Andre Norton Forum

Re: The Worst (IMHO) Witch World Book

: The Worst Witch World Book

: Within the last year, I have read or re-read most of the Witch World books. I still have never read The Crystal Gryphon (1972), Trey of Swords (1977), Zarsthor's Bane (1978), Gryphon in Glory (1981), Horn Crown (1981), 'Ware Hawk (1983), and Gate of the Cat (1987). I cannot believe that any of them could turn out to be better than The Witch World. It is possible that one of them will turn out to be the worst Witch World book . . . but I doubt it. I confidently nominate We, the Women, by Patricia Mathews, in On Wings of Magic, Witch World: The Turning ­ Book 3.

: For those of you who haven't read it, this is the story of Arona Bethiahsdaughter of Riveredge Village, one of the villages of Falconer women, somewhere at the margins of Estcarp. Life in the all-female village is plagued by occasional visits from, and constant fear of, the Falconers. It is further disturbed by the appearance of women and children, including some teenage boys, who flee to Riveredge from an Estcarpian village destroyed in a raid from Alizon. The newcomers are constantly showing ridiculously out-of-place patriarchal sentiments; the boys are regularly annoying Arona and others with their harassing adolescent sexuality, behaving like bad memories of American high school boys. One of the boys, Egil (rhymes with evil?), insinuates himself into the village and usurps Arona's expected position as village recorder/ historian. He also seeks both to rape and to marry Arona. Worst of all, he changes the records to change the meanings of the village's (and its female Falconer forebears') "herstory. Arona flees to Lormt with the most precious records and is nearly casually raped (or prostituted) along the way. But, before reaching Lormt, she ends up in a cavern with a Toad creature, who turns out to be male and whose example teaches her that not all men are wolves.

: Why do I nominate this as the worst Witch World book? I like its topic; I don't like its writing, its mood, its message, or its tone . . . and there's more.

: As to the writing, much is decent, but Mathews gives in to an affectation that ultimately becomes annoying. She has her villagers speak a language stripped of most male-based words. She thanks the inventor of this Laadan in the acknowledgments. It is clever and interesting for a while, but it grows annoying and, unforgivably, makes reading hard.

: The mood is consistently dark. My strongest recollection of the book is that everything seemed to be happening at night. On glancing at it again, I see that's not entirely true, but everything seems to happen at night because the mood is so uniformly bleak. .

: The message conveyed throughout the book seems to be that all men, at least all raised in traditional societies, are scum. And the actions of her male characters bear that out ­ even when they aren't affirmatively evil, they are unthinkingly brutish and annoying. I consider myself a feminist and, as such, I can see how one could take that view. But as a man I don't think it is a fair one and it is not one I want to invest time reading about. (Feminism in the Witch World books is an interesting topic worth exploring on its own, but not in this post.)

: The tone is unpleasant. Arona is whiny; the author is preachy.

: The four criticisms I've made above are personal; reasonable people might differ, particularly if they enjoy dark, depressing, anti-male tracts. But I think the worst problem with the book transcends questions of taste ­ its climax is ludicrous.

: Fleeing toward Lormt, Arona is pursued by bandits (to be precise, she discovers that three riders are riding fast behind her ­ she assumes, with no more information, that they are bandits pursuing her). She finds a sentient cavern/refuge, in which many bodies were in suspended animation. The cavern wakes for her a toad-creature, former recorder of Grimmerdale. They share information about their worlds. The toads appear to stand in for Americans ­ watching movies and television, playing sports, "rac[ing] noisy machines at very high speeds over rough country roads often crashing them into each other or against rocks or trees, or fought each other for pleasure." Their "Gormvin" (govrmin/ government?) even experiments on other life forms. Arona learns to like the Toad, despite its differences, but is shocked when the toad reveals that it is a sperm-sprayer, not an egg-layer. "Not all men are wolves, Arona realized, and not all women are people. Was that the lesson of the cavern and the toad?" And a paragraph later she reaches Lormt.

: This is an annoying warping of the Toads of Grimmerdale and, I think, a completely incredible way for Arona to learn tolerance. Even in the suspect tradition of deus ex machina, toad in cavern ranks low. If I had been looking to read a gloomy ideological story, I think I still would have disliked this ending.

: I am tempted to say that the lesson I drew from the cavern and the toad was to avoid books by Patricia Mathews. But, in fact, she contributed two decent stories to the Tales of the Witch World series. I liked Darkness over Mirhold in Volume II and I found Falcon's Chick in Volume III, the "prequel" to this book, interesting and worth reading. Those stories share this book's emphasis on violence against women, but at least they work better as stories. I did not find We, the Women worth reading. The failure of We, the Women, I believe, is a failure of overreaching, of ignoring the story in favor of the message. The lesson I ultimately drew from the toad in the cavern is that story tellers need to focus first on their stories. Messages are best sent through other media.

: Coming next: The Least Good Witch World Book by Andre Norton

Ah Hank!! When you messaged us about the worst Witch World Book I was ready to black list We, the Women. But you have listed all the reasons that I could have offered in excellent form. I was also a bit afraid of being considered an anti-feminist if I did but can now stand in your shadow as the slings and arrows approach. Richard