THE WAY TO DAWNWORLD [Mass Market Paperback]

It's a great pity that author Starr apparently produced only this book and its sequel Treasure of Wonderwhat: A Farstar and Son Novel #2; he's not even listed on Fantastic Fiction's website. He certainly had a deft touch at creating societies and characters, to say nothing of compelling plots. Dawnboy MacCochise, age 16, has been raised for most of his life on the planet of Apache Highlands, colonized centuries ago during "the Ethnic Migrations" by colonists who believed "that mankind had reached the zenith of its evolutionary and cultural advancement in the Scots Highlander and Apache Indian of the eighteenth century," but in fact only his mother was a native of that world: his father was Ranger Farstar, a space trader and free-lance planet locater who put him to be raised by her people after her early death. Now Ranger has a new ship and a tip on where to find the pot of gold every locater dreams of, an unspoiled, unknown planet with no sentient inahbitants, and he wants to give his son a chance to discover whether the spacer's life will suit him as well as the hybrid Highlander/Indian warrior life (Dawnboy considers himself "an Apache warrior") has.

Though occasionaly didactic and definitely prone to propagandize for the virtues of the capitalistic system, Starr never forgets that he's telling a story, and he tells it very well, especially when he's providing background about Dawnboy's world and background, the Apache Highlands culture, and the society of Capitalia, the Millionaires' World, where Ranger's financial backer, the mutant tycoon Rothfeller Hughes, has his headquarters. There's also a good element of suspense as Ranger, Dawnboy, and their ship-brain Lulu contend with rival ships belonging to the navies of IFIB and PHAP, two socialistic/totalitarian regimes that are both looking for planets to use as safety valves for their own overpopulated worlds. This tightly-plotted tale has been a favorite of mine since my first deacde as a reader of sf, and it's lost nothing of its charm in 40-odd years.

"The Way To Dawnworld" is a science fiction adventure that takes place on distant planets in the distant future. At first it seemed a bit corny due to the names of the main characters - Dawnboy and Ranger Farstar, and Rothfeller Hughes - though the narrative is well-written. It's explained that Dawnboy belongs to a tribe that is a cross between Apaches and Scots, that the whole planet he lives on (Apache Highlands) was deliberately colonized that way. In spite of his name, the masculinity of the protagonist is quickly established in the beginning of the book as the 14-year-old hunts and fights a grizzly bear to prove his manhood.

The first third of the novel concerns the return of Dawnboy's father, Ranger Farstar, to remove the boy from the extended family that raised him and take him along as a space trader. Most of the middle of the novel deals with his education and their involvement in a political situation between competing interstellar empires as they take a job for billionaire Hughes. In the last 3rd of the story they perform that job - exploring for a planet suitable for colonization while trying to evade the military spacecraft of the larger factions.

In addition to the character names that I found corny, almost all of the planets are named for the type of system existing on them - such as Capitalia, Newtonia (planet of scientists), Musendowment (subsidized artist colony), etc. This convention doesn't seem realistic - I can't see it holding up on any one planet for more than one generation. Because of that the novel seems juvenile, aimed at younger readers; however, other than the names the narrative and dialog are relatively sophisticated, even more so than Robert Heinlein's "juvenile" novels ("Starship Troopers," "Red Planet," etc.), so it's quite readable for adults, and like Heinlein the author blends in enough philosophy and insight, without detracting from the suspense, to make it worth reading. On the whole, it's very comparable to Heinlein's "Citizen Of The Galaxy," not quite as good by a minuscule shade.