Jimmy Brewster
I purchased Trey of Swords by Andre Norton as part of a Humble Bundle of women science fiction & fantasy authors. I have wanted to read something by Andre Norton and thought this was a good opportunity to check out her writing.
While this is technically part of the Witch World series by Andre Norton, I found that it was easy to jump into this series. Perhaps there was some back story that may have been lost on me, but the core elements were explained well enough that I enjoyed the experience.
The story is broken into three parts. The first two parts follow Yonan, a young man who is below average in terms of being a warrior. Upon finding a magical sword of legend, he unleashes another character from an age of legend and finds himself in the middle of an unfinished battle between good and an evil godlike figure. The third part follows a young woman who is introduced in the first part and then left behind in the second part. She is magically inclined but has not had much experience or training.
The story has a few tropes you would expect from high fantasy. It was written with a touch of old-fashioned high fantasy language style which I found added positively to the story. The weakling character becomes an unlikely hero. However, it manages to avoid some tropes such as the damsel-in-distress and romantic desire being the main characteristic of the woman. It touches on these tropes to acknowledge what the audience might have been expecting but then twists them into a more positive feminist ending.
Additionally, there is a non-human lizardman character who assists our heroes. There is also a godlike figure who is described as being neither or both genders. I appreciate that Andre Norton included these elements. It adds a dash of diversity and antifascism that I am happy to see in a novel published in the early 1970's.
I would recommend this novel to fans of traditional high fantasy.
I purchased Trey of Swords by Andre Norton as part of a Humble Bundle of women science fiction & fantasy authors. I have wanted to read something by Andre Norton and thought this was a good opportunity to check out her writing.
While this is technically part of the Witch World series by Andre Norton, I found that it was easy to jump into this series. Perhaps there was some back story that may have been lost on me, but the core elements were explained well enough that I enjoyed the experience.
The story is broken into three parts. The first two parts follow Yonan, a young man who is below average in terms of being a warrior. Upon finding a magical sword of legend, he unleashes another character from an age of legend and finds himself in the middle of an unfinished battle between good and an evil godlike figure. The third part follows a young woman who is introduced in the first part and then left behind in the second part. She is magically inclined but has not had much experience or training.
The story has a few tropes you would expect from high fantasy. It was written with a touch of old-fashioned high fantasy language style which I found added positively to the story. The weakling character becomes an unlikely hero. However, it manages to avoid some tropes such as the damsel-in-distress and romantic desire being the main characteristic of the woman. It touches on these tropes to acknowledge what the audience might have been expecting but then twists them into a more positive feminist ending.
Additionally, there is a non-human lizardman character who assists our heroes. There is also a godlike figure who is described as being neither or both genders. I appreciate that Andre Norton included these elements. It adds a dash of diversity and antifascism that I am happy to see in a novel published in the early 1970's.
I would recommend this novel to fans of traditional high fantasy.