactic Derelict continues with the characters of Ross Murdock and Ashe and introduces a new character, Travis Fox, an Apache rancher who stumbles upon a group of men from Operation Retrograde. Since this is a top secret project and Travis now knows too much he is offered a position on the team or being sent somewhere for a while to keep quiet. He chooses to become part of the team. Travis along with Ross and Ashe are sent back to prehistoric times to find an alien spaceship. They do find the ship but while trying to bring it into the present something triggers the ship to take off, carrying the three men and a technician named Renfry into space, destination unknown. The remainder of the story is their odyssey through space, over which they have no control. Their ship stops at three different places, each the remains of an alien civilization. The first stop is an abandoned refueling station where robots refuel their ship. The second and third stops are the remains of what once were advanced alien cities but are now occupied by animal like life forms with various degrees of intelligence, some friendly and some dangerous. 

      The beginning of the story has lots of action as the team faces mastodons, mammoths, sabretooth tigers and active volcanoes. The journey into space is more the building of suspense as each man copes with the long days trapped inside the ship, the threat of running out of food and fuel and the frustration of trying to figure out the workings of the alien ship. However there are times when they are fighting for their lives against hostile aliens on these worlds. Their greatest challenge remains finding a way to return to earth at the proper time without being shot down as an enemy ship.

     Norton has written several more books in this series which I don’t plan on writing on at this time. The titles are The Defiant Agents, Key Out of Time, Firehand, Echoes in Time and Atlantis Endgame.