Forerunner: The Second Venture

by Andre Norton

Book Overview

Sisma, the beggar whose mind held the ancient legacy of the Forerunners, had escaped her claw-and-fang life in the Burrows, with the off-planet Rangers. But the Rangers wanted her in captivity for study by historians. So Sisma and Zass, her winged hunting zorsal, escaped again, taking a stolen lifeboat to an unknown world. A desert where shapeshifting creatures lurked beneath the sand, where Zass and Sisma's hunting skills, psychic powers, and strange...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312932561
• ISBN13: 9780312932565
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

search for a missing archeologist on a Guild-dominated world

Don't confuse this book with _Forerunner Foray_ (public libraries sometimes mix them up). They're not part of the same series, in that they don't deal with the same characters or locales - just the same universe."Forerunner", in this setting, is a term used to refer to ancient artifacts of extinct species ('ancient' can be millions, or billions, of years). Forerunner artifacts may be gemstones, tumbled ruins - or massive automated installations, no telling, since there's no one 'Forerunner' civilization; it's just a catch-all term indicating both great age and alien culture. In this universe, archeologists compete not only with legitimate government agencies over custody of their finds, but with the Guild, that shadowy, loose organization of the Galaxy's criminals.On the backwater, low-tech world where this story begins (if one can speak of real beginnings where roots run so deep), Kuxortal, favored by its location, draws not only on the sea trade and the trade of the continent drained by the river Kux, but the ships of the offworlders. While Kuxortal doesn't offer goods to attract the great combines who take the cream of interstellar trade, that in itself appeals to other elements - ships run by men who want a port where they can warehouse and exchange goods without awkward formalities like customs inspectors (as long as they pay due respect, and other proper dues, to the Guild Lords who run the city).But the Guild Lords' palaces in the high reaches of Kuxortal are not the whole city - a city so old that its origins are lost in time, where any space vacated by the collapse or destruction of a building is speedily filled again, gradually raising the city ever higher above the river and the shore. In the depths, lie the Burrows - the basements, tunnels, and so on left by long built-over ruins, occupied by the lowest rung of the city's social ladder, scavengers who can only trade their pickings at the humblest of markets, who compete fiercely for any hope of a better life.Odd things turn up in the burrows: lore that would surprise the lords, artifacts, and people - people sometimes resulting from such a mix of races that it seems that new species might almost be born from this cauldron - or even old ones from embers of an age long past. One such oddity is the foundling Simsa, of unknown parentage - whose startling silver-white hair is usually covered or darkened to match her blue-black skin, with weapons never seen until it's too late. (The edition illustrated by Barbi Johnson captures her appearance quite faithfully.)So it is that after the death of her mentor Ferwar - the old crone who was both respected and feared as one who dealt in cures and old artifacts, with a fearsome command of curses - Simsa acts not just defend her place among the Burrowers, but to try to finagle her way into the upper city (or at least into a better grade of slum). The choicest of the artifacts left by Ferwar may, if traded to some offworlder, finance the venture.Unfor

Good old Andre Norton...

I first read this book when I was in my early teens and would read virtually anything with a "sci-fi" or "fantasy" prefix. I became far pickier now :) Forerunner is set in one of two main worlds of Norton's, the same one where the Solar Queen traces the sky and It (or EEt, not sure of english spelling :) ) roams the uncharted stars. Like most of Andre's stories, this one is character driven, other things being secondary, while still masterfully executed. It is not too exciting, but I will recommend it to any Sci Fi or Norton fan, along woth many of her earlier books.