"An old series makes a great comeback"

Death-which-Comes-in-the-Night is as deadly a killer as anyone will find. The creature hunts its prey in darkness, but leaves no traces that it has dined except the totally cleansed bones of the victim. No one has lived to tell anything about this deadly scourge that eradicates populations with ease.

Death-which-Comes-in-the-Night assaults and feeds from the people of planet Arzor. Native American soldier Storm, who barely survived the Zik destruction of Earth, wants to stop the creature from razing his new home world and is willing to use his Beast Master skills to defeat the invincible foe. He needs help and it seems to have arrived with Tani, a genetic engineer from off-planet. Tani's mother does not want her daughter to follow the path of her deceased husband, a dedicated Beast Master; the lass grew up to hate Beast Masters, not knowing she is one of them. Only if these two individuals team up can they halt more than just a dangerous creature. They must try to stop a interstellar conspiracy that if successful will destroy all the human planets.

After a forty year void, Andre Norton (and Lyn McConchie) returns to her Beast master novels (see THE BEAST MASTER and LORD OF THUNDER) with the highly exciting BEAST MASTER'S ARK. The story line is loaded with action that never slows down though there are no major surprises as the tale plays out, as the audience would expect. Still readers will cheer the heroes and wonder what this Death- which-Comes-in-the-Night truly is. Fans will want a fourth book and the reprinting of the first two novels.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 29, 2002

Summary

Death-which-Comes-in-the-Night More than thirty years ago in Beast Master and Lord of Thunder, Andre Norton created a memorable character, Hosteen Storm. A Native American soldier for Earth, he barely escaped his doomed home world when the Xic destroyed it. Armed with his soldier's skills, his ancestors' insights, and an uncanny ability to communicate mind-to- mind with animals, Storm is a hero unlike any other in science fiction. Now, science fiction Grand Master Andre Norton has teamed up with Lyn McConchie to pit Storm against his most dangerous enemy yet: Death-which-Comes-in-the-Night. It is silent. It leaves no tracks. The only evidence that remains is the perfectly cleaned bones of its victims. And it has developed a taste for humans. No one has survived an attack yet, and the natives of Storm's adopted planet, Arzor, are moving in on human territory as they try to escape the silent scourge. The already high tensions between Humans and Natives soar, sparking a race against time as Storm attempts to solve the mystery of Death-which-comes-in-the-Night before Humans and Natives clash. But he can't do it without help from Tani, a genetic engineer from the Ark, a ship traveling space with genetic material from across the galaxy, including the destroyed Earth. But Tani has been poisoned against Beast Masters by her mother. She must conquer her own unreasoning hatred, and awaken the powerful Beast Master in herself, before she and Storm can conquer Death-which-Comes-in-the-Night and uncover the great conspiracy that threatens not only Arzor, but all human-occupied planets.