1971. A boy, no more
than eight, went into Carnegie Library's junior section. He hadn't
been in here more than once or twice before. He chooses two books –
both science fiction, chosen for the intriguing covers. One is a
story of a meeting with aliens by the crew of a space rocket –
First Contact, by Hugh Walters. And the other is bright green, with a
robot being watched from concealment by an elfin figure. Victory on
Janus, by Andre Norton.
I hadn't read anything
by Andre Norton before then. Actually, I hadn't read a great deal at
all.
Victory on Janus was the second part of a two-book
sequence (trust me to jump in half way through). It was far stranger, more alien, than the straightforward
space adventure I had picked up alongside it. And it intrigued me. I
don't think I really understood it, but there was enough action,
adventure and tension to capture my attention.
Over the next three
years I devoured books. Andre Norton wasn't the only author I loved,
but she was among the top half dozen authors, and probably, looking
back after forty years, one of the most influential.
Star Rangers,
The X-Factor, Catseye, Star Guard, Night of Masks, The Beast Master,
Lord of Thunder, Sargasso of Space and
Postmarked – The Stars. I read and re-read
these from the library. And others, too, but that little list of
books were critical. Books that told me how a story should be
written.
The stories were intended for young
adults (so I, still thoroughly pre-teen, was perhaps too young for
them – but that never troubled me) – but their heroes were
adults. These were not stories about children. But I felt an affinity
for Norton's heroes. They were typically outsiders – often almost
friendless, feeling alien in the settings they found themselves in.
Growing and developing, gaining strength and confidence. Classic
coming-of-age stories, but they resonated with me.
They also involved
non-humans alongside the humans, ex-tees (a Norton term for
extra-terrestrials that felt natural and real) who weren't
automatically the enemy. Often the aliens were the most sympathetic
characters for the hero.
Of course, what I
notice now as I re-read these is how few female characters appeared.
Some novels had no women at all. At the time, that didn't trouble me.
Now, it feels wrong, but Norton was writing these books for her
market in the fifties and sixties.
As I grew up, I
discovered new novels.
Dark Piper scared me – the first apocalyptic
novel I had read that had any impact on me.
Moon of Three Rings was
the first that jumped from narrator to narrator, confusing me greatly
until I worked out what I was reading.
The Zero Stone. Ice Crown.
Uncharted Stars. Names to conjure with – but the core stories for me were the ones I read
when I was very young. The
Solar Queen stories –
Sargasso of Space
and
Postmarked – The Stars were books I read time and again. It
wasn't until I was in my late teens I learned there were two other
books in the sequence,
Plague Ship and
Voodoo Planet, which I grabbed
urgently. And the Dipple stories –
Catseye and
Night of Masks.
These were books set in the far future, not anywhere akin to Earth,
but in worlds that felt real and complete.
In my late teens and
early twenties I discovered much more she had written – Witch
World, particularly. But it is still those early novels, which I read
almost exclusively in the Gollancz hardbacks pictured here, which have stayed with
me... and editions of which still grace my shelves now, and which I still re-read
with great fondness.
The cover illustrations are all shamelessly stolen from the website of Andre-Norton-Books.com with grateful thanks - I would add that Night of Masks and Sargasso of Space are my copies, scanned and sent to the site to add to their collection of covers.
