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Happy New Year. This is our first group book selection for the year, our January, 2014, Classic Novel Discussion is:


Moonsinger by Andre Norton


(Moonsinger is a compilation of "Moon of Three Rings" (1966) and "Exiles Of The Stars" (1971))

I now have it on my Kindle and am ready to start reading today. So excited to get back to Norton's books. Haven't read one in quite awhile. Eager to return to the roots of my sci/fi experience. Plus it will be a great way to relax after the extended family gatherings of the holidays. Last in-law just left so I am headed to the Kindle for at least four hours of "free" time.

Allynn wrote: "I now have it on my Kindle and am ready to start reading today. So excited to get back to Norton's books. Haven't read one in quite awhile. ..."

I picked up the e-book omnibus edition from the Baen online store some time ago because it was dirt cheap (since they've made their titles available on Amazon, the prices have gone up to match.) I also have the old Ace paperbacks, though the pages are brown and the binding seems brittle (so I'm glad I'm re-reading the e-book.)

On rereading this, I realized I had no memory whatsoever of the story from the first time I read it. So apparently I didn't find it very memorable back in the 60's.

Anyway, I'm almost done.

The world of the "Moonsinger" novels mixes science fiction space opera with fantasy magic. The original two "Moonsinger" novels were written five years apart. They share two characters but are otherwise quite different.

Moon of Three Rings

The Free Trader spaceship Lydis lands in Yrjr, the dominant city of planet Yiktor, to do a little trading in commodities futures. One of the crewmen, Krip Vorlund, goes "ashore" for a little R&R and ends up having an adventure with one of the locals.

The inhabitants of Yiktor are essentially "human", a common affectation of early space opera. (On TV, you pretty much have to do it, because it's hard to find non-human actors to play the parts of aliens; it's true in sci-fi books because it's easier than thinking up entirely new life forms. The second book will take a stab at explaining that, but I'll save that footnote for later...) The animal life forms, on the other hand, seem quite different from Earth animals.

In a related way, there doesn't seem to be any language barrier. Anyone Krip might want to talk to speaks fluent Galactic (or whatever the spacer language is called.)

There's one sub-population on Yiktor, the Thaasa, distinguished by pale skin and white hair. The Thaasa are the local hippies, the back to nature types to rejected earlier civilization. Judging by the technological level of the rest of Yiktor, they didn't give up much. Among the Thaasa are some mystics, called Moonsingers, whose nebulous powers evidently derive from the planet's moon (which has rings, the number of which apparently vary somehow.)

Krip and a Moonsinger he meets, Maelen, have an adventure spawned by local politics as some indigenous political factions square off (mostly in an attempt to pick up some off-world technology such as blasters.) Along the way, Krip learns that Moonsingers can transfer consciousness (or soul?) Into different bodies, and he gets to try being one of the local animals, a barsk. Most of the story is about trying to get Krip back into his human body.

Random Observations:

The more forcefully Maelen declares that something is a local custom no one would ever violate, the more likely it is someone will violate it.

The Yiktorans seem to have a lot of naming conventions. All place names start with "Y". The names of any natives start with "O". The names of any Thaasa start with "M". (But could of course just be a translation convention when transliterated the Yiktoran language into Galactic :)

Maelen insists that Thaasa are not afraid to die (or "walk the White Road" as the local religion would have it.) Goodness awaits on the other side. But every time someone's about to die, it seems the timing is never right.

Other observations from a writer's P.O.V. is Norton's use of two first person's P.O.V. It can be very tricky but she is able to keep the story going and there is just enough overlap of action to give the reader an understanding of Maelen and Krip and their worlds. Yes, there is quite a bit that is not scientifically explained but does the reader really need to have everything explained to enjoy the story?

Allynn wrote: "Other observations from a writer's P.O.V. is Norton's use of two first person's P.O.V. It can be very tricky but she is able to keep the story going and there is just enough overlap of action to..."

Yeah, I noted with some surprise the rare use of first person narration with 2 PoVs. I also noticed in the first book, Norton had the reader figure out from context which character was narrating, but in the second book labeled each chapter with the PoV character's name.

This is my first Andre Norton book. I am still on the first story, but I think the two POVs are interesting. Maelen really does come off as "alien" compared to Krip.

Exiles of the Stars

The second "Moonsinger" book, "Exiles of the Stars", was written five years after the first. It finds the two protagonists from "Mono Three Rings" traveling as crew of the free-trader starship Lydis (which is the same job as Krip had in the first book, even though he was planet side the whole story.) But you wouldn't recognize either of them. Krip now has a Thassa body, and Maelan inhabits the body of one of her Yiktoran animal pets (no doubt to the delight of Furry fans everywhere.)

They take on a controversial cargo from one planet and end up forced down on an "uninhabited" planet where they get mixed up with hijackers/pirates and an ancient alien race's long-lost catacombs.

Those ancient aliens seem to have an ancient Egyptian flair, which leads Krip to suggest they may once have been the gods the Egyptians worshiped. This "ancient astronauts" theory helps explain the homogeneity of intelligent races on so many distant planets. Fans of "Stargate" may see a similarity. I suspect Norton got the concept from Erich von Daniken, whose book Chariots of the Gods was quite popular at the time. (It proposed that aliens have visited earth as Gods. von Daniken cited the Egyptian pyramids and some specific hieroglyphs as evidence in his theory. He also cited Stonehenge, Easter Island, and Nazca. No doubt he influenced the idea in "Stargate", too.)

I have completed Moonsinger and found it a delight to get back into Andre Norton's worlds. I actually enjoyed the two first person POV's throughout - a surprise for me. Language syntax was used extremely well and did not necessarily change over the course of the book. That is a difficult feat especially considering the length of time between titles.

The underlying theme seemed to be that our bodies are mere husks for our souls/true identities and looks can be deceiving. Sharing bodies with latent memories, egos, and natures illustrates that we can/should learn from those other life forms. I liked how Krip missed having the agility, sense of smell, hearing and sight that he had while he was a barsk even a year after his experience.

Maelen's realization and acceptance of her over confidence and that she still was strong enough to continue to be herself and help others showed that she had truly left her narrow world behind. Her struggle with her fears showed true character growth. Krip also undergoes a similar growth when he realizes he does not have to be part of Lyrs' crew to "be someone". He can be himself no matter the skin he wears. He has learned from his experiences to build a new possibility for his future.

I liked the allusion to the Egyptian gods being space travelers. Who are we to say that they weren't? Too much is still unknown. Perhaps we will never know for sure even when we join the other travelers between the stars.