THE IRON CAGE

The People are the umpteenth race of highly evolved (dog/cat/bear-like) animals to populate Norton's fictional planets, and when Jony, of human stock himself, realizes that his friends are about to be captured and exploited by the inhabitants of a visiting starship (also human) he fights to defend them. Jony himself started life as a caged specimen in the laboratories of a superhuman race he knew only as the Big Ones, and — lest anyone miss the point — Norton begins and closes with a flashback to a mistreated mother cat on earth, suggesting that man's cruelty to the animal world will trigger cosmic revenge in the form of slavery to another order of Big Ones. Jony's defense of his adopted kin is accomplished with a whole range of weapons from the aliens' own stun guns and lasers to his special ESP powers, and the primitive, communal culture is depicted in careful detail. The premise is hardly new, especially to loyal Norton fans; however, in contrast to her other exotic future worlds, this latest presents a bleaker and more chilling prospect.