The Beast Master

There is simply very little down time in this book. No empty fillings by overdescribing what people are wearing, eleborate descriptions of the landscap and such. Although everything is well described, as the story goes along, much like if you were experiencing it your self!.

I am writing this review as i am waiting for book two to download. I certainly hope Audible get's more from this series!

Robert Z

Beastmaster had all the familiar Norton strengths, a young man trying to make his place in the adult world, an empathic animal team, a quest through an exotic (this time wild western-ish) alien world, and, of course, caves. What I liked the best? I suppose it was the caves.

Did I mention the caves?.

Brewer gave a straight forward, well inflected performance, with a voice that worked well for a young protagonist.

Norton doesn't make you laugh or cry, usually; she just takes you for an absorbing, even spellbinding -- if you let yourself be in the mood -- journey.

This is one I missed from my youth (when they were being written!) though I remember the fuscia and yellow cover of the original well. It's much better than and much different from the movie of the same name. I'll reread it again, and if I like it as much a second time, it may move up onto my very favorite Norton list with Catseye, Galactic Derelict, and The Stars are Ours. Not high art, but great reading.

Science fiction is a niche I occasionally like to read or listen to. It is escapist literature and although I enjoy it I would never put it on the same level as someone as Marion Zimmer Bradley.

All other Andre Norton Books since she tends to use common themes although she may use them with different shadings.

He is adequate.

No

I have tried to listen to this audiobook 3 times now, and just can't seem to finish it. Andre Norton is one of my favorite authors from my teen years, and I have always enjoyed her stories. With this one I don't know if it is the story, not interesting to me, or the narration which is flat and boring, but I just don't enjoy it.

If you like sci-fi fantasy with Native American Indian folklore mixed with the bigoted white man gone wrong, then this is probably your kind of story. After leaving Earth, the Beast Master (BM), our hero, escapes torrential rains on an alien planet, an Earthly variety. Hiking with sorted problem company among the semi industrial-agrarian society, (you know the type), they like to keep him traversing the torrents, including blizzards of those spacious snow-covered mountains. So, this is about a lot of tromping in the wet and cold and it gets a little too soggy for me. False hope does arise every now and then with a trip to the fantasy forest for our health. It is nice to know that tidbit exists but you know those aliens will keep interrupting it with an unjustified war. We know the alien kind on this planet, there is not much meat to pick off their character. Even so, tough as it is, that single fact probably makes it easier for us to pick them apart. Unfortunately weakly developed alien species are like that. While there are plenty of other creatures, all types, especially humans, including those with an assortment of head problems, they are just like those in a mini soap opera. That is what it is. It is based upon an off-world human migration with its growing problems about what it would actually be like to live on a new world. Yet, that act alone doesn't develop into much brain material for this reader either. There could have been more about those extra terrestrials, who were secretly living among them until they were needed to make war, to destroy or be destroyed. Duh! You know those kinds of aliens, the enemy? The author’s lines of logic are too predictable. We knew that from the beginning. So why am I going on about it? In this case, it’s to find out why there was an obvious attempt to act as a crafty story teller where just one act would have saved his tale. That's what would have made all this critical typing pointless and frivolous from the beginning.

The point is, if I thought I going to get my money’s worth, then this story is more like an extremely bitter sunflower seed. You know the seed. It's that one that takes fifty more good ones to rid your mouth of its acrid taste. Caveat! This is that one.

May the force be weird on you too.

I class this book with Frank Herbert's "Dune" series. Fantastic storyline, considering when it was written, with Richard Brewer drawing the listener in with his narration.

If you are fans of Frank Herbert, Clive Barker and even Isobelle Carmody, and enjoy sci-fi with a difference then this download is for you! I will certainly be downloading the sequel for this...