Beast Master's Circus

A new original adventure in Andre Norton's popular Beast Master SF series ith Beast Master and Lord of Thunder Andre Norton created one of her most popular characters, Hosteen Storm, a soldier for Earth who is part of the Beast Master corps. With his team of animals with whom he communicates telepathically, Storm lives on the planet Arzor, where he uses his military training and team of animals to protect the residents of the planet, human and otherwize. In Beast Master's Circus Arzor is visited by a circus that features a young woman, Laris, who has been sold into bondage to Dedran, the circus's manager. Laris works with a number of alien species to perform entertaining feats of derring-do. And Laris has become aware of the disturbing ties Dedran has to the secret interstellar Thieves Guild. The Guild seeks to breed or clone telepathic beasts for their own purposes, and they have been killing beast masters who stand in their way. Now, Arzor's beast masters are their target. They'll stop at nothing to get to the beasts . . . unless Laris can somehow find away to warn Storm and Tani. . . .

For well over a half century, Andre Norton has been one of the most popular science fiction and fantasy authors in the world. Since her first SF novels were published in the 1940s, her adventure SF has enthralled readers young and old. With series such as Time Traders, Solar Queen, Forerunner, Beast Master, Crosstime, and Janus, as well as many stand-alone novels, her tales of action and adventure throughout the galaxy have drawn countless readers to science fiction.

Her fantasy, including the best-selling Witch World series, her "Magic" series, and many other unrelated novels, has been popular with readers for decades. Lauded as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, she is the recipient of a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention. Not only have her books been enormously popular; she also has inspired several generations of SF and fantasy writers, especially many talented women writers who have followed in her footsteps. In the past two decades she has worked with other writers on a number of novels. Most notable among these are collaborations with Mercedes Lackey, the Halfblood Chronicles, as well as collaborations with A.C. Crispin (in the Witch World series) and Sherwood Smith (in the Time Traders and Solar Queen series). An Ohio native, Ms. Norton lived for a number of years in Winter Park, Florida, and now makes her home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where she continues to write, and presides over High Hallack, a writers' resource and retreat.

Lyn McConchie has been collaborating successfully with Andre Norton since the early 1990s, first via mail and more recently via e-mail, bridging the equator and most of the Earth's oceans to write rousing SF adventures together. Ms. McConchie lives in New Zealand.