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Witch World Series 1: The Estcarp Cycle #5
Sorceress of the Witch World
Kaththea the Sorceress called forth a power such as no longer existed on the distant planet known as the Witch World. It was a power so great that it could destroy all that she loved best--and might even prove to be a greater evil than the shadow itself. Yet there could be no other choice for Kaththea than to call on Hilarion in the death-naming. For she was a witch deprived of power and she needed a guide to regain her lost skills and her lost world. There was only this ancient one, the opener of gates, with force mighty enough.....
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
19 people are currently reading
665 people want to read
About the author
Andre Norton
700 books1,390 followersAndre 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.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
February 3, 2008
Old school fantasy/sci-fi. Wrote my thesis about this book and other Andre Norton's. No feminist protagonist, but strong female characters and even stronger feminist implications.
July 31, 2015
It settles into this stolid, formal narration by Kaththea that speaks of rumination and observation, and it's been many years since Witch World and I've apparently skipped at least the previous two. So I dig in and see Kaththea trapped in a precarious social position in a tribal culture, where there's a certain jostling for status and alliances and rivalries. Kaththea is effectively a captive to the tribe and being held by bonds of blood magic, so her ultimate goal is to get away from all this, despite that the tribe now relies on her crippled Power to avoid the Shadow-strewn landscape of Escore. And I settle in and prepare for something C J Cherryh or Marian Zimmer Bradley and am starting to take notes on the tribal power structure and the rivalries forming with the chieftain's youngest wife and the ramifications of Kaththea concealing the actual extent of her near-destroyed abilities from the people who rely on them to foresee danger and all of this is going to take so looooong to go anywhere, and then the sea rovers suddenly attack and Kaththea falls through a gate into a technologically post-apocalyptic world of warring cyborgs and mutant clone soldiers.
[sfx: Record needle scratch]
Well, that certainly livened things up.
The whole...development of the land beyond the gate was certainly exciting in its way, but felt like an enormous cop-out on everything prior, as it dumped the problematic Vupsall tribe and its entanglements, and even dropped away the intriguing land of Escore. This portion of the Witch World is ancient and ruined, scattered with the remnants of adept Power--architectural and biological--and filled with threats from Shadow.
That the wreckage of this nation formed the foundation of the original books intrigues me, as does the way that Norton built an enormous later series by splintering the story lines into arcs defined by different nations or civilizations on this world. As does the Wise Woman gender politics, formed possibly in reaction to the abuses of Estcore and its adepts, and proceeding to other chafing constraints. I may have to go backward and fill in the gaps.
[sfx: Record needle scratch]
Well, that certainly livened things up.
The whole...development of the land beyond the gate was certainly exciting in its way, but felt like an enormous cop-out on everything prior, as it dumped the problematic Vupsall tribe and its entanglements, and even dropped away the intriguing land of Escore. This portion of the Witch World is ancient and ruined, scattered with the remnants of adept Power--architectural and biological--and filled with threats from Shadow.
That the wreckage of this nation formed the foundation of the original books intrigues me, as does the way that Norton built an enormous later series by splintering the story lines into arcs defined by different nations or civilizations on this world. As does the Wise Woman gender politics, formed possibly in reaction to the abuses of Estcore and its adepts, and proceeding to other chafing constraints. I may have to go backward and fill in the gaps.
September 15, 2021
Kathy survives an avalanche only to wind up the prisoner of some rapey barbarians who in turn get their assess kicked by vikings, but not those vikings, different vikings. Running away, Kathy winds up following a barbarian princess through a gate into yet another world. She and the barbarian hate each other but Kathy feels responsible and so discovers a planet where Amazon corp is in an endless war with FoxNews that has left the countryside in ruins, the amazon employees are all cyborgs and the FoxNews minions are controlled through mass media generated by the same wizard who made the gate in the first place. And so on, through a series of 11-page cliff hangers that teeter on the edge of allegory before crash landing in some kind of hastily wrapped up happy ending complete with marriages and the defeat of evil. Just the ticket for the long evenings this past week. I appreciate the emphasis after the family reunion on describing heterosexual partnerships that are based on equality.
March 11, 2024
A particularly spell and incantation-heavy volume in Witch World, but also one that has strong sci-fi elements in one section, cycling back to motifs last seen in the earlier threat of the Kolder. The ending seems a little rushed.
July 3, 2017
Fifth in the initial Witch World series, this follows on from the events in 'Warlock of the Witch World', where Kaththea, one of the triplets whose stories have been followed since 'Three Against the Witch World', was stripped of her powers, following her misuse of them due to the beguiling of the Svengali character, Dinzil. Now bereft of her psychic defences, Kaththea is beset by dreams and fears she will be overcome by the forces of the Shadow which beset the Green Valley in Escore where she and her two brothers have been given a haven. Sure that the only solution is to return to their country of origin, Estcarp, in the hope that someone there can help her recover her powers, she travels in the company of her two brothers and two other men, one a mountaineer.
The usual pass has been blocked by the Shadow and they are forced to climb a more dangerous one. As it is winter, there is an avalanche and Kaththea is buried. She is later 'rescued' by a tribesman, but he is violent and, it appears, set on turning Kaththea into his personal sex slave on his return to the nomadic tribe to whom he belongs. Only the intervention of their wise woman saves her, but the woman is of the Old Race like Kaththea and is now nearing the end of her long life. She wants Kaththea to take her place and trains her to that end, but does not restore her foreseeing ability, which was worse affected when she paid the penalty for following Dinzil. She also ensures Kaththea's reluctant presence by imbuing a mat that Kaththea crossed to enter her tent with a spell to prevent her from travelling far from the tribe. Kaththea must use unflinching stoicism to overcome that spell and try to escape - and when she does, she finds that her lack of foreseeing ability and reliance on a mechanical aid has not served the tribe well.
In the rest of the story she ends up going through a gate to another world, created by one of the adepts whose pursuit of knowledge for its own sake led to the Shadow becoming dominant, and she becomes embroiled in a centuries-long war between two cultures which have now sunk to a demeaned and dehumanised state, . She also encounters the adept who created the gate who is a prisoner of one of the sides in the war, his power drained to run their machines. As people such as him brought about the current situation in Escore, she wonders whether he is another Dinzil and is reluctant to trust him.
There was a lot to enjoy in this re-read which suffered only because of the rushed ending. . Also, the nomadic tribe was well set-up and there were some good characters, but ultimately they don't do much in the book which changes direction mid-way. Hence, this is a 3-star rating despite the fact that I enjoyed it.
The usual pass has been blocked by the Shadow and they are forced to climb a more dangerous one. As it is winter, there is an avalanche and Kaththea is buried. She is later 'rescued' by a tribesman, but he is violent and, it appears, set on turning Kaththea into his personal sex slave on his return to the nomadic tribe to whom he belongs. Only the intervention of their wise woman saves her, but the woman is of the Old Race like Kaththea and is now nearing the end of her long life. She wants Kaththea to take her place and trains her to that end, but does not restore her foreseeing ability, which was worse affected when she paid the penalty for following Dinzil. She also ensures Kaththea's reluctant presence by imbuing a mat that Kaththea crossed to enter her tent with a spell to prevent her from travelling far from the tribe. Kaththea must use unflinching stoicism to overcome that spell and try to escape - and when she does, she finds that her lack of foreseeing ability and reliance on a mechanical aid has not served the tribe well.
In the rest of the story she ends up going through a gate to another world, created by one of the adepts whose pursuit of knowledge for its own sake led to the Shadow becoming dominant, and she becomes embroiled in a centuries-long war between two cultures which have now sunk to a demeaned and dehumanised state, . She also encounters the adept who created the gate who is a prisoner of one of the sides in the war, his power drained to run their machines. As people such as him brought about the current situation in Escore, she wonders whether he is another Dinzil and is reluctant to trust him.
There was a lot to enjoy in this re-read which suffered only because of the rushed ending. . Also, the nomadic tribe was well set-up and there were some good characters, but ultimately they don't do much in the book which changes direction mid-way. Hence, this is a 3-star rating despite the fact that I enjoyed it.
October 3, 2013
In this installment of Andre Norton's Witch World saga, we watch as Kaththea, the final triplet from the union of the witch Jaelithe and American soldier-turned space explorer Simon Tregarth, is faced with impossible odds whilst battling her own inner demons. After the fiasco with Dinzil, Kaththea, the daughter to whom Jaelithe bequeathed her own sorceress talents, has lost her powers and deems it necessary, for the sake of her loved ones, to leave the Green Valley of Escore. On the way to Estcarp, however, a tragic avalanche tosses her onto the doorstep of the Vupsalls, a nomadic mountain tribe in which women bow their heads to their male overlords. However, fate intervenes when the tribal shaman turns out to be a Wise Woman of Estcarp, who not only takes Kaththea under her protection, but also begins to tutor her in the ways of the Power so that she might regain that which was lost. With the death of Utta, Kaththea makes a bid for freedom and, hiding in a ruined fortress, stumbles upon a gateway of the long lost adepts. She is transported through to another world, one that has been fighting a civil war for generations, the surface now but a lifeless expanse of desert dunes. Captured by a faction, she finds that the power the humans waging this guerrilla war comes from a familiar source...the adept from time past! Now, with the help of her parents, Kaththea must free this giant of mage-kind if she is to ever return home.
March 19, 2015
And so we have Kaththea's journey to regain her power & a reuniting of families. An enjoyable series - except for the first book you wouldn't notice they were written in the 60s.
back cover:
"I summon your Banner!"
With these words, Kaththea the sorceress called forth a power such as no longer existed on the distant planet known as the Witch World. It was a power so great that it could destroy all that she loved best - and might even prove to be a greater evil than the shadow itself. Yet there could be no other choice for Kaththea than to call on Hilarion in the death-naming. For she was a witch deprived of power and she needed a guide to regain her lost skills and her lost world. There was only this ancient one, the opener of gates, with force mighty enough...
Sorceress of the Witch World completes and rounds out Andre Norton's fabulous series.
back cover:
"I summon your Banner!"
With these words, Kaththea the sorceress called forth a power such as no longer existed on the distant planet known as the Witch World. It was a power so great that it could destroy all that she loved best - and might even prove to be a greater evil than the shadow itself. Yet there could be no other choice for Kaththea than to call on Hilarion in the death-naming. For she was a witch deprived of power and she needed a guide to regain her lost skills and her lost world. There was only this ancient one, the opener of gates, with force mighty enough...
Sorceress of the Witch World completes and rounds out Andre Norton's fabulous series.
February 17, 2017
Like the last two books, this one is told by one of three Tregarth children; this time by Kaththea. Her story was the weakest of the three, in my opinion. There were interesting points, but the early parts of the book were a bit of slog. It really picked up in the last 1/3, but the ending itself felt incredibly rushed. Overall I enjoyed the book, but it left me wanting more; more wrap-up and closure and more about Hilarion and Kaththea especially. 3.5 stars.
August 22, 2019
3.5. Following the events of "Warlock of the Witch World" Kaththea is an empty vessel terrified something evil will fill her. She heads back to Estcarp, winds up trapped into becoming a tribal wise woman instead, then escapes and finds herself in even stranger situations.
The tribal section of the book was slow to my taste and the story wraps up, as others have said, like she suddenly hit her word count and had to stop. On the plus side, the mechanized, post-apocalyptic world Kaththea gets trapped in at one point is effectively grim, and I like that we never get any explanation or resolution for it. The evil wood the protagonists encounter late in the book is surprisingly creepy.
This was billed as the last Witch World book but the series picked up again four years later, with different characters.
The tribal section of the book was slow to my taste and the story wraps up, as others have said, like she suddenly hit her word count and had to stop. On the plus side, the mechanized, post-apocalyptic world Kaththea gets trapped in at one point is effectively grim, and I like that we never get any explanation or resolution for it. The evil wood the protagonists encounter late in the book is surprisingly creepy.
This was billed as the last Witch World book but the series picked up again four years later, with different characters.
April 16, 2019
Kaththea's story sees her set out to free herself from the black curse laid upon her by Dinzil, yet she is caught an an avalanche and captured by a strange tribe. During her escape she chances upon an abandoned fortress where a gate to another realm has been opened.
Not as strong a story as Three Against the Witch World or Warlock of the Witch World but enjoyable none the less. The alien world into which Kaththea stumbles is a futuristic/sci-fi setting which I enjoyed less than the medieval realm of Escore in the first two volumes.
Simon Tregarth and Jaelith are reunited with their children finally in this book.
Not as strong a story as Three Against the Witch World or Warlock of the Witch World but enjoyable none the less. The alien world into which Kaththea stumbles is a futuristic/sci-fi setting which I enjoyed less than the medieval realm of Escore in the first two volumes.
Simon Tregarth and Jaelith are reunited with their children finally in this book.
November 25, 2024
A great story continuing the adventures of Kaththea,Kemoc and Kyllan. Also we have the return of Simon and Jaelithhe. Primarily this is Kaththea's story as she struggles with first the loss of her powers, secondarly with the return of her powers, and finally with her fear of once again finding her being the pawn of another being. Leaving the safety of Escore she travels through a vast northern wilderness into the powerful realm of another being "Hilarion{. Drawn into another world of death, destruction and fear, she is reunited her parents. With the help of Hilarion they all return to the Witch world to battle on against the Shadows. I liked it very much.
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May 19, 2015There are later editions of these books, but by and large, I have the first editions, and it's so in this case.
Like other Ace books, this is a cheap edition with few publishing details. But it does, at least, have an illustrator credit: "Cover art and illustration by Jeff Jones". The illustrations are plain not very good. The pictures bear no resemblance whatever to anything in the text--which is not atypical of Ace books.
This volume is essentially the third in a sub-trilogy: the story of the three-in-one Tregarth triplets. The precursor to this volume is that when Kaththea's brother Kemoc hit Kaththea with a magic sword while she was using her powers for evil (not for Dinzil, anymore, for she had broken off with him by then), he apparently created a sort of feedback loop, which seemed to have shorted out her powers--and it seemed likely to be permanent.
This book starts at this point. Kaththea has recovered her mental capacities, but she can no longer use her powers by the witchly methods she had been taught. She hasn't lost the knowledge of spells and such--she just can't use them.
Before long, she begins to fear that attackers can use her as a breach in the defenses of the Valley. Thus she is a danger to those she loves most, especially her brothers.
It is for this reason that she decides that she has to find a way to recover her powers: she believes that if she can't control her own powers, somebody else will do so, to her despite, and against her will.
Kaththea's plan is desperate and unrealistic. There's no reason to believe that anybody in Estcarp could (or would) help her. But she doesn't see any alternative. So she tried to get back to Estcarp.
But she fails. I should point out that she owes nothing to the Vupsalls who 'rescue' her from an avalanche. The evidence is that the man who dug her out had every intention of raping her and then (if he felt like it) keeping her as a sex slave. It's only because the Wisewoman of the Vupsall adopts and trains Kaththea that Kaththea has any hope of recovering her powers--but it's not an apprenticeship. If she isn't made into a sex slave, Kaththea is still bound as a slave.
Whether Kaththea would have accepted the role of Wisewoman to the Vupsall if she'd been given a free choice (or if it had been a matter of indentured servitude until she was successfully retrained) becomes irrelevant once the enslavement is accomplished. Worse, Kaththea is aware that her escape is prevented not only by spells, but also by the high probability that the Vupsall will pursue her through unfamiliar territory if she manages to overcome the blood spell binding her to them. And she is also aware that she is not being given anything like a comprehensive grounding in her powers and how to use them.
When the time comes that Kaththea is able to make her break for freedom, it comes about at least in part because she has made a critical mistake. It's a matter of query design, essentially--she doesn't consider that asking about her own future (a notoriously difficult task) will not necessarily comprehend the fate of the Vupsall as a whole.
The resulting disaster is blamed on Kaththea by one of her co-wives (among the Vupsall the wisewoman is customarily formally married to the chief in a sort of sacred marriage--though Kaththea tricks her way out of the actual consummation).
Attempting to escape the pursuit by enraged Vupsall survivors and any of the raiders who might have followed the escapees, Kaththea takes her co-wife into the citadel of an ancient adept--who has left a worldgate open, and left behind his wand when he went through the gate.
Kaththea and her unwilling companion are sucked into the alternate dimension at the other end of the worldgate. They find themselves in an almost depopulated world in which war between cyborgs and inhabitants of an underground bunker has rendered the surface almost completely uninhabitable.
There she finds, not only the ancient adept Hilarion, but also family she hadn't expected to see again. It seems that in the dimension they've come to, time travels more quickly than in the Witch World. Hilarion has been enslaved to the mechanistic bunker-dwellers for a long time (centuries?)--but he doesn't think it's been anything like as long as it has been.
I should note that the Vupsall survivor (Ayilla) is treated as baggage by all concerned. Nobody seems to consider her as a real person, whether gifted with powers, or not. They drag her around, use her to spy on each other, and generally treat her as if she had no volition. Even at the end, there's no real resolution for her--she's just left out.
Kaththea's fear of Hilarion is not founded on very sound grounds. She has heard legends of the Adepts, and she's had bad experiences with Dinzil--but that's not really a basis to decide. I also don't accept that she has only two choices--to mate with him, or to break with him entirely.
Frankly, Hilarion is revealed in later books to be something of a pussycat. He doesn't seem to have been even tempted to the misuse of power. Yes, he experimented with worldgates (well, one at least). But he doesn't seem to have done much else with his researches. Later he coordinates with researchers into old archives (Lormt especially) to try to find ways to render the gates harmless. But even at this point, he isn't a particularly convincing bogeyman.
Like other Ace books, this is a cheap edition with few publishing details. But it does, at least, have an illustrator credit: "Cover art and illustration by Jeff Jones". The illustrations are plain not very good. The pictures bear no resemblance whatever to anything in the text--which is not atypical of Ace books.
This volume is essentially the third in a sub-trilogy: the story of the three-in-one Tregarth triplets. The precursor to this volume is that when Kaththea's brother Kemoc hit Kaththea with a magic sword while she was using her powers for evil (not for Dinzil, anymore, for she had broken off with him by then), he apparently created a sort of feedback loop, which seemed to have shorted out her powers--and it seemed likely to be permanent.
This book starts at this point. Kaththea has recovered her mental capacities, but she can no longer use her powers by the witchly methods she had been taught. She hasn't lost the knowledge of spells and such--she just can't use them.
Before long, she begins to fear that attackers can use her as a breach in the defenses of the Valley. Thus she is a danger to those she loves most, especially her brothers.
It is for this reason that she decides that she has to find a way to recover her powers: she believes that if she can't control her own powers, somebody else will do so, to her despite, and against her will.
Kaththea's plan is desperate and unrealistic. There's no reason to believe that anybody in Estcarp could (or would) help her. But she doesn't see any alternative. So she tried to get back to Estcarp.
But she fails. I should point out that she owes nothing to the Vupsalls who 'rescue' her from an avalanche. The evidence is that the man who dug her out had every intention of raping her and then (if he felt like it) keeping her as a sex slave. It's only because the Wisewoman of the Vupsall adopts and trains Kaththea that Kaththea has any hope of recovering her powers--but it's not an apprenticeship. If she isn't made into a sex slave, Kaththea is still bound as a slave.
Whether Kaththea would have accepted the role of Wisewoman to the Vupsall if she'd been given a free choice (or if it had been a matter of indentured servitude until she was successfully retrained) becomes irrelevant once the enslavement is accomplished. Worse, Kaththea is aware that her escape is prevented not only by spells, but also by the high probability that the Vupsall will pursue her through unfamiliar territory if she manages to overcome the blood spell binding her to them. And she is also aware that she is not being given anything like a comprehensive grounding in her powers and how to use them.
When the time comes that Kaththea is able to make her break for freedom, it comes about at least in part because she has made a critical mistake. It's a matter of query design, essentially--she doesn't consider that asking about her own future (a notoriously difficult task) will not necessarily comprehend the fate of the Vupsall as a whole.
The resulting disaster is blamed on Kaththea by one of her co-wives (among the Vupsall the wisewoman is customarily formally married to the chief in a sort of sacred marriage--though Kaththea tricks her way out of the actual consummation).
Attempting to escape the pursuit by enraged Vupsall survivors and any of the raiders who might have followed the escapees, Kaththea takes her co-wife into the citadel of an ancient adept--who has left a worldgate open, and left behind his wand when he went through the gate.
Kaththea and her unwilling companion are sucked into the alternate dimension at the other end of the worldgate. They find themselves in an almost depopulated world in which war between cyborgs and inhabitants of an underground bunker has rendered the surface almost completely uninhabitable.
There she finds, not only the ancient adept Hilarion, but also family she hadn't expected to see again. It seems that in the dimension they've come to, time travels more quickly than in the Witch World. Hilarion has been enslaved to the mechanistic bunker-dwellers for a long time (centuries?)--but he doesn't think it's been anything like as long as it has been.
I should note that the Vupsall survivor (Ayilla) is treated as baggage by all concerned. Nobody seems to consider her as a real person, whether gifted with powers, or not. They drag her around, use her to spy on each other, and generally treat her as if she had no volition. Even at the end, there's no real resolution for her--she's just left out.
Kaththea's fear of Hilarion is not founded on very sound grounds. She has heard legends of the Adepts, and she's had bad experiences with Dinzil--but that's not really a basis to decide. I also don't accept that she has only two choices--to mate with him, or to break with him entirely.
Frankly, Hilarion is revealed in later books to be something of a pussycat. He doesn't seem to have been even tempted to the misuse of power. Yes, he experimented with worldgates (well, one at least). But he doesn't seem to have done much else with his researches. Later he coordinates with researchers into old archives (Lormt especially) to try to find ways to render the gates harmless. But even at this point, he isn't a particularly convincing bogeyman.
September 16, 2017
My favourite of the Witch World: Next Gen novels. We find out what happens when a denizen of Witch World crosses through one of the "Gates". It also appears that unlike the Earth "Gate" they are two-way (or the Earth hasn't found its Daniel Jackson to get the Siege Perilous to work properly.) Also a family reunion.
January 26, 2022
Вы не поверите, но опять фэнтези соприкасается с техномиром... Причём если бы это было описано нормально, а не кусками, так, что даже понять о втором мире нельзя особо ничего...
Отдельно стоит упомянуть конец книги, где на Каттею внезапно свалился спутник жизни, о котором она и подозревать не могла, хотя он упоминался минимум на протяжении половины книги. Неожиданный выверт автора, да?
Отдельно стоит упомянуть конец книги, где на Каттею внезапно свалился спутник жизни, о котором она и подозревать не могла, хотя он упоминался минимум на протяжении половины книги. Неожиданный выверт автора, да?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2021
There are a lot of books in the Witch World series. This one is much like the previous ones, this time focusing on Kaththea's journey to regain her powers. There is some fighting, but most of her struggle is magical.
June 2, 2021
Oldie but a goodie
March 25, 2025
very satisfying ending.
July 12, 2024
I would love this series if I would read it as a child.
December 16, 2016
More plot here has Kaththea decides to head back to Estcarp to avoid becoming a link to the Shadow, endangering the Green Valley and its people - so a winter journey is urgently required. That can't go well, and soon Kaththea is separated from her travelling party and thrust into a nomadic group.
A third of the book is given to this society and Kaththea's struggle to regain access to her powers. It was longer and more developed than I was interested in, and I do not recall any of the co-contributers who added stories located in the Witch World ever setting one with these particular peoples. But then they weren't magic themselves, so maybe not as interesting.
Getting free of that tribe requires some errors in judgement on Kaththea's part and ends up with a travelling companion from the tribe who, after being the cause of entering a gate and then being an aid in releasing them from a trap, is something of a dead weight for the remainder of the book. I suppose the author didn't have the heart to get rid of Ayllia .
Ending up in another world, Kaththea makes several discoveries, , including the entrapment of an adept.
Once they actually return to Witch World, there is only about 1/6th of the book that tells of their journey back to Escore and it wraps up rather quickly. I could have done with less with the Vupsalls and less roaming around on the blasted world they were trapped on, but it was detailed, and gave time for Kaththea to feel badly about her past.
I still prefer Simon and Jaelithe to their children, I admit.
A third of the book is given to this society and Kaththea's struggle to regain access to her powers. It was longer and more developed than I was interested in, and I do not recall any of the co-contributers who added stories located in the Witch World ever setting one with these particular peoples. But then they weren't magic themselves, so maybe not as interesting.
Getting free of that tribe requires some errors in judgement on Kaththea's part and ends up with a travelling companion from the tribe who, after being the cause of entering a gate and then being an aid in releasing them from a trap, is something of a dead weight for the remainder of the book. I suppose the author didn't have the heart to get rid of Ayllia .
Ending up in another world, Kaththea makes several discoveries, , including the entrapment of an adept.
Once they actually return to Witch World, there is only about 1/6th of the book that tells of their journey back to Escore and it wraps up rather quickly. I could have done with less with the Vupsalls and less roaming around on the blasted world they were trapped on, but it was detailed, and gave time for Kaththea to feel badly about her past.
I still prefer Simon and Jaelithe to their children, I admit.
June 15, 2014
This is the third book in the series, and again, just like the first two, this book clearly ends in the middle of the story. I'm getting a little tired of the books having no ending, but the book was enjoyable, and I'll read the next one.
The different series in the Witch World books was rather confusing to me. To assist others, here are several sites with good information:
A suggested reading order:
http://www.andre-norton-books.com/arc...
Although I'm not sure I'd agree with this. Publication date order is often the best.
I like this site better. It gives a listing of the books by Cycle order and also lists publication date. This, I believe, was created by the author (or, at least putatively, endorsed by her):
http://www.andre-norton.org/wworld/ww...
And, on that same site, an overview of the available information about the entire series (at least 35 books):
http://www.andre-norton.org/wworld/
The different series in the Witch World books was rather confusing to me. To assist others, here are several sites with good information:
A suggested reading order:
http://www.andre-norton-books.com/arc...
Although I'm not sure I'd agree with this. Publication date order is often the best.
I like this site better. It gives a listing of the books by Cycle order and also lists publication date. This, I believe, was created by the author (or, at least putatively, endorsed by her):
http://www.andre-norton.org/wworld/ww...
And, on that same site, an overview of the available information about the entire series (at least 35 books):
http://www.andre-norton.org/wworld/
January 19, 2015
I like Kaththea but her own arrogance and self-centeredness was not an attractive feature. Several times she sermonizes about the evils of the people in the past who sought power and more knowledge about that power but she sets out to do the same with the same pride and conceit. The ancient wisewoman expends her dying energy to retrain her and give her back access to her powers and exacts as payment her unwilling installation as the tribe's new protector and wisewoman. Kaththea makes no provision for caring for the tribe that rescued her, fed her, clothed her, and let her be retrained, even if it had been against her will. As one example, her characterizing the tribe's safety only by looking at only her own future and not seeking further information that might have made them safer. She basically used her magic ouija board once to determine she would be safe and put it away.
Read
July 10, 2009Interesting concept, with no real followup. What happened to the other adepts who went through the gates? Has anybody tried to contact them?
July 18, 2011
I find it bizarre that people think these books are "feminist". Its fantasy, people. Its fun reading, for the most part, but the series is a bit spotty.
Read
September 1, 2013Witch World, Book 5
August 6, 2014
This is a 3 only because it is part of a series I am generally fond of. Standalone, it would be a 2, and into a box.
March 7, 2015
1982 grade C-
Series book W5
Series book W5
March 12, 2015
Pretty great, but the ending is so rushed it's quite unsatisfying.
March 28, 2013
Again just as great as the first reading.
February 1, 2015
Hilarion!
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