Customer Reviews

Moon Called

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have to say that I was somewhat disgusted when I finished reading this book. It had good ideas yet the story just didn't appeal to me at all. The main character seemed to have an attitude and many things were unexplained. The story has potential if it was extended into a series. I felt as though things were just beginning and I was just beginning to find things out when the story suddenly ended. Hopefully there is a sequel that I'm unaware of to balance this odd work out.

i picked this book up at random when i was about seven years old, at a library book sale, for 25 cents. up till that point i had not been much of a reader; i'd read some laura ingalls wilder (little house on the prairie and so forth) and roald dahl, but i was nothing like an avid reader. then i picked up this book, and although many of the criticisms are valid (this book reads like one that perhaps ms. norton wasn't quite finished with but she needed something to give to her editor), it will always have a very fond place in my heart, because it opened up the world of science fiction and fantasy to me.

I think "Moon Called" is for Norton fans only. It seems to have started out as fantasy, then switched to science fiction midway through the manuscript. The hero and heroine, who both practice white magic, ride to the rescue of one of their comrades in a hi-tech tank. Although Norton successfully combined magic and technology in some of the early Witch World novels, it doesn't work as well in "Moon Called". Thora, the heroine is also a bit too prickly and too inclined to argue about religion to be likeable. Dialogue (never a Norton strong point) is exceptionally stilted and long-winded. Thora is given lines like, "Him also do all who serve the Lady call enemy," and "I am one with those who draw the Moon---though I was not yet brought to Her as one of the Three."

The action scenes and the confrontation of white versus dark magic are vintage Norton, both suspenseful and eerie, so there is meat in "Moon Called" for the die-hard fan (I've read it at least three times). However, I would recommend "The Crystal Gryphon" or "Year of the Unicorn" as a 'starter fantasy' for those who are not yet familiar with this fine author.

This was a boring book. Nothing happened! The descriptions of people, places, and events were really good-unlike the plot. Basically, Thora is from some community where if you're born with the mark of the goddess, you learn how to use a limited amount of magic, and don't have to get married or take care of the home. The community is attacked by pirates, but Thora and her dog escape. Thora finds a wounded familiar, and they travel together. They find an underground storage chamber thing, and go through it. There are all sorts of things there from the old days, where technology was above that of the middle ages. Thora and Malkin and Kurt go to the place where Malkin's blood-bonded person is, they fight some evil people, blah, blah, blah. The thing I didn't like about this book was that nothing really interesting happens. They have battles, but the battles aren't realistic, even for a fantasy/science fiction story. I mean, they don't know who they're really fighting, none of the bad guys ever say anything. Plus, Thora is _really_ intolerant of other people's religious beliefs and customs. If someone doesn't go with the code she was raised with, she pretty much gives them the cold shoulder. It got on my nerves. Again, nothing happened. I liked the furry people-the familiars, and their relatives in the woods-but the people were boring. Thora's is the only view point, and she never changes her mind about any of them. Basically, it's a boring book with boring characters. I've read a few of Norton's other books, and feel pretty confident when I say that this is definately not her best work.

I can't say I liked this book. I found it was incredibly boring with no writing style whatso ever. And the plot could have been taken from a 'typical science fiction' receipe book. Honestly. I barely managed to finish it. Thora had potential. Nothing else did. She didn't even change in the course of the book. Leave this one in the bookshelf. Its not worth the time.

MOON CALLED is no relation to Norton's Yiktor series; this is an "after the fall of civilization" novel more along the lines of NO NIGHT WITHOUT STARS or STAR MAN'S SON, though evidently not in the same setting as either. As in those stories, the protagonist of MOON CALLED was an apprentice being trained in relatively arcane, specialized knowledge - in this case, a priestess - who was cast adrift from her people before the story opens. Unlike the protagonists of several other Norton stories in this vein, Thora was not exiled; her native village was destroyed by pirates, leaving her to make her way in the world alone.

Stumbling across an alien, injured stranger by chance, Thora is drawn into contact with Malkin's native society, wherein Malkin is familiar - lifelong companion, if you like - to a man of power in that society, wherein the gender roles are not quite reversed from those in Thora's own culture (down to serial polyandry in Makil's society, as opposed to polygamy in Thora's). Thora goes through some culture shock, but not much - Makil's society is only peripherally explored, mostly concerning those aspects that a hunter and sentry without strong family ties would see.

With very little tweaking, the story could've been dropped onto either continent of the Witch World during the Kolder War; the new universe introduced here isn't very memorable, and the post-apocalyptic aspects aren't utilized beyond setting up a "cache of very dangerous stuff" that could've been almost any McGuffin without loss of originality. (Thora and Makil's people have to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, with some disagreement among Makil's people about whether it might be useful for *them* to exploit.) No suggestion that I noticed of how the now-dominant religions, magic use, and so on happened to develop; throwing "Set" in as the name of the deity worshipped by the forces of evil is a little jarring for that reason, because none of the other religious elements seem to have such a clear connection to present-day mythology (generic moon goddess, Lord of Light, that sort of thing for the other religions).

While this book has its moments - I'll grant any of Norton's books that, though it doesn't quite make the three-star cut for me - I would recommend DARKNESS AND DAWN or SPELL OF THE WITCH WORLD over it for similar material given better handling. Elys' story in SPELL OF THE WITCH WORLD has some similarity to Thora's, but has a much more fleshed-out setting (though a more standard resolution of her relationship with Jervon than Thora has with Makil).

Nitpicks:
- It doesn't ring true that other survivors of Thora's native village scattered without trying to regroup, or that Thora abandoned them without more backstory and effects on her character. (Thora doesn't seem to know if there were other survivors, or care.) Norton offers some explanation for Thora's detachment, but it seems thin. She was being trained as a priestess and a major figure in the community, but feels no apparent responsibility apart from her duty to protect various religious artifacts. For her, being a priestess seems to be about her special Chosen status, not at all about her relationship with/responsibilities to other people. (While this is certainly one way to develop a society, Thora lost her home and everything she ever knew except her dog, and doesn't seem to have been affected at all as the story opens a few months down the line.)
- Thora doesn't quite seem to have the responses of a trained fighter - on poking into a strange, darkened room, she remains silhouetted in the doorway, and generally doesn't seem to be as prone to moving cautiously (or not at all) as one might expect a lone wanderer to need to be.
- Granted that this is a setting without efficient mass communication, it still seems that travellers' tales would've at least made Thora acquainted with Makil's people by rumour before she encountered them, since they're within a few months' journey at walking pace (a lot less, possibly) from her native village.

The back cover blurb for the first edition is poor, by the by.

are we talking about the same book i loved it and after 9 yrs still want it in my library my kids tore my copy in half and have been forlorn to replace it for years and yes if there is a sequill i want that too.