Customer Reviews

Gryphon's Eyrie

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Although other reviewers speak of a "Gryphon series" of books, this is actually just one of more than twenty books set in Andre Norton's Witch World. The characters of Kerovan and Joisan were introduced in The Crystal Gryphon and brought back for Gryphon in Glory. Gryphon's Eyrie continues the tale, which is finally resolved in The Warding of Witch World.

Kerovan is partly descended of the Dalesfolk and partly descended of the Old Ones. The Dalesfolk entered the Witch World centuries in the past, settling in the highlands along the coast of the Witch World's "western continent". They found traces of the Old Ones, an ancient and apparently indigenous group of races who had mastered the Power, what we could call "magic".

Kerovan's mother bargained with dark forces to give her a child she thought she could control for her own ends. But he proved to be other than what she expected, and these books have followed Kerovan as he has sought his true place in the world, and the right heritage. With Joisan, who gives Kerovan unconditional love and support while resolving her own conflicts, Kerovan proves to be one of the strongest fantasy characters I've ever seen.

Norton takes strong female characters and makes them appealing for wide audiences. But she succeeds with Kerovan and Joisan as with no other husband-wife team. The first book is the best in the sub-series, and Gryphon in Glory is probably better than this one.

All of Norton's collaborations leave something to be desired when compared to her own original work, but Ann Crispin was always one of the better collaborators. She seems to have a real feel for the Witch World settings and pacings Norton made legendary in the 1960s and 1970s before she started sharing her world with other writers.

The first two books (Crystal Gryphon and Gryphon in Glory) introduce us to Kerovan and his axe-wedded wife, Joisan. They follow this determined pair as they discover Kerovan's true nature and ancestry. Gryphon's Eyrie concludes the story in a deeply satisfying way as it brings kerovan to his true inheritance, Landisl's ancient home. Be prepared for a typically Norton wild ride.

This is the 3rd book in this series. I did not see the first two listed (Gryphon in Glory and The Crystal Gryphon), but highly recommend all of them. Each can stand as an individual work as well...something a lot of writers overlook these days. This is fantasy at it's very best and I recommend it to anyone interested in other worlds/realities.

"Gryphon's Eyrie" is the third book in Andre Norton's Gryphon trilogy, following The Crystal Gryphon (CG) and Gryphon in Glory (GG), and as in its two predecessors, the story alternates between Kerovan, the cloven-hoofed, amber-eyed warrior, and Joisan, who was wedded to Kerovan by proxy when she was only eight. It appears to me as though Andre Norton wrote the introduction to "Gryphon's Eyrie" but I don't detect her distinctive style in the rest of the novel.

Which isn't to say this book is as bad as most of Norton's co-authored novels--in fact I think it's one of the better ones--but it isn't Norton. It's much more maternal and warm and fuzzy. People actually have sex and babies. The fertility Goddess Gunnora replaces the Gryphon as the main source of magic.

Joisan and Kerovan were reunited in GG, and at the beginning of "Gryphon's Eyrie" they are wandering through Arvon, and Kerovan is still fighting a compulsion to return to mountains where he confronted the Dark Lord Galkur (he of the cloven foot who claimed to have sired Kerovan). Joisan temporarily cures him of his compulsion and they fall in with a band of Kioga horsemen who have been exiled from their former home by a creature of the Dark (first met in Year of the Unicorn), called 'That Which Runs the Ridges.'

The two exiles from High Hallack ingratiate themselves with their new hosts by helping a mare in foal, saving several children, and other acts of magic and kindness. The only one who isn't taken in by them is the Kioga shaman, Nidu who tries to kill Joisan and her unborn child while Kerovan is away on a scouting mission.

When Kerovan returns to Joisan, he once again feels the compulsion to return to the mountains of High Hallack, and this time he decides to confront whatever it is that is calling to him.

The climax of "Gryphon's Eyrie" is a classical Norton confrontation between Good and Evil, the latter taking on the form of the deadly apparition called 'That Which Runs the Ridges.'

The book is really gripping. Interesting story and characters are also good. Definitely worth reading.

I hadn't read much of Andre Norton before I came accross this book, I didn't know about the Dales or the Waste, I got the book because I was in love with Gryphons and wanted any book to do with them. Though this was the third book in the series it was the first I read and the one that inspired me to get the rest of the series. This is the story of Kerovan and Joisan as they search through a new land on the far side of the waste searching for a new home and fighting the demons of their mind and past. Read on as Joisan begins to learn the depths of magic and Kerovan finally comes to terms with his destiny and all that this will bring to him.
Any one who loves Andre Norton must read this book, even out of the series it can stand alone.