t hugs jengod

Betsy, are you well-read in Andre Norton? Could you recommend a few titles?

Well, I'm not Betsy, but I'm a huge Norton fan. here is a bibliography sorted by series. In general the stuff written before 1985 is preferable.

I think the Solar Queen series, despite having absolutely no female characters to speak of, is quite good adventurous SF. Includes Sargasso in Space, Plague Ship, and Postmarked the Stars. Multi-ethnic characters (about which she doesn't make a very big deal) running a freelance trading/shipping business in competition with The Big Corporate Shipping Lines. Interesting plots, lots of action.

She has a series of time travel books, starting with Time Traders, I believe, which are based on the premise that a secret government agency is fighting a war against alien time-travelers. So there's lots of going back and forward in time to defeat the aliens. The historical/archaeological research is fairly sound, IIRC. And then they find an alien space ship and start visiting other planets.

The classic Norton novel involves a young person who finds themselves an outcast in their society, because of heritage, physical deformity, odd talents, or some such thing. They will either choose an adventure or find one forced upon them, and in the course of the story will discover both talents they didn't know they had, or know to appreciate, and a family or people who value them for the very reasons they were ill-fitted for their past lives. Often there's a romance, but not always.

Her fantasies also fit this mold, the most famous series being the Witch World series, which is a loosely linked (very loosely in some cases) series of novels and stories set on another world that was once inhabited by beings of great power. The power ran amuck, a lot of damage was done, and now the more ordinary humans are trying to survive amongst the remnants. It's sort of like living in a psychic minefield: you never know when the temple in the back 40 is going to burp and start emitting demon-dogs to eat your sheep.

My favorite of the Witch World novels is Year of the Unicorn, primarily because it's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Although I'm very fond of The Crystal Gryphon as well.

Norton also wrote an assortment of historical novels, covering eras all the way from prehistoric Egypt to the American Civil War.

bless you all

seriously

you're wonderful people

:)

Second season starts July 25, I believe.

Ooh! I may actually have to get cable again. I bought the "Dead Like Me" DVD's without having seen any episodes. Remembered seeing them mentioned on here, they got a good review in EW, and I was so impressed with Wonderfalls that I felt it was worth checking out Bryan's other series.

Too bad Showtime didn't pick up Wonderfalls instead of Fox. I bet we'd be looking forward to the second season of it too.

Andre Norton is in terrible health and is selling High Hallack.

My favorite of the Witch World novels is Year of the Unicorn, primarily because it's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Although I'm very fond of The Crystal Gryphon as well.

And The Jargoon Pard.

Nodding to everything in 'suela's post.

Marta, I love your tagline. What am I saying, I live your tagline. Now, what do you mean, selling High Hallack? I had no idea Norton could still be living. I thought someone had bought the rights from her estate and was publishing under her name.

Andre Norton is in terrible health and is selling High Hallack

Oh, that's terribly sad. She's such an important part of my growing up. The first novel I remember reading is The Stars are Ours. But you can't say she didn't have an impact, and I'm very happy she got a Grand Master award.

She is elderly, but still around. A lot of her stuff is being written in collaboration right now, in fact has been for some time.

High Hallack was going to be a place where writers could go and read other peoples work, or write, or just decompress. I don't know if that part ever happened. I am not a writer and lost touch. If you really want to know more, I could ask.

I would be interested in knowing. "Selling High Hallack" is such a mournful statement, and a shock in a way. I wondered if she had named her home that, or was selling the rights to the High Hallack stories, or the use of the name, or what.

She named her home that.

She named her home that.

Oh, I see. Thank you for clearing that up for me. That is sad. She's always been a writer I've loved, who had a great influence on my expectations for storytelling, since I read a lot of her work in my teens and early 20s.