At the Earth's Core
The keystone hollow-earth adventure, launching a seven-book series (Tarzan eventually visits).
Book Entry · Science Fiction
What is The Beast Master about?
Hosteen Storm, a Navajo veteran of the interstellar war that ended with Earth burned to a cinder, emigrates to the frontier world of Arzor with his team — an African black eagle, a meerkat pair and a dune cat, all linked to him empathically — nursing a private vendetta and finding instead Xik holdouts, ancient off-world ruins and a reason to live. Norton treats Storm's Diné heritage with unusual respect for 1959, and the human-animal team remains one of her most-loved inventions. The Beastmaster films borrowed the title and nothing else worth keeping.
Why it matters
A pioneering Indigenous SF protagonist and the source of the 'bonded animal team' tradition that runs straight to McCaffrey's dragons and modern companion-animal fantasy.
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