Customer Reviews

Ice Crown

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"Ice Crown's" heroine, Roane belongs to a small team of archeologists chosen to land on Clio in search of Forerunner ruins. Clio is a closed planet, which means that space-farers like Roane must leave the human inhabitants strictly alone to evolve their own destiny.

Roane soon breaks the non-interference rule when she is caught in a savage storm and seeks shelter in an abandoned stone tower in the forest. Unfortunately, some of the local inhabitants also stumble into the tower. There are several armed men plus a bound, ill-treated woman, and Roane's pity overrules her archeological training. She frees the woman, who turns out to be the local princess (Clio is a medieval world of warring kingdoms) and they escape from the tower together, Roane pretending to be a Clioite.

The off-worlder is soon unmasked by the astute Princess Ludorica, and Roane reluctantly agrees to help the Clioite search for her lost Ice Crown--a gift from the ancient "Guardians" to the royal line, and the source of their power to rule.

"Ice Crown" is not a typical Norton 'Forerunner' story, in that the mysterious installation on Clio turns out to have been set up by the long-discredited human Psychocrats, motivated to perform a nasty, planet-wide, multi-generation experiment in mind-control and fixed destiny. The plot gets a bit jumbled up in Clio's dynastic feuds, but the characters are pure Norton: the cold technocrats from an advanced civilization versus primitives with a touch of magic in their makeup. Roane is a typical Norton heroine in that she is made to feel inferior by her more educated/experienced companions, and she acts according to her conscience rather than a set of rigidly defined rules. In short, she is a very likeable person who is caught up in a conflict not of her own making, but one where she is determined to do the right thing.

Vintage Norton with just a slightly confusing plot.

"Ice Crown" is my absolute favorite Andre Norton book. In it, a young woman who has never had much respect (either from herself or others) finds meaning and purpose in her life, finds friends, finds happiness -- and overcomes many obstacles.

The obstacles in the way are both internal and external. The internal ones deal with Roane throwing off her uncle Offlas' mental conditioning -- the same conditioning that told Roane all her life that she was nothing but a tool in his hands, something rather than someone. The external ones deal with the planet Clio; Roane, her uncle and her cousin Sandar land on Clio to look over ruins in secret. The colony below knows nothing of offworlders; they were settled by dissidents called "Psychocrats" who believed that people, in gaining technology, had lost something.

However, in order to regain what they'd lost, the Psychocrats have set up a terrible situation for Clio's inhabitants. The Crowns the rulers wear (a quasi-feudal society) dictate how they act; if the Crown doesn't want something, even if the ruler does, the Crown wins. It's not a good situation.

However, everything's about to change, as Roane gets lost during a terrible storm, and takes cover in an old, abandoned building. Princess Ludorica, who's just been captured by thugs, gets dropped off in the same building. Roane and Ludorica escape, form an unlikely friendship/alliance, and find Ludorica's long-lost Crown.

However, Ludorica's actions change as soon as the Crown is found. She repudiates old friends, such as Colonel Nelis Imfry, and turns instead to age-old enemies, such as Duke Reddick, to consolidate her rule. This is due to the Crown's influence. Imfry nearly dies; Roane helps him to escape.

And then the real fun begins, as Roane must choose between everything she thought she knew, or her own conscience. Along the way, she finds love with Nelis, who understands her like no one else despite being from a rather backward culture.

I don't want to give away the rest of the plot, so I'll end here. Does Roane win out? See for yourself.

And if you like "Ice Crown," be sure to pick up "Warlock," which contains "Storm Over Warlock," "Ordeal in Otherwhere," and "Forerunner Foray," three great Norton titles at a low price.

Barb Caffrey

P.S. I hope someone picks this book up to be reprinted soon; it truly is one of the strongest works in the entire Norton oeuvre.

The herione is from a futuristic Earth whose on a lost Earth colony in secret with her uncle and cousin. They are to observe and report back to Earth what they find. But the herione discovers that an ancient alien race has programmed the human rulers of the colony to do what they planned, even if it's wrong! Roane is forced to choose between obeying Earth's law of non interference or saving the people she's come to admire

The planet of Clio is split into warring factions but a series of consolidations are under way so that there are only a small number of buffer states between two huge powers. When the offworlders arrive to examine the unusual development of Clio, they find that an alien race has been there before them and conditioned the rulers into following alien plans. This left the terrans in a quandry - do they obey their noninterventionist policies, or try to do something for the trapped inhabitants?

Wonderful mixture of Medievil and Futurist Space adventures! Well worth the reading. You won't want to put it down!

"Ice Crown's" heroine, Roane belongs to a small team of archeologists chosen to land on Clio in search of Forerunner ruins. Clio is a closed planet, which means that space-farers like Roane must leave the human inhabitants strictly alone to evolve their own destiny.

Roane soon breaks the non-interference rule when she is caught in a savage storm and seeks shelter in an abandoned stone tower in the forest. Unfortunately, some of the local inhabitants also stumble into the tower. There are several armed men plus a bound, ill-treated woman, and Roane's pity overrules her archeological training. She frees the woman, who turns out to be the local princess (Clio is a medieval world of warring kingdoms) and they escape from the tower together, Roane pretending to be a Clioite.

The off-worlder is soon unmasked by the astute Princess Ludorica, and Roane reluctantly agrees to help the Clioite search for her lost Ice Crown--a gift from the ancient "Guardians" to the royal line, and the source of their power to rule.

"Ice Crown" is not a typical Norton 'Forerunner' story, in that the mysterious installation on Clio turns out to have been set up by the long-discredited human Psychocrats, motivated to perform a nasty, planet-wide, multi-generation experiment in mind-control and fixed destiny. The plot gets a bit jumbled up in Clio's dynastic feuds, but the characters are pure Norton: the cold technocrats from an advanced civilization versus primitives with a touch of magic in their makeup. Roane is a typical Norton heroine in that she is made to feel inferior by her more educated/experienced companions, and she acts according to her conscience rather than a set of rigidly defined rules. In short, she is a very likeable person who is caught up in a conflict not of her own making, but one where she is determined to do the right thing.

Vintage Norton with just a slightly confusing plot.

Andre Norton's works are hit or miss. This one was a hit although the ending is a bit weak. As in her other books, Norton follows the events from a single protagonist. In this case, it is a young anthropoligist. As she is a well educated character, the story is told in a sensible way, rather than the disjointed fasion that The Iron Cage is told. I wish I had read Ice Crown before Iron Cage as they take place in the same universe. The things I learned of the backstory in Ice Crown would have been a great help in figuring out what was going on in Iron Cage.