Beast Master's Ark [Mass Market Paperback]

The story picks up almost immediately after the events of Lord of Thunder, with Hosteen, Brad, Logan, and Dumaroy still much in evidence. A new major character, Tani, is introduced, child of another Beast Master, but mainly raised by her gene-scientist aunt and uncle. Her father was killed during the Xik war, and her mother, believing his death was a product of high command malfeasance and most beast master's attitude of treating their teams merely as tools, inculcated in Tani a belief that beast masters were not good people and that animals should never be used for war purposes.

The Ark, a gene bank of just about every Terran species, was put together during the war as a fail safe to ensure that life forms were not permanently lost. Tani and her aunt and uncle bring the Ark to Azor, both to collect new gene specimens and to possibly create mates for Hosteen's animal team. But on Azor, a strange set of killings, both of animal life and Norbie/humans, has started to occur, seemingly originating out of the Deep Blue, causing some Nitra tribes to move into the area around Hosteen's ranch. This sets the stage for Tani to become deeply involved in the Norbie tribal culture, and for her to find and use her own beast master talents to combat the threat.

Tani is a well realized character, with enough background to allow understanding of her feelings and positions, who changes during the course of the action in a believable manner. Hosteen also shows some development, to a mature man who knows at least some of what he wants out of life. The plot is comparatively simple, but there are certainly enough thrill points and dramatic moments to hold your attention, and it is not just another re-hash of plot lines Norton has used many times in the past.

Thematically this work does not tread much new or deep ground. Those familiar with Norton's work will certainly recognize her themes of the sacredness of life balanced by practical necessity, of the need for honesty and the room to be distinct individuals, of the value of cultural heritage, of respecting the beliefs of others, and the sometime power of belief in the unseen. This is not necessarily bad, as profoundness of philosophical thought in this work would have worked against its basic nature of being an adventure tale, and the level provided still gives enough food for thought to be useful.

The ending was perhaps a little too pat, with certain relationships easily predictable, and the primary mystery's resolution too easy given the earlier books in this series background. Also, I found myself missing any real involvement of the ancient vanished alien race that created the Sealed Caves that was so prominent in the first two books.

Not as strong as the first two books in the set, but a very nice addition, and has helped restore my faith in sequels written with co-authors.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)