18 Followers
24 Following
altheaann

altheaann

Currently reading

A Creature of Moonlight
Rebecca Hahn
Saffron And Brimstone: Strange Stories
Elizabeth Hand
Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
Lois McMaster Bujold
Snow in May: Stories
Kseniya Melnik
A Taste of Magic - Andre Norton, Jean Rabe This was Andre Norton's last book. Unfinished at her death, it was completed by Rabe, a friend of Norton's, from her notes. I didn't get the impression that Norton was anywhere close to finishing the book, but that's okay.

Young Wisteria, called Eri, has natural magic, which she is trained in by the witch Nanoo Gafna. One day she is out hunting for the village, and when she returns, it is to a scene of devastation and bloodshed. The only person left alive in the village is the Nanoo's other apprentice, a young girl named Alysen, whom Nanoo put an invisibility spell on to protect. Alysen bitterly tells Eri that it is all Eri's fault that the village was slaughtered, that the armed band of men led by Lord Purvis, were looking for Eri, to kill her because of her magic. Regardless of Alysen's anger, Eri feels the responsibility to bring the younger girl safe to the witches' settlement before going out for revenge.

This setup is fine, if not terribly original, but then, an inordinate amount of the subsequent plot has to do with the girls' dealings with a random supernatural creature that they encounter in the wild, which has not much to do with anything, and doesn't really go anywhere.