But a victory that came at a terrible price-the enemy Xik struck the human homeland, leaving Earth “a deadly blue, radioactive cinder.” An earthman (Terran), Storm has no home to go back to. Storm is a veteran of a galaxy-spanning war (the Beast Service serving as a kind of Special Forces) released from service after a final victory is won. The Beast Master is the story of Hosteen Storm. I don’t talk much about gameability, but I think it is very likely that Gary Gygax was thinking of this book specifically when he listed Andre Norton in Appendix N. If you have any doubts about that combination, Norton fulfills its potential to the fullest. Where the movie was pure sword and sorcery, The Beast Master is half-Western and half-planetary romance. The protagonist has an animal team and the similarities end there. To call the movie loosely based on the book is generous, so set aside any preconceived notions you may have based on the movie. (Assuming you don’t already own the sequel, just go ahead and pick up the omnibus.) But it took trips to close to a dozen used bookstores before I finally found a copy of The Beast Master. The sequel, Lord of Thunder, was the first Norton I picked up, and one of the first vintage SF I picked up. Every used bookstore I set foot into had roughly a shelfful of Norton (Adam Whitehead has her #10 on his SFF All-Time Sales List).

Andre Norton being one of the writers I wanted to highlight with Throwback SF Thursday, I knew I had to cover The Beast Master.

And I picked up at some point that the movie was (loosely) based on a book by Andre Norton. Like any kid from the tail end of Generation X, I had seen the Beastmaster movie countless times on cable as a kid.

Andre norton the beast master