David Starr, Space Ranger

Reissued after seventy-five years out of print--and in hardcover for the first time in a generation--David Starr, Space Ranger is the first book in the Lucky Starr series written by the legendary Isaac Asimov, author of Foundation, the Galactic Empire series, and I, Robot. The Lucky Starr series was originally published under the pseudonym Paul French.

Conway could remember the day, the exact minute, when the news had reached Science Tower. Patrol ships had shot out into space, tracing the pirates; they attacked the asteroid lairs in a fury that was completely unprecedented. Whether they caught the particular villains who had gutted the Venus-bound ship none could ever say, but the pirate power had been broken from that year on.

And the patrol ships found something else: a tiny lifeboat winding a precarious orbit between Venus and Earth, radiating its coldly automatic radio calls for help. Only a child was inside. A frightened, lonely four-year-old, who did not speak for hours except to say stoutly, "Mother said I wasn't to cry."

It was David Starr.