She was born Alice Mary Norton in 1912 and legally changed it to Andre Alice Norton in 1934, writing under the male name of Andre Norton. The reason was that her books were intended for young boys and it was believed they would sell better if “written” by a man. As much as I hate to admit it now, in my callow youth, I probably wouldn’t have read any of her books if I’d known a woman wrote them.
She primarily wrote science fiction and fantasy, with an occasional historical thrown in, some three hundred plus novels. Recurring themes were bonding between humans and animals, tribal societies, and the outdoors, whether on Earth or some exotic planet deep in space.
Her best known works are probably the Witch World titles, some thirty plus. They were okay, but not my favorites. A great many people believe them her best work.
I first read Daybreak-2250 A.D. when I was barely a teenager. It was published in 1952 and has also appeared under the title Star Man’s Son. Though I own copies of both, I much
prefer the former. It was among the earliest science fiction I read. Not the first. That’s reserved for Tunnel In the Sky by Heinlein. But it was shortly after that one. I was probably twelve or thirteen.
Some believe it was the first fiction to deal with a post-nuclear holocaust world, but there is no reliable evidence to prove that.
Fors was of The Puma clan, of the People of the Eyrie in the Smoking Mountains. The son of a Star Man, it was his dream to be one himself. His father had been killed years ago in a battle with the Beast-things. The Star Men were the explorers of the clans, the ones who traveled the far lands looking for caches of the lost knowledge. Lost because the Old Ones had thoughtlessly used nuclear weapons to nearly destroy the world. They looked for the cities that hadn’t been destroyed or looted.
Now Fors would never be a Star Man. He had just been turned down for the fifth year in a row and by next year he would be to old to be considered. You see, he had a problem. His mother had been a woman of the plainsmen, those nomadic, horse riders, not of the Eyrie. He had a strain of mutant in him. Silver hair, better eyesight, night and day, and better hearing than anyone else in the tribe. People didn’t trust him. Now he was fated to spend his the rest of his life at the sufferance of his clan.
Angered, he breaks into the Star Man’s building to retrieve his father’s pouch and leaves the Eyrie to find the “lost” city his father had been on the hunt for when he died. With him is Lura, another result of mutation from the nuclear bombs. Lura is a giant hunting cat who’d bonded with Fors as a kitten. They even have a limited telepathic connection. Lura is, essentially, a Siamese cat the size of a mountain lion.
All Fors has to go on is a scrap of map with a city by a large body of water. While hunting, he has to avoid the “blue” cities, unsafe from radiation. They glow at night.
In his wanderings, he makes a new friend, rescuing Arskane caught in a vicious trap of sharpened spikes in a pit set by the beast-things, those vicious city dwellers that may have once been human. Arskane’s ancestors were flyers who landed their planes in a southern valley after that long ago war and melded with the people there, settling in and becoming farmers and sheepherders.
An earthquake has opened up a volcano and driven them from their valley to hunt for a new home. There have already been clashes with the plainspeople.
Their bond grows as they battle first the beast-things, then the plainspeople, captures, escapes, fleeing across the deadly Blow-up lands, nursing each other back to health. Their mission now is to reunite all bands of humans before they repeat the Old Ones’ mistakes and leave the world to the beast-things. For they are now, for the first time in two hundred years, emerging from the city ruins to engage humans on the open plains. Something has them working together.
This is one of my favorite novels and rereading it for the first time in a few years to refresh my memory, it carried me back to that long ago youth.
Not The Baseball Pitcher 
Great book. I loved Norton’s work, too. This one was the basis of a movie, THE BEASTMASTER, that I thought was fun.
I’ve seen these books for years without realizing the author was female. Thanks, Randy.
I agree with previouos poster(s). I too, read this book as a teenager – picked it up in a used book store on cape cod at the beginning of my vacation back somewhere in 1972-74. I could NOT put it down, & read it, cover to cover over the week I was on vacation. It made a huge impression on me. Somehow, after many moves, I lost the paperback book. but I’m about to right that wrong tonight! I want to re-read this FAVORITE book of mine, & will purchase it from wherever (Ebay, etc) Definitely brought ME back down memory-lane, and for more than 1 reason! GREAT BOOK!
It’s one of my favorites by Ms Norton and I have copies with both covers(titles), though I prefer the first title and the cover on the river with the ruined city in the background.
I never cease to be amazed how many adult SF fans I hear from who recount Star Man’s Son (far and away the more familiar title it seems) as their first exposure to SF or at least one of the first. A true classic. It was either my first exposure to real SF or the second (I can’t recall if I read it before or after Runaway Robot). I have the yellow Conanesque cover but I do like the Daybreak cover above better. Though one really does have to wonder, did any of the artists ever note Lura was supposed to be a giant Siamese, not a mountain lion 🙂
Great book, so glad I found a copy recently.
The first sf novel I ever read, when I was in the 7th grade, was either Time for the Stars by Heinlein or Beastmaster, which was the “origin” of the Beastmaster tv series.
Andre HATED that show. The tv show had nothing in common with the book. Too bad, because it would have made a great tv show. I wrote and told her about the show, she wrote back and told me that she hated it and if I wrote the show would I please tell them that she wanted her name taken off the credits.
I knew that they would ignore me, but I wrote anyway. I would do anything for her. She was the single consistently best author writing. As much as I loved 2250, I think that Star Guard is even better. I love them both and in her universe, Star Guard takes place after 2250 and before Galactic Derelict and its sequel.
Ever so often I start rereading her books. Imagine my delight when I discovered that I had two of her books I had not read. I am saving them for a special time. And I have never read the very last Witch World novel. Because it is as though reading it will end the entire cycle and I am not ready for that.,
Oops
I meant Sargasso of Space not Galactic Derelict which does NOT happen after Daybreak 2250.
I have Galactic Derelict on the mind.
Sargasso takes place after Star Guard. Star Guard is a “fulfillment” of the hope for the future in 2250.
Pat, I was happy when I first heard they were doing Beastmaster as a series, but was as disappointed as Ms Norton when I saw what they did to it. Nevertheless, I lasted for a half dozen episodes before I gave it up as a bad deal. I thought sticking to her storyline would have been so much better.
You know Hollywood though. They think they can “improve” everything.
This was not the source for the movie Beast Master. The Beastmaster was taken from another Norton Book, Beastmaster. Also a great read.
Star Man’s Son was my first Norton, and the one that made her my favorite author. That was over 45 years ago, in high school.
I know, Bob, about Beastmaster. I just didn’t want to correct Bill. I thought the rewrite for the Beastmaster series wasn’t very good, by the way. I would much rather have seen Norton’s book on screen.
I hadn’t read down the list when I posted the response.
I agree, I would rather see the book as written. My thinking is, if you think you can do better, write your own book. OTOH, the same is true for Starship Troopers and so much more.
I do wish I had made the world con in florida when Norton was the Guest of Honor.
I read Starman’s Son in 1958 or 59, when I was 8 or 9. I recall that I read it around the time I read Heinlein’s Have Rocket, Will Travel. What is it about Starman’s Son that made such an impression on so many of our young minds?
Norton was a great storyteller. If you were an SF fan she was telling the stories we wanted to read, and so very well.
In my case, Duane, I think it was just the adventure, the strangeness of it all. I had just begun to explore SF back then. Before, I’d devoured the Hardy Boys and this was something totally different. And fun.
As with most of the others that have posted here, I too read Daybreak as a 6th grader and it was my first SF book. Norton became my favorite author and still remains so. Being female I was so delighted when I discovered that Andre Norton was a woman. I have a question. Is Daybreak a single book or part of a series of books? I have not read all of Norton’s books and always wanted to read more about Fors and Lura.
It’s not really a sequel, Barbara, but NO NIGHT WITHOUT STARS is the second with this one in the AFTER THE APOCALYPSE SERIES. Different characters, but the same themes, settings. The two books were published in an omnibus edition titled DARKNESS AND DAWN.
I hope that answers your question.
Are kidding,I so loved this book I created my Toreus character,that was the basis for my creation
Toreus? Details please? What creation?
Too bad there aren’t more fans closer together so we could get together and share these memories.
I was doing a search re Daybreak-2250 AD and came upon your site. I read it in 8th grade and loved it for all of the ovbious reasons.
In 12th grade, I took it to my high-school to re-read it during free time. I was kind of a hippie-jock, and one day one of the hard-core jocks noticed the book, skimmed the header, and asked to borrow it (Yeah… he could read).
When he finished it, he asked if he could lend it to someone else, and then someone else. I saw at least 10 people with it at different times.
And then I didn’t see it. No one knew who had had it last. I was aggravated.
Still am.
It wasn’t the last time that I learned the lesson of the never returned lent book.
I’m with you, Rob. I’ve lent too many books out never to see them again. I remember one particular four book series, Agent of T.E.R.R.A., I lent to a friend and when I finally got them back, they were trashed pretty badly. It wasn’t until years later with the expansion of the internet and used book sites that I was able to replace them.
I’m still in love with this story. I’m about to name my genetically messed up all-white cat after the “bob cat” / extra large siamese in the story – Lura (although that sounds more like a girl’s name) My recently adopted car has 6 claws on his front paws, 5 claws on his back, and a really messed up/kinked tail. He’s a mess, a genetic mutation – but he’s a love bug! Thus – Lura, or maybe Luro? In any case, I still want to purchase my book……
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Ending ‘a’ means female. I was in the 8th grade when I bought the Ace Double with Daybreak,… at the Marwil store at Northland. I finished reading it in bed that night. I finally quit SF when we landed on the moon.
KS
Read a lot of Norton back in the day. Favorites include The Zero Stone, Galactic Derelict, Breed To Come. She either foresaw or was one of the very earliest practitioners of many later powerful themes in SF and fantasy.
After fifty years since first reading this book, almost every time I drive towards a city, and all that can be seen in the distance are the tall buildings, I still think and dream. And I wonder if my dill pickles are still good that I bottled several years ago! Books! Better than any movie.
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