Lucky Starr - Space Ranger

[dekket]

I've just re-read the Lucky Starr books, that Asimov wrote back in the 50's under the name Paul French.

I found them an enjoyable read, and liked the astronomy element he incorporated in each book (despite much of it being obsoleted by the time this edition was re-released in 1993, let alone by more recent discoveries).

It was interesting this time around noticing ideas in the Earth/Sirius rivalry theme (introduced in the Pirates of the Asteroids) that was apparently the seed of the much greater rivalry between Earth and the Spacer world's in the Robot's novels. I hadn't realized that both series had been written concurrently, but that Lucky Starr novels came first.

Has anyone else read these books, and what did you think of them?

 

[J-Sun]

The first Asimov YA I read was really a Janet (a Norby book) and that put me off Asimov's juveniles/YAs for a long time. (The Norby books seemed to be targeted at six year olds.) When I finally got around to the Starr books, I was pleasantly surprised - they're simple clean fun but there's nothing terribly "kid-centric" to them and, in the direction of what you say, it was interesting to see the similarities (increasingly over the life of the series) and differences from his other SF. I liked them and I think anyone could enjoy them but I don't know that they're generally essential - but I'd definitely recommend that the Asimov fan not miss them.

 

[manephelien]

I remember reading these in high school and enjoying them.