The Zero Stone

 

By Andre Norton

When Murdoc was a youngster, his father, Hywel, came to possess a strange ring found on the body of an alien floating in space. The ring was unusually large and contained a dull, unappealing crystal. But Hywel, a expert gemologist, had a feeling that the ring was more than its less than attractive appearance suggested. So he hid it in a secret place known only to himself and his son, Murdoc. 

Unfortunately, someone came looking for that ring. They did not find it even though they beat Hywel to death trying to force its location from him. Murdoc took the ring and left his home, to become a traveling gemologist like Hywel had been in his younger days.

The ring brought the same bad luck to Murdoc as it had done to his father. Employed by another gem trader, Murdoc alone managed to escape a trap set to murder them both. Using the slim resources remaining to him, gemstones, he managed to book passage on a spaceship. Things turned sour very quickly when, while making a brief stop on a frontier planet, the ship's cat got loose and ate a black, fuzzy rock or seed and the crew blamed Murdoc. However the cat seemed to suffer no ill consequences. Until they realized it was pregnant. It chose Murdoc's bunk on which to give birth to a strange little creature that was half cat and half something else. 

Murdoc awoke to discover he was extremely ill and locked in his cabin with the alien baby. As he recovered from his illness, still locked inside, he overheard the crew discussing their plans to weld the door of his cabin shut and leave him to die in fear of the plague that had infected him. At this point the alien creature began to speak to him telepathically. It told him what to do to save himself.  Murdoc, following its instructions, went to the ship's bay and put on a spacesuit and exited the ship. What the plan was after doing so is unclear. While outside, though, the mysterious ring came to life and began to pull Murdoc away from the spaceship and its dubious safety and Murdoc was unable to withstand its pull, taking Murdoc and the little alien, stashed in an airtight box strapped to Murdoc's side, along for a ride to the unknown. 

Murdoc is one unlucky but lucky SOB. Everywhere he goes, there is someone or something out to murder him. Even when rescued, his rescuers want to murder him. His daddy's alien ring was a curse to his father and it is a curse to Murdoc too. He never has the good sense to throw it away, the attraction it exerts on those who hold it is too strong. The connection between Murdoc, the ring and the catlike alien is never made clear, how the three came together in that unlikely way. Other than that unanswered and annoying question, this was a pretty good story. Although Norton can never resist having her characters suffer from lack of food, water and various painful injuries. They always have their asses handed to them but still manage to survive and win in the end. 

This book does have a sequel, The Uncharted Stars, in which Murdoc and the alien, Eet, have their own spaceship and are on the hunt for the origin of the powerful crystals like the one in the ancient ring, the Zero Stone. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Yurth Burden

 

By Andre Norton

When the Yurth colony ship touched down on a new planet, it mistakenly landed in the middle of a small city, destroying most of the city and killing many of the native residents, the Raski. For which destruction neither the Raski nor the Yurth descendants themselves will forget or forgive. So the two populations live separate from each other, not at war but not a peace either. The native Raski occupy the arid lowlands and the alien Yurth make their homes in the mountains. 

When a Yurth youth enters adulthood, they traditionally take a journey into the valley of the destroyed Raski city to learn and understand why the Raski hate Yurth people so very much. This story concerns a young Yurth woman, Elossa, who undertakes her pilgrimage only to find her path being crossed by a Raski youth, Stans of Philbur. 

It is known among the Yurth that sometimes Yurth folks on pilgrimage never return home. What happens to them is not known. Having Stans on her trail alarms Elossa and she fears his intentions. They end up travelling together but never quite trusting each other as some mysterious force seems at times to be in control of their actions, much against their wishes. 

Arriving at the Mouth of Atturn, a place Stans declares sacred to the Raski, they venture into an underground maze where both young people experience strange episodes and disturbing visions or illusions. As they penetrate deeper into the maze, they are abruptly confronted by a vision of Attun, a Raski god of evil, who attempts but fails to kill Stans. Upon finding their way out, they are again attacked by the one who bears the face of Attun, who once again fails to kill Stans, due again to Elossa's quick interference. But two successes are followed by failure when Elossa and Stans are overwhelmed by the Attun lookalike's hideous, deformed minions and captured and bound and sent down the river.

This was an OK read. It never really grabbed my attention though. I think I have read too many of these Norton stories which seem to be the same story told over and over with a few changes made. Two young people find each other and end up traveling over empty lands inhabited by dangerous beasts, with part of the journey taking place in an underground maze of tunnels and caverns. And some kind of unnatural, deformed creatures working against them. And an old city and old technology always part of the journey. Plus the ever present mind powers that are a standard feature of a Norton story and a magical talisman or piece of jewelry. Formulaic, for sure.

Eye of the Monster

 

By Andre Norton

Ishkur is a planet that has an intelligent native population that, so far, has been welcoming to the humans who have arrived to set up trading posts and other small operations. They humans have been joined by group of Salarikans, cat-like fellow off-worlders anxious to exploit a newly discovered world. 

Rees Naper, a young man on the cusp of adulthood, lives at his uncle's mission. He came to live with the uncle after his father died. But he doesn't get along with his uncle. Once of the main sources of disagreement is Rees' assessment of the native Ishkurians. Rees doesn't trust these reptilians while the uncle refuses to admit they might be dangerous, even after they have received word that the natives are up to something and they are advised to leave the mission and come to safety at the spaceport, where transportation off Ishkur is available if needed.

Giving up on reasoning with his stubborn uncle, Rees heads off to his job and on the way he also comes across the young child of one of the local traders, Gordy. He lets Gordy tag along with him and arrives at his job only to find everyone missing and his boss' pet dog cruelly abused and tortured. He has to put the poor dog down. He realizes that the warnings his uncle decided to ignore have come true and that the native Ishkurians are on the rampage. He needs to get back to the mission but decides to stop at the Salarikan compound to warn them of the danger. But he is too late. He finds a scene of slaughter and only one survivor, a young Salarikan girl. All three of them head to the mission, but once again it is too late. The natives got there first and no human is left alive, including the uncle. 

Now Rees has to get himself and his two young charges to safety and away from a native population seems determined to eradicate every foreigner on their world. 

High adventure as the young hero struggles to respond to the dangers he now faces, a story meant to appeal, I think, to teenage boys. It was a good read, but we are never told what sparked the native rampage. Which was quite annoying. 

Daybreak 2250 A.D.

 

By Andre Norton

Fors was different. His most obvious difference was his silver white hair. But he had other differences that weren't so obvious, like his superior night vision. Too bad for Fors, mutants were not appreciated in his village, the descendants of the survivors of worldwide  nuclear war. 

Keeping human lineage pure was very important to these people, fearing the mutations that result from a poisoned world. So when Fors came of age, instead of stepping into the role of scout and explorer that he expected, he was ignored as if he did not exist. So he left, setting out to explore the world on his own and prove that he was just as worthy as anyone, accompanied by his cat companion, Lura.

His father, who died while out exploring, had a scrap of an old pre-war map that might lead to a ruined city. These urban areas were a source of materials and knowledge to the survivors of the catastrophe. But the cities were dangerous. They were the lairs of the Beast Things, dangerous half-human, half-beast mutants that killed everything that entered their domains. Fors' father may have even fallen victim to the Beast Things. But Fors is determined to follow the map his father left behind.

It is not long before Fors sees other people out in the world but he avoids for his own safety. It is also not long before he has an unfortunate encounter with a wild boar that results in a bad gash to his leg. The injury slows him down for a time, but soon he gets back on the trail, riding on a horse that has escaped from the Plainsmen, a nomadic tribe of cattle herders. 

His father's map does leads him to the city. It is full of fascinating treasures. And something else: the Beast Things. It is too dangerous to stay there. But before he can leave he finds one of the men he noticed on his travels laying in a deadfall trap, gravely injured. He helps the man out of the trap and in the process finds a true friend. Together, the two young men will explore the world, facing dangerous creatures and hostile humans and learning that maybe the old ways are not always the best ways. 

This was quite an action adventure, as Fors and his cat companion Lura and his new friend and fellow explorer Arskane go from catastrophe to catastrophe, from scrape to scrape, from battle to battle. For me, it was exhausting as these two guys struggle to survive all the dangers they encounter. I think maybe the book was really intended for a younger and male audience, not a tired old woman like me. It's not a bad read. Just not for me. 

Iron Cage

 

By Andre Norton

Jony's mother and father were captured by the Zhalan and carried off their home planet and into space, caged like livestock and powerless to resist the might of the giant captors. The father, Bron, was killed by the Zhalan and Jony's mom, Rutee, was left alone in her cage, where she gave birth to their son, Jony. The Zhalan used mind control to force their captives to do as they wanted them to. But both Rutee and Jony are able to resist the mind control and manage to escape the Zhalan slave ship when it is on a planet, gathering specimens to add to their cages. 

Rutee is heavily pregnant and begins to go into labor once she and Jony are free from the slave ship. The two humans are found by a local person who helps Rutee and cares for the two infants that soon arrive. The local is a large bearlike being who is the member of a small clan who take Rutee and Jony into their homes. 

Many years later, Rutee has since passed on and Jony, with the help of the clan, is taking care of his younger brother and sister, Geogee and Maba. Rutee has been exploring a the ruins of a city that was possibly settled by humans millennia ago. It is full of strange and dangerous tech. When the bear people find out he was in the ruins, they exile him from the clan, much to his distress. But when a space ship lands nearby and his siblings are taken into the ship, along with two of the bear people, it is up to Rutee to rescue them. This space ship is not one of the Zhalan slave ships and its crew is humans just like Rutee and they welcome him and the his two siblings. But Rutee is outraged when he finds his two bear friends, shackled and caged like animals and he turns against his human rescuers. 

This was quite an interesting story. Rutee makes a lot of mistakes, especially in his handling of his young brother and sister. But he tries to make amends for his errors and protect not only his siblings but the bear people to whom he owes everything.

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Lord of Thunder

By Andre Norton

The sequel to The Beast Master. 

Hosteen Storm, former Beast Master for the military during the war against the Xik, has started to settle into his new holding on the planet, Arzor, when he is approached by two men wanting to hire him. They need to go into territory held by the indigenous natives, the Norbies. The Norbies are  not human and their technology is at a stone age level. Basically they are analogous to the native American tribes at the time of the European expansion to the Americas. The problem is two-fold, though. First, it is the hottest, driest time of the year, when it is dangerous to travel through the back country. Second, the area they want to enter is forbidden to non-Norbies and will create bad relations between the Norbies and non-Norbies, maybe even leading to war. 

Storm at first refuses to lead the two, explaining that it is just too dangerous. However, the one man is looking for his son, whose space ship has crashed in the forbidden zone and the man will not let anyone stop him from trying to rescue his son. And the other man, who works for the government, wants to gather intelligence on the activities of the Norbies in the forbidden zone, to see if the Norbie tribes are planning to start a war with the non-Norbie colonists.  

Storm agrees to serve as guide for the expedition, helped by his Norbie friends. But as they get closer to the forbidden area, Storm loses control of the expedition when the first man leaves on his own after drugging Storm and the others. Storm sets off after the man but he falls into the hands of a hostile cannibal tribe of Norbies. He manages to escape and he discovers that these Norbies are using some dangerous and unknown alien tech. But the true master of this technology turns out not to be one of the natives. The one the Norbies call the Lord of Thunder, who can call down lightning and fire from the heavens turns out to be a human man who has mastered the technology of the old ones, those mysterious beings whose purpose and origin are hidden in depths of time.

This was an OK read. To me, the Norbies are just too derivative of First Nations peoples of the Americas. It felt like the author couldn't be bothered to create a really different alien species with a stone age technology and so just basically made Native Americans with a couple of biological differences. Similar tribal structure, similar hunter/gatherer lifestyle, even similar religious beliefs and the use of drums in ceremonies, it was all just too familiar. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Lore of the Witch World

 

By Andre Norton

A collection of seven Witch World short stories.

• "Spider Silk" Dairine was a refugee from hard times who survived a shipwreck as a young child and found a home among the folk of Rannock in Estcarp. The war is now over but the terrors of that time left their mark upon Dairine. What horrors she may have seen she does not recall. But her mind has closed her vision to the world around her and she is blind. Despite her handicap, over the years she became a talented weaver of cloth. Her skill came to the notice of a captain of Sulcar, an ocean-traveling nation of traders. The captain showed her a scrap of very finely made silk fabric and wondered if Dairine had the skill to attempt to weave something similar. But even though she was skilled, she was not that skilled, nor was any human weaver. Because this beautiful piece of silk was not woven by human hands but by the spider women of Usturt. But the spider women are hostile to humankind and will not willingly share their knowledge of weaving their beautiful silk fabric. Yet to Usturt Dairine must go, will she or nil she.
• "Sand Sister" Born to the Tor people of the Tormarsh, Tursla was not like the other children. But to a people declining in population, even one unlike the others is vital to the community's continuance. When a girl reaches a certain age, she is expected to take part in a fertility rite where she is impregnated by one of the village men. Tursla did not take part in the ritual but still claimed to have been impregnated even though she knew she had lain with no man. But she was filled, filled with knowledge after a visit to a holy site deep in the marsh. And this knowledge will enable her to step in to save the life of an outsider that the desperate villagers have marked for human sacrifice in the belief that it will restore fertility to their people and prevent their slow slide into extinction.
• "Falcon Blood" Tanree is a sailor, born and bred. But her home, the ship, the Kast-Boar, was caught in a storm and broken on a reef on an unknown shore. The only survivors are Tanree and the Falconer, a mercenary from a tribe where the men view women as untrustworthy creatures fit only for the bearing of children. But the Falconer has a broken arm and if he and Tanree are going to survive, they are going to have to work together despite his distaste for her gender.
• "Legacy From Sorn Fen" After the war was over, opportunities were abundant for an ambitious man to improve his lot in life, given the sad state of affairs in the land. One such was Higbold. And when a certain magical item came to his notice, Higbold saw no reason not to claim the item for himself. What he didn't know was the item was given as a reward for a kind and gallant service performed to ease the passing of a damsel in distress. Higbold is going to pay a price for his thievery.
• "Sword of Unbelief" Jervon and Elys from earlier stories not in this collection are featured in this story of a battle between Elys and an ancient and evil god who has captured Jervon and is slowing draining him of his life force. 
• "The Toads of Grimmerdale" After the war was over, a time of chaos overtook the lands and crimes and lawlessness where everywhere. Hertha, a well-born young woman, became a victim of this chaos when her camp was overrun and she was assaulted. But when her family discovered she was pregnant, she was told she must submit to an abortion or be cast out. She chose to be cast out. She just wants two things, a healthy baby and revenge on the man who raped her. She doesn't know who he was and never saw his face. But she did see a distinctive piece of equipment he wore, a find gold and jewel-encrusted bowguard. So when Hertha sees a man wearing that same bowguard at the inn where she is working, she is certain he is the one who assaulted her. The inn lies near a place of the Old Ones, the magical denizens who used to dominate the land but who have mostly gone away. The Toads of Grimmerdale are of such magical stock and Hertha goes to them, asking for their help against her enemy. Of course, there will be a deadly price to pay for such questionable help.
• "Changeling" The follow-up to "The Toads of Grimmerdale" finds Hertha on the road once again, traveling to confront the Toads, who as punishment for her forfeit, have cursed her newborn baby with bulgy toad eyes and blotchy, discolored skin. 

I really enjoyed the stories in this collection. I think my favorites are the last two, but I liked them all. The only one I liked the least was "Sword of Unbelief" which was rather slow compared to the other stories. 

Victory on Janus

 

By Andre Norton

Sequel to Judgment on Janus.

Ayyar (the former human Niall Renfro) and his Iftin companions awake from their winter hibernation to the unwelcome knowledge that the forest they call home is under attack. They hurriedly pack up what they can and flee. Trying to figure what is going on, they are surprised to discover that not only are the settlers attacking the forest, but they have been joined by the men from the spaceport who have brought in heavy equipment and blasters to destroy all the possible hiding places of the Iftins. Investigating further, the Iftins discover that robots disguised as Iftins have been attacking and murdering humans, obviously the work of their old enemy, THAT WHICH ABIDES.  Which is devastating news because they believed THAT had been nullified when the flood poured over its lands. 

But THAT is active once again, sending its Iftin-looking robots against the humans settlers. And also once again against the native people of Ift, the green-skinned forest dwelling Iftins. Once again Ayyar and his Iftin companions must take on THAT to save the forests they need to live and to save the humans from being used as pawns against the Iftins by THAT WHICH ABIDES.

This story is pretty much a repeat of the first book, Judgment on Janus. The Iftins, mainly Ayyar, sneak into THAT's desert and face various enemies and finally discover how to defeat their enemy.  I did like that the enemy turns out not to be some implacable ancient evil, but simply a machine whose programming has gotten a bit messed up.

Judgment on Janus

 

By Andre Norton

Naill Renfro finds himself on Janus, a frontier world. He signed up to be a laborer and ended up in near slavery. But his life is about to undergo a startling change, beginning with the day he uncovered a buried alien treasure. 

He and all the new hires had been warned about these treasures, warned not to touch them and told to report any found. For those who handle the treasures fall ill of the Green Sick, a deadly fever. So frightened of this disease are the settlers, that any who fell ill are abandoned in the wilderness, presumed to die there either from the fever or eaten by predators. 

But Niall was fascinated by the beautiful glowing objects he uncovered and he couldn't keep himself from touching them. As he had been warned, he was infected and he lapsed into unconsciousness and his body was dumped into the forest. 

How long he lay there he didn't know. But when he woke up, he was a changed man, no longer even human. His body was stronger, his skin the green of growing plants, his eyes able to see in the dark, his ears large and pointed and his entire body completely hairless. And his mind was filled the thoughts of another person, Ayyar, the Lord of Ky-Kye. And he was soon to realize that he was not the only human so changed, not the only human to be converted by the Green Sick into an Iftin, the long-vanished original inhabitants of the planet Janus.

This was an interesting story, as Niall grapples with the conflicting parts of his new life, human vs alien. He no longer can be part of human society but the memories of Ayyar are not complete enough to guide him in his new life. In addition, he and the other changelings have to deal with the doom that took out those who came before, the Iftin. 

Here is a review by Patrick T. Reardon.

Zarsthor's Bane

 

By Andre Norton

A Witchworld novel

Peace of a sort has come to High Hallack. Not that it matters to Brixia, who has been on her own for three years or so. Her home, her friends and family are all dead and gone and she has been wandering the wilderness on her own, barely managing to stay alive, her only friend a cat she calls Uta. Even though the enemy has been defeated, there are still plenty of dangers for a woman alone. Looking for a secure place to make camp for the night, Brixia comes across a wounded man, Marbon, and his young companion, a teenage boy, Dwed. Brixia steers clear of the two but her cat, Uta, joins them. Marbon, who sustained a head wound, is clearly not in his right mind, but the sight of Uta awakes something in him. Brixia ends up joining Marbon and Dwed on their journey, even though she really doesn't want to. Together the four of them are searching for Zarsthor's Bane, which Marbon believes is a weapon that will restore his lost lands and which Dwed hopes will restore Marbon's lost senses. And Brixia accompanies them because of some strange urge that compels her to follow along.

Another entry in the Witchworld series, this follows a familiar path, people on a mysterious quest that they don't really understand into the dangerous lands of the Old Ones. It was an OK read, if a bit too similar to so many of the Witchworld stories. 

The Beast Master

 

By Andre Norton

The war with the Xik was finally over and humankind won but at the cost of the complete destruction of planet Earth. Hosteen Storm was a Galactic Commando and Beast Master in the galactic Confederacy and now that the war is over, he has no home to go back to. He chose to be repatriated on Arzor because it has a climate similar to his Navajo homeland. His four "beasts" will be with him, as the military as no further use for them. They are Surra, a dune cat; Baku, an African black eagle; and two meercats, Ho and Hing. 

Arzor is a frontier world and it has a native population referred to as Norbies. They are tall, thin humanoids with yellow skin and horns. They can't speak human language and humans can't speak their language so they communicate by using sign language. The Norbies are hunter/gatherer people that live in tribal groups scattered across the planet. They have accepted the presence of humans settlers. Humans activities on the planet consist mainly of ranching the local herd beasts. So basically it's the Old West, revisited.

Hosteen has another purpose in coming to Arzor. He is on the trail of a man, Brad Quade, from Arzor who killed his father when Hosteen was little. 

Hosteen's skill with horses quickly lands him a job and earns him the respect of the locals. And his work with his animal companions impresses him employers even more. One of his fellow workers is a Norbie, Gorgol who becomes Hosteen's friend and who teaches him the sign language Norbies and humans use to communicate. 

Once Hosteen and his new employer and company are on the trail, they run into trouble when they get caught in a heavy downburst. The valley they are in quickly floods and only Gorgol and Hosteen manage to survive. They rest are swept away along with most of the supplies. But both Gorgol and Hosteen are no strangers to surviving on their own. They bury the bodies of their companions and set out to find a way out of the deadly valley. But before they can, Hosteen discovers that the Xik, who he thought had been thoroughly defeated, have a secret base on Arzor. And that they are trying to foment a war between the Norbies and the human settlers. 

This is pretty much just a frontier Western, with the settlers as the cowboys and the Norbies as the Natives. With the twist that the Navajo man is the cowboy who sympathizes with and understands the Natives. Frankly, I found the story boring.

Here is a review by Kirkus. This is their review from 1959 and they refer to the author as he. Andre Norton was the author's pen name. Her real name was Alice Norton. 

 

Gryphon in Glory

 

By Andre Norton

A Witch World story

A continuation of the story told in The Crystal Gryphon  in which Joisan and Kerovan once again go their separate ways only to come back together later on in the story.

Kerovan is still feeling inferior and decides to set Joisan free so she can find love with a "normal" person. But Joisan is stubbornly refusing to accept his rejection of her and set off after him when he leaves on a military mission, determined to join him despite his refusal. Kerovan is traveling to the Waste, in search of allies in the war against the invaders from overseas. He is successful in his quest, finding a race of shapeshiftering warriors who are alarmed to discover that the enemy is seeking forbidden knowledge in the Waste.

Meanwhile Joisan has set out to follow Kerovan and she has fallen in with two strangers, Elys and Jervon. Elys and Jervon first appeared in the novella, Dragon Scale Silver. While traveling in the Waste, Joisan gets kidnapped by the Thas, monstrous underground rat-men She frees herself by using the power of the crystal gryphon, which was given to her by Kerovan at the start of the first book. 

But when she manages to find her way to the surface, she comes out nowhere near where she last saw Elys and Jervon. She finds an abandoned castle in which she can shelter and there are even some fruits to eat in the old orchard. She climbs the castle tower and sees a road off in the distance and shortly discovers Kerovan and Elys and Jervon traveling on the road. Kerovan is still struggling to find self-acceptance and continues to turn away from Joisan. He has been having strange dreams and they are both experiencing strange visions. He has given up on his original quest and is now concentrating on sorting himself out and Joisan is just hoping that eventually he will realize he is the only man for her.

This was an OK story. Pretty much follows the same pattern of one or two young people on a quest of discovery and self-discovery, always involving evil magic and good magic and often featuring magical animals and people who have magical abilities but are not trained to use them. 

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Catseye

 

By Andre Norton

Troy Horan is a war refugee. His family was evacuated from their home planet to another planet and never were able to return home. Now Troy is alone, everyone else in his family died in an epidemic that swept the ghetto, called the Dipple, were they all lived. Troy is just a teenager and every day he goes to the labor center in the hopes of snagging a job as a laborer. This day he gets a job working for a pet store.

He feels lucky to get this job and tries to do his best. But something fishy is going on at the pet store and it seems to center around the five animals from Terra (Earth): two house cats, two foxes, and a kinkajou. Troy discovers that the animals are telepathic and that he can communicate mentally with them. He feels connected to the five creatures. 

One terrible night, Troy, returning to the pet shop, finds a door that should be locked isn't. Entering the premises, he also finds the door to the owner's apartment open and his boss is inside and dead. He also finds the five Terran animals on the loose. But then Troy is found with the dead man by one of the employees who jumps to the conclusion that Troy killed him. Troy flees, accompanied by the animals. They escape in a vehicle. 

But where can they go where they will be safe? Troy thinks of one place, the Wild. On this planet, much of it is preserved in its natural state where no cities or roads exist. This might give Troy and the animals a chance to survive. But instead the vehicle crashes in a forbidden zone, Ruhkarv. Ruhkarv is an ancient ruin, mostly underground with a very bad reputation. A few years before, an exploration party there went insane and killed each other and themselves. Since then, the place has been sealed off by force fields. But when Troy's stolen vehicle went down, it skipped over the force field and landed inside the boundaries of Ruhkarv. Now he and his five animal companions are stuck in a frightening and puzzling alien underground city and are being pursued by the authorities, by the local forest rangers and by the dead man's henchmen.  

I first read this book a long time ago, when I was just a kid. I remember liking it a lot them. But the only thing I really remembered about the story was the time the main character spent in the underground city. So reading decades later was almost like reading it for the first time. It was a pretty good read but I think I liked it better when I was young.

Spell of the Witch World

 

By Andre Norton

A Witch World collection

A small collection including a novella and two short stories, the novella is Dragon Scale Silver and the short stories are Dream Smith and Amber Out of Quayth. 

Dragon Scale Silver  is the story of young woman who has to make her own way in the world after the small town where she lives is overrun during war. 

Elys has been raised by her father to be more self-sufficient that most girls of her time. Along with her twin brother, Elyn, she has learned to hunt and ride and handle weapons.  From the village wise woman, she has learned healing skills, magic spells and herb craft. So when the people of the village are forced to flee from the invaders, Elys becomes their de facto leader, because most of the men have left to fight, including her brother Elyn.

Once she gets the villagers settled and secure in a new location in the wilderness, Elys sets out of rescue her brother Elyn, who has become ensorcelled by an ancient curse. She helped in her quest by a soldier, Jervon, whose comrades were defeated by the enemy.

Dream Smith is the story of a young man who is cruelly disfigured in an explosion that occurred when his father tried to smelt a strange new metal. Collard becomes a recluse, hiding his disfigured face and body from the gaze of the folks of his village. But, despite their first terrible experience with the strange metal, Collard continues to work with it, creating miniature statues of mythological and imaginary creatures. 

Collard then hears about Lady Jacinda, the daughter of a lord. Jacinda is said to be deformed and is being sent away from her home because her father's new wife finds her repulsive to look at. Collard begins to have dreams about his little works of art and Jacinda and he arranges to have some of his creations sent to her. He is gratified and pleased when he gets word that she really loved the gifts. He then dreams of a new work of art and creates a scene that will prove to be not just a work of art but a whole new world for the two of them.

Amber Out of Quayth  is another story of a girl who is a bit of an outsider. Her life was good until her brother got married and his new wife didn't like her new sister-in-law, Ysmay. She treats Ysmay like an unpaid servant, so when Ysmay mets a wealthy stranger at a local fair and he pursues her, she agrees to marry him, even though there is something about him that is troubling. 

Their first night together, her new husband, Hylle, explains he must remain celibate because of his mystical studies. Hylle spends most of his time in his tower with his studies and Ysmay begins to understand that he married her because she has something that is necessary to his studies and that she is simply a tool in his plot.

I enjoyed all three stories. It is always fun reading Andre Norton's Witch World stories, like visiting an old and entertaining friend.

Breed To Come

By Andre Norton

Humankind long ago abandoned their home planet after they managed to imperial their very existence on it. Left behind were the animals who were subject to their cruel experiments, dogs, cats, rats and swine.
Left to their own devices, the animal clans increased in intelligence, creating their own societies and gleaning knowledge from the empty cities left behind by humankind.
Furtig, a young catman, has left his home and gone off to the human city in search of knowledge and in search of his relative, the wise cat Gammage. Gammage has spent much time in the city trying to understand the human technology and use it to better the lives of his fellow cat people. But, as a result of his studies, he has come to fear that the humans will soon be returning to their world. And he fears they will once again cruelly rule those they left behind, the dogs, the cats, the rats and the pigs. Who are no longer mere animals. And who just may have a plan to fight back.

This was an OK read. Just how Gammage is so certain the humans are due to shortly return is never clearly explained. And when they humans do return, it is only four people who are searching for a cure to another human-created blight that is once again threatening human existence. They just can't manage to do anything right, the poor stupid unworthy humans.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Crystal Gryphon

By Andre Norton

A Witch World story.

The Dales are in danger as invaders from outside move against the lords of the Dales. The invaders have advanced technology, while the Dalesmen are still riding horses and using bows and arrows and swords and armor.
But before the time of the invasion, two children of Dales lords are promised to each other for political reasons. Kerovan's father is worried his people will reject his son as leader because Kerovan is deformed. His eyes have slit pupils instead of round and his feet are hoofed. So allying his son with the daughter of the lord of Ithdale, Joisan, will consolidate his son's position, he hopes.
Joisan and Kerovan are officially wedded, even though they never actually meet and even though they are little kids. Kerovan lives in isolation, away from prying eyes. Joisan lives at Ithkrypt and finds herself pursued by Toross, a cousin, who urges her to repudiate Kerovan and ally with him. At one point Kerovan sends Joisan a crystal gryphon as a gift and she wears it on a chain around her neck.
Joisan and Kerovan never meet before the invaders arrive. Ithkrypt is destroyed and Joisan and company are forced to flee.
Kerovan is ambushed but escapes only to discover that his mother, his sister and his half-brother are the ones who arranged for the ambush. He also finds out that they have turned the locals against him too. He decides he has no future there and travels to Ithdale, only to discover that Ithkrypt is a ruin and Ithdale is overrun by the enemy. He then sets out to find the wife he has never met, Joisan.

This book is told from the two perspectives of Joisan and Kerovan. Much of the story centers on the two as youngsters. It doesn't really start moving until the invasion, when Joisan and Kerovan are just entering adulthood. And when the best made plans go up in smoke as war swallows both their keeps.

Witch World

By Andre Norton

The first Witch World story

Simon Tregarth is a man on the run and is facing certain death. So when a fellow offers him a one-way route to a new life, but with no return, Tregarth accepts.
The man leads him to a strange stone gateway that leads to a different world, a world, the man promises, "in which his spirit, his mind—his soul if you wish to call it that—is at home. " But the catch is, "there is no return—and only a desperate man chooses an irrevocable future."
Once through the doorway, Tregarth does find himself in a strange new world. Escaping from being hunted himself, he is catapulted into another hunt. The hunted is not Tregarth, but is a woman dressed in rags and being trailed by men on horseback.
Tregarth, who has a handgun, helps the woman escape her hunters. The woman was on a spy mission and she takes Tregarth back to her home country and introduces him to the leaders of her country, Estcarp.
The woman, who will not give her name, is a witch as are the leaders of her country. They are all women and they are all witches. They govern by consensus and by magic. They all keep their names secret, it is part of their belief that knowing someone's name gives them power over the named person.
The witches are worried. Something is rotten in the world of Estcarp and it has all started in the land of Kolder. Kolder, which has technology strange to the other lands of Witch World. Kolder, which has the ability to turn enemies into weapons to use against their homelands. Kolder, who will find in Simon Tregarth an outworlder who is able to stand against their technological "magic."

This is the first book of Norton's Witch World series. In Witch World, the women of Estcarp are the bearers of magic. To keep their magic abilities, they must remain virgins, because they believe once a woman is deflowered, she loses her powers. Their technology is mainly medieval, with strange exceptions (excluding the technology of their enemy, Kolder).

This was an OK read. The story centers around Tregarth, who was a soldier and a mercenary back home, and who continues that roll on Witch World. The story mainly follows him on his campaigns as he fights for Estcarp.
It's a fun introduction to Norton's style of storytelling and contains many of her trademark themes: ancient alien tech; mysterious ruins that reek of evil; strange, magical abilities; seemingly ordinary people who are not ordinary; creepy, dangerous, evil creatures; foggy marshes and moor; underground installations of unknown origin containing peculiar machines; and loners fighting against the status quo.