ankind's interstellar war with the humanoid Xiks is over, and Hosteen Storm, Beast Master and Commando, is ready to be mustered out. But Storm, a Navajo, cannot return to the beloved land of his birth, for in a final blow, the Xiks have destroyed Terra entirely. Storm opts then to resettle on the world of Arzor, taking with him his four wartime animal comrades: Baku the eagle, Surra the pantherlike feline, and meerkats Hing and Ho. Ostensibly he arrives on Arzor seeking to homestead. But in reality, he is searching for a mortal enemy, Brad Quade, who owes a blood debt to the Storm family.
Once on Arzor, Storm easily gets a job as a cowboy, driving a herd of horses to auction. He become familiar with the natives—Norbies—whose culture resembles the Amerindian model. He makes friends and enemies, the worst of the latter being one Coll Bister. Almost at the end of the drive, Storm is recruited by an archaeologist named Sorenson, who wishes to use Storm's skills on an expedition to the Sealed Caves—remnants of an ancient and vanished forerunner culture that once threaded the stars.
Having arrived at the valley of the Sealed Caves, Storm is separated from the rest of the expedition by a monsoonlike deluge. When he finds his comrades again, he discovers them butchered, ostensibly by rogue Norbies. The only survivor of the archaeological mission is a Norbie friend, Gorgol. Gorgol informs Storm that the real butchers were not Norbies, and Storm soon discovers the true culprits: a surviving party of Xiks, who intend to foment war between humans and Norbies. Gorgol and Storm rescue a human captive of the Xiks, and Storm is disconcerted to learn the identity of the man: Logan Quade, the son of his mortal enemy.
In escaping the Xiks, the trio are forced to plunge deep into the Sealed Caves, where they discover a miraculous secret refuge of the forerunners. Intent on delivering their information to civilization, Storm and his friends will face a gantlet of trials, including poisonous dragonoids, Xiks, headstrong anti-Norbie humans and Coll Bister, who is more than he seems.
An admired book never properly translated
Norton, the grandmistress of young-adult SF novelists, published her first SF novel in 1952. By 1959, the year when The Beast Master appeared, she had already become an expert storyteller, able to mix up just the perfect blend of action, mysticism, deep backstory, empathy-attracting characters and alluring SF milieus that would earn her her reputation. She would go on to write better, more classic works, such as Witch World (1963) and Moon of Three Rings (1966). But The Beast Master stands as a certain milestone in her prowess.
First in the novel's list of impressive assets is the character of Hosteen Storm. An orphan of the most drastic sort—his entire world is dead—Storm is also a veteran, scarred by all the carnage he has seen. Amazingly, considering her venue, Norton imparts an almost noirish cast to him. He's a figure straight out of one of the novels John D. McDonald was writing at this time, about World War II survivors forced to confront civilian life. He could be a Keith Laumer protagonist as well, tough and hardened, with a chip on his shoulder. Norton makes much of how he has erected a barrier between himself and other people, open only to his animals.
Storm's telepathic bond with his furred and feathered companions is Norton's next masterstroke. This ancient dream of a real human-animal concord, mythic in its resonance, finds its first mature expression in SF here. Such later works as James Schmitz's The Demon Breed and even Harry Harrison's jokey The Man from P.I.G. (both 1968) owe much to Norton's vivid elaboration of this wish-fulfilling conception.
Norton's weaving of all her novels into a diffuse future history—sometimes contradictory, but always simpatico—benefits the book as well. Her universe is one rich with history and other races, lending an air of enigmatic complexity to the simplest tale.
With its protagonist of color and its emphasis on the spiritual side of life as a counterweight to science, The Beast Master—and its sequel, Lord of Thunder (1962)—seem from this remove to dimly adumbrate the New Wave. Norton's best books struck a chord with readers that still thrums down to the present day, due to the salient features sketched above. It's just too bad that the Beastmaster movies and TV show inspired by the book threw away everything that counted in favor of dumb sword and sorcery.
