Andre Norton: The Grande Dame of Science Fiction and Fantasy!

Exploring the Works and Life of. 

Andre-Norton-Books.com ~ Since 2004 ~ Updated 02/01/2021

  • You are here:  
  • About Andre and Her Work >
  • Reviews >
  • Reviews by J.T.

 

The Andre Norton Reread Begins:

Andre and Me

by Judith Tarr

From TOR.com ~ Started: February 13, 2017

With a new post every two weeks since.

 
witch world 1963 f-197
 

When I was a baby science fiction fan, back when “girls don’t read this stuff” (but of course legions of us did), I read anything and everything I could find that had a spaceship or an alien on the cover. The scantily-clad (female) beauties I ignored; that wasn’t my demographic.

I never paid attention to the gender of the author, or noticed how heavily everything skewed toward male writers. That was just the way the world worked. I did learn that an author’s name usually meant I’d be getting a certain kind of book, and that if I liked one book by an author, I’d want to read more.

Andre Norton had a lot of those books. A lot. For the most part they were short, they were pithy, they had characters I could relate to and settings that captivated me.

I read my way around the shelves at the library, discovered the Witch World and read every volume of the series that I could get my hands on. I loved her space operas, especially my favorite of them all, Moon of Three Rings. Andre opened up worlds that combined science and magic, and gave me protagonists that we now would call diverse. Then, they were just protagonists who seemed vivid and alive to me.

She wasn’t a great prose stylist, I knew even as a baby reader/writer, but it didn’t matter. The stories made up for everything.

Somewhere in there, I learned that Andre was a woman. I was mildly surprised, but it didn’t make a difference one way or the other. “Alice Mary Norton,” I said. “Hmmp.” And went looking for the next book with her nom de plume on it, and then the next and the next.

I’d always been a writer, from the time I could write, and my voracious reading was as much about learning the craft as about soaking up the stories. Andre’s books gave me endless ideas and offered numerous springboards for my own worlds and characters. The idea that the future didn’t need to be white, or that aliens could be both truly alien and accessibly human, came to me in good part from her. So did the ferocious feminism of her Witches, though of course they had to be seen through the eyes of males, and especially an Earth male (white of course), because (cue chorus) That Was How The World Worked.

Then I was not just a writer but a published writer, and part of the job was to attend science-fiction conventions. At one of them, I was introduced to a tall, dignified, soft-spoken lady whose name was Andre. And I fangirled to pieces inside while I said appropriate adult things on the outside. I don’t think I embarrassed myself too much. Andre was gracious and kind, and in every way a role model for a young and callow author.

I was in my snotty-young-writer phase, when everything had to be really, really good or I couldn’t be bothered, and heaven help the writer whose prose wasn’t (in my estimation) perfect. But Andre was Andre. Her books had shaped my youth. They were still shaping me, snotty young writer or not.

One otherwise ordinary day not long after that first meeting, when I was in grad school in New Haven, the phone rang. I was used to getting calls from fans who had tracked me down despite my unlisted number, who wanted to talk about my books or ask me questions or even come and visit. I’d had enough of the last to be prickly, and that wasn’t even counting the calls from strangers who wanted to sell me things.

I was, at that point, able to cope with the phone despite a severe hearing loss, but I was starting to struggle. Eventually that would slip out of the range of what I could do, and then came the internet, and that was a whole new world, but on that particular day, when the phone rang, I would still answer it.

There was a nice lady on the other end, and as far as I could determine in my busy, rushed, struggling-to-hear-her way, she was trying to sell me something. I embarked on my canned spiel. “I don’t want to buy anything, no thank you, please go away.”

But she persisted. She said, “This is Andre. I’m not trying to sell you anything. I want to buy a story from you!”

After I finished dropping through the floor and apologizing all over the basement, Andre explained that she was opening the Witch World to fellow writers, and would I like to be one of them?

HELL YES.

I didn’t have enough openings in the writing schedule to let me become one of her novel collaborators, but I wrote a novella for her, and was permitted to make actual Witch World canon. That was a highlight, a definite highlight.

It was also quite some while ago, and the world and the genre have changed in ways both good and bad. Andre died at a highly respectable age (and was and is much missed), leaving a legacy that continues even now in SFWA’s Norton Award; and of course while she was still alive, she had been named a Grand Master of the Genre—and very rightly so. Her books faded for a while, but with the ebook revolution have come back; in fact I just found a Kindle deal for one (and snapped it up).

Since it’s possible to find her books again en masse, either in print or in ebook editions, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate one of the founding mothers of our genre than to dive into a reread. I’ll start with my favorites, especially the Witch World books, and move on where fancy and the booksellers’ websites take me. In fact I just discovered that there are at least five Beast Master books—I only recall two. Joy!

I hope you’ll come along with me as I revisit Andre’s many worlds and characters, book by book. I’ll begin next time with my beloved Moon of Three Rings, which I’ve reread at intervals over the years. I’m very much looking forward to visiting with Krip and Maelen and the Thassa and the Free Traders again. And then Simon and the Witches, and Hosteen Storm, and Garan the Eternal, and the Time Traders, and…

Oh, the places we’ll go!


NOTE: The text of the following reviews by Judith Tarr are copied directly from TOR.com. As is done for most of the articles throughout this website. Thus avoiding the need for monitoring the links to other sites and keeping them viable. It’s very time consuming.


February 27, 2017: Spaceships and Magic: Andre Norton’s Moon of Three Rings

March 13, 2017: A Trip Through Retro Sci-Fi Tropes: Andre Norton’s Exiles of the Stars

March 27, 2017: Beyond the Siege Perilous: Andre Norton’s Witch World

April 10, 2017: Webs Within Webs: Andre Norton's Web of the Witch World

April 24, 2017: Triple Threats: Andre Norton's Three Against the Witch World

May 08, 2017: War and Hell Dimensions: Andre Norton's Warlock of the Witch World

May 22, 2017: Reparations and Redemption: Andre Norton's Sorceress of the Witch World

June 05, 2017: Heart and Souls: Andre Norton's Crystal Gryphon, The

June 19, 2017: Pride and Persistence: Andre Norton's Gryphon in Glory

July 03, 2017: Always Coming Home: Andre Norton and A.C. Crispin's Gryphon's Eyrie

July 17, 2017: Dreamscapes and Nightmare Magic: Andre Norton's Year of the Unicorn

July 31, 2017: Werecats and Moon Magic: Andre Norton's Jargoon Pard, The

August 14, 2017: Edged Weapons, Time Travel, and the Unexpected: Andre Norton's Trey of Swords

August 28, 2017: An Independent Woman: Andre Norton's Zarsthor's Bane

September 11, 2017: Coming Full Circle: Andre Norton's Gate of the Cate, The

September 25, 2017: Another Life, Another Geas: Andre Norton's Ware Hawk

October 09, 2017: Coming of Age in a New World: Andre Norton's Horn Crown

October 23, 2017: Farewell to the Witch World: Andre Norton & A.C. Crispin's Songsmith

November 06, 2017: Dispatches from the Gender Wars: Andre Norton's Storm Over Warlock

November 20, 2017: Smurfette Saves the World: Andre Norton's Ordeal in Otherwhere

December 04, 2017: Time After Time After Time: Andre Norton's Forerunner Foray

December 18, 2017: A Little Alien Magic: Andre Norton's Forerunner

January 08, 2018: Once Again, With Closure: Andre' Norton's Forerunner: The Second Venture

January 22, 2018: After the Apocalypse: Andre Norton's Daybreak 2250 A.D.

February 05, 2018: Still Not Even Slightly Aploitical: Andre Norton's Beast Master, The

February 19, 2018: Going Native: Andre Norton's Lord of Thunder

March 05, 2018: A Boy's Own Adventure: Andre Norton's Sargasso of Space

March 19, 2018: It's a Boy's Universe After All: Andre Norton's Plague Ship

April 02, 2018: Vacation from Hell: Andre Norton's Voodoo Planet

April 16, 2018: Ticking Off the Boxes: Andre Norton's Star Hunter

April 30, 2018: Special Delivery: Andre Norton's Postmarked the Stars

May 15, 2018: Surviving the Nuclear Holocaust: Andre Norton's Sea Siege

May 29, 2018: Worlds Beside Themselves: Andre Norton's Star Gate

June 11, 2018: Surprisingly Timely: Andre Norton's Night of Masks

June 25, 2018: Going Green: Andre Norton's Judgment on Janus

July 09, 2018: Taking Back the World: Andre Norton's Victory on Janus

July 23, 2018: Where Space Adventure Meets Good Old Polical SF: Andre Norton's Catseye

August 06, 2018: Worlds Beside Worlds: Andre Norton's Crossroads of Time, The

August 20, 2018: Bouncing Through Realities: Andre Norton's Quest Crosstime

September 04, 2018: Throwback Planetary Adventure: Andre Norton's Zero Stone, The

September 18, 2018: Blowing Up Assumptions (and Other Things): Andre Norton's Uncharted Stars

October 01, 2018: Adventures in Time Travel: Andre Norton's Time Traders, The

October 15, 2018: Adventures in Space and Time: Andre Norton's Galactic Derelict

October 29, 2018: When It All Goes Wrong:  Andre Norton's Defiant Agents, The

November 12, 2018: Back On Track: Andre Norton's Key Out of Time

November 26, 2018: The Accidental Catalyst: Andre Norton's X Factor, The

December 10, 2018: Saving a World with Sioux Spaceman, The

December 24, 2018: Culture Wars in Andre Norton's Eye of the Monster

January 14, 2019: Killer Flora, Fascinating Fauna: Andre Norton's Voorloper

January 28, 2019: A Girl's Life is No Picnic: Andre Norton's Steel Magic

February 11, 2019: At Last It's a Girl's World in: Andre Norton's Octagon Magic

February 25, 2019: Trying Hard to Get it Right in: Andre Norton's Dragon Magic

March 11, 2019: Turning the World with: Andre Norton's Fur Magic

March 25, 2019: A Whole Different Kind of Time Travel: Andre Norton's Lavender-Green Magic

April 08, 2019: Quietly Subversive '70s Fantasy: Andre Norton's Red Hart Magic

April 22, 2019: Touching Magic with: Andre Norton's Hands of Lyr, The

May 06, 2019: Reflections on: Andre Norton's Mirror of Destiny

May 20, 2019: Tracking Evil in: Andre Norton's Scent of Magic

June 04, 2019: Amping Up the Weird in: Andre Norton's Wind in the Stone

June 14, 2019: Swan Song: Andre Norton's Taste of Magic, A

July 01, 2019: Surviving an Apocalypse: Andre Norton's Dark Piper

July 15, 2019: Heartless: Andre Norton's Dread Companion

July 29, 2019: Celebrating the Sixth Sense: Andre Norton’s Three Hands for Scorpio

August 12, 2019: All Too Time Timely: Andre Norton's Star Guard

August 26, 2019: Marooned on the Last Planet: Andre Norton's Star Rangers

September 09, 2019: Double Dystopia in: Andre Norton's The Stars Are Ours!

September 23, 2019: When Species Collide: Andre Norton's Star Born

October 07, 2019: Again, All Too Timely: Andre Norton's Secret of the Lost Race

October 21, 2019: Twist and Turns in: Andre Norton's Android At Arms

November 04, 2019: Worlds Besides Worlds: Andre Norton's Wraiths of Time

November 18, 2019: Agency and Mind Control in: Andre Norton's Ice Crown

December 02, 2019: Andre Norton Goes Historical in Shadow Hawk

December 16, 2019: Neither Here Nor There: Andre Norton's Operation Time Search

January 06, 2020: Rolled by the Dice: in Andre Norton's Quag Keep

January 20, 2020: A Collaborative Effort: Andre Norton's & Jean Rabe's Return to Quag Keep

February 03, 2020: A Little Horror, a Lot of Delight: Andre Norton's Ralestone Luck

February 18, 2020: All Rebel, No Cause: Andre Norton's Ride Proud, Rebel!

March 02, 2020: Andre Norton Goes West in Rebel Spurs

March 16, 2020: Andre Norton Goes Ruritarian in The Prince Commands

March 30, 2020: Sliding from World to World in Andre Norton's Knave of Dreams

April 13, 2020: The War Begins in Andre Norton's The Sword is Drawn

April 27, 2020: Marvels and Piracies in Andre Norton's Sword in Sheath

May 11, 2020: The War Never Ends in Andre Norton's At Swords' Point

May 25, 2020: Kitties in Space: Andre Norton's Star Ka'at

June 09, 2020: Kids Save the World in Andre Norton's Star Ka'at World

June 22, 2020: Alien Collaboration: Andre Norton's Star Ka'ats and the Plant People 

July 06, 2020: Wrapping Up the Series in: Andre Norton's Star Ka'ats and the Winged Warrior

July 20, 2020: Love and Colonialism in Andre Norton’s Stand to Horse

August 03, 2020: Andre Norton Goes Gothic in The White Jade Fox

August 17, 2020: Wrecking the Caribean in Andre Norton's The Opal-Eyed Fan

August 31, 2020: Rampant Victoriana in Andre Norton's Velvet Shadows

September 14, 2020: Ruritania Meets Gothic in Andre Nortons Iron Butterflies

September 28, 2020: Spinning Through Genres in Andre Norton's Wheel of Stars

October 13, 2020: Andre Norton Gives Romantic Suspense a Whril in Snow Shadow

October 26, 2020: Andre Norton Takes to the High Seas in Yankee Privateer

November 09, 2020: Delivering the Goods in Andre Norton's Stand and Deliver

November 23, 2020: Living the Arizona Dream in Andre Norton's Ten Mile Treasure

December 07, 2020: Piracy in the Caribbean: Andre Norton's Scarface

January 04, 2021: Of Animal Bondage: Andre Norton's Iron Cage

January 19, 2021: A Human-Free Earth: Andre Norton's Breed To Come

February 01, 2021: When Genres Clash: Andre Norton's Here Abide Monsters

February 15, 2021: Ticking the Plot Boxes in Andre Norton's Yurth Burden

 

 

 

 

Judith Tarr forayed into the Witch World with a novella, “Falcon Law,” in Four from the Witch World. Her first novel, The Isle of Glass, appeared in 1985. Her new short novel, Dragons in the Earth, a contemporary fantasy set in Arizona, was published last fall by Book View Cafe. In between, she’s written historicals and historical fantasies and epic fantasies and space operas, many of which have been published as ebooks from Book View Café. She has won the Crawford Award, and been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award and the Locus Award. She lives in Arizona with an assortment of cats, a blue-eyed spirit dog, and a herd of Lipizzan horses.

 

 

 Alphabetical Order

List of articles in category Reviews by J.T.
Title
Review: Android At Arms - Tarr
Review: At Swords' Point - Tarr
Review: Beast Master, The - Tarr
Review: Breed To Come - Tarr
Review: Catseye - Tarr
Review: Crossroads of Time, The - Tarr
Review: Crystal Gryphon, The - Tarr
Review: Dark Piper - Tarr
Review: Daybreak 2250 A.D. - Tarr
Review: Defiant Agents, The - Tarr
Review: Dragon Magic - Tarr
Review: Dread Companion - Tarr
Review: Exiles of the Stars - Tarr
Review: Eye of the Monster - Tarr
Review: Forerunner - Tarr
Review: Forerunner Foray - Tarr
Review: Forerunner: The Second Venture - Tarr
Review: Fur Magic - Tarr
Review: Galactic Derelict - Tarr
Review: Gate of the Cate, The - Tarr
Review: Gryphon in Glory - Tarr
Review: Gryphon's Eyrie - Tarr
Review: Hands of Lyr, The - Tarr
Review: Here Abide Monsters - Tarr
Review: Horn Crown - Tarr
Review: Ice Crown - Tarr
Review: Iron Butterflies - Tarr
Review: Iron Cage - Tarr
Review: Jargoon Pard, The - Tarr
Review: Judgment on Janus - Tarr
Review: Key Out of Time - Tarr
Review: Knave of Dreams - Tarr
Review: Lavender-Green Magic - Tarr
Review: Lord of Thunder - Tarr
Review: Mirror of Destiny - Tarr
Review: Moon of Three Rings - Tarr
Review: Night of Masks - Tarr
Review: Octagon Magic - Tarr
Review: Opal-Eyed Fan - Tarr
Review: Operation Time Search - Tarr
Review: Ordeal in Otherwhere - Tarr
Review: Plague Ship - Tarr
Review: Postmarked the Stars - Tarr
Review: Prince Commands - Tarr
Review: Quag Keep - Tarr
Review: Quest Crosstime - Tarr
Review: Ralestone Luck - Tarr
Review: Rebel Spurs - Tarr
Review: Red Hart Magic - Tarr
Review: Return to Quag Keep - Tarr
Review: Ride Proud, Rebel! - Tarr
Review: Sargasso of Space - Tarr
Review: Scarface - Tarr
Review: Scent of Magic - Tarr
Review: Sea Siege - Tarr
Review: Secret of the Lost Race - Tarr
Review: Shadow Hawk - Tarr
Review: Sioux Spaceman, The - Tarr
Review: Snow Shadow - Tarr
Review: Songsmith - Tarr
Review: Sorceress of the Witch World - Tarr
Review: Stand and Deliver - Tarr
Review: Stand to Horse - Tarr
Review: Star Born - Tarr
Review: Star Gate - Tarr
Review: Star Guard - Tarr
Review: Star Hunter - Tarr
Review: Star Ka'at - Tarr
Review: Star Ka'at World - Tarr
Review: Star Ka'ats and the Plant People - Tarr
Review: Star Ka'ats and the Winged Warrior - Tarr
Review: Star Rangers - Tarr
Review: Stars Are Ours!, The - Tarr
Review: Steel Magic - Tarr
Review: Storm Over Warlock - Tarr
Review: Sword in Sheath - Tarr
Review: Sword is Drawn, The - Tarr
Review: Taste of Magic, A - Tarr
Review: Ten Mile Treasure - Tarr
Review: Three Against the Witch World - Tarr
Review: Three Hands for Scorpio - Tarr
Review: Time Traders, The - Tarr
Review: Trey of Swords - Tarr
Review: Uncharted Stars - Tarr
Review: Velvet Shadows - Tarr
Review: Victory on Janus - Tarr
Review: Voodoo Planet - Tarr
Review: Voorloper - Tarr
Review: Ware Hawk - Tarr
Review: Warlock of the Witch World - Tarr
Review: Web of the Witch World - Tarr
Review: Wheel of Stars - Tarr
Review: White Jade Fox - Tarr
Review: Wind in the Stone - Tarr
Review: Witch World - Tarr
Review: Wraiths of Time - Tarr
Review: X Factor, The - Tarr
Review: Yankee Privateer - Tarr
Review: Year of the Unicorn - Tarr
Review: Yurth Burden - Tarr
Review: Zarsthor's Bane - Tarr
Review: Zero Stone, The - Tarr
  • You are here:  
  • About Andre and Her Work >
  • Reviews >
  • Reviews by J.T.

 

Titles

[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G]

[H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N]

[O] [P] [Q] [R] [Sa>So] [Sp>]

[T] [U>V] [W] [X>Y>Z]

Expandable Menu

  • All About Andre
  • Many Worlds of Andre
  • "Witch World"
  • Titles: from A > Z
  • Exclusive to this Site
  • Non-Fiction by Andre
  • Andre's Life Explored
  • About Andre and Her Work
    • Articles Over the Years
    • Internet Articles
    • Reviews
      • Reviews by J.D.N.
      • Reviews by P.R.
      • Reviews by J.T.
      • Reviews by BL
      • Reviews by PW
      • Reviews by KR
  • Miscellaneous Collections
  • Book of Shadows
  • Mapping Norton's Worlds
  • Andre's Reading Corner
  • Book Store

This is Freedom--
America bought it--for a price--
From scalping knives and red war hatchets
In ragged clearings about burned cabins.

This is Freedom--
America bought it--for a price--
With long rifle and starvation
At Brandywine and Saratoga,
Valley Forge and Yorktown.

This is Freedom--
America bought it--for a price--
With frigates' broadsides
To proclaim seas free to all nations.

This is Freedom--
America bought it--for a price--
With bayonets at Chateau Thierry and
Belleau Wood
And in the shattered forests of the Argonne.

This is Freedom--
America buys it--at a price--
In the air and distant seas
And on the beaches of ravaged lands,
With our hands and bodies and those minds
Trained to act and work
That this Freedom shall not perish from this earth!

Andre Norton ~ 1943

Andre Norton's
Reading Corner

andre norton storyteller 1948

Twice a Month

We showcase a different

Short -Story by Andre Norton

(Stories change on the 1st & 16th)

Take a seat and

read along with us.

Translate This Site

Here we showcase a different
Cover to pique your interest.

grand masters choice 1991 50619 7

The Collected Short Stories of
Andre Norton

Many of them published only once before!
Vol: 1    Vol: 2    Vol: 3

book mark half

Click Card and Follow Instructions.

Given out as a Memorial to Andre.
Accompanied by photo of Andre.

Help Keep

This Site Alive!

We are volunteers here and
sites do cost money.



Secured by Paypal

Webmaster's

Favorites

Best Sci-fi Series

Solar Queen


Best Fantasy Series

Trillium


Best Stand-Alone Novel

Tiger Burning Bright


Best Short Story

Swamp Dweller

Titles

[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G]

[H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N]

[O] [P] [Q] [R] [Sa>So] [Sp>]

[T] [U>V] [W] [X>Y>Z]

Also Recommended

by Norton Fans

 

My Ace Doubles Project

ace double header

A Special Interest Section

 

 

Copyright © 2019  Andre-Norton-Books.com by Jay Watts (AKA: Lots-A-Watts)

Contact us: Webmaster@Andre-Norton-Books.com

Join our Social Media page @ https://mewe.com/join/theworldsofandrenorton

Back to Top