Member Book Review: Zero Stone, by Andre Norton

Attachment 573Zero Stone by AndreNorton (1958)

Zero Stone opens with a man fleeing for his life down thedarkened alleys of a primitive alien city. He?s a Terran, younger half of a team of jewel dealers. His partner has been murdered when thepriests of an alien religion, in an unheard of act, select an off-worlder for asacrifice and are answered with lasers. His partner dead, Murdoc Jern flees to an alien sanctuary and uses hisstore of jewels to bribe his way to a Free Trader space freighter and escapeoffworld.

But if is not an escape, a net is being drawn aroundJern. The net has spanned the gulfs ofinterstellar space as the Thieves Guild reaches out in search of the ZeroStone, an ancient any mysterious artifact that is Jern?s prize possession, aheritage from his father.

Jern?s father was a passionate collector of jewels, secretsand mysteries, particularly those associated with the ancient and longdisappeared races called the Forerunners. These aliens reached incredible heights of technology ages ago beforedisappearing, destroyed in wars or leaving space-time for unguessed ofdestinations. The Jerns are perfectlypositioned to learn these secrets positioned in a ?hock-lock? or pawnshop neara spaceport.

Murdoc?s world collapses around him after a particular stoneis brought into the shop, a colorless, lifeless lump on a large ring. It is a zero stone, an artifact from the timeof the Forerunners, found on a drifting spacesuit and alien corpse. With the stone comes the death of Jern?sfather after a mysterious meeting with an offworlder. Jern learns his father was a former Veep(VIP) retired from the shadowing quasi-government of the Thieves Guild. Now that Guild has reached out for the ZeroStone. Bur the killers do not find thestone, which Murdoc takes from his father?s hidden safe.

Other blows fall. Jern learns from his mother that he is a contract child, a test-tubebaby decanted on this world for genetic diversity. His ?mother? makes it clear that his youngerbrother, her natural child, is to inherit all. Jern who has always and only been his father?s son has never cared foreither mother or brother. He leaves tobecome apprenticed to Vondar Ustle a master jeweler with wanderlust. They journey and trade in a life Jern comesto love before it ends in a dagger thrust in an alien bar.

The Free Trader Jern escapes in, lands on various worlds. On one, the ship?s cat eats what appears to bea stone from a riverbed. Days later thecat is pregnant. The spacers, fearing,some alien contagion, isolate the beast which gives birth to an oddly shapedmutant. But it is more than that. The mutant is something ancient, reborn,powerfully intelligent, armed with telepathic ability and knowledge of thingsForerunner. Jern falls ill with whatseems a fever. The crew?s fears areconfirmed. They are determined to killboth Jern and the mutant.

Jern, delirious and suggestible, follows the voice in hishead and escapes with the mutant out into space protected only be a spacesuitand with a container holding the mutant. Then the Zero Stone ring plays a part. It begins to glow and drags the pair through deep space to the site ofan ancient forerunner wreck where they find an operational lifeboat.

Jern?s recovery is abrupt. The illness was a telepathic manipulation by the mutant who calls itselfEet. It learned that the Free Traderswere actually Thieves Guild from the minds of the crew. It knew that they were responsible forkilling Ustle and planned to deliver Jern to their bosses. Eet also knows of the Zero stone and itsalmost limitless power.

The pair are forced into an alliance to fight for theirlives and freedom when they land on an unknown world where there is a store ofZero Stones. They are caught between theThieves guild and the Space Patrol in a battle for possession of the ancientartifacts.

The Pros: Therelationship with Eet is the strength of this book. Maddening and intriguing, Eet is a recreationof a Forerunner, a personality hidden in the seed eaten by the freighter ship?scat. Smug, superior and yet somehowendearing, Eet is full of surprises.

As Jern plunges ahead on his own adventure, he touches thoseof others. These alien worlds, cultures andpeoples are not mere devices but are rich and complex and we sometimes want toturn aside and spend more time exploring them. This is also true of the gem lore, the little we learn makes usfascinated, even covetous, the gems begin to wink in our minds, sensuous andseductive.

The Cons: Andre Norton?s books are usually devoid ofsex and sexuality and Zero Stone is no exception

One sometimes hungers for a little higher degree ofcomplexity or sophistication which with Norton simply is not there. Dialogue is sometimes clumsy with odd turns ofphrase such as ?my hurt? as opposed to ?my wound.?

The Space Patrol which in Andre Norton?s books is acombination of police force and navy is unsympathetically portrayed. The Patrolman, Hory, is violently xenophobic,which seems odd in the pluralistic galaxy that Norton describes. However she develops this theme in otherbooks in this shared universe, notably Last Planet, wherein the Patrol israther isolated from Galactic life and human-dominated. When one realizes that the Zero Stone?s functionis too make almost any machine or weapon more powerful, one can understand thePatrol?s desire to not leave such power in the son of a Thieves Guild Veep andan unknown mutant. Still Hory, the "double star" patrol agent (equivalent to a double-00 operative in James Bond?suniverse) is a one note performance and without empathy or depth.

In sum, I love the book and forgive it the minor transgression above. There is high adventure and a fascinating universe toexplore with pirates, ancient ruins, mysterious weapons and devices. Yes, it could use a green Orion slave girl ortwo.

Stay Tuned for the sequel ?Uncharted Stars.? This is a rare case of the sequel beingbetter than the original, rather likethe second Terminator movie.

By Edward McKeown