Lucky Starr

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Series of juvenile science-fiction novels by Isaac Asimov, written in the 1950s under the pseudonym Paul French. The series relates the adventures of David "Lucky" Starr, Councilman of Earth's Council of Science, and his battles against crime and corruption in different regions of the Solar System. He is accompanied by loyal sidekick John Bigman Jones, whose short height and shorter temper contrast him with the tall, cool-headed hero.

The series is made up of six volumes:

  • David Starr, Space Ranger
  • Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids
  • Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus
  • Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury
  • Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter
  • Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn

In his adventures, Lucky faces off against unusual alien organisms and hostile space environments as well as ordinary human sabotage. The predominating threat throughout comes from Earth's rivals in the system of Sirius, who, although descended from Earthmen, think themselves superior and show signs of wanting to take over Earth's Solar System. The stories usually have an element of mystery as well as adventure, with Lucky having to find a criminal hidden in plain sight, and, in true Asimov fashion, the solution can hang on the tiniest point.

The Lucky Starr series was written explicitly with the purpose of teaching young people facts about the solar system, which means that it suffers from Science Marches On perhaps more than the rest of Asimov's work--the title Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus should be a clue as to how inaccurate it sometimes gets. Nevertheless, the books are still very enjoyable as science-fiction adventures.

The first books were also marketed to Hollywood, as the basis for a TV series, which is why Asimov went with the pseudonym. He had seen how Hollywood tended to butcher the works of other SF writers, and wanted to be able to disassociate himself from any resulting series, if he had to. After the TV idea fell through, he started added elements to the later books that clearly labelled him as the author (such as three-laws robots with positronic brains.)

Not to be confused with the anime Lucky Star, or any other "Lucky Star" with only one "r".

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Lucky Starr franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.
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