Jacey Bedford's Journal

Narrated by Chris Abernathy and Chelsea Stephens
Two books compiled in one audiobook, but I only listened to the first.

Krip Vorlund is an apprentice on an interplanetary space trader who gets into trouble during a trading fair on the planet Yiktor when he helps Maelen, a Thassa Moon Singer and animal trainer, to rescue a barsk kept in cruel captivity. Kidnapped by the son of Osgold a plainsman lord, in order to get off-worlder weapons. Krip escapes, and finds Maelen, but in danger of being captured and killed, Maelen shifts his consciousness into the barsk, a fierce dog-like creature, leaving his body alive, but empty, and believing that Osgold will be forced to send the empty shell to the place where the mind-injured are cared for. (Because that's how it works on the planet Yiktor. Unfortunately Krip's body is sent back to his ship instead and there's a desperate scramble to reunite his consciousness with his body.
They say you should never go back. This used to be one of my favourite Norton juveniles, but I haven't read it for the best part of forty years. Sadly, the sucks fairy has visited it in the intervening time. The story is slight but interesting enough, but the language is stilted, especially the dialogue. This is something I was always aware of in Nortons, but forgave for the sake of the stories. Because this is an audiobook it's a lot more difficult to ignore. I suspect I previously glossed over the style for the content. The narrators do the best with what they've got, but they have to stick to the script, and they sound awkward doing so. This audiobook is a two-part collection, but I'm stopping at the end of Moon of Three Rings and will not be listening to Exiles of the Stars.

This is a re-read of a favourite book. I've loved this book since I read it (more than once) in my twenties, along with every other Witch World book I could lay my hands on. (Before the advent of the internet, Amazon and Abe Books getting SF/Fantasy published in the USA was not always easy, however a few Witch World books came out in the UK as YA titles.) There are two strands, the Estcarp books, with the witches of Estcarp, Simon Tregarth, Jaelithe and their offspring, and the High Hallack books. They are set at the same time and the Hounds of Alizon are bad guys in both. This is labelled as Witch World #3 but I think It's really High Hallack #1.

Maybe going back is not always a good idea. Did it stand up to my memories? Yes and no. I loved the characters, Gillan and Herrel, she a witch and he a were-rider (shape-changer), but the prose is chewy and the dialogue mannered in the extreme. There are times when it's almost Yodaspeak.

"Well do you speak in the terms of war and battle, Gillan. You are shield mate and sword companion as good as any man could wish. This then is what I would do—"

And that's by no means the chewiest section.

You do, however, get used to it, and Andre Norton has always been able to tell a good story. The style is very dated, now (written in the 1960s) but if you can forgive it that then it's still worth reading.

When the Hounds of Alizon attack the Dales of High Hallack the lords make a pact with the were riders: Help us beat back the enemy and afterwards we will send you thirteen virgin brides. The war is won, the thirteen brides must go, but not all of them are happy about it. The were riders are little better than monsters as far as they are concerned. Gillan has grown up a refugee in the Abbey at Norstead, escaped from the Hounds some years ago with no knowledge of her heritage. Partly to save a terrified bride, and partly because she can't face the rest of her life cloistered in the Abbey, Gillan takes the place of the thirteenth bride and rides out for better or worse, to marry a were rider. On the way she discovers that she has powers (and may be of Escarp witch blood) but she doesn't have the training. When she picks Herrel, she unlocks a world of trouble. Herrel is a half blood and this counts as least in the pack, so the fact that he's snagged a bride when other 'more worthy' riders haven't sets the pack against them.