Forerunner - Andre Norton

The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award clearly shows signs of the imbalance between men and women in science fiction. Of the 28 winners, only 4 are women. The first woman ever to win this award was Andre Norton (1912-2005), who was thus honoured in 1984. Ursula K. Le Guin, Ann McCaffrey and Connie Willis have followed since. Norton had a long career as an author. She started publishing in the 1930s and kept on writing until her death in 2005. I have only read one novel by her, Black Trillium, which she co-wrote with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Julian May.  A book that is in my opinion a disaster. Forerunner (1981) is not one of her best known works, but apparently it is the first novel published by Tor, a publisher that had a great impact on American Science Fiction and Fantasy in the past few decades. Tor has reissued it recently.

Orphan girl Simsa grows up in the ancient city of Kuxortal. A place that has so many layers of buildings on top of each other that the founding of the city is lost in time. It is a place of commerce and antiquity and a place the space traders visit during their endless travels across the universe. For Simsa the universe is a lot smaller however. She ekes out a living among the burrowers. The city's poorest, digging though the layers of ancient civilization for items worth trading for. Under the guidance of a woman Simsa refers to as the Old One, she has learnt to survive but now that her mentor is gone, she has to face the world alone. Simsa is different form the people around her, something of which she is very well aware. To keep her independence and find her origins, she will have to find a way out of the poverty of the burrower's community.

Forerunner is a novel with one leg in Fantasy and the other in Science Fiction, as we would see things today. Kuxortal is a city that doesn't seem to have developed much beyond the renaissance technological level. On the other hand, right outside the city, space ships land regularly. The city is a hub of both planetary and galactic trade. A place with a long history but also one that clearly has origins elsewhere in the universe. The author probably wouldn't have thought much of the distinction but if I had to put it in one genre, I'd say it is definitely more fantastical.

We see the story entirely through the eyes of Simsa, who goes through a lot of personal growth over the course of the story. She is suspicious and rude throughout most of the novel. Trust is dangerous in her world and so she is very reluctant to grant it. It leads to a number of situations where she is very rude and clearly shows her ignorance of the world beyond Kuxortal. What bothered me a bit about this story is a revelation at the end of the book that changes her from ignorant to having at least some idea of how large the universe really is. It not only felt forced, it was also imposed on the character in what was almost a religious blending of spirits, rather than through her (quite harrowing) personal experiences during the story.

That being said, the interplay between Simsa and the start trader named Thom T'seng, to which she sees here fate tied, is comical at times too. Simsa doesn't recognize it, but the star trader is being very patient with her. His plans to do things that she knows are impossible or go to places that she knows mean certain death. She is proven wrong repeatedly of course, but none of it seems to disturb the star trader. He ploughs on, regardless of how stupid and naive Simsa seems to think he is, occasionally producing a small technological miracle to save the day. It would have been nice to see it from the other side as well.

A lot of Norton's works are what would be considered young adult these days. In terms of themes, plot and complexity, this novel would certainly fall in that category these days. The language Norton uses is interesting though. She has a distinct preference for long sentences with lots of commas. Some of it is quite overwritten and I found myself rereading lines a lot early on in the novel. It takes a few pages to get used to it.

Kuxortal was old but it did not die. Its citizens had become an incredible mixture of races - sometimes of species - or mutations and new beginnings of life forms, springing out of old. Kuxortal had been favored ages ago by the fact that it had come to birth at the meeting of the river Kux (which drew upon the trade of a full continent, wafting boats and rafts to the western sea) with that same sea. The harbor was a safe one even during the worst of the wet-season gales, its natural protections added to by the ingenuity of generations of men who knew all the perils of sea and wind, of gale and raider attack.

Description of the city of Kuxortal - Chapter 1

I guess you could say some of this novel is reminiscent of the golden age pulp magazines for which Norton wrote earlier in her career. Not generally a part of the genre I enjoy most.

Despite all the negatives I did enjoy Forerunner. It is not a memorable novel but certainly a lot better than my first encounter with Norton's writing. Simsa is a character you can really root for, even if she is too stubborn for her own good sometimes. If you are willing to overlook Norton's prose and the occasionally illogical plot in favour of a good adventure, this book might be a good read. Norton published a sequel named Forerunner: The Second Venture in 1985. I won't rush to the nearest book store to get it but I won't rule out reading it at some point either.

Book Details
Title: Forerunner
Author: Andre Norton
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 272
Year: 2012
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3191-5
First published: 1981

Black Trillium - Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May and Andre Norton

Kim picked this first edition hardcover up at a book fair in Amsterdam a while ago. It was nearly in pristine condition. She hasn't read it yet I think, but since I have been ill for most of the week (if this is the Mexican flu I recommend you try not to contract it) and my own to read pile is not as large as it used to be I thought I have a go at it. At first glance it looks like an interesting project. Three leading female authors of speculative fiction writing a book together. I don't know how well it sold but after having read it, I don't think the result is a resounding success. It still spawned a total of four sequels written by each of the authors individually. I understand there are some continuity issues between those books making the whole series a strange one indeed.

Black Trillium is the story of the Kingdom of Ruwenda, a place surrounded by vast marshlands and bogs and closed off from neighbouring states by a mountain range. Ruwenda is a human kingdom but a lot of the inhabitants of the marshlands are not. Different tribes of the Folk or Oddlins, as humans refer to them, live more or less peacefully together. All under the watchful and benevolent protection of the White Lady, a sorceress of great power. The Oddlings are the source of some much coveted merchandise and all of this trade goes through Ruwenda (and adds to the royal treasury). Something not all neighbours seem to think fair.

Driven by the dark magician Orogastus, the newly crowned king Voltrik of Labornok decides to cut out the middle man and conquer Ruwenda. The White Lady's power is waning and the power hungry Orogastus has his own reasons for joining this invasion. Soon the Kingdom falls and all seems to be going Orogastus' way. The White Lady has one more trick up her sleeve though. The three daughters of king Krain of Ruwenda escape when Voltrik's forces take the capital. According to prophecy, they will bring great change to the kingdom. Set on their path by the White Lady ad quest to fulfil their destiny now begins for the bookish Haramis, the hot-headed Kadiya and the shy Anigel.

For most of the book the chapters alternate between the three princesses, with each of the authors writing one storyline. Haramis is the creation of Marion Zimmer Bradley, Kadiay was written by Andre Norton and Aringel is Julian May's part in the story. The style of the writing is very much the same, the editor took great care to make sure the writing of each of the three matches. The prose itself is rather flowery. Probably not everybody's cup of tea, but once you get into it Black Trillium is a pretty fast read. The world building, at least for the nation of Ruwenda is also quite elaborate. It mentions a great many details on life in the marshlands and number of very different types of Oddlings and their cultures. The setting in particular was one of the more interesting aspects of the book.

The story itself is rather disappointing. We see the story for a large part through the eyes of the three princesses who's actions are almost entirely decided by others. There is very little initiative in these girls. The prophecy and guidance by the White Lady lays out their map to their destiny almost from start to finish, turning it into a rather standard D&D plot. Fetch the talisman, rally your supporters, defeat the evil wizard, live happily ever after. And yes, there is a handsome prince to be married too. It's not only a standard and horribly predictable plot, we go though it three times in the course of this one novel. Given the fact that this was written by three established authors, who at that point had more than a few critically acclaimed novels under their belt, it is really beyond comprehension that they were willing to have their name attached to it.

The idea behind this novel may have been interesting and the world the authors use as a setting is certainly unusual but that is not enough from saving this book from being a disaster. If you are attracted to it because the book has three female protagonists (rare these days, even rarer in 1990 when the book was first published) or because of the names of the authors, think again. The good thing about buying second hand books is that you can afford to take chances. I never seriously considered putting it down as the story progressed at a fair pace and the book certainly isn't a punishment to read, but when you get right down to it the plot itself is just substandard. I really can't recommend this book to anyone.

Book Details
Title: Black Trillium
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May and Andre Norton
Publisher: Doubleday
Pages: 410
Year: 1990
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0-385-26185-3
First published: 1990