Before getting into this review, please take a moment to properly appreciate this cover:
It is a thing of beauty, and one of the most impressively literal book covers I’ve ever seen.
My uncle had this book on his shelf, and gave it to me in no small part because of the cover. Turns out it’s actually the first edition, and rather hard to find as a standalone in any edition - most of the Witch World stuff you can find is in omnibus editions.
The story is good Silver Age science fiction. A fugitive World War II vet is sent to another world. He doesn’t know anything about where he’s going, but he knows the people pursuing him won’t be able to follow, he won’t be able to come back, and that the world will be the one he’s most perfectly fit for. So he takes the chance.
The protagonist finds himself in a matriarchal nation, ruled by witches wielding magic, besieged by multiple foes. What follows is a series of adventures that reminds me a lot of the Dying Earth books by Jack Vance (though, thankfully, with no Cugel-like character that I really want to punch in the face).
What most sets this apart from most Silver Age sci fi, I feel, comes from the fact that the author is a woman. Andre Norton was the pen name of Alice Mary Norton, the first woman to be named a Damon Knight SWFA Grand Master and the first woman to be inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Anyone who’s read the old masters of sci fi (Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, et al) has probably noticed that they’re a teensy bit sexist. Norton has none of that here. No male gaze, women assumed to be every bit as capable as men, women pushing against traditional gender roles. It made for a refreshing read, and overall I recommend it pretty strongly.
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