As a teen, I read the ‘classic’ science fiction authors, Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, etc, and though I enjoyed their work, I can not say that any were major influences on my writing. Not in the way Kipling and Burroughs, whom I had discovered earlier, were and are. Nor had I as yet found such writers as Zelazny or Le Guin who came to be important to me. But there was one from that time I can count as a fairly important influence: Andre Norton.
Starting, of course, with her best known novel, ‘Witch World.’ Considering how prolific a writer she was (over 130 books!), it was perhaps luck I read it first. It was certainly fortunate, for it is the ideal starting point for Norton, and a bit of watershed in her own work. From ‘Witch World’ on, she wrote less genre science fiction and increasingly delved into fantasy; the Witch World series itself morphed from the one to the other over time. Women also played an increasingly important role as she no longer wrote for primarily a young male audience.
There is certainly foreshadowing of the ideas in ‘Witch World’ in the fiction that preceded. Portals, telepathy, ‘wise women’—these all appear. It was new stuff for me and it made an impression. I suspect I have stolen as much from Norton as anyone—not necessarily consciously. It is something I can see, looking back, and I readily acknowledge the influence. In fact, I believe ‘Witch World’ might have been my introduction to portals, long before I ever read of finding them in old wardrobes.
Andre Norton wrote no one novel that could be called ‘great,’ perhaps, but she wrote a number that are very good, and even more that are decent reads—I’ve yet to find one that was not. It is true that many of the early books follow the rules for genre science fiction of their time (the 50s and early 60s), being big on plot and action and a bit shy on character development. She wrote to a market and there is nothing wrong with that. That she managed, none the less, to make them something more is all to the good.
She was not a stylist, but the language is straightforward and serviceable, and rarely clumsy. Highly regarded mainstream writers have written in a similar enough style (e.g. Graham Greene). I admit to having more interest in language and am attracted to the prose of such authors as Kipling or Evelyn Waugh; this does not prevent me from appreciating Norton’s work.
There are, to be sure, similarities to other writers from her time. Poul Anderson shared her interests in history and myth, and was not afraid to pursue ideas ‘hard’ science fiction writers would pass on. Jack Vance readily mingled fantasy and science fiction, but was much more of a stylist (and, yes, I like both). But Andre Norton brought her unique perspective; I hesitate to call it a female perspective, though some might. I prefer just to see it as a Norton perspective. It’s a pretty good perspective.
Stephen Brooke 