Wed 2 Nov 2022
Archived SF-Fantasy Diary Review: ANDRE NORTON – Year of the Unicorn.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy[6] Comments
ANDRE NORTON – Year of the Unicorn. Witch World series. Ace F-357, paperback original, 1965. Cover and interior art by Jack Gaughan. Reprinted many times. Collected in The Gates to Witch World (Tor, hardcover, 2001).
Gillan’s story begins in an abbey, where she has spent the last eight years. She is of unknown origin, having been captured from the Hounds of Alizon by a lord of High Halleck as he fought to free his homeland. Her past is of importance, however, for she has the ability of true-sight, to see the thing behind the thing.
As she tells her story, of her marriage to a Were-Rider as part of the Great Bargain, of the evil magic which produces two Gillans, and of her desperate struggle to reach the false one before she fades to the world of her dreams, this ability grows more controllable and both aids her and brings about the troubles she faces.
Evidently she has blood of the witches of Estcarp, stories of whom have been previously told but not read; still, this book stands well enough on its own. This is an interesting world, where magic can be performed by some and swordsmanship is a necessary art. But, as fantasy, there is too much a feeling that the author has too much power at her command, especially at the end as Gillan and Herrel fight for their lives.
The book begins slowly, difficult reading, but as the story becomes clearer so does interest rise. Then long chapters drag on without dialogue as she struggles her way alone to the land of the Were-Riders. On the other hand, many scenes are quite effective, and the quality of the archaic, picturesque language Norton uses adds a great deal to the tale.
Rating: ****
November 2nd, 2022 at 5:19 pm
Steve,
What did you mean by “the author has too much power at her command� Was it that you felt that, as ‘fantasy’, it was too unmoored to any reality principal?
November 2nd, 2022 at 7:01 pm
Yes, or at the very least, that the mooring to reality (or maybe realism) is awfully shaky. The worst possible stage of this condition in a story is when the reader says, “Aw, she’s only making it up as she goes along.”
It (if indeed this what I was referring to) must not have bothered me too much. I did rate the story 4 stars out of 5.
I don’t remember ever reading another book in the series, though, and there were a LOT of them.
November 4th, 2022 at 6:14 pm
I love the early Witch World books, but by this point Norton had lost me on the series.
November 4th, 2022 at 6:34 pm
While I liked this one, I guess I decided that I wasn’t the primary audience for either it or the series, and it was one and done for me. I *think* that the female readership for Norton’s books was a lot higher that it was for guys.
November 4th, 2022 at 8:57 pm
Early Norton was popular with male readers with mostly fairly young male protagonists. As her career went on she began to write more and more women protagonists and got away from some of the adventure elements of her earlier more juvenile SF adventure work. I never liked her fantasy as much as her SF.
November 5th, 2022 at 12:37 am
Andre Norton’s real first name was Alice, and early on she often wrote under the name of Andrew North, so she (and/or her agent) was clearly looking for the young male reader at the time (which of course is what most of the SF readership actually were).