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5.0 out of 5 stars
Post-apocalyptic Quests, Mar 22 2004
Darkness and Dawn is an omnibus edition of two independent novels. It includes Star Man's Son and No Night Without Stars. Both novels are post-apocalyptic stories set after great cataclysms that destroyed the previous civilizations. Both involve quests for knowledge and materiel from the prior age. And both feature symbiotic relationships between humans and animals.Star Man's Son (1952) takes place after the Great Blowup. Many areas are still radioactive. Mutated plants and animals abound. Fors is the son of Langdon, a Star Man killed by Beast Things on an exploration into a far city. Fors is rejected by the Star Men due to his white hair, a sign of mutation, and so he and his great hunting cat, Lura, leave on a great journey to search for the lost city in the north that was never bombed and thus is safe for scavengers. No Night Without Stars (1975) takes place three centuries after the cataclysm that caused the Dark Time. Many animals and countless men perished, with only a handful of survivors here and there and, after the skies cleared once again, there were changes. Sander left his people to search for the secret of working the strange metals found among the ruins. Fanyi seeks weapons to pay back the blood debt due to the slavers who have killed or captured her people. Together with their mutated animals -- Rhin, Kai and Kayi -- they follow her pendant toward the Great Place of the Before People. These stories are classical Norton. Star Man's Son was her first science fiction tale, written more than a decade prior to No Night Without Stars. They are very similar, but the second tale includes a heroine, which was against publisher policy when the first tale was written; however, the author has since produced many female characters with more substantial personalities. Highly recommended for Norton fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of quests among the ruins of destroyed civilizations. -Arthur W. Jordin
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