Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids

One year after David Starr's adventure on Mars—where he encountered a benevolent race of energy beings living in isolation below the planet's surface while investigating a food poisoning scare—Starr sets off to eliminate a growing pirate threat originating from our solar system's asteroid belt.

David "Lucky" Starr, a junior member of the Council of Science, proposes that an expendable, unmanned vessel, the Atlas, be sent to the asteroid belt with the intention of allowing the pirates to capture it and tow it back to their base—where explosives rigged in certain sections of the ship would detonate.

Starr's mentors, Doctors Conway and Henree, endorse the plan but are shocked when they learn from Starr's sidekick, the diminutive but show more capable Bigman, that Starr had decided to board the Atlas in order to infiltrate the pirates.

As planned, the ship is captured by a pirate vessel, commanded by one Captain Anton, who suspects that Starr, traveling under the alias Bill Williams, is a government man. After narrowly winning a duel to the death with Anton's first officer, a surly and stout pirate named Dingo, Starr is dropped off on a large asteroid, where he encounters a hermit named Hansen, who claims to help the pirates on occasion in exchange for his safety—as long as he remains on the asteroid.

However, Hansen recognizes David Starr as the son of the late scientist Larry Starr. Further, Hansen has a small vessel that can take them off the asteroid and he pleads with Starr to help put him contact with the Council of Science base on Ceres.

Once there, Hansen is not at all forthcoming with information about the pirates and he claims to have forgotten the coordinates of the asteroid he calls home. However, Starr had taken notes on the way from Hansen's asteroid and decides to return in his own vessel, the Shooting Star along with Bigman. Eventually, they locate the asteroid, but Starr quickly finds himself ensnared in a trap set by the pirates led by Dingo. They capture him and take him below the surface, where Starr observes a manufacturing plant and main base of pirate activity.

Will Lucky Starr escape the asteroid alive and make it back to the Shooting Star? Even if he does, will he and the Council of Science be able to stop a raid on Ceres by a fleet of pirate ships bent on recapturing Hansen? What's more, how will the Council of Science eliminate the pirate threat from the asteroid belt once and for all?

Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids is the second volume in a six-book series. As with David Starr, Space Ranger, the story is an easy, fast-paced read. This time around, the plot twist was predictable, but that did not diminish the enjoyment of a vigorous, rip-roaring adventure. show less

Council of Science agent David 'Lucky' Starr infiltrates a pirate ring threatening the solar system's asteroid belt. Seeking revenge for his parents' deaths, Lucky baits the pirates with a rigged ship, the Atlas, and poses as a criminal to locate their secret base.

Lucky survives a near-lethal trap, survives a dangerous flight near the sun, and foils the pirate plot, ensuring the security of the Solar System.

This is the second Lucky Starr book, and the first Asimov wrote after it became clear that no television show would be made with the character. This is also the book where David Starr morphed from being a Lone Ranger imitation to being a Cold War counterintelligence agent. The books also began referring to the character as "Lucky" Starr, because Asimov apparently thought that David was too mundane a name for a planet hopping spy.

The Lucky Starr books were supposed to interest young boys in science, although it is hard to figure out how, as there is very little actual science in the books. They are, however, pretty good adventure tales. Having been to Mars in the previous book, Lucky heads out to the Asteroid Belt to take on the pirates show more referenced in the first book. Lucky accompanies a ship that has been booby trapped by the Science Council and intended to cause trouble for the pirates. Once in the belt, the pirates predictably board the ship, and seem to know all about the Council's trap. Lucky infiltrates the pirate band, has to fight to prove himself (something that seems common in the Lucky Starr books), and eventually figures out who the leader is, and has to undertake a daring maneuver only made possible by his Martian mask. On the way, Lucky finds out about the Sirian involvement in the pirate plots. The Sirians become the antagonists for the rest of the series, plotting against Earth over and over again.

This is not deep, philosophical science fiction, and some of the information in the book is now dated to a certain extent (planetary astronomy has made significant strides since the book was written). The book remains a solid adventure story aimed at teenage boys, and a reasonably good adventure story for older readers too, who will see some of the seeds of ideas Asimov fleshed out in books such as The Caves of Steel in this book. This isn't great science fiction, but it is fun and readable.

This review has also been posted to my blog Dreaming About Other Worlds. show less

A sci-fi adventure story. As with most Asimov, although it's an adventure story it takes a fairly serious tone, and is full of hardish science. It didn't really throw up anything unexpected, I'd guessed the main points of the plot fairly early on, but it's quick, fairly interesting and I didn't see much to complain about either. It doesn't feature character development or sparkling conversation, but that's not really what it's going for. Scientific Adventure in Space is what this is.

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids
Series: Lucky Starr #2
Author: Isaac Asimov
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 144
Format: Digital Scan

Synopsis:

Something funny is going on with the Pirates who inhabit the asteroids. While they seem to be growing in number and strength, their attacks have become more focused, tighter and a lot more strategic. Lucky and others from the Science Council build a spaceship meant to be captured and then show more exploded in a Pirate base. It's all a double, triple, never ending ruse though, as Lucky sneaks on board after alerting the Syrian Embassy anonymously of the “real” mission of the ship. The Syrians are in league with the Pirates and when everything in place, Earth will face a two fronted war.

Lucky uncovers just how far along the plans actually are and sets in motion events to prevent the war from ever starting. He comes across the man who had his parents killed 25 years ago who is the mastermind of the Pirates. While the Military is looking at dealing with the Syrians, the Science Council goes in secretly to the asteroid belt and using the information from the mastermind, clean out all the pirate nests. This collapses one front of the potential war, so the Syrians withdraw without a fight.

My Thoughts:

Yeah....this was rather boring. Also, Lucky wasn't much of a Space Ranger at all. He only used the mask the aliens gave him, in the first book, as protection so he could fly closer to the sun and catch up with some bad guys. No cool fight scene with it.

There were a couple of “fights” but they took place mainly in space and were as slow and clunky as you would imagine. No space ninjas here! It really boiled down to Lucky figuring things out last minute but not willing to tell his mentors because he didn't have all the “facts” to back them up. Then he'd race off to get facts.

I must have glossed over it in the first book, but apparently there is another Galactic Empire of the Syrians, from Sirius. I felt like I was stumbling over them without knowing who or what they were. Are they humans or aliens? What is their beef with Earth? This should have been dealt with a little more clearly.

If the series stays tonally the same as this book instead of the first, it is going to be real easy to understand why this series never became very famous. Even Andre Norton wrote more exciting stuff.

★★★☆☆ show less

Similar to the space opera novels of 'Doc' Smith. Basic, simple science fiction set in our solar system. A good book for early readers of science fiction.

Don't get me wrong I love Asimov, i just think this book is missing something, some spark that set out Asimov as the genius we all love him to be.