Web of the Witch World

The story of Simon Tregarth, exile from Earth, continues. Alien forces continue to encircle Estcarp, his adopted home. The Kolders, also invaders from another world, use technology and mind control, while they are countered by the witches of Escarp (and Simon) with magic. In this, the second book, Simon and Jaelith continue their quest to free Estcarp from the machinations of the Kolder.
I love the characters and alien feel of these books. Short and to the point, but good.

This second volume in the Witch World series is a continuation of the story begun in book 1. It is set a year after the end of book 1 and the marriage of the man from our world, Simon Tregarth, and Jaelithe, formerly one of the witches of Estcarp. Simon is now fully established as a citizen of his adopted home and has been made a marshal in the south of the country, in charge of a force guarding the border against aggression from their neighbour, Karsten.

As the story opens, Jaelithe realises that her power, which was supposed to have been lost when she married Simon, has returned, although she no longer has the jewel she used to focus it, having surrendered that to the other witches. She departs, intending to persuade them to return it, show more a quest that will prove an uphill struggle throughout the book.

The earlier political problems persist, with the countries bordering Estcarp once again the aggressors. Loyse, the young woman who in book 1 escaped from a forced marriage to the Duke of Karsten, is now abducted by the Duke's people. Simon must follow her trail, initially to Kars, the capital of Karsten, along with Koris, now seneschal of Estcarp and the man Loyse plans to marry. But as in book 1, when the Duke ordered a massacre of everyone within his land of the same racial type as the Estcarpians, the strange machine-dependent race known as the Kolder, who originate from another parallel world, are behind the Duke's actions. The mind control exerted by the Kolder has become more subtle, introducing an element of paranoia to the narrative. Before the story ends, the quest for Loyse will take Simon and some of his friends into the heart of the hidden Kolder base, and the fate of Witch World will be at stake.

As before, this is a fast paced action story with little character rumination or angst. The only thing approaching that is Simon's dismay at Jaelithe's prolonged absence and concern that her power means more to her than he does. But there is a nice balance, with Simon coming to accept that Jaelithe is her own woman and that her abilities do not rival his; on the contrary, the two of them compliment each other. There are some good set pieces, in particular Jaelithe's use of her powers against the red weed, which is a little reminiscent of the vegetation in H G Well's War of the Worlds.

The main character issue for me is the dimunition of Loyse into a more or less standard damsel in distress. I can't picture the woman of book 1 who scorned stereotypical female behaviour throwing herself into Simon's arms even if she had been held prisoner and subjected to mind control. Also, the character of Aldis, the Duke's mistress is odd; she works for the Kolder, and from what one of her masters tells Simon, something is done to such people to prevent them from having their own agenda and working against their masters, yet in the latter part of the story she seems to be cheering on certain characters who are about to turn on them. You would expect her instead to try to warn her employers.

The novel is most definitely science fantasy as the publisher of this edition, Tandem, labelled it - there is even more of an emphasis on the Kolder technology in this volume. My rating is 3 stars for a rattling good read, though don't expect an indepth character analysis or detailed world building; there are broad strokes only, sufficient for a plot driven tale with the emphasis on daring-do. show less

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Web of the Witch World continues the story of Simon Tregarth, the modern man who escaped assassination by coming through a gate into the Witch World, and Jaelithe, a witch of Estcarp, as they fight the strange enemy who are invading their land. At the end of the previous novel, the Kolder, who are from a technologically advanced planet, had been defeated by the witchery of Jaelithe and her sisters (and it seems that Simon has some powers, too). Jaelithe gave Simon her name, thus showing her trust in (and love for) him, and Loyse and Koris declared love for each other.

But in Web of the Witch World the sappy stuff abruptly ends when Duke Yvian, formally betrothed to Loyse, kidnaps her because he show more needs to marry her to seal his claim to power in Karsten. This sets off another fast-paced science fantasy adventure in which everything is not as it seems, for once again our heroes discover that alien Kolder is influencing Estcarp’s enemies. Simon, Jaelithe, Loyse, and Koris must find and destroy the root of this evil while dealing with their own personal issues.

If you’ve read Witch World, you’ll definitely want to read Web of the Witch World since it is part two of the story — a direct continuation. Expect the same quick-moving plot filled with battles, captures, escapes, shapechanging, mind control, illusions, ships, and flying machines. Andre Norton created likable heroes and an interesting world, and the writing is pleasant, too. I listened to Brilliance Audio’s version read by Nick Podehl. He does a fine job — his narration isn’t particularly inspiring, but there’s nothing wrong with it either.

Where Witch World falls short of more excellent work is in the magic system, which is based mostly on telepathy and mind power. Thus, our heroes are able to do things by willing them strongly enough or by just “knowing” things, or sometimes through really good hunches. That works, I guess, but it’s not nearly as fun and exciting as the kind of stuff that, say, Brandon Sanderson dreams up. However, these novels were written in the 1960s — long before fantasy fans were demanding something “new.” Reading Andre Norton is valuable then, not just for a quick fun read, but also for an SFF history lesson. show less

Hmm. Somewhat unsatisfying - too many coincidences, assumed deep plots (which, every one, flat-out failed for the plotters), pointless action just to move the story along and deal with Kolder permanently. The story ran on rails a bit too much. Useful in moving along the story of Witch World, but not much fun to read - not even Simon's deep musings on his relationship. I'll reread, but as a necessary step in reading WW, not for itself.

A reasonably enjoyable book. There's some clunky grammar in here, and most of the characterisations are pretty thin, but it's not looking too shabby for a book that's nearly 50 years old! At any rate, it's been 20 years since I last read a Witch world book, so this served as a good reintroduction to that universe.

DNF at 20 pages. I can't for the life of me remember anything about this series, and even though I think this is only the second Witch World book, I feel completely lost. I just checked my records, and it looks like I own a hardcover collection that contains the first three Witch World books, this one included, so I'm going to put this on my "offload" pile and give the collection a shot at some point in the future. It may just be that Andre Norton isn't for me anymore.

juvenile, boring, didn’t even finish