Joktar, a young dealer in JetTown, N’Yok, is blessed with a look of youthful innocence, a deadly skill with the blade, and an ability to ride a lucky streak like no one else. These traits and more served Joktar well in the service of Kern at the gambling establishment, The Sun Spot, and he will need to call upon them all when a sudden raid finds him swept off-planet to serve as an unwilling slave to the mining corporation on the cold, barren planet Fenris.

But Joktar is destined for more than forced labor on a hostile planet, for unbeknownst to him and those who captured him, Joktar is a threat to humanity’s status quo and he will soon find himself drawn into a galactic xenophobic conspiracy where his very life is in jeopardy.

Andre Norton’s 1959 novel, first published as an Ace Double with One Against Herculum by Jerry Sohl, gives a little bit of the overall plot away with the title…but that doesn’t stop it from being a fast-paced young-man-of-destiny story. Secret of the Lost Race admittedly suffers from its slight page count, sacrificing detail for pace in its 136 pages, yet fans of Andre Norton’s juvenile fiction will find much to like in Joktar’s story.

The story begins with a two-page series of messages between various parties that turns out to be quite meaningful later on in the novel. A re-read of these pages afterwards pointed out a few significant things that I missed the first time around. There is a great deal familiar with Joktar’s tale, and his incredible luck saves his bacon on more than one occasion, and yet Norton’s novel is appealing because of the fact that its pacing means you never know what twist or turn may lie ahead, a few pages later, and she manages to surprise as the story reaches its zenith with some unexpected revelations and a deeper look at the cycle of repeated history.

Joktar gets in a number of predicaments and through these, and the people he meets along the way, we begin to see revelation of who, and what, he is come to light. While the book’s title and the back-cover blurb spells out pretty plainly a major plot element, it doesn’t detract from the engagement the reader has with discovering, along with Joktar, the secrets that have been kept from him for the majority of his young life.

I have only read a handful of Andre Norton stories. She was an incredibly prolific author. This particular volume contains a detailed profile of her career up until that point, written by Lin Carter. At the time he wrote it, he pointed out that Norton had completed an astonishing 52 novels in 32 years. The Andre Norton novels I’ve read have all been science fiction juveniles, similar is spirit to those written by Robert A. Heinlein, and I’ve enjoyed them all.

It would be an interesting experiment to be able to see Norton use Secret of the Lost Race as the foundation for a novel fleshed out to the page count of contemporary science fiction novels. I suspect she would be widely read by those who enjoy the stories of authors like James S.A. Corey.

Secret of the Lost Race is a quick and enjoyable read, and Lin Carter’s profile makes for some fascinating reading, particularly given that Norton had a long writing career yet ahead of her. My first experience with Andre Norton was with the novel Star Born, and that is where I would suggest others begin. If you like what you read, or if you have read Norton in the past and have not read this novel, I recommend adding Secret of the Lost Race to your Andre Norton reading list.

My Rating: 7/10 Fun, if slight and convenient at some points

The cover art for this novel, though not listed in this particular volume, is credited to artist Ed Valigursky. Though the illustration has nothing whatsoever to do with the story–a situation not uncommon in this period of genre fiction–it doesn’t stop it from being a really fun image. Valigursky created some great, now classic, illustrations. A search of his name will bring up any number of delightful, nostalgic paintings. I picked this undersized novel up at a used bookstore last year. Though it is stamped inside indicating that is was once in the library of a fellow Carl– Carl Schwetfeger–he either did not read it or he was as meticulous with his books as I am with mine, as it is in lovely condition, and the fun science fiction cover image was what drew me to the book as much as Andre Norton’s name on the cover.