On This Page
Description
Imagine a distant future when the ability to travel through time becomes a central part of each country's national security program. That's the premise of this fascinating sci-fi novel from author Andre Norton. The Time Traders zooms in on one such agent, Ross Murdock, who is tasked with the challenge of journeying through history to ensure that America gains access to cutting-edge space travel technology..
Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
After the slog that was The Scarlet Letter, this was a real refreshing romp. The bull-headed scoundrel Ross Murdock gets force-recruited into a secret American time-travel unit that tries to uncover where the Russians have all that fancy new technology from they display so openly. The assumption is that an advanced civilization has lived on Earth long before humankind crawled out of their caves, and that the "Reds" have found their leftovers. Ross and his boss Gordon Ashe are sent back to 2k BC only to discover that their outpost under the disguise of prehistoric traders has been bombed. The locals believe that the wrath of their gods has manifested and shenanigans ensue, resulting in a series of near-death-experiences, surprising show more discoveries and mad dashed through time and space.
The contrast between prehistoric hunter-gatherer culture (that seemed plausibly described to a non-expert like me) and the far advanced technology was one of the charmes of this novella, but I also like the protagonists - Ross, even if he's sometimes a bit of a Gary Stu with all his miraculous new skills (American training methods are really remarkable) and the way sheer stubborn willpower takes him through all and every situation) and Gordon Ashe with his stoic experience. There was some handwaving and some plotholes (you don't have time pressure when you have time travel at your disposal), but all in all this was much better than most of this kind of pulp fiction. show less
The contrast between prehistoric hunter-gatherer culture (that seemed plausibly described to a non-expert like me) and the far advanced technology was one of the charmes of this novella, but I also like the protagonists - Ross, even if he's sometimes a bit of a Gary Stu with all his miraculous new skills (American training methods are really remarkable) and the way sheer stubborn willpower takes him through all and every situation) and Gordon Ashe with his stoic experience. There was some handwaving and some plotholes (you don't have time pressure when you have time travel at your disposal), but all in all this was much better than most of this kind of pulp fiction. show less
I don't really like Ross Murdock - he's a rather nasty person (with good reason, but still). On the other hand, he has excellent adventures. Recruited out of court, hauled along on a back-time trip that turned unexpectedly nasty, heading out again on a harder trip that got even worse... He's funny when Ashe reduces him to a boy again (rarely). And his desire to have Ashe respect him is amazingly transparent to the reader, though it's never explicitly stated. His stubbornness is exactly what's needed to produce the best possible result, from the Project's point of view...but I still don't like him much. Good but not excellent story.
Andre Norton is a significant name in her field, and an early female presence. She is worth sampling for that reason, and I was long overdue doing so. This novel kicks off one of her many series, a cold war novel about the Russians and Americans trying to one-up each other with time travel and alien technologies. Unfortunately the story is in too big a hurry to spend much effort on character development, and the science is mostly hand-waving in favour of getting to the next action scene more quickly. I can't credit that action with much excitement, and too much happens offstage or is deferred to the sequels. I was disappointed, but it wasn't wasted time.
Ha, nothing like conscription as the start of a story. This wise-ace, street bastard is forced to join these time travellers fighting the REDS. God, I love it. It's like an wormhole onion of espionage. My thing lately has been combinations of feudal/hunting/medieval society mixed with The Science of Future (a lot of the short stories I was reading last month by Everett Cole on Gutenberg follows that sort of line). This has that, since they bounce around a bit between Now and Then and some people from Super Tech Whenever? Norton has a decent skill in letting bad crap happen to her main characters. These are stories where you see you only have a pinch of pages left and you wonder how the hell they'll get out of that.
Holds up fairly well considering the passage of time; though it still is very much of its own period, with the Reds as antagonists and Our Hero being of the "misfit because society no longer needs heroes - until now!" variety.
There was, if I recall correctly, approximately one woman in the whole novel, which is quite a feat considering the range of small communities Our Hero travels through willingly or not; a greater range of races were included even though (England/Europe being chosen as the playground of the novel) they didn't feature for the greater part of the story.
A bit action-adventurey for my tastes, and the aliens' motives were obscure, but all-in-all perfectly readable.
There was, if I recall correctly, approximately one woman in the whole novel, which is quite a feat considering the range of small communities Our Hero travels through willingly or not; a greater range of races were included even though (England/Europe being chosen as the playground of the novel) they didn't feature for the greater part of the story.
A bit action-adventurey for my tastes, and the aliens' motives were obscure, but all-in-all perfectly readable.
The first book in another great series from Andre Norton, with the original books written in the late fifties/early sixties and a further number of books co-written with younger authors. This has led to a number of discrepancies as real life diverged (in some ways) from that originally envisaged by Ms Norton.
This is the start of 'The Time Traders' series featuring Ross Murdock and Gordon Ashe. This series is set pretty much at the turn of the 21st century, or almost 40 years after the book was written. In this future, the world is still split into two power blocks - the Capitalist West and the Communist East and, rather unusually and fairly presciently, the dream of space had failed after a few missions to the moon and a failed space show more station. The governments of East and West had developed a fairly experimental form of time travel and the Reds were using this technology to introduce technologies that should be available to them. America, in it's attempts to keep up was casting around in time to find this secret resource, But it's Murdock, caught up in the Project when his criminal record catches up with him, and Ashe, out on Murdock's graduation exercise, that inadvertently find themselves in the middle of the Reds' secret. Poor Murdock is battered and beaten by human and alien enemies but manages to survive in a rather battered fashion. show less
This is the start of 'The Time Traders' series featuring Ross Murdock and Gordon Ashe. This series is set pretty much at the turn of the 21st century, or almost 40 years after the book was written. In this future, the world is still split into two power blocks - the Capitalist West and the Communist East and, rather unusually and fairly presciently, the dream of space had failed after a few missions to the moon and a failed space show more station. The governments of East and West had developed a fairly experimental form of time travel and the Reds were using this technology to introduce technologies that should be available to them. America, in it's attempts to keep up was casting around in time to find this secret resource, But it's Murdock, caught up in the Project when his criminal record catches up with him, and Ashe, out on Murdock's graduation exercise, that inadvertently find themselves in the middle of the Reds' secret. Poor Murdock is battered and beaten by human and alien enemies but manages to survive in a rather battered fashion. show less
I read this book when i was young and liked it very much, though i have not reread it for a long time.In the Cold War opening, the Russians are gaining technological advantages from time travel. Ross Murdock (the continuing series hero) and his partner Ashe are sent back to the Bronze Age as Beaker People merchants and find the Russian technology comes from dealing with aliens.This is probably the very copy I first read in the Wood County Ohio library. It is only Norton's third sf novel and I was surprised it came out in 1969 when I was 19 -- I thought I remembered reading it earlier.
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Favorite Science Fiction by Women Authors
737 works; 196 members
Books Read in 2013
1,630 works; 51 members
Best Prehistoric Novels
64 works; 10 members
Books Read in 2019
4,052 works; 108 members
Baen Free Library
72 works; 2 members
Favorite Science Fiction
456 works; 218 members
Author Information
435+ Works 76,492 Members
Born Alice Mary Norton on February 17, 1912 in Cleveland, Ohio, she legally changed her name to Andre Alice Norton in 1934. She attended the Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve) for a year then took evening courses in journalism and writing that were offered by Cleveland College, the adult division of show more the same university. Norton was a librarian for the Cleveland Library System then a reader at Gnome Press. After that position, she became a full-time writer. She is most noted for writing fantasy, in particular the Witch World series. Her first book The Prince of Commands was published in 1934. Other titles include Ralestone Luck, Magic in Ithkar, Voorloper, Uncharted Stars, The Gifts of Asti and All Cats are Gray. She also wrote under the pen names Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston She was the first woman to receive the Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and the Nebula Grand Master Award. She has also received a Phoenix Award for overall writing achievement, a Jules Verne Award, and a Science Fiction Book Club Book of the Year Award for her title The Elvenbane. In 1997 she was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. She died on March 17, 2005. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Notable Lists
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Time Traders
- Original title
- The Time Traders
- Original publication date
- 1958
- People/Characters
- Gordon Ashe; Ross Murdock
- First words
- To anyone who glanced casually inside the detention room the young man sitting there did not seem very formidable. (original edition)
Ross Murdock wouldn't have seemed formidable to anyone glancing casually at him as he sat within the detention cell. (revised edition in omnibus) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)It was a very simple answer, but when his eyes met Ashe’s, Ross knew that it would serve better than any solemn oath. (original edition)
- Original language*
- Englisch
- Disambiguation notice
- This is the first volume in the series, not the first omnibus volume which contained the revised editions of The Time Traders and Galactic Derelict.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 879
- Popularity
- 30,815
- Reviews
- 13
- Rating
- (3.48)
- Languages
- English, German, Hungarian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 46
- ASINs
- 31
