charade
6/7/2017
This is a short little book with 3 self-contained stories, which all come to proper conclusions. All take places in High Hallack and in or around the Dales there. Each story is immersive and action-packed. It's difficult to put it down, but there's also very little in the way of unnecessary information. You get what you need to move the story and the narration along, to learn about the characters involved and the adventures that they're part of. Their troubles and peril feel real and important.
The writing style is different from what I'm used to, but it seems to me that it was likely done that way on purpose to match the setting of the stories. Still, it took me a bit to get used to it and slowed me down for the first several pages, so watch out for that but don't let it deter you!
I loved this book. The first Andre Norton book that I think I've ever read, and I can definitely see why she's so important in sci-fi/fantasy.
This book is also part of at least two series, Witch World and High Hallack Cycle, but I didn't find it difficult to follow or understand the stories and plots and events even though I haven't read the other books in either of these series. It's possible that if you have read other books in these series that you might get even more out of this book, but I don't think there's anything here to confuse or trip anyone up if this is the first book you picked up either from the author or from these series (at least nothing struck me that way).
I also really liked that, especially in the first story, you could really see that Andre Norton knows her stuff on magic. You can see where she did research into actual magical theory by people who actually consider themselves practitioners, and there is a whole lot of symbolism there as well. Don't get me wrong, she took great liberties and creative license but you can see the foundations if you know what to look for and it's pretty awesome to see that.
Just a great little book and one that I'm definitely going to keep on my shelf. Absolutely recommended for anyone who likes fantasy, especially high fantasy. The series themselves are also sci-fi but if you don't already know that then these books really do come off as straight high fantasy. So, keep that in mind but don't let it deter you!