Andre Norton is one of those authors I've been meaning to dip into again for years, so when the Five Senses Set of three novellas was on sale on Amazon, I decided to give it a try. Certainly, the list of titles to her name is formidable, and from a perspective of giving love to the older works of SFF out there, I felt it was valuable to revisit. But...
There's going to be a but here.
I need to relook some of her more popular works for comparison, because this collection was so far off the mark for me in terms of the quality of the writing.
Overall, there's a theme in each story – of a young woman who inherits or possesses a rare magical skill related to the senses, who sets out to right an imbalance along strongly expressed lines of good and evil. Norton also brings across inventive world building, but it's not enough for me – across the board I felt there was something off with each story, be it the pacing or the lack of attention to characterisation. Not to mention the clumsy sentence construction. Whether the latter is a product of its time or simply that these stories were never subjected to the tender mercies of both a structural and copy editor's talents, I don't know.
In Mirror of Destiny Twilla inherits a magical mirror from her teacher, but before she can establish herself as more than a trainee wise woman, she is whisked off as a prearranged bride for people in a nearby land. By some luck, she ends up in the duke's household, destined for his son, but the marriage is not to either of their taste, so she makes her escape that leads her to the forest, and the breaking of an ancient curse that binds the fair folk of this world. The biggest issue I had with this story was that the pacing dragged, and I didn't once feel as if the characters were ever in any real danger that they had to overcome.
The Scent of Magic sees Willadene escape a life of drudgery as a scullery maid to apprentice her to a herbwoman – as Willa has the ability to sniff out magic, which is apparently a rare talent indeed. We also see the point of view of the baron's daughter, who upon gaining her majority, starts working on gaining power – so that was at least interesting, seeing a woman working on feminine power in a patriarchal society. There's a larger plot afoot too, once again tied into an ancient evil, and the story heads off into a completely different direction near the end. Of the three novellas, this was the one that I felt was structurally stronger. But it was still a slog.
Wind in the Stone absolutely starts in the wrong place, with its first part essentially just back story that sets up the events that take place in the second half. Other reviewers despised this story (from what I can pick up) due to the fact that there is a scene that involves the rape of a young woman. I just found this story unutterably dull, to be quite honest. Stuff happens, and there's an antagonist who appears to be power hungry for the sake of being power hungry. Oh, and the Sasquatch. Which are an interesting addition to the plot if they served any real purpose other than writing a story that features Sasquatch. I suppose it makes a difference from elves and dwarves, I guess.
Look, I'm sure there are some of Norton's other books that are good. I recall reading one of her Witch World books when I was much, much younger, and finding it a fair read, but none of these three in this collection are what I would call sterling examples of the genre. Stilted dialogue, great need for structural edits, and peculiar diction all combine to make these uncomfortable reads that were a relief to finish and make me doubt whether I am brave or foolish enough to pick up any of Norton's other writing. As a peculiarity of the genre, this was interesting to read, and there were moments when some of the leaps of imagination hinted at greater depths (like the malevolent forest ruins in The Scent of Magic). Mostly, I just felt like there wasn't enough depth in the writing to convince me of the characters' motivations. And yes, all my aforementioned issues.
So read this one at your own peril. Obviously, if you're a huge fan of Norton, and she can do no wrong for you, then kindly disregard this review. I was mostly disappointed with this collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment