David Starr, Space Ranger
Encyclopedia
David Starr, Space Ranger is the first novel in the Lucky Starr series
, six juvenile science fiction
novels by Isaac Asimov
that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was written between 10 June and 29 July 1951 and first published by Doubleday & Company in January 1952. Since 1971, reprints have included an introduction by Asimov explaining that advancing knowledge of conditions on Mars
have rendered some of the novel's descriptions of that world inaccurate. The novel was originally intended to serve as the basis for a television series, a science-fictionalized version of The Lone Ranger
, but the series was never made, in part because another series called Rocky Jones, Space Ranger
was already in the planning stages.
as well as planets orbiting other stars. The most powerful organization in the Solar System is the Council of Science, which suppresses threats to the System's people. Protagonist David Starr is an orphaned biophysicist
qualified for membership in the Council of Science, who learns from his guardians Augustus Henree and Hector Conway of some 200 deaths in the last four months, whose victims died while eating produce raised on Mars
. Conway and Henree fear that the deaths are part of a conspiracy to frighten the people of Earth; wherefore Starr travels undercover to Mars to discover the deaths' connection to the Martian Farming Syndicates.
On Mars, Starr meets John "Bigman" Jones, a bellicose 5'2" Martian farmboy blacklisted at the Farming Syndicates for seeing something forbidden him. When his former boss Hennes orders Jones out of the Farm Employment Building, Starr intervenes, and gains positions for both himself and Bigman. Later, Hennes has Starr and Bigman stunned.
Starr wakes in the farm owned by Hennes' boss, Mr. Makian, to whom he gives the alias Williams, and states that he came to Mars explain a younger sister's death of food poisoning; wherefore Makian sends the farm's agronomist Benson to speak with him. According to Benson, the poisoned food came from several Martian farms, but was exported through Wingrad City, one of three domed human settlements on Mars; whereas Makian and several other farm owners have been offered ridiculously small sums of money for their farms, apparently without connection to the poisonings. Benson suggests also that intelligent native Martian
s living below the planet's surface are poisoning the food in order to drive humanity from Mars. Makian offers to let Starr join a survey of the farmlands. Bigman warns him that Hennes will attack him during the survey; but when Starr decides to take part anyway, Bigman joins him.
As he enters Martian gravity, Starr loses control of his sand-car, nearly sending it over a crevasse
; whereupon Bigman discovers that Starr's sand-car is missing its weights, and Starr realizes that Griswold deliberately failed to warn him. He then confronts Griswold, who in the struggle falls into the crevasse and dies.
The next day, Benson makes Starr his assistant, to keep him from Hennes. When Bigman receives his references from Hennes and takes his leave, Starr asks him to obtain some book-tapes from the library
at Wingrad City. Bigman agrees, then admits that he has recognized the pretended 'Williams' as David Starr of the Council of Science.
When Starr meets Bigman that night outside the dome, he reveals that he believes in Benson's Martians, and that the crevasse into which Griswold fell is an entrance to their caverns. Starr descends into the crevasse and is captured by the Martians;–––disembodied intelligences curious about the Earthmen on the surface, and who know nothing of the poisoned food. They give Starr the name 'Space Ranger' because he travels through space, and give him an immaterial mask
that will act as a personal force field
and disguise him from other humans.
Starr uses the mask to shield himself from a Martian dust storm as he returns to Makian's farm, where he is questioned how he survived the storm and answers (truthfully) that he was returned by a masked man called the Space Ranger. Benson tells him that while he was gone, all the farm owners received a letter from the poisoner, who claims that unless the farm owners surrender control to him within thirty-six hours, the poisoner will increase the amount of poisoned food a thousandfold.
After Benson leaves, another of Hennes' minions tries to shoot Starr. Later, Hennes accuses Starr of poisoning the food; whereupon Bigman enters with Dr. Silvers of the Council of Science, who announces that the government has declared a System Emergency and that the Council will take control of all the farms on Mars. If the mystery is not solved by the time the deadline expires, all Martian food exports to Earth will stop, and food rationing will be instituted.
Starr arranges with Silvers to be publicly removed from the Makian farm, then allowed to secretly return. Disguised by his mask, he confronts Hennes, who blinds himself firing a blaster
at him; searches Hennes; and, once undisguised, persuades Silvers to meet with Makian, Hennes, and Benson the next day.
At the meeting, Starr appears in disguise and reveals that Benson poisoned the food while pretending to take samples of it, while Hennes kept in contact with Benson's henchmen in the Asteroid Belt
. Following Benson's confession, Bigman reveals that despite the disguise of the Martian mask, he recognized Starr by his uniquely colorless black-and-white boots.
, The End of Eternity
, The Caves of Steel
), or on fictional extrasolar planets (The Currents of Space
, The Naked Sun
, the Foundation series). The major exceptions to this rule are the Lucky Starr novels, all of which take place among the familiar worlds of the Solar System
. David Starr: Space Ranger is the only Asimov novel set on Mars, and the picture of Mars that he draws is accurate, if optimistic, based on what was known about the planet in 1951. The Martian atmosphere is one-fifth as dense as Earth's and is unbreathable by humans due to lack of oxygen. The famous Martian canals are not mentioned as such, though Asimov's Mars does have a network of fissures that might be the inspiration thereof.
David Starr, Space Ranger was unabashedly based on the Western hero the Lone Ranger, and Asimov goes to great lengths to recreate the fictional American West on Mars. The Martian farmboys are tough, rugged individualists like the fictional cowboys. The Space Ranger himself is a science fictionalized Lone Ranger, including the mask and the habit of disappearing after defeating the villains. In this first book in the series, Starr exposes and defeats a criminal conspiracy, in the classic tradition of the masked crime-fighter. In subsequent books in the series, Starr moves away from being a masked crime-fighter, and becomes a Cold War
secret agent, defending the Solar System from external enemies.
In a later novel in the series, Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus
, the Council of Science is described this way: "In these days, when science really permeated all human society and culture, scientists could no longer restrict themselves to their laboratories. It was for that reason that the Council of Science had been born. Originally it was intended only as an advisory body to help the government on matters of galactic importance, where only trained scientists could have sufficient information to make intelligent decisions. More and more it had become a crime-fighting agency, a counterespionage system. Into its own hands it was drawing more and more of the threads of government".
The most important scientific development of Asimov's own lifetime was the discovery of nuclear energy. Asimov had seen nuclear power escape the control of the scientists who discovered it and become the plaything of politicians who only dimly understood it, and who seemed blind to the danger it represented. His concerns are evident from individual stories such as "Hell-Fire
" and "Silly Asses
", as well as from the semi-habitable post-nuclear Earth depicted in Pebble in the Sky
and The Stars, Like Dust
. The Council of Science can be seen as wish-fulfillment on Asimov's part, as scientists in the future tilt the balance of power toward themselves and away from the scientific illiterates who populate the government.
, Ellen Lewis Buell reported that Asimov "ingeniously combines mystery with science fiction, saying that "his inventiveness and use of picturesque details" were reminiscent of Robert A. Heinlein
. Groff Conklin
praised the novel as effective juvenile fare: "no romance, parlous little science, but endless imagination, exciting ideas and events." Astounding reviewer P. Schuyler Miller
described it as "fast-moving space opera of a type we all know, with no particular regard for scientific plausibility."
Lucky Starr series
Lucky Starr is the hero of a series of science fiction books by Isaac Asimov, using the pen name "Paul French". Intended for juveniles, the books were written in the middle of the Cold War and the series shows traces of this, both in educational intent and in the nature of the social forces involved...
, six juvenile science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novels by Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was written between 10 June and 29 July 1951 and first published by Doubleday & Company in January 1952. Since 1971, reprints have included an introduction by Asimov explaining that advancing knowledge of conditions on Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
have rendered some of the novel's descriptions of that world inaccurate. The novel was originally intended to serve as the basis for a television series, a science-fictionalized version of The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....
, but the series was never made, in part because another series called Rocky Jones, Space Ranger
Rocky Jones, Space Ranger
Rocky Jones, Space Ranger is a syndicated science fiction television serial originally broadcast in 1954. The show lasted for only two seasons and, though syndicated sporadically, dropped into obscurity. But because it was recorded on film rather than being broadcast live as were most other TV...
was already in the planning stages.
Plot summary
David Starr, Space Ranger introduces the series' setting and the main characters. The novel is set around A.D. 7,000 (five thousand years after the first nuclear bomb, as stated at the beginning), when humanity has spread among the worlds of the Solar SystemSolar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
as well as planets orbiting other stars. The most powerful organization in the Solar System is the Council of Science, which suppresses threats to the System's people. Protagonist David Starr is an orphaned biophysicist
Biophysics
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that uses the methods of physical science to study biological systems. Studies included under the branches of biophysics span all levels of biological organization, from the molecular scale to whole organisms and ecosystems...
qualified for membership in the Council of Science, who learns from his guardians Augustus Henree and Hector Conway of some 200 deaths in the last four months, whose victims died while eating produce raised on Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. Conway and Henree fear that the deaths are part of a conspiracy to frighten the people of Earth; wherefore Starr travels undercover to Mars to discover the deaths' connection to the Martian Farming Syndicates.
On Mars, Starr meets John "Bigman" Jones, a bellicose 5'2" Martian farmboy blacklisted at the Farming Syndicates for seeing something forbidden him. When his former boss Hennes orders Jones out of the Farm Employment Building, Starr intervenes, and gains positions for both himself and Bigman. Later, Hennes has Starr and Bigman stunned.
Starr wakes in the farm owned by Hennes' boss, Mr. Makian, to whom he gives the alias Williams, and states that he came to Mars explain a younger sister's death of food poisoning; wherefore Makian sends the farm's agronomist Benson to speak with him. According to Benson, the poisoned food came from several Martian farms, but was exported through Wingrad City, one of three domed human settlements on Mars; whereas Makian and several other farm owners have been offered ridiculously small sums of money for their farms, apparently without connection to the poisonings. Benson suggests also that intelligent native Martian
Martian
As an adjective, the term martian is used to describe anything pertaining to the planet Mars.However, a Martian is more usually a hypothetical or fictional native inhabitant of the planet Mars. Historically, life on Mars has often been hypothesized, although there is currently no solid evidence of...
s living below the planet's surface are poisoning the food in order to drive humanity from Mars. Makian offers to let Starr join a survey of the farmlands. Bigman warns him that Hennes will attack him during the survey; but when Starr decides to take part anyway, Bigman joins him.
As he enters Martian gravity, Starr loses control of his sand-car, nearly sending it over a crevasse
Crevasse
A crevasse is a deep crack in an ice sheet rhys glacier . Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the sheer stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rates of movement...
; whereupon Bigman discovers that Starr's sand-car is missing its weights, and Starr realizes that Griswold deliberately failed to warn him. He then confronts Griswold, who in the struggle falls into the crevasse and dies.
The next day, Benson makes Starr his assistant, to keep him from Hennes. When Bigman receives his references from Hennes and takes his leave, Starr asks him to obtain some book-tapes from the library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
at Wingrad City. Bigman agrees, then admits that he has recognized the pretended 'Williams' as David Starr of the Council of Science.
When Starr meets Bigman that night outside the dome, he reveals that he believes in Benson's Martians, and that the crevasse into which Griswold fell is an entrance to their caverns. Starr descends into the crevasse and is captured by the Martians;–––disembodied intelligences curious about the Earthmen on the surface, and who know nothing of the poisoned food. They give Starr the name 'Space Ranger' because he travels through space, and give him an immaterial mask
Mask
A mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes...
that will act as a personal force field
Force field
A force field, sometimes known as an energy shield, force shield, or deflector shield is a concept of a field tightly bounded and of significant magnitude so that objects affected by the particular force relating to the field are unable to pass through the central axis of the field and reach the...
and disguise him from other humans.
Starr uses the mask to shield himself from a Martian dust storm as he returns to Makian's farm, where he is questioned how he survived the storm and answers (truthfully) that he was returned by a masked man called the Space Ranger. Benson tells him that while he was gone, all the farm owners received a letter from the poisoner, who claims that unless the farm owners surrender control to him within thirty-six hours, the poisoner will increase the amount of poisoned food a thousandfold.
After Benson leaves, another of Hennes' minions tries to shoot Starr. Later, Hennes accuses Starr of poisoning the food; whereupon Bigman enters with Dr. Silvers of the Council of Science, who announces that the government has declared a System Emergency and that the Council will take control of all the farms on Mars. If the mystery is not solved by the time the deadline expires, all Martian food exports to Earth will stop, and food rationing will be instituted.
Starr arranges with Silvers to be publicly removed from the Makian farm, then allowed to secretly return. Disguised by his mask, he confronts Hennes, who blinds himself firing a blaster
Blaster
-Fiction:* Blaster , a specific weapon type used in the fictional Star Wars universe.* Blaster , an Autobot in the fictional Transformers universe.* Blaster , a fictional character in the G.I...
at him; searches Hennes; and, once undisguised, persuades Silvers to meet with Makian, Hennes, and Benson the next day.
At the meeting, Starr appears in disguise and reveals that Benson poisoned the food while pretending to take samples of it, while Hennes kept in contact with Benson's henchmen in the Asteroid Belt
Asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...
. Following Benson's confession, Bigman reveals that despite the disguise of the Martian mask, he recognized Starr by his uniquely colorless black-and-white boots.
Themes
As John H. Jenkins has noted, Asimov's novels typically are set either on Earth (Pebble in the SkyPebble in the Sky
Pebble in the Sky is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1950. This work is his first novel — parts of the Foundation series had appeared from 1942 onwards, in magazines, but Foundation was not published in book form until 1951...
, The End of Eternity
The End of Eternity
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov is a science fiction novel, with mystery and thriller elements, on the subjects of time travel and social engineering....
, The Caves of Steel
The Caves of Steel
The Caves of Steel is a novel by Isaac Asimov. It is essentially a detective story, and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated, that science fiction is a flavor that can be applied to any literary genre, rather than a limited genre itself. Specifically, in the book Asimov's Mysteries, he states that...
), or on fictional extrasolar planets (The Currents of Space
The Currents of Space
The Currents of Space is a science fiction novel by the American writer Isaac Asimov. It is the second of three books labeled the Galactic Empire series, though it was the last of the three he wrote...
, The Naked Sun
The Naked Sun
The Naked Sun is an English language science fiction novel, the second in Isaac Asimov's Robot series.-Plot introduction:Like its famous predecessor, The Caves of Steel, it is a whodunit story, in addition to being science fiction...
, the Foundation series). The major exceptions to this rule are the Lucky Starr novels, all of which take place among the familiar worlds of the Solar System
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
. David Starr: Space Ranger is the only Asimov novel set on Mars, and the picture of Mars that he draws is accurate, if optimistic, based on what was known about the planet in 1951. The Martian atmosphere is one-fifth as dense as Earth's and is unbreathable by humans due to lack of oxygen. The famous Martian canals are not mentioned as such, though Asimov's Mars does have a network of fissures that might be the inspiration thereof.
David Starr, Space Ranger was unabashedly based on the Western hero the Lone Ranger, and Asimov goes to great lengths to recreate the fictional American West on Mars. The Martian farmboys are tough, rugged individualists like the fictional cowboys. The Space Ranger himself is a science fictionalized Lone Ranger, including the mask and the habit of disappearing after defeating the villains. In this first book in the series, Starr exposes and defeats a criminal conspiracy, in the classic tradition of the masked crime-fighter. In subsequent books in the series, Starr moves away from being a masked crime-fighter, and becomes a Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
secret agent, defending the Solar System from external enemies.
In a later novel in the series, Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus
Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus
Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus is the third novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was first published by Doubleday & Company in 1954...
, the Council of Science is described this way: "In these days, when science really permeated all human society and culture, scientists could no longer restrict themselves to their laboratories. It was for that reason that the Council of Science had been born. Originally it was intended only as an advisory body to help the government on matters of galactic importance, where only trained scientists could have sufficient information to make intelligent decisions. More and more it had become a crime-fighting agency, a counterespionage system. Into its own hands it was drawing more and more of the threads of government".
The most important scientific development of Asimov's own lifetime was the discovery of nuclear energy. Asimov had seen nuclear power escape the control of the scientists who discovered it and become the plaything of politicians who only dimly understood it, and who seemed blind to the danger it represented. His concerns are evident from individual stories such as "Hell-Fire
Hell-Fire
"Hell-Fire" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, originally published in the May 1956 issue of Fantastic Universe and reprinted in the 1957 collection Earth Is Room Enough...
" and "Silly Asses
Silly Asses
Silly Asses is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was published in the February 1958 issue of Future Science Fiction, after having been twice rejected by other outlets. It was subsequently included in the collections Have You Seen These? in 1974 and Buy Jupiter and Other Stories in...
", as well as from the semi-habitable post-nuclear Earth depicted in Pebble in the Sky
Pebble in the Sky
Pebble in the Sky is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1950. This work is his first novel — parts of the Foundation series had appeared from 1942 onwards, in magazines, but Foundation was not published in book form until 1951...
and The Stars, Like Dust
The Stars, Like Dust
The Stars, Like Dust is a 1951 science fiction book by writer Isaac Asimov.The book is part of Asimov's Galactic Empire series. It takes place before the actual founding of the Galactic Empire, and even before Trantor has become important. It starts with a young man attending the University of...
. The Council of Science can be seen as wish-fulfillment on Asimov's part, as scientists in the future tilt the balance of power toward themselves and away from the scientific illiterates who populate the government.
Reception
Writing in The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Ellen Lewis Buell reported that Asimov "ingeniously combines mystery with science fiction, saying that "his inventiveness and use of picturesque details" were reminiscent of Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
. Groff Conklin
Groff Conklin
Edward Groff Conklin was a leading science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories , wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet...
praised the novel as effective juvenile fare: "no romance, parlous little science, but endless imagination, exciting ideas and events." Astounding reviewer P. Schuyler Miller
P. Schuyler Miller
Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...
described it as "fast-moving space opera of a type we all know, with no particular regard for scientific plausibility."