Wind in the Stone [Hardcover]

Andre Norton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 1999

A Mother Flees into the woods with her infant girl-child, escaping a mage seeking to enslave the Valley and destroy the Forest, while the depraved sorcerer holds the babe's twin brother captive in a black tower. When the mother dies, the girl is adopted by the strange denizens of the Forest. As she grows, the girl cultivates an astonishing skill: the ability to truly hear the sounds of her world. But her future will be fraught with trial and terror, for it is her ultimate destiny to confront the magician's protege and her most powerful adversary: her own brother.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A foray into the consciousness of its antihero opens this stately chronicle of evil vs. goodness from a veteran, celebrated author. Irasmus, formerly an apprentice at Valarian, the Place of Learning, has renounced his teachers and plundered their powerful cache of knowledge, with which he wishes to reawaken the Dark of Chaos, an evil kept in check for generations by the Covenant of Light. The imperfectly trained yet potent Son of Darkness begins building his empire with enslaved "low-grade demons" and, gradually, the people of the Valley. Among the captives, the villagers of Firthdun are unique in their adherence to the old ways; they nurture a lingering Old Blood ability to commune with the Wind, a natural force commanded by a female entity called Theeossa. Meanwhile, laboring to undo the damage unwittingly wrought, the mages of Valarian enlist the aid of Theeossa and the children of her Forest. To combat Irasmus, Forest and Valley inhabitants alike must place their faith and future in three youths of the Old Blood: a girl named Cerlyn, and a pair of twins born of a terrible rape. While skillfully conceived and deftly written, this novel moves slowly, for each advance is related from a variety of sketchy viewpoints. The inevitable showdown between the forces of dark and light thus arrives as more of a relief than as the thundering climax Norton (Scent of Magic) clearly intends it to be. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A renegade wizard seizes control of the Valley and its people, thus breaking the long-standing Covenant that prevented the Wind from unleashing its full fury against the evil forces of the Dark. The balance between good and evil rests with a pair of twins, one raised by the wizard to do his bidding, the other sheltered by the strange denizens of the nearby Forest and taught to serve the captive Wind. The latest novel by the grandame of sf features well-delineated characters, including an intriguing nonhuman race of forest dwellers. Norton's storytelling mastery and her ability to create complete worlds with a few simple words continues unabated. A good choice for fantasy collections.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Eos; 1st edition (November 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380976021
• ISBN-13: 978-0380976027
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,842,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ms. Norton proves she is still one of the grandmasters, December 1, 1999

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wind in the Stone (Hardcover)

The Valley has always been a blessed place touched by magic that leaves a serene, safe locale. That pleasant environment changes when the teaching Magi of the Place of Learning fails to comprehend the threat posed by the seemingly pathetic student, Irasmus. However, through trickery and theft, Irasmus soon becomes more powerful than his instructors and soon moves into the Tower in Styrmer. Irasmus has broken the convent of noninterference shared by all the magical forces to avoid a second deadly war.

To enhance his powers, Irasmus insures that a Valley gal births a son for him. Irasmus raises the lad Fogar as his apprentice who will augment the evil sorcerer's strengths. Meanwhile, Irasmus tossed out Fogar's twin sister Falice, who is raised by the native Sasqua and the Wind as the hopeful counterbalance to her male relatives.

America had not entered World War II when Andre Norton was already a highly regarded author. Now sixty years have gone by and the great writer shows she still is one of the shining lights in the fantasy genre. WIND IN THE STONE is a well written, entertaining, by the book (that is "Norton's anthology") tale that will please genre fans , especially those of this great talent. The characters are fully developed, but it's the non-human sentient beings that seem so genuine that turns this story into another triumphant tale by the lifetime achievement award winning wrier(SF and fantasy) Ms. Norton.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not easy reading, March 1, 2001

By 

Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wind in the Stone (Mass Market Paperback)

This is not one of Andre Norton's best novels. The dialogue goes into long speeches in a style that loses your attention. The story appears to start in the middle of something, and gives the readers a feeling that they may have missed a previous book. It is a complex fantasy that skips back and forth between characters, and there is one large jump forward in time. Overall, it is a somewhat interesting tale of an evil mage aspiring to power, but the story drags, and it is hard to identify a central character.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointment from a Master of Fantasy, February 14, 2000

By 

M. Allegra (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wind in the Stone (Hardcover)

I have LITERALLY read everything that Ms. Norton has written and I can count the number of times I've been less than delighted on the fingers of one hand. Well, this is one of those times. She delivered such a gem in A SCENT OF MAGIC that my expectations were high for this one. But a WIND IN THE STONE is a disjointed mishmash of a story with characters you spend too little time with to get to know. Skip this one, especially in hard cover, and read the paperback if you absolutely must.