For this volume, Norton has updated The Time Traders (1958) and Galactic Derelict (1959) to take into account 40 years of political, social, and technological developments--such as computer games, a concluded cold war, and many more female characters in sf--without essentially changing them. In Time Traders, Ross Murdock has the choice of rehabilitation or volunteering for a secret research project, which turns out to be searching the past for the source of illicit technological innovations. In Galactic Derelict, Travis Fox stumbles on a time-travel project and has to be recruited for it; then he and his comrades take an involuntary trip aboard an alien starship that crashed on Earth before recorded history. The characters' can-do attitude and Norton's magic with a story have survived two generations in fine style, and these tales remain the same sort of quintessential fun as Star Wars, and with more intelligence. May there be a market for their further reprinting in 2040! Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description

DRAFTED INTO THE ARMY OF TIME

Intelligence agents have uncovered something which seems beyond belief, but the evidence is incontrovertible: the USAs greatest adversary on the world stage is sending its agents back through time! And someone or something unknown to our history is presenting them with technologies -- and weapons -- far beyond our most advanced science. We have only one option: create time-transfer technology ourselves, find the opposition's ancient source...and take it dawn.

When small-time criminal Ross Murdock and Apache rancher Travis Fox stumble separately onto America's secret time travel project, Operation Retrograde, they are faced with a challenge greater than either could have imagined possible. Their mere presence means that they know too much to go free. But Murdock and Fox have a thirst for adventure, and Operation Retrograde offers that in spades.

Both men will become time agents, finding reserves of inner heroism they had never expected. Their journeys will take the battle to the enemy, from ancient Britain to prehistoric America, and finally to the farthest reaches of interstellar space...

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3.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Still Strong After All These Years, Oct 27 2002

By	Emil L. Posey (Huntsville, AL USA) - See all my reviews

A reprint of the 1958 edition, this was like finding an old friend. I first read this in 1958 or 1959, when I was about 10 years old. I remembered snippets of it ever since and wondered if I would ever come across it again. The story is just as fresh as it was then. Indeed, I looked for some disclaimer that it had been updated, but found none. Other than the lack of scientific explanation underlying key aspects of the plot, thus dating its style somewhat, this was a remarkably prescient piece. And far from sophomoric in the bad sense, it appeals to the kid still inside me. I enjoyed it as much now as I did when I was 10. It has time travel, Russians, aliens, prehistoric tribes, space ships, personal struggle and triumph...what more can you want in a science fiction yarn? From over 40 years ago, it still rates 5 stars!

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2.0 out of 5 stars a book spielberg will love., Oct 17 2001

By	"shawndoe" (TAILWD) - See all my reviews

there are actually 2 books here : Time Traders from 58
and Galactic Derelict from 59 (sequal). both books are kind of infantile SF books, representing the clasic age of the ganre. it has a very entertaing plot with aleans back to the past, and the back to the feuture plot, and then flying in rockets to sidtant planet, meeting bad russians, and aleans, and monsters. in short a full plot of 5 spielberg movies in one cover -
because the story is so plane, the figures are one dimentional, the americans are always the best and humane, while the russian and the aliens are always bad or stupied. and the writing style is not something to cover on it.

andre norton won the SWFA grand master aword in 83. i think this was to show gratitude for his persistance, but judging from this books, i don't think he truely deserved it.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Unnecessary Revisions Weaken a Classic, Aug 24 2001

By	R. Clark (Ridley Park, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: TIME TRADERS (Mass Market Paperback)

If you're like me, you read these novels as a youngster in the late 50's or early 60's, and you were drawn in not just by the no-wasted-motion adventure/scifi style for which Ms. Norton became so well loved, but by the glimpses of a not-too-distant future that was clearly based on a somewhat uncertain present. The style is still there in this new edition, but the future, sadly, is gone. For reasons that elude me, the political/cultural milieu of the original near-future has been updated (the Bad Guys are no longer "Reds," they're from a post-USSR-breakup "resurgent Russia"), and the result is not a good fit. The narrative and characterizations still have that squeaky-clean Fifties feel, so the 90's references feel anachronistic. Part of the pleasure of reading classic sf is to enjoy the retro flavor; this attempt to overlay a contemporary veneer simply rings false. What's worse, the paperback edition, which I purchased, bears no indication anywhere that these revisions exist. I discovered them only as I read along and became increasingly disturbed by things that didn't fit. If you want to read a classic, and especially if you want to relive the experience of reading the classic you remember from your youth, do yourself a favor and track down the original text.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully fun stuff!
There is nothing quite like the type of space yarn that the great and greatly prolific Andre Norton wrote in the 1950s and 1960s. Read more

Published on Aug 20 2001 by Steven Eldredge