Book two for David Starr, now generally known as Lucky, is quite the shift from its predecessor. I described 'Space Ranger' as a science fiction western, Asimov's attempt to write a sci-fi take on 'The Lone Ranger', but it becomes a superhero story, because the mask he wears functions as a personal force shield, and a mystery, because it's built around Starr discovering why people are dying on Earth after eating Martian produce. This is a science fiction western, too; the pirates of the asteroids being bandits with a base in the hills translated into space, but otherwise it's pulp sci-fi action, the one mystery easy to solve and the superhero powers used precisely once, even then in isolation.

The background is that the space pirates based in the asteroid belt, where tiny asteroids make for perfect hiding places for crooks, are bouncing back after a major defeat some years ago. It's worth repeating that, while they're a problem for everyone, they're a personal thing for Starr, because he was orphaned after his parents were killed by pirates. So he comes up with an idea. Build an unmanned but fully-equipped rocket and send it into the asteroids. When it's attacked, have it automatically launch lifeboats that the pirates will take back to their base, where they will explode. Enough of them will mean that the pirates and their base will be wiped out.

So we join Hector Conway and Augustus Henree in the Moon offices of the Council of Science to watch the launch of this historic vessel, which they've called 'Atlas'. Oddly, Starr isn't there and neither is his sidekick, John "Bigman" Jones, but that's because Jones is distracting a guard in the tunnels so Starr can sneak onto the Atlas. He has a plan within a plan.

While everybody else thinks the ship is unmanned, it's really going to be manned by him under the name of Bill Williams, stowaway, so, when the pirates attack, he'll have the opportunity to talk them into letting him join "the men of the asteroids" and he can work from within to take them down. He even has the extra clout of giving away something he's "discovered" while he's been on board, namely that the lifeboats are wired with atomite and rigged to blow. He saves their lives. The least they can do is hire him.

His plan only kinda sorta works. Captain Anton certainly doesn't kill him outright, sell him into slavery or give him to a pirate princess as a plaything—you know, the usual. Instead, he orders him to take on the hulking pirate he's already pissed off, a man by the name of Dingo, in a duel. Being science fiction, this is a duel in space that uses push-guns as weapons, tools that serve as personal thrusters but which can be dangerous when pointed at another human being. He wins, of course, but makes both a bunch of friends and a host of enemies in the process.

So he's not kept out but he's not really welcomed in. Instead, he's delivered to a hermit, Joseph Patrick Hansen, for an undetermined time until the Boss is ready to see him. Apparently, there are hundreds of these hermits dotted around the asteroids and they tolerate the pirates who bring them supplies—after all, the supply ships dried up when the pirates moved in—in return for favours like this, looking after would-be recruits or stop on his rock for repairs. And it's not a bad life. Hansen has a huge place carved out of an asteroid with all the comforts of home, walls lined with bookfilms. It's a better life than back on Earth among teeming billions.

It's here that Starr's plan falls apart, because even Hansen, who's been living inside an asteroid for decades, recognises him. "Are you Lawrence Starr's son?" he asks and naturally assumes he's followed his father into the Council of Science. That prompts them to travel to Ceres together, so he can tag Bigman into joining the pirates instead and Hansen can seek protection from the Council from the very same pirates. After all, he registered his rock in good faith. His estate on Earth pays taxes. Why shouldn't he be protected like everybody else?

I'm sure you can see through this mystery because, once you realise that there is a mystery, it's really only got one solution. So this fails to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, where the mystery was something that kept us thinking for a long time, even if not particularly hard. This is intrigue, pulp adventure, not quite swashbuckling derring-do but certainly considering it, as Bigman sparks a fight in the control tower to set his reputation into motion. That's a hoot but I have to say that my favourite aspect of the story was what follows, as Starr attempts to return to Hansen's asteroid but discovers that nobody, including Hansen himself, knows where it is.

Now, you may have noticed something missing from this review and that's the ephemeral mask that Starr acquired from the telepathic Martians of pure mind and energy in the first book. He's calling it his "glimmer shield" and, if the 'Lucky Starr' series is meant to be 'The Lone Ranger' in space, then we might be forgiven for expecting him to put it on at some point. What would the Lone Ranger be without his mask? People would write in and complain if they couldn't see him masked. It would be like taking away the theme tune.

Well, Starr does indeed put on his mask but only once and not to hide his identity from anyone. He has to get to Ganymede before Captain Anton who's planning to trigger an interstellar war with the Sirians and the latter has a twelve-hour headstart. Therefore he puts it on to protect him from the Sun's radiation as he skims too close, just five million miles from the surface, in a valiant attempt to get there first. It's a good scientific reason but it's a bit of a cheat for those expecting pulp masked avenger or superhero action.

Given that I last read this series when I was becoming a teenager, I doubt I saw that sort of shift happening and surely didn't have any of the reference points needed to identify it. I'm a heck of a lot older now and much better informed and can see the series changing already. Now I have to wonder where it's going from here. Was Asimov bored with the pitch already and wanted to take this in a different direction? Well, let's find out next month when I dive into the 'Oceans of Venus', because that was the third book even though New English Library released the series in a different order, publishing 'The Big Sun of Mercury' next.

In fact, they changed quite a lot. I'm reading 'Pirates of the Asteroids' by Isaac Asimov, in a first New English Library edition from August 1973. Asimov, of course, was a huge name at this point and had published in a ridiculous number of Dewey Decimal System categories. Back in 1953, he used the pseudonym of Paul French, just in case these books would be adapted into what he saw as "uniformly awful" TV programming. The title was the longer but juvenile 'Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids'. Clearly NEL wanted to tap into Asimov's adult audience, even with his children's books. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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