''The Beast Master'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Alice "Andre" Norton, published by Harcourt in 1959. It inaugurated the ''Beast Master'' series, or ''Hosteen Storm'' series after the main character. In

German-language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is a ...

translation it was published as ''Der Letzte der Navajos'' ( :de: Arthur Moewig Verlag, 1963) —literally, ''The Last of the Navajo''. Norton wrote one sequel published in 1962 and three by Andre Norton and

Lyn McConchie Lyn McConchie (born 1946) is a New Zealand writer of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction), picture books for children, a nonfiction humour series, a number of standalone books and many short stories, articles, poems, ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

were published forty years later, one of them after Norton's death in 2005. According to McConchie, they were "written solely by Lyn from a brief collaborated outline". The first two latter-day sequels were named the year's best novel by New Zealand science fiction fans (

Sir Julius Vogel Award The Sir Julius Vogel Awards are awarded each year at the New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in New Zealand science fiction, fantasy, horror, and science fiction fandom. They are commonly referred to as the ...

)."Sir Julius Vogel Awards Winners by Category"
. ''The Locus Index to SF Awards''.

Locus Publications ''Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field'', founded in 1968, is an American magazine published monthly in Oakland, California. It is the news organ and trade journal for the English-language science fiction and fantasy fields. ...

. Retrieved 2013-05-01.

Plot summary

''The Beast Master'' tells of Hosteen Storm, a

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

and former soldier who has empathic and telepathic connections with a group of genetically altered animals. The team emigrates from Earth to the distant planet Arzor where it is hired to herd livestock. Storm still harbors wrath at his former enemies, the Xik, and has sworn revenge on a man named Quade for his father's murder. According to ''Kirkus'', he finds "life and hope" instead. In this novel and its sequels, Norton explores aspects of Native American culture, specifically the Navajo, through metaphors in Storm's life and in the culture he adopts on his adoptive planet.

Reception

''Galaxy'' reviewer Floyd C. Gale rated the novel four stars out of five "for youngsters", saying that they "are sure to enjoy complete enthrallment". ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' concluded that the "fantasy is made convincing by the author's boldness of imagination and by his ability to yield totally to the atmosphere which he creates." This was one of several reviews by Kirkus from 1958 to 1963 that reveal that the reviewer presumed Andre Norton to be a man. Some others were ''

The Time Traders ''The Time Traders'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Andre Norton, the first in ''The Time Traders'' series. It was first published in 1958, and has been printed in several editions. It was updated by Norton in 2000 to account for ...

'' and its three sequels. In Norton's sequel ''Lord of Thunder'' (1962), Hosteen Storm discovers and resolves a problem with stakes on a world scale. ''Kirkus'' concluded that that story "is secondary to the fascinating description, the imaginative ideas, and the general quality of prose and dialogue. For the experienced science-fiction reader." ''Kirkus'' welcomed the continuation of the series by Norton and

in ''Beast Master's Ark'' (Tor, 2002), including the promise of a fourth installment: " at's good, since this is one of the better SF series going, with Norton using stripped prose to put her stereotypes through their foredestined rounds. ... Neat, swift, and strongly detailed. Old fans will dance and howl for more". McConchie claims to be sole author of the prose.

Adaptations

The novel was loosely adapted into the 1982

sword and sorcery film The following is a list of sword-and-sorcery films. These tend to focus on single heroes, romance, and magic. List 1920s * ''Die Nibelungen'' (1924) 1940s * ''The Iron Crown'' (1941) * ''Kashchey the Deathless'' (1944) 1950s * '' The Magic ...

The Beastmaster ''The Beastmaster'' is a 1982 American-West German sword and sorcery film directed by Don Coscarelli and starring Marc Singer, Tanya Roberts, John Amos and Rip Torn. Loosely based on the 1959 novel ''The Beast Master'' by Alice "Andre" Norton, ...

'', starring

Marc Singer Marc Singer (born January 29, 1948) is a Canadian-American actor best known for his roles in the '' Beastmaster'' film series, as Mike Donovan in the original 1980s TV series '' V'', and as Matt Cantrell in ''Dallas''. Early life Singer was born ...

. Norton was unhappy with the liberties taken with the film's script and asked for her name to be removed from the credits. It was followed by two sequels and a

TV series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

Series

* ''The Beast Master'' (

Harcourt, Brace Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. It was known at different stages in its history as Harcourt Brace, & Co. and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. From 1919 to 1 ...

, 1959) * ''Lord of Thunder'' (Harcourt, 1962) * ''Beast Master's Ark'' (

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. History Tor was founded by Tom Doherty, ...

, 2002), by Norton and

* ''Beast Master's Circus'' (Tor, 2004), Norton and McConchie * ''Beast Master's Quest'' (Tor, 2006), Norton (deceased) and McConchie ;Omnibus editions The Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club (SFBC) released an omnibus edition of the 2002 and 2004 collaborations, contemporary to Tor's first edition of the latter. One year later, a few months after Norton's death, Tor published an omnibus edition of the first two books, which was also carried by SFBC. * ''Beast Master Team'' (SFBC, 2004) contains ''Beast Master's Ark'' and ''Beast Master's Circus'' * ''Beast Master's Planet'' (Tor, 2005; SFBC, 2005) contains ''Beast Master'' and ''Lord of Thunder'' — subtitled on the front cover, "The Two Original Hosteen Storm Adventure Novels"

References

Sources

External links

Formats and editions of ''The Beast Master''
at

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

— includes abridged and omnibus editions {{DEFAULTSORT:Beast Master, The 1959 American novels 1959 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Science fiction Westerns Novels by Andre Norton Fictional telepaths Science fiction book series Novels set on fictional planets Novels about Native Americans Novels about telepathy