Andre Norton
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!) 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 Beastmaster 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 a pen name, and she was a woman.
Her complete bibliography would take up several pages, so here is a very incomplete list:
Series:
- The Beastmaster 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
- 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
Stand-alone works:
- Android At Arms
- Catseye
- No Night Without Stars
- The Prince Commands (Ruritanian adventure; her first novel)
- Sea Siege
- Shadow Hawk (adventure in Ancient Egypt)
- Star Man's Son (a.k.a. Daybreak - 2250 A.D.)
- 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.)
Tropes commonly found in Norton's novels:
- After the End
- All of the Other Reindeer
- Ancient Astronauts (The forerunners, among others)
- Apocalypse How (happens to Earth in The Beastmaster)
- 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 (In space!)
- Dreaming of Times Gone By
- Due to The Dead
- Earth-That-Was
- The Empire (The Space Adventures of Andre Norton have this.)
- 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."
- Feudal Future
- Field Promotion
- Fire-Forged Friends
- Functional Magic
- Gender Restricted Ability (played straight with the witches of Witch World and the Wyverns of Warlock, then subverted by Simon Tregarth and others)
- 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)
- 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
- 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 (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 a few years (with exploratory landings along the way).
- And the ship is "Vegan registry" - Vega is a mere 25 light-years from Earth.
- Space Police
- Stranger in A Familiar Land: often a result of Rip Van Winkle.
- Switched At Birth
- Talking in Your Dreams
- Thieves' Guild (In space!): generally referred to simply as the Guild.
- True Companions
- Unicorn: (her Elvenbane series)
- Victory-Guided Amnesia
- Virgin Power (the witches, 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. (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.