Firehand - Softcover

Norton, Andre; Griffin, P. M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812519841 ISBN 13: 9780812519846

Publisher: Tom Doherty Assoc Llc, 1995

Synopsis

Preparing to travel through time in order to face a band of predatory aliens, Ross Murdoch plans to leap into the feudal period of Dominion, where he can help win a war that will bring defeat to the aliens. Reprint.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

In a satisfying return to Norton's Time Trader world, a young man finds himself as he teaches guerrilla warfare to a feudal, nonterrestrial offshoot of humanity in order to prepare them properly for a future in which space- and time-traveling humans are battling for survival against murderous aliens. Ross Murdock, a young criminal recruited as a Time Agent for his survival skills, is sent to the Dominion of Virgin, which had abruptly turned from a populous planet to a burned cinder as a result of time-travel by the Baldies, as the aliens are known. The key development that would have saved the planet was the evolution of mental powers that were delayed because of the turmoil following a warlord's conquests 700 years previously. Murdoch, scientist Gordon Ashe and arms expert Eveleen Riordan are sent back in time to Dominion to develop a resistance movement without revealing the existence of Earth or drawing the attention of the Baldies. The authors, who collaborated on Redline the Stars and several Witch World books, have developed an attractive world and likable characters. This coming-of-age novel may be better suited for the young-adult market, however.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Norton revives her 30-year-old Time Trader series with the help of Griffin, her collaborator on Redline the Stars (1993) and various Witchworld stories. The Time Traders--who travel in time, by what amounts to magical means, but don't trade--are epitomized by brash ex-criminal Ross Murdock, whose function is to thwart the invasion of human-occupied space by the alien Baldies. Often a disaster in the present can be averted by prompt, appropriate action in the past. So Ross, with weapons expert Eveleen Riordan and archeologist-turned-medic Gordon Ashe, must travel into the past of the planet Dominion and win a war the history books say was lost, in order to prevent destruction by the Baldies in the present. The authors offer no coherent structure or rationale for dealing with time travel and its effects. The characters and plot are stereotyped (with a predictable and drippy romance thrown in); the aliens are nasty and bald. The action involves considerable galloping about on deer-back. Wretched twaddle. Far better the Time Traders had been left to molder in peace. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tom Doherty Assoc Llc
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0812519841
• ISBN 13: 9780812519846
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 282