Buy used:
$10.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 10. Order within 10 hrs 9 mins
Used: Good | Details
Sold by MH9808
Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: Ships direct from Amazon!

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and Amazon Prime.

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you grow your business. Learn more about the program.

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Andre Norton
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Stars Are Ours Mass Market Paperback – November 1, 1983

by Andre Norton (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 27 ratings
See all formats and editions
The Stars Are Ours [Nov 01, 1983] Norton, Andre
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    191 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Ace
  4. Publication date
    November 1, 1983
  5. Dimensions
    7 x 1 x 5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0441784356
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0441784356
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ace; Reprint edition (November 1, 1983)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 191 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0441784356
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0441784356
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 1 x 5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 27 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Andre Norton

Andre Norton

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

For well over a half century, Andre Norton was one of the most popular science fiction and fantasy authors in the world. With series such as Time Traders, Solar Queen, Forerunner, Beast Master, Crosstime, and Janus, as well as many standalone novels, her tales of adventure have drawn countless readers to science fiction. Her fantasy novels, including the bestselling Witch World series, her Magic series, and many other unrelated novels, have been popular with readers for decades. Lauded as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, she is the recipient of a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention. An Ohio native, Norton lived for many years in Winter Park, Florida, and died in March 2005 at her home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
27 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

J
5.0 out of 5 stars One of Norton's best and, as usual, no profanity
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2013
Verified Purchase
This is probably my favorite Norton novel. It's a toss up between this and Star Man's Son. In The Stars Are Ours, Misses Norton proves why she is remembered as a master story teller and the Grand Dame of science fiction. Unfortunately this novel is getting harder to find. Hopefully they will re-issue a quality hard back version. The Baen omnibus release, Star Flight, which included this along with Star Born, was a total disaster as the editing was evidently non-existent. There were so many miss-spellings and wrong words that it was virtually unreadable. Nice to be able to enjoy an engaging story without having to wade through a lot of profanity in the character dialogue.
Helpful
 Report
Skandia Recluse
5.0 out of 5 stars As good now as it was fifty years ago.
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2018
Verified Purchase
I read this fifty years ago, and it ignited a passion for space exploration that has not dimmed since.
I read this again when I found the book available in a library edition hardcover. The book it in two parts and the first part is almost exactly as I remembered it. The second part is about exploring the unknown frontier which is something I have always found interesting.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
John Waidner
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic of the genre
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2018
Verified Purchase
A classic from my youth purchased as a gift for a young person of thhe same age as I was when I first read it. Yes, I read the book again before u gave it to him.
Helpful
 Report
Kat Hooper
3.0 out of 5 stars A fine SF adventure
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2021
Originally published at Fantasy Literature. (Copied and pasted, so links won't work and there may be some alt tags in this review.)

Tantor Media has been publishing the omnibus editions of Andre Norton’s science-fiction adventures in audiobook format. The omnibus (originally published by Baen) called Star Flight contains the novels The Stars are Ours and Star Born (the PAX/ASTRA duology). Both novels are set in the same universe (ours, actually) but they stand alone.

The prologue of The Stars are Ours, originally published in 1954, is a big infodump which details a frightening future history of the world in which we basically destroy ourselves with extreme nationalism, a nuclear war, a Cold War, terrorism, a propaganda-spewing anti-science demagogue, and racism. This leads to the destruction of civilization and the rise of a global power called Pax. Scientists are blamed for everything and most people are proud of their lack of education. There’s a small secret cabal of Free Scientists, though, who protect knowledge and hope to save humanity by heading for the stars.

After the history lesson we meet a young man named Dard Nordis whose older brother was a Free Scientist. When Dard’s home is raided and he’s forced to kill someone in self-defense, he flees with his niece and seeks the hideout of the Free Scientists. He hopes to gain their trust, not only because he wants protection, but also because he realizes he may have some knowledge that may enable them to build their ship and leave Earth. The rest of the story tells how Dard’s information gets decoded and what becomes of the Free Scientists who want to find a new planet to live on.

The Stars are Ours is a fine adventure, perfect for kids as an introduction to science fiction. The story is exciting and unpredictable, and it contains warnings about the dangers of anti-scientific and emotion-based reasoning, propaganda, nationalism (in contrast to individualism), fanaticism, greed, and lust for power. These are related in infodumps or monologues, unfortunately, but they are timely and weighty themes.

Tantor Media’s edition is narrated by Ryan Burke who does a great job telling Dard’s story.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
BillMerritt
4.0 out of 5 stars Must read before Starborn
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2013
Verified Purchase
Exciting throughout. Especially after page 94. Could not wait to read the sequel, Starborn. Was easy to follow the story.
Helpful
 Report
Michael L. Breslin
5.0 out of 5 stars and it's just as good now as it was back then
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is one of the first science fiction books I read, in the seventh grade, and it's just as good now as it was back then!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
MRD
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2016
Verified Purchase
a great book by Ms. norton
Helpful
 Report
Arthur W Jordin
5.0 out of 5 stars Ad Astra Post Apocalypse
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2003
The Stars Are Ours (1954) is the first novel in the Astra duology. Mankind had reached the Moon, Mars and Venus, but found little to justify terraforming, so interplanetary flight was used only for scientific research. However, the three space stations provided a number of services, including astronomical and meteorological observations and refueling interplanetary flights. One of these stations was invaded by unidentified armed men who turned certain installations into weapons which they unleashed against the planet. A major portion of the planet was completely devastated and the loss of life was incalculable.

Among the survivors was Arturo Renzi, who had lost his entire family. He began to preach the evils of science and was welcomed as a great leader throughout the world. However, his message was too liberal for some of his followers and he was assassinated, apparently by a Free Scientist. For three days after the assassination, Renzi's followers engaged in a furious purge against scientists and techneers, hunting them down and killing them. Then Saxon Bort, one of Renzi's chief lieutenants, assumed command of the leader's forces and established the tight dictatorship of the Company of Pax.

In this novel, a decade or so later, Dard Nordis is the son of a Scientific family, living with his older brother, Lars, and his niece, Dessie. Lars and Dard, together with Lars' pregnant wife, Kathia, had fled the purge, but the escape had left Lars a twisted cripple and his wife an amnesiac. After Dessie was born, Kathia retreated into her own dream world until her death. Now Dard, Lars, and Dessie live on a farm far from any population center and the only nearby farm is Hew Folley's place. Dard doesn't trust Folley, for he wants their farm. Then one night, a Pax 'copter lands in the snow just before the house and armed Peacemen surround the building. Dard has the others gather food and supplies and sends them down into the cellar, then torches the house. Moving aside some rotting bins, he uncovers a tunnel, sends Dessie ahead, and helps Lars struggle down the passage.

After the Peacemen leave, Lars sends Dard out to leave a packet for his Scientific underground contact, but Dard hears a shot shortly after he drops the packet and runs back to find Folley clutching a squirming Dessie. Dard throws his knife and fatally injures Folley, then discovers that Lars is dead. With no other recourse remaining, Dard and Dessie return to the contact point to wait. Lotta Folley finds them there and gives them food and a scarf for Dessie; Lotta knows that her father is dead, but she recognizes that he was a man full of hate and who liked to hurt people. Besides, Lotta likes Dessie and liked her mother even more; they were the only people that ever treated her as a real person instead of an object. Lotta takes the rifle back to the barn to fool the Peacemen.

When Lars' contact arrives, Dard convinces him to take Dessie and himself back to safety. They spend the night in a cave, but a Pax 'copter is circling the area when they awake. The contact, Sach, leads the Peacemen away so Dard and Dessie can proceed to the next point in their journey. They move away from the cave along a bare ledge as far as they can and then jump into a snow drift on the edge of the woods. Their journey is fairly easy until they reach the river; the ice is too thin to support even Dessie's weight. After looking up and down river, Dard finds only one place that may support them, an arch of ice covered with snow. Dard carries Dessie across, slowly and carefully, then rests for a count of hundred on the other side. Again heading to the peak that marks their goal, Dard hears the 'copter return and throws Dessie and himself into a tangle of bushes. The men in the 'copter rake the bushes with fire. He and Dessie scoot out the other side, but find it to be a wide sweep of open ground.

This novel is another of the author's post-apocalyptic stories, but the emphasis herein is on spaceflight. Mankind had achieved interplanetary flight and was working on interstellar flight when some irrational terrorists destroyed civilization. Other fanatics then ripped up civilization into even smaller pieces and tried to ensure that ignorance would reign forever. The Scientific community, however, was working on a stardrive and that work was continued in hiding.

This story contains several of the characteristic signatures of the author's space adventures, including special talents and aliens, but does not include mutations nor symbiotic animals. This novel shows the beginning of galactic-wide human civilization and  Star Rangers  shows the ending of that civilization. Of course, some of the other stories may be set in a successor society. This story is definitely a little dated, but it is still a pleasure to read, as is the sequel,  Star Born .

Highly recommended for Norton fans and anyone else who enjoys tales of desperate spaceflights to planets around other suns.

-Arthur W. Jordin
22 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Keith C Loverock
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in Canada on August 2, 2015
Verified Purchase
it did not have the paper dust cover
Report
Christian Bader
4.0 out of 5 stars Great golden Era Science Fiction
Reviewed in Germany on May 30, 2015
Verified Purchase
This book feels like awesome Golden Era science fiction. Of course it is outdated, but nevertheless, if you read it as a beautiful piece of retro science fiction, you will truly enjoy it with all it silver shining nuclear driven rocketships and laser weapons.
Report
mabel
5.0 out of 5 stars Andre Norton novels.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 17, 2014
Verified Purchase
I haven't got around to reading it yet, but I am sure it will be excellent, as all Andre Norton stories are! The book arrived in good condition and on time, as predicted. Many thanks. I am now looking forward to many hours of enjoyment.
Report