Andre Norton

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Andre Norton (born Alice Norton) was a particularly prolific Speculative Fiction writer. She was dubbed "Grande Dame of Science Fiction and Fantasy" by her biographers, fans, and peers, and has an award comparable to a Nebula for young adult speculative fiction named after her. She published her first novel in 1934 (when she was 21! Her second published novel was actually written first ... while she was in high school) and her last posthumously in 2005.

Norton is well-known for her "soft" Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, and Fantasy novels, although she also wrote such things as spy stories, Westerns, and gothic romance. Her most famous works are probably the Witch World series and her Beast Master novels, the latter of which were later adapted (sort of) to film and a tv series. Her work greatly influenced many modern authors, including Mercedes Lackey and David Weber. A number of female authors were encouraged to write on finding out that "Andre" was the pen name of a woman.

Many of her science fiction stories use the same or similar terms, for instance: "Free Traders," Space Pirates being called "Jacks," a Thieves' Guild/Jack base named "Waystar," the Zacathan and Trystian species, and a popular gambling game known as "Star and Comet." They may also refer to the events or locations of other stories (the Zero Stone duology speaks of archaeological discoveries on the planets from two different series, as well as gemstones from a world in the Solar Queen adventures; one of the Beast Master stories mentions importing "duocorns" from the Astra books). There isn't, though, a coherent future history to most of this; Norton just reused the names rather than invent new ones.

Her complete bibliography would take up several pages, so here is a very incomplete list:

Series:

• The Beast Master series -- Space Western
• The Central Control series, actually two books only related by the interstellar government being called "Central Control"
• The Halfblood Chronicles, with Mercedes Lackey
• The Forerunner series
• The Janus series
• The Moon Singer series
• The Quag Keep series, which was specifically modeled on Dungeons & Dragons
• The Solar Queen series
• The Star Ka'at series, with Dorothy Madlee
• The Sword series - spy stories, set in World War II and the years just following
• The Time Traders series
• The Trillium series, with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Julian May
• The Witch World series
• The Zero Stone series

Stand-alone works:

• Android At Arms
• Catseye
• No Night Without Stars
• The Prince Commands - Ruritanian adventure; her first novel
• Sea Siege - World War III and what follows, with a bit of Gaia's Vengeance thrown in
• Shadow Hawk - adventure in Ancient Egypt
• Star Man's Son a.k.a. Daybreak - 2250 A.D., her first sf novel
• Scarface (can be thought of as Son of Captain Blood)

Full list here. (Even The Other Wiki had to split the bibliography into a page of its own.)

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Andre Norton provides examples of the following tropes:

• After the End
• All of the Other Reindeer
• Ancient Astronauts: The forerunners, among others.
• Apocalypse How: Happens to Earth in The Beast Master.
• Author Appeal: Cats, cats, cats. And occasionally horses...
• Badass Native: A'plenty.
• The Beast Master: The Trope Namer
• Blind Jump
• Bond Creatures: The Beast Master, one of the earliest examples.
• Casual Interstellar Travel: Free Traders, Murdoc Jern in The Zero Stone and Uncharted Stars, etc.
• Catfolk
• Changeling Fantasy
• Changing of the Guard: Her series often start with one character, then move on to their children or other characters.
• A Child Shall Lead Them
• The City Narrows: The Dipple, a refugee camp in the planet Korwar's capital city of Tikil, appears in several novels, e.g. Judgement on Janus, Catseye.
• Color-Coded Wizardry
• Come to Gawk
• Cool Gate
• Curse
• Darkest Hour
• Derelict Graveyard: Recycled in Space! There's also one in Witch World.
• Dreaming of Times Gone By
• Due to the Dead
• Earth-That-Was
• The Empire: The Space Adventures of Andre Norton have this.
  • Arguably The Federation, at least so far the stuff This Troper read pictured it in a more or less benign role.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold
• The Fair Folk: in Dread Companion, Here Abide Monsters, and the short story "The Long Night of Waiting"
• Fantastic Racism: Many times. In Star Guard (Xenophon's Anabasis Recycled in Space), for instance, Terrans are looked down on and virtually enslaved as cannon fodder by the humanoid rulers of Central Control, but get along fine with nonhumans such as the Zacathans. There're also scenes in that book where Terran soldiers refer to the humanoids of one planet as "fur faces." In the chronologically later Star Rangers, humans rule Central Control -- and many call nonhumans "Bemmies."
  • The main character of Star Rangers is accused of being bigoted against fellow humans from the Arcturian system ... because his home planet was nuked into sterility on the orders of an Arcturian.
• Feudal Future
• Field Promotion
• Fire-Forged Friends
• Functional Magic
• Gender-Restricted Ability: Played straight with the witches of Witch World, but then subverted by Simon Tregarth and others.
  • The Wyverns of Warlock had this as well, although there are indications that their males had some psychic ability, just not to anywhere near the same level. The females were very upset when somebody provided the males with a psychic enhancement gadget and a "Men's Liberation Movement" started.
• Give Me a Sword
• Happily Adopted
• Heir Club for Men
• Home, Sweet Home
• I Gave My Word
• I Know Your True Name
• Intelligent Gerbil
• Intrepid Merchant: Her Free Traders, who appear in almost all her Science Fiction.
  • Oddly, the first of her Solar Queen stories implied that Traders, whether Free or Company, got much if not all of their training from the government. The viewpoint character's memories of such training let him recognize another fellow, just from the way he moves, as practiced in the use of a weapon that's illegal for civilians. Since Traders were taught enough about those moves for him to remember so readily what they look like, it suggests they aren't precisely considered to be civilian themselves....
  • In The Sioux Spaceman, Terran merchants are very much an arm of the government ... and some of them are in fact secret agents working to topple a nasty alien empire.
• Kill Me Now or Forever Stay Your Hand
• La Résistance: Specifically, the Dutch Resistance from World War II, in the first and third books of the Sword series.
• Lizard Folk and/or The Reptilians: Particularly the usually-scholarly Zacathans in many of her space stories.
• Made a Slave
• Magical Negro: The depiction of the tribal elders in Voodoo Planet, in the Solar Queen series, is a bit too close for comfort for modern readers, even if their culture is sympathetic in other ways, such as being founded by Africans escaping from a concentration camp.
• Meaningful Rename
• Needle in a Stack of Needles
• 90% of Your Brain: Chances are, any given protagonist will discover he's got latent Psychic Powers by about half way through the book.
• No One Gets Left Behind
• Our Dragons Are Different: Her Elvenbane series, Dragon Magic, and Quag Keep.
• Our Elves Are Better: Also her Elvenbane series.
• People of Hair Color
• Planet Terra: Most of her science fiction.
• The Power of Love
• Precursors: The Forerunners, possibly the ur-example.
• Psychic Powers
• The Remnant: The villains in The Beast Master; the spy organization in Catseye may also qualify.
• Requisite Royal Regalia
• Revenge by Proxy
• Rip Van Winkle: Anyone who travels through a Cool Gate and back may find time very different on either side.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The Free Trader ship Solar Queen is described as both "small" and "needle-slim." It's also clearly a rocket shape. But when Norton explains the accommodations on a single deck within that "small" hull, it's clear that to have "needle-slim" proportions at that size, it'd need to be about the height of a Saturn V.
  • Also, in Star Rangers, Terra's whereabouts have been forgotten, and it's said to be far from the centers of galactic civilization. The man who sent the ship on its last mission is in charge of Deneb, approximately 1400 light-years from Sol. But the villain is from the highly civilized Arcturus system, which is ... only 36 light-years away from the forgotten boonies -- not all that great a distance when a small scout starship can cover some 1400 in less than five years (with exploratory landings along the way).
  • And the ship is "Vegan registry" - Vega is a mere 25 light-years from Earth.
    • The original Vega, at least - who knows how imaginative the early settlers were when naming stars?
• Space People: Free traders especially but anyone who travels. They look younger from time dilation and thinner from gravity distinction but do not look abnormal otherwise.
• Space Police
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: often a result of Rip Van Winkle.
• Switched At Birth
• Talking in Your Dreams
• Thieves' Guild: Recycled in Space! Generally referred to simply as the Guild.
• True Companions
• Unicorn: Her Elvenbane series.
• Victory-Guided Amnesia
• Virgin Power: The witches in Witch World, although several have been shown to keep their power after losing their virginity.
• Wretched Hive: The Dipple, a barracks for people who can't return to their homes because those have been destroyed or, more often, ceded to the enemy in the aftermath of a major interstellar war. (Though it's never outright said, the name probably derives from D.P.L. for "Displaced Persons Lodging.")
• You Can't Go Home Again: Occurs to refugees of various wars and some victims of Cool Gates.