Star Rangers

1953

This book was one of the first science fiction books I ever read, and (almost) certainly the first of Miss Norton's books.

The last remnants of the Patrol try and stem the decay but the flow of history is against them and they are ordered out into space to fulfil their mission of mapping the stars. Honest to their oaths they go out in ships that are little more than wrecks.

When the ship carrying himself and his team comes down rather too hard, Ranger Sergeant Karter is aware that power has shifted away from the surviving crew of the ship - there is little need for their skills on this wilderness planet whilst the Rangers have been trained to survive on such a planet.

Their assumptions are rudely shattered when the teams find a city ancient beyond knowledge already occupied by another band of refugees. At first the newcomers are made welcome, but it is soon clear that the leaders of the city folk have an agenda of their own. Soon the patrol folk are involved in a revolution where Karter finds out what it's like to have his mind taken over.

Abandoned by both sides in the civil war, the patrol folk are thrust out into the wilderness where they find the ancient secrets of their new home...

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