High Sorcery

by Andre Norton

Warlocks of other worlds - or scientists of times unknown?

Craike, a man hunted in two worlds… Miss Rutheven, whose needles pointed to secret kingdoms… Dagmar, with the fatal fascination of Helen of Troy… Ully, whose music touched the powers before mankind… Tamisan, the sorceress who found herself the victim of her toys…

These and others like them, inhabit Andre Norton’s world of HIGH SORCERY, where the primeval desires and fears of man – his loving and loathing – are merged with his dreams of future knowledge and technological power. Those who have enjoyed the alchemy of Norton’s other mind-bending tales should enjoy these!

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction Fantasy, Anthologies, Ebooks, Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Andre Norton, born Alice Mary Norton, was a pioneering American author of science fiction and fantasy, widely regarded as the Grande Dame of those genres. She also wrote historical and contemporary fiction, publishing under the pen names Andre Alice Norton, Andrew North, and Allen Weston. She launched her career in 1934 with The Prince Commands, adopting the name “Andre” to appeal to a male readership. After working for the Cleveland Library System and the Library of Congress, she began publishing science fiction under “Andrew North” and fantasy under her own name. She became a full-time writer in 1958 and was known for her prolific output, including Star Man’s Son, 2250 A.D. and Witch World, the latter spawning a long-running series and shared universe. Norton was a founding member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America and authored Quag Keep, the first novel based on the Dungeons & Dragons game. She influenced generations of writers, including Lois McMaster Bujold and Mercedes Lackey. Among her many honors were being the first woman named Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and SFWA Grand Master. In her later years, she established the High Hallack Library to support research in genre fiction. Her legacy continues with the Andre Norton Award for young adult science fiction and fantasy.

Reviews

[Rindis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This old Ace collection of Andre Norton stories is not aptly named. There's not a lot of sorcery to be had, high or otherwise, and certainly, it's never called such. As usual for a collection, it is bookended by the two strongest (and in this case, longest) stories, which also happen to be the ones to have been previously published elsewhere.

In between, we get three shorter pieces, one of which, "Through the Needle's Eye" is more what I consider a 'mood piece'. It has a limited plot, which is almost geared around what doesn't happen (it's a good example of resolution through what the character learns, though). "By a Hair" is decidedly more developed, though 'mood' is still the primary aim, and both range closer to the horror side of the aisle.

"Ully the Piper" is effectively the second High Hallack Witch World story (which is where the WW stories I like better tend to come from). It's the most lighthearted and fun of the stories, and for the WW completist, it's in Tales from High Hallack Volume 1.

The first story is "Wizard's World", and has a quick introduction of a post-apocalyptic world where psionic mutants have appeared before moving to an alternate world where what may be magic or might simply be a different form of psionics is used. The main character has the moral high ground on just about everyone else, and while dealing with unknown powers, the his powers are just as unknown to everyone else. It's got a lot of good action, and is good... right up until that ending. It's... yeah, I don't think I can easily say anything intelligent there.

The last is "Toys of Tamisan", which is the longest of the set, and has a fair amount of world-building going on, including diving into the alternate history of a world that is already fictitious. It's the most ambitious story, and is fairly good. It also forms the first section of the slightly later book Perilous Dreams from DAW. All of that deals with the general concepts of this original story, but only the second part is a direct sequel.

Overall, it's not a bad collection, but the best part is found in Perious Dreams (and isn't even the best part of that book). The other stories also apparently got reprinted in various places, none of which are likely to be easy to find today either. Overall, the situation points up the need for some large collections of all of Andre Norton's works.

[Valerie]

Not to be confused with High Wizardry, which is Diane Duane. This is an anthology of Norton's short stories.

Included stories:

Wizard's World
Through The Needle's Eye
By A Hair
Ully The Piper (Witch World)
Toys of Tamisan (I believe this is more fully developed in _Perilous Dreams_)

As usual with anthologies, these stories are of varying quality.

Detailed summaries of stories:

WIZARD'S WORLD: Craike is a refugee from a society which has first enslaved, then tried to commit genocide against, psychics. Searching for escape routes, Craike stumbles on (or more literally, falls into) a worldgate into a world in which psychics are controlled by a central collegial body--and dissident psychics are hunted down and outlawed. He sets out to carve out a niche in this world. WARNING: this story explicitly endorses rape as a means of controlling psychics 'for their own good'.

THROUGH THE NEEDLE'S EYE: Miss Ruthevan is a master embroiderer. Among her needles are a special subset of golden needles. The narrator is dubious about the provenance and functionality of these needles--and when she inherits them, she proposes to leave those that remain in their case unused. But she won't destroy them, and proposes to leave the morality and utility of the needles to the discretion of her own apprentice, when the time comes. Note that this is a story in which the main protagonists are both pretty severely disabled.

BY A HAIR: Because of the ahistorical nature of a lot of Norton's work, it's sometimes easy to lose track of how very long her writing career was. This is a story from Eastern Europe, during the Nazi Occupation and the subsequent Soviet Occupation during the Cold War. There's an implication that, once the Christian clergy is removed, people will revert to paganism, if they're not explicitly dogmatic atheists. Maybe. The characters in this story are almost universally despicable, and seem to compete with each other to be the first to sell each other out.

ULLY THE PIPER: Coomb Brackett in High Hallack (here spelt, for some reason, 'Halleck'), was one of the few Dales untouched by outer events. The crippled Ully the Piper, spurned by the local bully, has an encounter with Old Ones in which the piper is paid with healing. The bully thinks he can make a better deal. It's not hard to predict how this will end--which is probably why the story is so short.

Toys of Tamisan: Tamisan is a controlled dreamer, who can share her dreams with clients, through a mechanism developed by the Star Lords . She is an adventure dreamer, rather than an erotic one--and she is more in control of her own actions than most dreamers. Tamisan is sold to a Star Lord, and plans to involve the Lord in dreams based on alternate realities, in which critical historical events went different ways. Thanks in part to a meddlesome cousin of Tamisan's owner/patron, Tamisan and her client find themselves trapped in the dream worlds--and not in control of the outcomes. This version includes only two of the alternate worlds: but, if I recall correctly, Perilous Dreams goes further.

Note that the majority of these stories involve people who are severely disabled. Many take refuge in fantasies that often become too real because of their inability to function in whatever passes as 'real' life in their native climes.

[Doris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially I had said that I don't remember this too well, just that I thought it included a story about a young girl who is nearly entrapped by an ancient evil. That was almost correct

My updated review follows. There are five stories enclosed in this collection from the Grand Master, not all of which were great stories.

Wizard's World - this story dealt with another gate crossover to a different world by someone hunted in this one, and initially I thought it might have been a precursor to the Witch World series. However, Witch World preceded Wizard's World. Overall it was a decent story with a main character, Craike, who is an Esper, and running for his life, when he helps another Esper to escape hunters, after he crosses through a gate. An excellent story, right until the last 3 or 4 pages, where it plummeted from a 5 to a 3.
Through the Needle's Eye - this story deals with a third person narrative by an older woman, on her tales from her life as a young girl crippled by polio. We are led through the story to a not surprising but very good finish. I would rate it about 4.
By a Hair - This story deals with Soviet takeovers in the Slavic regions, and shows what happens when you get what you wish for, but forget to specify exactly what it is you wish for. Overall, a 3.5 to 4.
Ully the Piper - this is one of my all time favorites, because who among us has not, at some point, wished for, not revenge, but justice? Ully is crippled through no fault of his own, and makes a living repairing small items as he wheels about in a cart, helping his elderly mother keep house and living on the edges in a society which favors the young, lithe and beautiful. One of the items Ully repairs is a pipe which was smashed and discarded by the town's favorite son, only to be snatched back when it is repaired. This story rates a solid five for the character building, relationships, and revenge.
Toys of Tamisan - I have never liked this story, although it is well crafted and carefully researched to build a world which was also used in another Norton story, about a woman who makes her living literally sharing her dreams with others, only to find that her dream has her trapped with no escape. I rate it a 5 for content and writing, but for my personal tastes, a 2.

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection has five tales. I really enjoyed Through the Needle’s Eye. By a Hair was also good. Wizard’s World didn’t thrill me. I bought this back in the 1970’s.
I cackled as I looked at the price list in the back: Dune, 90 cents; The Silkie, 60 cents;
Judgment on Janus, 50 cents.
Classic Norton, walking through worlds/dimensions, rocket ships, esper powers, swords, lazers.
Reread. I still really liked Through the Needle’s Eye. The other stories were okay.

[Serena · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this anthology, the only short story I had not read was "Ully the Piper", which was quite short but sweet.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars for this short story collection. The strongest are "Wizard World," which is either a Witch World story or a alt.Witch World, and "Toys of Tamisan," in which a psi who creates dreamworlds for clients finds the one she's built is now out of control. This would get three stars but four out of the five stories bring on heavy disability cliches.

[Carl Palmateer · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable little book, a couple nice stories to relax with. Not great not bad a lazy day's relax and read fare.

[M.E. Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Andre Norton. Five novellas displaying her vivid imagination.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

High Sorcery is a short story collection from acclaimed author Andre Norton that does not, in my opinion, showcase her true capabilities. As a youngster I picked up this book and quickly became frustrated with its style, although I did manage to finish. As a more well-read and mature reader (arguably) I went through it a second time and, while I had a greater appreciation for its contents, I was mostly unchanged from my previous opinion, although I am now better able to articulate what I did not like.

I found the final story Toys of Tamisan, which also happens to be the longest, to be the most enjoyable of the bunch, while Ully the Piper was the only other one that I enjoyed overall. Rather than review each tale individually, however, it may be more helpful to discuss what I believe to be some of the overarching problems in the work as a whole. For starters, it is important to note that this collection is over 40 years old and thus one should expect that its style may be, at the very least, unfamiliar to younger readers. Unlike The Hobbit, for example, this one has not aged well and was clearly written for a market with different expectations than today’s readers who might be looking for something deeper and more engaging, rather than a simple escape from reality. Specifically, its age makes the book more difficult to understand and its themes and references are not as relatable and widely-known as perhaps they once were. This is augmented by the fact that Norton often states things indirectly, which can be frustrating to those not accustomed to its drier, older, and more implicit style. Although it is not difficult to figure out what is going on, having to re-read key passages once or twice does take the kick out of the stories, particularly the endings. I love cleverness and I don’t believe that it is necessary, or even preferable, to state everything bluntly but, unfortunately, High Sorcery’s style makes it much more difficult to read into what is not stated explicitly. A third general criticism that I had was that often characters blend together, or secondary characters lack a distinctive personality, and I found Toys of Tamisan to be the only one with any really strong or memorable personalities. Characters are the most important aspect of any story for many readers, including myself, and here they do not come off as engaging as they need to be, even considering the constraints of the short story format.

It is difficult to criticise the work of any well-known author because there will always be those who did enjoy it and will say that you did not get it or did not appreciate this facet or that facet. Additionally, since the experience of reading is so personal, it is no easy task to translate what you did not like about the book into words that can be meaningful to others. At the end of the day, however, a review and rating is about one’s own personal experience with, and enjoyment of, the book. I found that getting through this anthology was more of a chore than a pleasure, as subjective as that is, and I would not recommend this to anyone who is not familiar with the style of the era, nor the author’s other, more well-known works. Certainly this is not the book to pick up if you want to know why Norton has the reputation that she does, but it is also not a total loss if you are already a fan and want to uncover something of hers that you may not have seen before.

[Wolverina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a lot as light reading. A collection of solid, if aimed very young, fantasy and SF shorts. Nothing particularly original but full of mostly fun worlds with a wide variety of women. Some annoying tropes, none over used (though the hair cutting one gave me the creeps).

[alex]

Top shelf swashbuckler. Pick it up today.