Review: Science Fiction: "The People of the Crater" by Andre Norton

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Six months and three days after the signing of the Peace of Shanghai ended the great War of 1965-1970, Captain Garin Featherstone sits on a park bench in New York City staring at his worn shoes. He’d trained to fly fighter planes and nothing else. Returning to civilian life was proving harder than he thought. Unbidden, a stranger plops down next to him on the bench. “Aren't you Captain Garin Featherstone?” Featherstone confirms this. “You're the sort of chap I've been looking for," the stranger says, indicating a newspaper clipping detailing how Featherstone of the United Democratic Forces had led a perilous bombing raid. “A flyer with courage, initiative and brains. The man who led that raid is worth investing in.” Understandably skeptical, Featherstone asks who the gentleman is. "I'm Gregory Farson.” Featherstone knows the name. “The Antarctica man.” Before the war, Farson was part of an expedition to Antarctica that was caught in an odd air current. They found a blue haze rising from the ground, possibly from a volcano. Farson believes vast mineral wealth lies beneath the snows the snows and ice of the continent. Now, with the war over, he has his chance to explore. Unfortunately, the war has disposed of most of the great pilots. Farson is fortunate to meet one. Featherstone doesn’t lend a great deal of credence to all of this, but if Farson is going to pay him, and pay him to fly, much can be forgiven. It’s not like he’s leaving much behind at home. He follows Farson to Antarctica, along with a team he’s assembled. The blue haze sucks him down and down into an ancient lost world with its own highly developed civilization. It comes complete with a religion and animosity with another civilization. This is a straight adventure story, with the good guy getting the girl in the end. No deep thought involved. It is a little rough around the edges. Author Mary May Norton, better known by her penname Andre Norton, was prolific science fiction/fantasy writer during the 50s and 60s. Her most familiar work is probably the Witch World series. She worked as a librarian. “The People of the Crater” was her first published story. According to the International Speculative Fiction Database, this story was combined with Garan of Yu-Lac in a fixup (that is, several short stories used to create a novel) to create Garan the Eternal. This story is available from Project Gutenberg or as an audiobook from Librivox: _____ Title: “The People of the Crater” Author: Andre Norton penname for Alice Mary Norton (1912-2005) (writing as Andrew North) First published: Fantasy Book July 1947 Source: ISFDB