The sci-fi equivalent of a beach read: a fast moving plot that doesn’t stand up to much thinking, full of attitudes and stereotypes from the early 60s when it was originally written ( )

A small group of Apaches, including Travis Fox, are regressed to their ancestral memories to colonize a planet before the Russians reach it. Despite their efforts, they do not arrive first. The Russians have done the same to a small group of Mongols, but they are being controlled - enslaved - by Russian overlords (Reds).

This book was published in 1962, so is representative of the Cold War. The Russian had a deep plant in the American organization that was planning to establish a colony on the planet Topaz. Once they discovered that the information about it had been copied, they rushed through the process to prepare the colonists regardless of the harm it might cause them. The Russians had done the same to theirs. Both sides did it in an effort to be the first to possibly discover something important left by a now gone extraterrestrial civilization, possibly weapons that could destroy the other side. The book shows some animosity between the two groups that have memories of having been enemies during the times before they were regressed, but they realize they must work together so they will all be safe. Enemies working together for survival is a relatively common theme, but it is an entertaining adventure, regardless. ( )

This book is set a year or so after Travis Fox's sudden introduction to the Time Agents and their travels into the past. With a working spaceship, the main focus of the Project has moved to colonising planets and with the journey tapes looted from the deserted alien city, the Western Confederation thought it had stolen a lead on the Reds. a position they find is in error when they find they have been hosting a deep buried enemy mole in their ranks. With the race now on to colonise suitable worlds, Fox and his fellow Apache volunteers find their schedule moved up and the dreaded Redax used to pull up race memories. When their ship crashlands after an attack from an already established colony, the apaches are left between two worlds and trying to make sense of a third, but they find that the Red colony was using mind control on it's regressed Mongol colonists to make sure they didn't stray too far. As Fox and his colleagues, now including a party of free Mongols, explore, they run across a Baldie outpost that offers the best chance to overthrow the Mongol's overlords. Although primarily an adventure story, we do get a look at the moralities behind some of the actions we see in this story, most notably, what sort of justification is there for forcing people into new paths, and the use of one evil to overcome an other, and the temptations access to this will have. This is one of the few Andre Norton books where females take up a leading role at this point in time. It's also the last time we get to see Travis Fox. ( )

Transplanted Apaches and Mongols try to survive on a new planet and find peace in joining forces. ( )

“The Defiant Agents” is the third in a series of science fiction novels involving space and time travel by Andre Norton. It follows “The Time Traders” and “Galactic Derelict”. In this episode, a “Red” spy has learned of the USA discovered a distant planet suitable for colonization and has plans to establish a colony on the planet. The espionage may have occurred as long as 18 months earlier, so American leaders are concerned that the U. S. S. R. may have completed a crash program and dispatched a crew to claim the planet. The government decides to send a crew to the planet immediately.

The U. S. A. mission is entrusted to a crew consisting primarily of men and women of Apache heritage. The emergency requires shortcuts in mission planning and crew training so while in transit the Apaches are subjected to a process that overlays their personality and understanding of the modern world with the attitudes, traits, and skills of their 19th-century ancestors. Their ship crashes on arrival, killing all the crew members who are aware of the indoctrination and purpose of the mission. Among the survivors, only Travis Fox, who has prior experience with space travel, retains his understanding of the regression procedure and modern social and scientific values. Some of the other Apaches retain a less clear understanding of modern science, attitudes, and values but those are completely suppressed in others.

Andre Norton is the primary pen name of science fiction, historical fiction, and contemporary fiction author Alice Mary Norton. She also used Andrew North and Allen Weston as pen names. A contemporary of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, Norton’s works, like many of theirs, were written for a teenage and young adult male audience. Her protagonists were typically a young male who varied in age from the mid-teens to mid-twenties. A unique feature of many of Norton’s tales is the telepathic connection the protagonist establishes with a large hunting animal: a mating pair of coyotes in The Defiant Agents. This allows Norton to magnify the sensory and fighting capabilities of the protagonist.

The Defiant Agents has aged better than much of the mid-twentieth century science fiction. It is better than the two proceeding novels in this series, for example, but it lacks the tension and innovation of better contemporary science fiction I have read recently such as Gerald Brandt’s “The courier” and Andy Weir’s “The Martian ” and “Artemis.” Readers interested in revisiting or gaining an initial impression of mid-twentieth-century science fiction could select this novel or Andre Norton’s “Daybreak, 2250 A. D., but better choices I have read recently are William Greenleaf’s “Starjacked,” and Robert A. Heinlein’s “Farmer in the Sky.” ( )