The Defiant Agents

(Time traders series)

No cover

The Defiant Agents (1979, Gregg Press)

190 pages

English language

Published Oct. 28, 1979 by Gregg Press.

ISBN:
9780839824237
OCLC Number:
499148664

View on OpenLibrary

No rating (1 review)

A group of space agents runs into opposition while attempting to carry out its mission of colonizing a planet.

10 editions

An enjoyable space western with Apaches as the good guys

No rating

An enjoyable space western with Apaches as the good guys, wrapped up in the cold war and tossing in the Golden Horde, a lost alien city and Russians with a mind-control ray.

Third in the Time Traders series, it stands alone pretty well even though it appears much more closely linked to the second book (which I haven’t read) than the first (which I have), largely because the setting has moved from Earth’s past to a distant world in the near future.

It’s kind of a mish-mash, but as an adventure it moves quickly. The characters’ memories are all scrambled, mixed with those of their ancestors (this is how the western and Mongol Horde tropes are brought into the future). But they’re still distinct characters, and when alliances shift they’re actually for character and cultural reasons, not just plot contrivances.

All that said, I’m a white guy reading a book …