Customer Reviews

The Gate of the Cat (Witch World)

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Andre Norton has a soft spot for cats, and she includes a wild cat and her two kittens in this latest venture into magical Escore. American Kelsie McBlair falls through an ancient stone gate in the Scottish Highlands while rescuing a wounded wild cat. She and the cat (who promptly gives birth to two kittens) are besieged on the other side of the Gate by a Dark Rider and a pack of skeletal hounds, almost before Kelsie realizes she is no longer in Scotland. (It will take the rest of the book to persuade her that there is no way back to her home world).

When a dying Witch bequeaths her true name and her jewel of power to Kelsie, the American finds herself compelled to take up the woman's sorcerous mission into the heart of Escore, where magic lies in "trembling balance between the forces of Light and those of the Dark."

"The Gate of the Cat" is a stand-alone fantasy in Norton's fabulous Witch World series. It takes place (roughly) after the conclusion of "Sorceress of the Witch World" and "Trey of Swords," since characters from both of those novels also play roles (or are at least mentioned) in this book. Yonan, a former border guard of Estcarp and the main narrator of "Trey of Swords," is one of Kelsie's companions on her reluctant quest. Their other companion is a rather nasty, man-hating witch who is known as Wittle. (Sometimes Norton attaches clunky names to her characters, but Wittle really is Wittle).

The magic and the narrative pace are vintage Norton, and she takes us into one of the vilest places of the Dark to be found in any of the Escore fantasies.

"The Gate of the Cat" is a must-read for Witch World fans.

I've read (and own) most of Andre Norton's Witch World series (in fact, I am completing my collection now...anyone got a cheap copy of "Ware-Wrath"??). I'm not sure what I expected from this volume, but I didn't get it. Don't get me wrong, Andre Norton is a master and I enjoyed it...but something didn't work as well for me as in other novels in the witch world series. I didn't like the main character as much and the "cat" wasn't as large a factor as I expected (ciara's song, zathor's bane, the duke's ballad). I'll probably re-read the book and see if that changes my mind :-)

She fell out of the magic tree and hit every evil branch on the way down. She has to foil a very positive character like Yonan, who is very unselfish, and will sacrifice all his interests for the good of the group, no matter how hopeless his task. Unfortunately the foil means 3 very unsympathetic women. Situation reads as hopeless as Dark Piper. Got the feel that the dark passage merely led to something darker. Very unlike Moon of 3 Rings whre the reluctant magic mess maker keeps trying to get things back in balance, and ends up being shipped off planet as the ship's cat. Ah well, the number #1 rule of Wtich World is that the ladies lose the magic when they mate. There are only 2 exceptions, higher powers interbreeding were riders, and magic starved earthlings.