The story of Kemoc and his search for Kaththea as she and her power are stolen by Dinzil in order to take over Witch World could have been much more exciting.
Norton writes in a much more accessible form for this novel similar to the original Witch World. However what sounded like an exciting story of power struggles and betrayal described in the Sorceress of Witch World was far from that.
The story was actually Kemoc as he, against wishes of everyone else, goes after Kaththea who he believes is in danger. Everyone else either feels she’s useless or nothing to worry about. The majority of this book is about his travels. It’s not till the end when he finds Kaththea, deformed and about as useless as everyone says she is. Before any resolution happens (according to Sorceress, she’s fully on the side of evil) the book ends with her only slightly healed.
While I enjoyed Kemoc’s adventure, I expected to learn more of what Kaththea was doing. Kemoc didn’t defeat Dinzil in this book as I expected him to. I’m not sure how this set back the fighters at all except for in Sorceress where they take off to get Kaththea’s powers back.
The novel was much more lackluster than other Andre Norton book. Not my favorite by any means.
Related posts:
