Foreword
In 1954 theSolar Queen series was conceived in answer to
a request from one of the first Sf-Fantasy genre publishers
in the fieldчGnome Press. Since I was then reading manu-
scripts for this firm, I used for the books the pen name
Andrew North. The publisher wished to develop space
adventure stories which were not akin to the then steady
flow of militaristic plots.
Because I had long been interested in the historical im-
portance of the merchant adventurers of our own world in
the past I plotted the ventures of the Free Tradersчin my
mind linking them to our earlier trader explorers and the
tramp freighters of present dayчhaving traveled on one
such "tramp" myself.
8 Andre Norton & P.M. Griffin
I tried to create a crew of diverse backgrounds and char-
acter and plunged them into various perils which might
naturally arise from their way of life. Which was done for
four booksчSargasso of Space, Plague Ship, Voodoo
Planet, and Postmarked the Stars,
Ms. Griffin, creator of the justly well-ranked adventure
series of Star Commandos, agreed with me that the Solar
Queen and her crew might well swing back into orbitч
with certain new additionsчnamely a feminine member
for the crew. Thus the Solar Queen lifts again for some
more fateful voyages.
чAndre Norton
1
"Space Wrack! 'Space Wreck' would've been a more accu-
rate name!"
Dane Thorson shifted his tall frame to better view the
speaker, taking care not to jostle Rip Shannon, who was
standing beside him. The So7ar Queen's mess had never
been designed to hold the full complement of the starship's
crew at one time, and when an assembly like this was
called, the twelve of them had to scramble for space. "She's
sound enough, Ali," he told the Engineer-apprentice qui-
etly, "and she's paid us well up to this point."
"Precisely, my innocent, but now that the Queen's free
of her mail contract, what in space or beyond it are we
