Review

This is the first of the six "Lucky Starr" novels, originally published in the 1950’s under a pseudonym as (it was hoped) the basis for a TV series.

Like the other "Lucky Starr" books, this is not Asimov at its best, but it is still worlds above anything that TV would have produced at the time. Blatantly based on TV westerns, it is more action-oriented than is typical of Asimov (with lots of exclamation points!!)

And, for that matter, it's fun. My original rating for this book and its fellows was slightly lower than the current one. When I started rereading it early in 2001, however, my twelve-year-old son caught me. He'd read the series before and practically snatched the book out of my hands so that he could reread it himself. We ended up racing through them to see who could finish first. (I did, by the way. By a nose.)

Yes, the book is shallow. Yes, the characters hover on the edge of stereotype. Yes, your brain can be entirely turned off while you read — but it's an enjoyable book, anyway, a light-hearted adventure story good for a couple hours' relaxation and perfect for an adolescent boy. Go for it.

Here we‘re introduced to the main setup and characters. Lucky Starr himself is strangely bland, but Bigman Jones is interesting (and oddly reminds one of Harlan Ellison—Asimov has this strange obsession with short people which emerges in odd places, like here and The Currents of Space). Most of the other characters are vaguely uninteresting or blatantly stereotypical. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is Asimov’s adaptation of "western" stereotypes to the future Martian landscape, and here he has done a very good job.

On the whole—not the best of the "Lucky Starr" books (but hardly the worst), and not the best that Asimov did (but, again, not the worst). Lots of mindless fun, and definitely good for younger audiences, say preteenagers, although teenagers and even adults might still enjoy it.

This book, by the way, was one of the "Lucky Starr" books which suffered from advances in astronomy during the 1950’s and 1960’s, and later editions contain an introduction from Asimov explaining how. This is actually a very thoughtful thing for him to do—I don’t know of any other science fiction works which contain disclaimers specifically pointing out where the "science" fails. Asimov is clearly taking his responsibility to educate people about science very seriously.

A couple of final notes. The paperback edition I own is the Signet paperback reprint from the early 1970's. This is the first time the book appeared under Asimov's name, but it also has a curious feature beyond that. The Signet edition of the Lucky Starr books came out two books at a time, with this one and Pirates of the Asteroids the first pair. If you look carefully, you'll note that the covers have been switched. The cover for David Star: Space Ranger fits the action of Pirates of the Asteroids and vice-versa.

What appears to have happened is this: The cover art came in and somebody at Signet noticed that whereas the cover for Pirates of the Asteroids featured David Starr's face prominently, the art for David Starr: Space Ranger did not. That, they seem to have felt, was not a good thing. The first book should have the hero's picture on the cover. And so the covers were swapped.

It's a minor point, but it is an interesting feature of this edition nonetheless.

Also, in mid-2001, the Science Fiction Book Club published a new omnibus edition of all six “Lucky” Starr books. Other than the rather ideosyncratic artist’s impression of Bigman on the cover, this is in fact a very nice edition with high-quality paper and nice, clear type. Definitely worth looking into.