The format is approximately 5.5 inches by 8, 25 inches. [2], vi, [4] 11-186,

The format is approximately 5.5 inches by 8, 25 inches. [2], vi, [4] 11-186, [2] pages. The illustrated dust jacket has some wear and soiling. This is the first volume of the six volume The Lucky Starr Series and contains a new Preface by the author! Starr uncovers a Martian plot to ruin the economy of the earth's galactic colonies. Isaac Asimov (January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90, 000 letters and postcards. Best known for his hard science fiction, Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as popular science and other non-fiction. From 1942 to 1945 during World War II, between his masters and doctoral studies, Asimov worked as a civilian chemist at the Philadelphia Navy Yard's Naval Air Experimental Station. ISAAC ASIMOV was one of the great science-fiction writers of our time. David Starr, Space Ranger is the first novel in the Lucky Starr series, six younger reader science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was first published by Doubleday & Company. Reprints have included an introduction by Asimov explaining that advancing knowledge of conditions on Mars have rendered some of the novel's descriptions inaccurate. David Starr, Space Ranger introduces the series' setting and main characters. The novel is set around A.D. 7, 000 (five thousand years after the first nuclear bomb, as stated at the beginning), when humanity has founded colonies on the inner planets of the Solar System, as well as spreading to other planetary systems. The most powerful organization in the Solar System is the Council of Science, which uses scientific expertise and intrepid field agents to counter political and military threats to Earth's government. Protagonist David Starr is a young biophysicist orphaned as an infant and raised by his guardians Augustus Henree and Hector Conway, high-ranking Council members who send David on his missions for the Council. They tell him of some 200 recent victims fatally poisoned by produce imported from Mars. Fearing a conspiracy to start a food panic and wreck interplanetary trade, they send Starr undercover to Mars. There Starr meets John "Bigman" Jones, a short but pugnacious Martian farmboy blacklisted by the Martian Farming Syndicates after witnessing underhanded dealings. When his former boss Hennes orders Bigman out of the Farm Employment Building, Starr stands up for him and gains positions for both himself and Bigman. Starr says his name is Williams and he came from Earth to investigate his sister's death from food poisoning. Makian sends him to the farm's agronomist Benson, who explains that the poisoned food came from several Martian farms and was exported through the domed Wingrad City. Meanwhile Makian and other farm owners have been pressured to sell their farms for ridiculously small sums. Benson makes Starr his assistant. Bigman receives his references from Hennes and takes his leave, but returns that night to the farm to meet Starr, and tells him he has recognized him as belonging to the Council. The underground Martians give Starr the name "Space Ranger", and present him with an immaterial mask producing a personal force field that can protect and disguise him. Starr uses the mask to shield himself from a Martian dust storm as he returns to Makian's farm, where he is questioned on how he survived the storm and answers that he was rescued by a masked man called the Space Ranger. Benson tells him the farm owners have received an extortion letter from the poisoner, threatening to a thousand fold increase of poisoned food unless they sell out to him within 36 hours. Disguised by his Martian mask, Starr...