Lucky Starr is the hero of a series of
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
books by
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
, using the
pen nameA pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
"Paul French". Intended for juveniles, the books were written in the middle of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
and the series shows traces of this, both in educational intent and in the nature of the social forces involved. The series is famous for introducing the "Force-Blade," which may have inspired the
LightsaberThe lightsaber is a science fiction weapon with a key role in the Star Wars movies and in the novels, games and other forms of media that constitute the Expanded Universe. The lightsaber is a sword with a column of brightly colored energy in the place of a metal blade...
in the
Star WarsStar Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals...
films.
On 23 March 1951, Asimov met with his then-agent,
Frederik PohlFrederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine if, winning the Hugo for if three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and...
, and Walter I.
Lucky Starr is the hero of a series of
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
books by
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
, using the
pen nameA pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
"Paul French". Intended for juveniles, the books were written in the middle of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
and the series shows traces of this, both in educational intent and in the nature of the social forces involved. The series is famous for introducing the "Force-Blade," which may have inspired the
LightsaberThe lightsaber is a science fiction weapon with a key role in the Star Wars movies and in the novels, games and other forms of media that constitute the Expanded Universe. The lightsaber is a sword with a column of brightly colored energy in the place of a metal blade...
in the
Star WarsStar Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals...
films.
On 23 March 1951, Asimov met with his then-agent,
Frederik PohlFrederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine if, winning the Hugo for if three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and...
, and Walter I. Bradbury, then the science fiction editor at Doubleday & Co., who had a proposal for him. Pohl and Bradbury wanted Asimov to write a juvenile science fiction novel that would serve as the basis for a
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
series. Fearing that the novel would be adapted into the "uniformly awful" programming he saw flooding the television channels, he decided to publish it under the pseudonym "Paul French". Asimov began work on the novel, which he modeled closely on the Lone Ranger (the title was
David Starr: Space Ranger) on 10 June. He completed it on 29 July, and it was published by Doubleday in January 1952. Although plans for the television series fell through, Asimov continued to write novels in the series, eventually producing six. A seventh,
Lucky Starr and the Snows of Pluto, was planned, but abandoned when Asimov elected to devote himself to writing non-fiction almost exclusively. With no worries about being associated with an embarrassing televised version, Asimov decided to abandon the pretence that he was not the author (although the books continued to be published under the Paul French pseudonym); he brought the
Three Laws of RoboticsIn science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction must obey...
into
Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter, "which was a dead giveaway to Paul French's identity for even the most casual reader".
Eventually, Asimov used his own name in later editions. Some cover pages bear his name only, while others credit "Isaac Asimov writing as Paul French".
Publishing history
- David Starr, Space Ranger
David Starr, Space Ranger is the first novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was written between 10 June and 29 July 1951 and first published by Doubleday & Company in January 1952...
(1952)
- Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids
Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids is the second novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was first published by Doubleday & Company in November 1953.-Plot summary:A year has...
(1953)
- Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus
Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus is the third novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was first published by Doubleday & Company in 1954...
(1954)
- Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury
Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury is the fourth novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was first published by Doubleday & Company in March 1956...
(1956)
- Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter
Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter is the fifth novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was first published by Doubleday & Company in August 1957...
(1957)
- Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn
Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn is the final novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was first published by Doubleday & Company in 1958...
(1958)
Although the hero's given name was "David" (chosen in honor of his own son), Asimov felt this lacked pizazz, and the later books used his nickname "Lucky".
These novels have a long and varied publishing history. They came out in hardcover with Doubleday in its first edition. Bantam was the latest, in 1993, to bring out the series in 3 volumes, publishing pairs of titles together. In 2001 the
Science Fiction Book ClubThe Book of the Month Club is a United States mail-order business, customers of which are offered a new book each month.The Book of the Month Club is part of a larger company that runs many book clubs in the United States and Canada. It was formerly the flagship club of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc...
came out with all six novels at the same time in one volume under the title
The Complete Adventures of Lucky Starr.
The
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
editions of all six novels omitted the prefixes altogether and were simply titled
Space Ranger,
Oceans of Venus, etc. The first book was translated to French in 1954 under the title
Sur la planète rouge ("On the Red Planet") with the original pseudonym, Paul French. It was published in the famous "Anticipation" science fiction imprint of
Fleuve noir. It was later adapted as a
comic bookA comic book is a magazine made up of narrative artwork, often accompanied by dialog and often including brief descriptive prose...
twice, in 1975 and 1992.
http://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/luckystarr.htm
Three books were also published in Dutch
Titles were, in order of the original American series:
- Een man alleen (orig. David Starr, Space Ranger), 1977
- Piraten van de asteroïden (Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids), 1978
- De grote zon van Mercurius (Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury), 1978
Cover art
Cover artists have illustrated Lucky's actions in an impressively professional manner over and over again but the editors have not been always kind or competent: in the 1971 and 1972 Signet editions Bob Pepper's covers for
Space Ranger and
Pirates of the Asteroids were swapped.
In 1984, Del Rey Books reprinted the series with a set of covers by
Darrell K. SweetDarrell K. Sweet is a professional illustrator best known for providing cover art for science fiction and fantasy novels, in which capacity he was nominated for Hugo award in 1983. He also produces art for trading cards and calendars. He is famous for providing the covers of the fantasy epic saga...
, shown below.
| Lucky Starr Series Book Covers |
| |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
Science content
Asimov wrote the series near the beginning of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, when many concerned scientists, engineers and educators in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
felt that their country, and the group of nations they identified as the
Free WorldThe free world is a Cold War-era propaganda term used by the United States and its allies to describe non-communist countries collectively.The term was used to imply the greater personal freedoms enjoyed by citizens of non-communist countries that were democratic, such as the United States, Canada,...
, was falling behind the Communists and the
Eastern BlocThe terms Eastern Bloc, Communist Bloc or Soviet Bloc were used to refer to the former Communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, including the countries of the Warsaw Pact, along with Yugoslavia and Albania, which were not aligned with the Soviet Union after 1948 and 1960...
in scientific research and engineering developments. In this context, it was important that the youth of the country be given a solid scientific start, and the adventures of David Starr were as a result rather didactic in nature, despite all the action involved.
He carefully introduced astronomical and physical concepts which the scientific knowledge of the time supported. In later editions, he added a preface pointing out that new scientific discoveries have rendered some locations and concepts obsolete:
MercuryFor the liquid metallic element, see Mercury .Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three...
does not only present one side to the Sun, and
VenusVenus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6...
is not covered by a global ocean, for example. The books offer more action scenes than Asimov's usual quota, but they are still filled with the scientific and sociological concerns Asimov used in all of his other fiction.