Title attributed to Andre Norton

The Sioux Spaceman / And Then the Town Took Off

& ACE Double Book containing The Sioux Spaceman by Andre Norton (1960) & And Then the Town Took Off by Richard Wilson (1960)

Bibliography ~

¯ (1960) * Published by ACE Double, PB, # D-437, $0.35, 123+133pg ~ both covers by Edward Valigursky

Synopsis for The Sioux Spaceman ~

When the Terran Confederation finally made the great leap into interstellar space they discovered that they were not the first. They found that the vast Styor Empire enslaved two-thirds of the star systems of the known galaxy, and their inhabitants. The Styor, in spite of their vast numerical and technological superiority, found that it was never worth the effort and losses to try to enslave the upstart Terrans. Yet, they could not ignore the Earthmen either, for they were popping up everywhere. So the Styor allowed the newcomers to operate as traders- an occupation unfit for imperial bureaucrats and warriors. The Earthmen accepted this status, for it allowed them to travel to the enslaved worlds where the Patrol could not yet venture. They kept their eyes open and noted the growing cracks in the decadent Empire. Here and there they could do what they could to widen those cracks. This was the case on the planet Klor, where Kade Whitehawk, Amerindian of the Northwest Terran Confederation noticed that the vast grasslands of that world were distinctly reminiscent of his plains homeland. The enslaved native race of Klor, the Ikkinni, reminded Whitehawk of his own people, the Lakota. They only lacked one essential to fight back against their Styor masters - the horse. Kade could get horses- and if a few managed to slip away. After all, had not Whitehawk's own people accomplished the impossible when they won back their own land from the mechanized civilization that had once tried to enslave them?

Synopsis for And Then the Town Took Off ~

The town of Superior, Ohio was certainly living up to its name! In what was undoubtedly the most spectacular feat of the century, it simply picked itself up one night and rose two full miles above Earth! Radio messages simply stated that Superior had seceded from Earth. But Don Cort, stranded on that rising town, was beginning to suspect that nothing was simple about Superior except its citizens. Calmly they accepted their rise in the world as being due to one of their local townspeople, a crackpot professor. But after a couple of weeks of floating around, it began to be obvious that the professor had no idea how to get them down. So then it was up to Cort: either find a way to anchor Superior, or spend the rest of his days on the smallest - and nuttiest - planet in the galaxy!

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