Time Traders

Classic story from a classic author. Time travel, space travel, swords and sorcery all rolled into one. Some aspects of hard sci do, especially with regards to survival in wilderness or space, but lots of hand waving over the time travel / space travel aspects.

This was a good way to pass time while laid up with a broken foot bone, but not one I would pick otherwise. The story had my interest until Travis Fox entered the story-- not Travis himself but the turn the story took.

This was a fun read, but really felt a little disjointed. The main character at the beginning seemed a much different person than at the end and there wasn't too much development on how he changed really. I expected more introspection or discussion based on the early internal dialogue. Also felt like a couple of dissimilar stories smushed together. First time travel, then space travel. There was a common thread, but still felt like it should have been two stories.

This is one of her timeless stories. It has classic written all over it. Science fiction without the "big" words that can be so distracting at times. I like this story alot, it lets your imagination expand and your dreams to shine.

This book held my attention as there is plenty of action. When you think you know where it is going there is a new twist to the action added. The subject matter will keep the history buffs as well as science fiction readers interested. Would suggest this book to adults of all ages.

Norton was on top of things when he stayed on the Time Travel theme even though there were some gaps in the whys and hows. Then he takes the story line a bit further in a different way and I felt the second half of the book was not as good.

I love Andre Norton Sci Fi novels. This one is a good story and does leave one wanting to read sequels for what happens to the characters. Not Norton's best, but still a good read from an author that always delivers.

I found this book gripping from the get go. The characters and situation are marvelous. I like the sections design to intro new characters and next step in plot line. I would recommend this book and author to anyone.

Slow going until you get about three quarters of the way through. It ends rather abruptly and left me wondering what happens next.
This is the first Norton book I have read and I will look for others to try.

Certainly not Assimov or Verne, but imaginative and a new angle I have never saw before. Norton has great promise if for his imagination alone; if he can polish his style, I will look forward to his new releases.

If humans can figure out how to travel through time, surely they can figure out how to travel out of the galaxy. I skipped a lot of the second book just to prove that they would get home. First book worth reading, second not so much.

While this oldie has many interesting ideas, plot points are at odds. A "plane," needlessly and illogically, suddenly arrives from nowhere (from where, when, and why?), dumping live mules which are not put to use in the story.
There is no explanation of what happens to the protagonist's first contact. The passive voice is inflicted over and over again upon the reader. Things just happen instead of the author making them happen. The reader must allow for logic gaps, and there are more than a few.
More a story of tribal interaction than time/dimension/place change science fiction. The book reads as an exercise in how not to write.

I remember Norton as a writer I liked in my youth and thought it would be fun to revisit one of her classic works. Alas, time has not been kind to the "Time Traders." There seems to be no coherent plot in this picaresque novel where no plot element is completed, and when the book ends one is left feeling that half of it got lost somewhere. Of course the science is vintage 1958, and unless the reader is willing to cast aside all of science progress since then, the story is very long in the tooth. My wish is that I had kept my fuzzy memory of Norton's oeuvre and never read what turned out to be a very disappointing novel. Some classics are timeless but this one is a dud.

OK, it's free and that tells you something right away. The story line is slow to develop until the 4th chapter. You start getting a sense of what the books about when the hero, Ross Murdock, goes back in time seeking a Russian secret base hidden somewhere in Earth's distant past. Shades of the "cold war"! It's the American good guys vs. Russian bad boys. Throw in alien spacecraft and aliens (bald headed, no less; recurrent theme in Andre Norton's stories)for added suspense and the story takes off. Unfortunately, our hero is not too good at evading capture (many times over) and miraculously escapes from post ice age tribal people of different tribes and villages (many times over). Yet, he manages to stumble (literally) upon the alien spaceship while repeatedly losing his companions along the way (can't seem to keep up with men older than himself...hmmmm). The e-version has a few spelling glitches (typical with these e-book types) but's reminiscent of 50's pulp fiction. If you have nothing else to do and need a story of 50's style entertainment, download the kindle version and enjoy.

I got this as a free Kindle download.

Over the years I have read a number of her books. Some I liked, some I liked a lot. This one I lost interest in.

It started out pretty good but degenerated into something I just did not enjoy about half way though so I quit on it. Books I quit on get 1 star from me.

Others might appreciate the genre more. I don't like my science fiction mixed up with goofy metaphysical nonsense like this one wandered into.

This is my first discovery of andre norton. Loved the writing and the story.
Five stars for the book but found out you can get a lot of her books for free. Shame on the store for not including them as free reads. But glad I discovered this great author.

I would give this only three and a half stars, but I'll round up to 4 out of respect for the author's other works. This isn't her best, but still definitely worth reading. Some re-editing seems to have been done to smooth out the datedness of the original, but the cold war references are still fairly obvious. I haven't read the original, so I'm not sure what else may have been added or removed. But I think I would have preferred either the original or a more complete rewrite.

But it is still something this way. There are still issues, but some are only issues because of age. When Norton was writing, the trope of "get out of prison if you volunteer for this super secret project" wasn't as hackneyed as it seems now. And the Russians make unconvincing villains. But the story itself holds together. Or stories, really, since this is two short books back-to-back instead of just one.

In the first book, we meet Ross Murdock. An incorrigible young criminal in the USA of the indeterminate future. His criminal behavior is never described and he doesn't come off as a particularly believable character, but I imagine that this was probably needed to keep him sympathetic to a sixties-era audience. Anyway, he's basically drafted into this secret project and we find out the gov has secretly developed time travel. It's soft science and the "rules of time travel aren't given much explanation. And the setup so far is all kinda hokey. But now, assuming you've kept reading, here it finally starts getting good. They get sent back in time with the nebulous goal of finding the Russian time travellers and stealing whatever it is they are working on.

And from there much hijinks ensue. Not exactly high minded and thoughtful storytelling, more like classic pulp adventure. Which is because that's exactly what it is. A bit dated but still a rollicking good adventure.

And to clear up some possible misconceptions...
Part of a series, yes, but not a cliffhanger ending. Both books end well. The second book builds on the first but isn't about time travel at all.

At the height of the Cold War, American and Soviet agents are both using time travel to explore prehistoric times. Paradoxically, they have discovered evidence of an advanced civilization that used futuristic technology, so the race is on to see which side can uncover and exploit it first. Ross Murdock, a young troublemaker about to be sent to prison, is given the opportunity to avoid his sentence and become a time-traveling spy instead.

The mechanics and complications of time travel aren't explored in any depth; it's mainly a method to get the heroes to an exotic locale (Britain, c. 2000 BC) where they can have adventures. Likewise, the Soviet agents are just faceless obstacles for the heroes to overcome. Most of the book is a series of chases, captures, and escapes, as Murdock and his fellow agents maneuver around the "natives", the "Reds", and a mysterious other faction that enters the scene. On the plus side, the book is full of action and suspense, as Murdock gets pushed to his limits, physically and psychologically. His stubborn, independent streak, which caused him so much trouble in the modern world, turns out to be his greatest asset in primitive times.

While I wouldn't call the book innovative or deep, it is a very entertaining adventure, and it ends on a note of intrigue that makes me curious to read the rest of the series.

Ross Murdock is a juvenile delinquent, but this time the judge offers him a choice between jail or something with this guy who is just standing in the courtroom. It was a no-brainer because the jail time would also include something to do with his mind. It amounted to being exiled to the far North to work on a project that involved going back in time. He gets there and finds out he has chosen slavery, of a sort, helping the defense department uncover some interesting stuff in the past. There is no explanation of how they do the time traveling, it just is (duh).
The explorers are trying to find the stash of new technology that the Russians (read Communists) have found and are developing for themselves. Mr. Murdock does his bit in finding what it is. Then the scene switches to the New Mexico desert where another fellow stumbles onto Mr. Murdock and others who will be going back in time there to find an alien stash of their own, and the story unfolds to end very nicely.
I had two thoughts while reading this: would Russian readers find it interesting? What do they think of any of our literature that is so one sided pro-America? I am sure it galls them to read of their country (read team) is so easily put in its place.
The other thought is that if you can time travel back in time, is that not a way to travel through space? NO matter how long it took to get there, you could travel to the past and communicate with home as if it was a day or two later, and the radio communication could be also taken back even if it took ten (10) or fifteen (15) years to get there, send it back in time to when it was sent, or near to. This is just one way to space travel and have radio communication, but the big hurdle is time travel.

In the 1950s this may have been great, but now it is colorless and forgetable. I've actualy read them twice, since I forgot the first time. So, it promises much, and I kept reading to find something good, but it does not deliver. The writing is good enough to get you in and keep you, but plotwise and characterwise it is lacking.

One thing that bugs me is the main characters are somewhat passive. They run away, and they rarely know what they are doing, but they have to keep running, and that gets old. Maybe the author uses more passive verbs or a wierd tense, but the characters are mostly along for the ride. Now along the way, we are introduced to 2 ancient peoples and a primative alien race, but the main characters barely even trade with the latter. With a title like Time Traders, you might expect more trading, and more interaction with different time periods. The worlds are downright empty, evoking a barenness that they have to run through while fearing getting caught. Even the bad guys are faceless and silent.

Our heros never use our tech in the past or really any alien tech either (other than the suit), due to not wanting to alter history and not knowing how alien tech works. So forget any promise of interesting tech interactions.

The streetwise hero, gets toughened up in an unspecified training program, and develops some mental resistance too, but does not really have an ongoing consistent character, maybe because he's alone and running for so much of the time or subordanate the rest. The indian never has his indianness come up again after he's been introduced. And the experienced TT, well, we hardly know him.

_The Time Traders_ (1958) is the first of Andre Norton's time agent novels. Three others by Norton followed over the years: _Galactic Derelict_ (1959), _The Defiant Agents_ (1962), and _Key Out of Time_ (1963). There were later volumns in the series done "in collaboration" with another author, but I suspect that what this means in practice is that Norton did little or none of the writng on those books. I prefer to concentrate on Norton's solo books.

The Cold War politics in the novel seem a little dated today. America is in fierce competition with the "Reds," who are portrayed as treacherous and ruthless bastards, enemies of Democracy. The battleground, though we are not shown this right away, is the time of the Beaker traders-- which America and Russia have reached by time machine. Both sides have discovered relics of crashed alien spacecraft that landed on Earth thousands of years ago and which are being raided for parts and technological ideas. Many of the aliens-- the Baldies-- are dead. But some are alive, and they make the Russians look like benevolent philanthropists.

We see events through the eyes of young Ross Murdock, an intelligent but antisocial Bad Boy, who is given a choice by a judge-- do jail time or serve in a secret project. Now to me, this makes about as much sense as assigning a convicted felon a job in the labs at Los Alamos or Oak Ridge to work off his sentence. But he is accepted. Murdock proves to be a bit too smart for his own good, and he continues to make a series of bad choices. Logically, he should be tossed in jail. But Norton glosses over this with some hugger-mugger about how he redeemed himself at the last minute. And before you know it, Murdock has become a full-fledged time agent.

Once the characters go back in time, the plot becomes a bit more credible. But the truth is, there are a number of novels by Norton that are much more believable. The holes in the plot are redeemed a bit by the characterization-- Murdock _is_ an interesting, if prickly, person-- and the imaginative sweep of its basic concept. No, it's not quite as good as I remembered from my high school days. but it is still an enjoyable read.

Time Traders (2000) is an omnibus edition of the Time Traders series, including The Time Traders and Galactic Derelict. These novels are set in the near future when the Russians have discovered time travel and the Americans duplicated their efforts. Yet the Russians have discovered other new technologies that do not seem to be related to any previous research.

The Time Traders (1958) is the first novel in this series. In this novel, Ross Murdock is a young man with a bad record. He is held in detention and subjected to a series of psychological tests, then called back into the courtroom for sentencing. Ross is offered a chance to volunteer for an unidentified government project as an alternative to Rehabilitation.

Ross chooses to volunteer and is turned over to someone called Major. He plans to run at the first opportunity, but the Major takes him up to the roof of the building where they are picked up by a helicopter. They land on an airfield, change to flying suits, and leave in a sleek flying machine that departs straight up. By the time they reach their destination, Ross has learned that the Major is named Kelgarries, but has no idea where they are, except that it is thoroughly covered in snow.

Within the base, Ross is subjected to a series of tests, including a full day of physical examination. The rest of the time he spends in a cell-like room by himself on a very comfortable bunk. After the speaker in his room brays an announcement in the Major's voice, Ross is startled to see the opposite wall disappear, revealing an outdoor scene with mountains and fir trees, the scent of pine trees, and the moaning of the wind.

He hears a wolf howl, senses gray shadows in the trees, sees a wolf come toward him, hears it growl, and then sees it crouch down to leap. A bow twangs and the animal leaps into the air, then falls and bites at an arrow in its side. By this time, Ross has the blanket wrapped around his arm and is crouched down himself, waiting for the wolf's leap. Puzzled, he carefully walks to where the wall had been and discovers an unseen but solid surface at that location. He assumes that something new in image viewing has been developed and lies down to enjoy the remainder of the show.

In this story, Ross learns that he is teamed with Doctor Gordon Ashe -- an archaeologist -- within Operation Retrograde. Its mission is to search the past for clues to the source of the new Russian technology. Ashe takes him to mess call, where he finds other team members with the appearance of Tartars and Vikings. After a great deal of training, Ross finds himself in Stone Age Britain.

Galactic Derelict (1959) is the second SF novel in this series. In the previous volume, the project has found that the Russians discovered a starship in the past. Now Operation Retrograde is searching for a starship of their own.

In this novel, Travis Fox is an Apache. His friend Chato is an old man whose grandfather was born among the Apache holdouts in a hidden canyon about 120 years before. Travis has long wished to combine the lore of his ancestors with the knowledge of the white men, but then he is fired from an important archaeological expedition because of the prejudice of the major contributor.

A year later, Travis is looking for a reliable source of water for the herds on his brother's ranch. Based on information from Chato, he checks out the hidden canyon and comes across white eyes camping there. Scouting out the intruders, Travis is caught by Ross and brought to the other white men at gun point. Travis knows of Doctor Gordon Ashe, but Ross and the radioman Grant are unknowns.

These men are setting up a time viewer within the canyon. Naturally, they are not going to let Travis go free until their operation is completed. Yet Travis doesn't want to be released before he learns more about their mission.

In this story, Travis goes with Ashe and Ross to scout out a spaceship located a short distance away and fifteen millennia back in time. The huge spherical spaceship has crashed and holes gape in its sides. Then the men are caught in a rainstorm and take shelter in the nearby hills.

After the storm, they climb a hill and look around. Travis notices something shiny in the next valley and they check it out. The shine comes from another, smaller globe. Its lock is open and the bodies of the crew lie at the foot of the access ladder. They are wearing Baldy uniforms and are quite dead.

The scouts send back word of the second ship. A working party comes through the time pprtal and starts preparing the alien globe ship for transfer forward in time. When the nearby volcano erupts, the scouts take shelter in the alien ship. Then the time transfer grid around the ship is activated and they are thrown forward in time. But the shift in time initiates the takeoff sequence and the ship heads for space.

This series has changed over the years to adapt to the political upheaval in Russia, but the real enemies in this series have always been the Baldies. When faced with a superior technology from a group of hostile aliens, the political differences between humans looks less important. Thus, the cooperation with the Russian time travel project has been almost inevitable by the logic of this series.

This series has always been more complex than it appears on the surface, for lurking in the background is a vision of the probability multiverse such as found in Crossroads in Time. Change the past and forever lose your future. Thus, it raises the issue of how much change is required to spawn a new timeline.

This series is a prime example of the author's storytelling skills. It is a fascinating tale of time travel and alien technology. The next installment in this omnibus sequence is Time Traders II.

Highly recommended for Norton fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien civilizations, time transfer, and travel among the stars. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

Norton presents a unique twist on anthropology and archeology. How could humanity uplift itself, when most scientists were still improving chemical rocket technology of the 1930s? If alien spacemen had been visiting Earth for millennia, would they have left artifacts? Gordon Ashe and Ross Murdoch train as scouts to search for signs, racing against time.
Travis Fox joins them in the second half of the book, contributing his skills to their effort. In a surprising twist, they reach farther than man ever explored. All told, the plot is excellent introduction to late-1950s Scify- ideal for young adults.
Cons: slightly dated data technology, a completely male-dominant story (but that explains the shallow emotional thinking of characters).

Russ Murdock has lived by his wits for years. Sure they seem to have him now, but he's sure he can wiggle his way free from whatever the law wants to do with him. He's quick to volunteer for a project rather than be sent to jail but he doesn't anticipate that the project will put him somewhere inside the artic circle, or that he's been selected as one of the group of Americans sent back through time to try to learn how the Russians have been getting a jump on American scientists.

In the Bronze Age, disguised as one of the Beaker People, Russ learns that the Russians have learned the disguises the Americans are using--and have launched attacks on their bases. Alone in a world thousands of years in the past, Russ must not only survive, he's got to learn where the Russians have their base, whether they're learning scientific secrets from some Atlantan civilization--or from some strnager source, and then make contact with his fellow Americans. It's a tall order--but all of those years of sneaking and criminal activity turn out to have some benefits after all.

In the second volume in this two-in-one omnibus, Russ is joined by Apache rancher Travis Fox in the search for an alien spaceship set in the distant past. But when they try to return the ship to the present, something goes frighteningly wrong and their party blasts off into galactic space. Will they find advanced civilizations waiting to pounce, or has civilization faded--and a new galactic dark age ensued?

Author Andre Norton writes a wonderful young adult-oriented adventure. I first read these novels (they were initially released as two separate volumes) when I was an early teen--the 'golden years of science fiction' and remember it fondly. I wondered when I picked up this more recent edition, whether my memories were true, or if I've become more discriminating (or harsh) over the years. Norton's sense of adventure was dead-on in these stories, though, with plenty of twists, dangerous moments, and cliff-hangers.

When I first read this book, I was blown away by Norton's description of a computer game. Remember, this was written in the 1950s. In this edition, the computer game has been updated a bit (more graphical) but I don't know that this update was necessary. After all, who else was thinking about computer games back then? The concept of time travel is nothing new, but combining time travel with space was a nice touch.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, much of Science Fiction targeted the young adult reader. Clearly, from recent the Harry Potter explosion, this market still exists and has an appetite for exactly this kind of story. Some of the science is dated, the technology Norton describes is a bit laughable (do we really think aliens who develop hyperdrives will really have cockpits lined with wires?), and coincidence plays too big a role, but these didn't bother me as a young adult and they're only minor quibbles now.

Here is an omnibus of the first two time agent novels, _The Time Traders_ (1958) and _Galactic Derelict_ (1959). It's a series of stories that was one of Norton's best. But these novels are revisions of the originals. They are intended to be more in keeping with current developments in technology, our changing social values, our more liberated look at women, and our post Cold-War relationship with Russia. (In the originals, the villains are the "Reds".) I rather like the originals, even though I readily admit that much of the material, especially the anti-Communist rhetoric, is a bit dated. But you may prefer versions that are more up-to-date.

The basic premise is this: America and Russia have both developd time travel. They discover that during the time of prehistoric man, a fleet of spaceships manned by aliens known as Baldies landed on Earth. Some were wrecked and abandoned. There is now a race between time-agents to salvage the ships for equipment and ideas that will allow each country to make its way into space. And so it happens. But not always in the way that was intended...

The books are decent sf adventures. But you should be aware that they are _not_ the original versions.

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!

The Time Traders (1958) is the first novel in the Time Traders series. In this original version, Ross Murdock is a young man with a bad record. While in detention, he is subjected to a series of psychological tests and, when called back into the courtroom for sentencing, he is offered a chance to volunteer for an unidentified government project as an alternative to Rehabilitation.

Ross chooses to volunteer and is turned over to someone called Major. He plans to run at the first opportunity, but the Major takes him up to the roof of the building where they are picked up by a helicopter. They land on an airfield, change to flying suits, and leave in a sleek flying machine that departs straight up. By the time that they reach their destination, Ross has learned that the Major is named Kelgarries, but has no idea where they are, except that it is thoroughly covered in snow.

Within the base, Ross is subjected to a series of tests, including a full day of physical examination. The rest of the time he spends in a cell-like room by himself on a very comfortable bunk. After the speaker in his room brays an announcement in the Major's voice, Ross is startled to see the opposite wall disappear, revealing an outdoor scene with mountains and fir trees, the scent of pine trees, and the moaning of the wind.

He hears a wolf howl, senses gray shadows in the trees, and sees a wolf come toward him, hears it growl and then sees it crouches down to leap. A bow twangs and the animal leaps into the air, then falls and bites at an arrow in its side. By this time, Ross has the blanket wrapped around his arm and is crouched down himself, waiting for the wolf's leap. Puzzled, he carefully walks to where the wall had been and discovered an unseen but solid surface at that location. He assumes that something new in image viewing has been developed and lies down to enjoy the remainder of the show.

Suddenly, all lights go out, leaving him in complete darkness. He feels his way to the door and finds it open. As he explores the corridors, he hears something crawling toward him, with frequent pauses and heavy breathing. Now the lights all come back on, temporarily blinding him, but soon revealing someone wrapped in bandages over his entire body.

Before he can move, Major Kelgarries comes running up and kneels besides the figure, calling him "Hardy". The Major reassures Hardy that he is safe and then tells Ross to go to the end room and call a "Dr. Farrell". Hardy is carried away by the doctor and two attendants, with the Major walking alongside holding Hardy's hand. Ross realizes that the project is important and has suspected that it is dangerous; now he is certain of that danger.

As he is contemplating the group around Hardy, his name is called by a dark stranger who identifies himself as Ashe and says that they have been partnered. Ashe states that the project is Operation Retrograde and then takes him to mess call. There Ross discovers ten men, with six being ordinary in appearance; two of the men, however, were clearly Oriental, with long black mustaches and blue tattoo marks on their foreheads and the back of their hands and the other pair are blond giants with long braids in their hair.

As they enter, another man -- Kurt -- calls to Ashe and asks him if he has heard about Hardy, saying that such injuries could occur to anyone. Although he is jeered down by the others, Ross notes that Kurt is a potential ally in escaping the base and agrees to meet him later.

From Kurt, Ross learns that the base has a technology that allows "taping" the characteristic of a person so that they can be traced anywhere. Kurt says he has a way to beat the taping, but needs a partner to escape. Ross is somewhat reluctant, so Kurt tells him that the project is sending teams back in time.

When Ross agrees to go with him, they immediately leave the base, wind through the mine fields, and steal a snow cat. When they reach their destination, Ross learns that Kurt is a plant for the Soviets and manages to wrest control from Kurt. Under the circumstances, he has no choice other than returning to the base.

After his return, Ross is cleared to know more about the project. It seems that the Soviets have discovered how to travel to the past and somewhen they have found a few superscience gadgets that have led to amazing strides in certain areas. The US has duplicated the time machine, but still has no idea where the Soviets found the futuristic gadgets, so Operation Retrograde has been formed to search the past for clues. Ross is slated to join one such team traveling to Stone Age Britain.

This series has changed over the years to adapt to the political upheaval in Russia, but the real enemies in this series has always been the Baldies. When faced with a superior technology from a group of hostile aliens, the political differences between humans looks less important. Thus, the cooperation with the Russian time travel project has been almost inevitable by the logic of this series. It is merely convenient that the real world has, for a change, agreed with the Time Traders plot.

This series has always been more complex than it appears on the surface, for lurking in the background is a vision of the probability multiverse such as found in Crossroads in Time. Change the past and forever lose your future. Thus, it raises the issue of how much change is required to spawn a new timeline.

Recommended for Norton fans and anyone who enjoys tales of the past, the present, and the future within a single SF setting.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This is the first Andre Norton book that I have read. I am a little late however, I found this to be a fun and entertaining book.

I really enjoyed the travels through time and the descriptions of the men on the missions getting ready and donning long wigs, having their skin tougheded and tanned like that of the early man, slipping on furs and going on an adventure through time where they witnessed Saber-Toothed Tigers, Mammoths and giant ground sloths. The nifty gadgets in this book were wonderful too. A bubble protected a spaceship from getting destroyed by a herd of Mammoths and the alien spaceship had a few modern contraptions that I wouldn't mind having here at home.

This book kind of reminded me of Star Trek, an episode in which they would go visit an alien planet.

There was excitement in the form of a race with the Russians to find an alien spacecraft back in time and learn it's secrets.

This is just pure fun sci-fi that's entertaining, not serious but adventurous enough to really enjoy.

While Alice Norton used Andre as a pen name to ensure acceptance of her works by the public, it has been public knowledge for say...the last 40 years that Andre Norton was female and a pretty darn good author at that. Yes the materials in these novels is dated. It was early science fiction and rivaled nearly any of her peers or forefathers in sci fi.

If nothing else she was one of the most prolific sci fi authors ever, with a list that rivals our current day James Patterson. I dont ask that you give her a break for being a female author...but at the very least recognize it and the struggles that she faced.

This is one of the stories in the series of the aliens known as "Baldies" and their science of time travel. The two major countries of the world are in a competition to control time and have been using technology recovered from Earth's past , where spaceships from another civilization of the stars have crashed.
This is a little 007 , rayguns , and historical facts , which collide in the Early European Continent.
The story deals with two main characters and one of them is Ross Murdock. The Murdock character appears in later books of this series.
Lots of good historical knowledge.

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.

There is nothing quite like the type of space yarn that the great and greatly prolific Andre Norton wrote in the 1950s and 1960s. Well-crafted, colorful, exciting, with a wonderful sense of strangeness and awe to the settings and descriptions, these books never fail to delight, no matter how many times you read them. Even the elements which tend to date these novels add a sort of nostalgic charm that I find irresistable. Baen Books is to be applauded for its plan to re-publish a lot of her out-of-print novels in these omnibus editions. If you have yet to get into Andre Norton, now is a good time. You are bound to have a fun fun time!

This book is regarded by many as a springboard for books of its genre, and that may well be true. However, despite the gushing of other reviewers, this is a very average book whose plot actually belies its title.

In fact, very little trading is involved in the plot of the actual book. LOL

Some plot elements are just lost. For example, early in the book it is discussed that some 'time traders' are going to become very wealthy. It is presented in a way which makes the reader think that they will get to benefit in present time from their efforts in the past. The whole concept is, however, immediately dropped and is in fact inconsistent with the entire opertion of the time travel project thru the rest of the series.

Action plotting late in the book is badly flawed too, with travel times thru the wilderness conflicting with earlier accounts by the author of how long they should take.

Still, it is an acceptable read, and gets you to book two in the series, which is quite interesting and certainly the best of the series when it was actually written by Norton herself.

Time Traders itself has evidently fallen into the public domain, as you can find an ebook version of it on the Gutenburg Project web site. I would recommend that you get it there. Then if you like it, try out the remainder of the series. (Warning: skip book 5 (Firehand). It was not written by Norton AT ALL, and is one terrible piece of writing).

This was the first Sci Fi book I read 35 odd years ago. And it launched me into reading all her other stories and the other great Sci Fi authors too. It is fun to reread this book now for it takes place late in the 20th century. The Cold War fears of that time (remember it was written in the 50's) are all thru the book and very familiar to one who grew up then. This book and the following three are still very good reads. They are full of adventure and bold ideas and you do wnat them to end, And now I see where Ms Norton and another author are writing new Time Trader books. I cannot wait!!!

It almost goes without saying that this is one of Andre Norton's very best works--it's a true sci-fi classic that many of us grew up with. However, I should like to point out that some of the reviews for this book pertain to a paperback edition wherein there have been wholesale changes made to the original text that affects the content of the story; this is NOT the Armchair Fiction paperback edition, which contains nothing but the original Andre Norton text as first published back in 1958.

Sincerely,
Greg Luce
Armchair Fiction

This omnibus collects the first two Time Trader novels, The Time Traders and Galactic Derelict. The first one is a bit slow but it is a necessary set-up to give a foundation for the series. Once you read the second novel, you will appreciate the content of the first one better. Ms. Norton follows her normal MO in these two novels by producing creative writing and engaging stories without having to include profanity in the dialogue. Wish there were more who followed her lead.

Excellent tale of time travel, discovery and passion... I love the way this was set up, to face the unknown., then when the unthinkable happens the hope and desire enhance the story making this hard to put down..
Andre Norton leaves an opening for the continuation or expansion of this storyline.
Bravo!!

After about the fourth time the main character was captured in the first third of the story I went to the end. The whole storyline seem a good idea, but in the end I couldn't go any farther after the main character was captured a fourth time.

I love time travel stories but found this story to be too full of plot changes, location changes, and, frankly, it was just much too much! It became tedious and I found it difficult to keep track of the storyline once I put the book down for the night. It did offer some imaginative and fun ideas which made up for the distracting plot lines. I gave it a 3 star rating which I think is very fair.

Andre Norton is described as being a "youth writer" but this series has withstood the test of time. It is still a darn good series. Glad to see that it has been re-issued since my original paperbacks did not survive Hurricane Andrew.

Some good ideas, especially considering this novel was written in 1958, but ultimately repetition in plot and description made this a mostly boring read. I lost track of how many times the main character was captured only to escape but I would be surprised if it was less than eight.

One of my all-time favorite Andre Norton books. Ross Murdock goes from criminal misfit to hero, and shows the evil aliens what we humans are made of! Great, great fun. Pulls you into the world as only Norton seems to do.

one of the first books that I read as a young man which was so well thought out and understandable, when it came to science fiction. the only regret that I have is that she waited so long to contine the serries. Lost in the distant Past, the hero of the novel must use his wits and endure great phyiscal pain to defeat the enemy.

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.

I received an email from Freebooksy today advertising this book as free, but the price on the store displays as $1.99. The date today is 11/20 and the date on the email is 11/20. Can anyone shed light on this for me?