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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Assortment of 5 good short stories., February 17, 2001
The 5 stories in this volume are discussed below in order of original publication, rather than the order in which they appear in the book. Only one is a Witch World story, but due to the perversity of life in general, it so far appears *only* in this book."By a Hair" (1958) - Also appears in _Wizards' Worlds_. This story takes place in a tiny, nameless valley somewhere between Germany and Russia. During World War II, the old Count was shot and his wife was sent to a concentration camp - and Ivor and his men took to the hills to fight. After the war, Ivor married a woman in the mold of la belle dame sans merci - beautiful, ambitious, and cold-hearted; she married him because in the immediate wake of World War II, he was a hero, with the highest status in the valley. The countess came home - her body so twisted and broken from the Nazis' tortures that few remembered that she was still a young woman. It seemed that life would go on...then the last, crushing blow fell. The Russians came, and this time, the little valley was left to fight alone, without the world's help. The Russians killed any authority figures they could catch that the Nazis hadn't killed already - except Ivor, who took what fighting men were left and headed into the hills again, and the Countess, who also faded into hiding. Among those killed was the priest - and in their despair, the valley folk began to seek help from other sources. "Wizard's World" (1967) - After Earth's devastating atomic wars, mutations began cropping up - notably the Espers. Once respected, then warily tolerated for their wild talents, all Espers are now either trapped in labor camps, hunted fugitives, or - worst of all - traitors, serving as trackers to hunt down fugitives. Craike, an Esper now hoping only for a quick death before he can be forced to betray his allies to the hunters only minutes behind him, climbs to the top of a rocky gorge in the desert, flings himself from the brink - and falls into a foaming river where no river could be! His desperation and Esper talent have somehow unlocked a gate between realities, into another world. This is *not* a Witch World story; to the best of my knowledge, the world Craike finds himself in has not reappeared in any other Norton story to date. Magic does exist in the Wizard's World in which he finds himself, but magic dominated by men, and only those belonging to the order that rules the country - not that they're the *only* practitioners of magic, but only they have official sanction. Craike finds a brother and sister who have been condemned for the crime of having magic that doesn't fit the approved mold - and steps in to try to rescue them. Craike has gone from one Esper's war to another - but this time he has a chance to win. The story doesn't wrap up with Craike's total victory, nothing so trite. We just have a man who has the makings of a warlord, carving out for himself a promising beginning. "Toys of Tamisan" (1969) - See my review of Norton's book _Perilous Dreams_ for my review of this story and its sequel, "Ship of Mist", the latter of which appears *only* in _Perilous Dreams_ to date. "Through the Needle's Eye" (1970) - Also appears in _Moon Mirror_. The narrator, looking back, on her childhood as a little girl crippled by polio, begins with the day she refused to go to a birthday party, since she couldn't join in the games. Exploring the back garden to kill time, she crosses over into the neighboring property - to find a beautiful quilt on a clothesline, a work of art. And then a voice behind her asks her opinion of it... Thus she meets Anne Ruthevan - an artist in needlework whose life and body were both smashed by the carriage accident that killed her father when she was twenty. The now-elderly Miss Ruthevan takes the girl on as a student in the art of needlework. For hundreds of years, Ruthevan women have had the gift - witness the centuries-old tapestries in Miss Ruthevan's home. But what price have they had to pay for the greatest triumphs of their art? "Ully the Piper" (1970) - Currently appears only in this collection. It's a variation on a Mexican fairy tale, "Domingo Siete", a version of which appeared in English translation in the Collier's Junior Classic series I had as a kid (called "Tonino and the Fairies", I think). In the years after the Invader's War, the small village of Coombfrome, which was always isolated at the best of times, seems to have been completely forgotten. Even their overlord, whoever he may be now, fails to collect taxes. When a trader passes through, it's an event. One such trader leaves a pipe behind, to be broken in the hands of the arrogant braggart who dominates the youngsters of the village. But Ully, crippled and confined to a cart, has a talent for mending broken things, and teaches himself to play the now patched-up pipe. Out of spite, the strutting bully who first broke the pipe one day sends Ully's cart out of control down a steep hill, to fetch up at the standing stones near the village. Where Ully finds that someone else might be interested in his music...
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