"The Stars Are Ours!" by Andre Norton

Earth in 2500AD is no place for a young man with a dream of freedom. And Dard Nordisis worse off than most. His brother was killed for covert activities as a Free Scientist in a world where science is outlawed and blamed for all evils. Now Dard and his niece are hunted and trying to find his brother's friends before their enemies find them and execute them as well. The stakes are high-- he can be shot down and killed like his brother or escape to the stars in a spaceship that the Free Scientists have built in secret! Here is a powerful novel of the future in which the battle-cry is: THE STARS ARE OURS!

This 1954 novel was Andre Norton's third in the science fiction genre. It follows Star Man's Son, 2250 A.D (1952), and Star Rangers (1953). This novel has two parts. The first part envisions a world where scientists have become outlawed as a result of being blamed for wiping out most of the world's population. Life on Earth becomes so intolerable for scientists and technicians that it leads some to form a group and escape together in order to colonize new worlds. A group of scientists do just that, but is the new world inhabitable, or just as dangerous as the one they left behind?

Andre Norton spends 190 pages attempting to answer those very questions where most authors would need at least 600. The fact that this novel is not 600 pages means there are some pretty significant gaps of unanswered questions. How exactly is the colony to be governed? Who decides on how resources are going to be allocated, and why are these people the ones deciding? How is the new world to be set up, and how are relations with encountered species going to work? None of these questions get much resolution here. Despite these questions being left unanswered, and the abrupt ending which came just when it seemed the novel's situation was properly set up, and make no mistake, these are serious flaws, I liked this book a lot. 

Her protagonists are teenagers. Presumably Norton's target audience was YA. Whether this was her intention or her editors', I have no idea. Thankfully, as usual, she missed that mark by a mile. The novel was surprisingly dark, even for Andre Norton, a good thing for this adult reader. The degree of persecution of the scientists, and then the harsh conditions traveling to (resulting in numerous deaths) and the many dangers and losses of resources on the new planet make this grim fare indeed for a YA audience. 

What saves the book and makes it such an entertaining read is that the characters are very strong and three-dimensional, a feat few authors of the period manage. There are also many fascinating plot elements introduced to consider. In fact, there are more plot elements raised than poor Ms. Norton can possibly deal with adequately. By the end, there are just too many directions in need of exploration for the novel to possibly continue, therefore it stops abruptly with no resolution to anything.

This novel is the first in a series called Ad Astra (To the Stars), so I am relieved we get to continue exploring this world. Sadly, there is only one more novel in the series, Star Born. One is a number so low it can't possibly do justice to all the concepts. Still, I look forward to seeing which concepts Ms. Norton chose to expand in the 1957 sequel. (Dan, GoodReads)