Uncharted Stars

This is the sequel to The Zero Stones where Murdoc Jern attempted to find out why his father had been murdered,and tangled with the Guild and the Patrol who blacklist him from trading as a gem appraiser. Jern is linked telepathically to Eet, a strange mutant creature born from the ship's cat.In this engaging tale Jern and Eet continue to search for more of the Zero Stones,which have strange powers,while struggling to scrape a living. Finally Jern scrapes together enough to hire a disreputable and unreliable pilot for their ship,and after perilous contact with space pirates,he will finally reach the source of the stones,and solve the mystery of Eet's origins. Pleasant enough,but the ending was very rushed,too many developments packed into less than half a dozen pages,though there are some rather odd surprises there. All in all typical of Norton's engaging juvenile novels,with enough interesting world building and quirky relationships to keep the attention of adults. A fun read.