this is the 159th in my series of forgotten or seldom read books
Tales from High Hallack, Volume 1 by Andre Norton, edited by Jean Rabe [Premier Digital Publishing 2014 trade paper, purchased new] – fantasy / science fiction short story collection.
Though not an old book by publication date, most of these stories are from the Fifties and are the author’s early fantasy, though there are a couple that are mixed SF-F and a straight science fiction story or two. I expected to like the first few – the oldest stories – more than I did, but some of Norton’s early fantasy is a bit murky. Still, it’s well written and the stories got steadily better as I read on. I’ll be picking up Volume 2 (which is now available, as is Volume 3) soon. This is well worth having.
From the publisher’s description:
“For well over a half century, ANDRE NORTON was one of the most popular science fiction and fantasy authors in the world. With series such as Time Traders, Solar Queen, Forerunner, Beast Master, Crosstime, and Janus, as well as many stand-alone novels, her tales of adventure have drawn countless readers to science fiction. Her fantasy novels, including the bestselling Witch World series, her Magic series, and many other unrelated novels, have been popular with readers for decades. Norton died on March 2005 at her home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Jean Rabe was the co-author of several novels with Andre Norton, and edited several of her short stories for various DAW Books anthologies. Rabe and Norton were long-time friends.”
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The Broken Bullhorn 
Does sound interesting. Don’t have a lot of her short work, though many novels. She was one of the earliest writers in the field a young boy trying out new stuff(Heinlein was first).
At the time most kids were reading Andre Norton I was reading other things – mostly mysteries – so I’ve never read her. I’ve thought of trying over the years but fantasy is not my favorite genre and there are so many other authors out there that I’ve never quite done it.
I read a ton of Andre Norton SF novels as a kid, but I had no idea she wrote any short stories. I’ve never seen one before. I’ll have to look for this book. Clearly, Norton wrote a lot of stories if this is just VOLUME ONE.
I don’t know if I’ve ever read a Norton short story. Like George, I read a good many of her novels. I don’t recall ever seeing any of her stories in the digests back in the old days.
I’ve read some of her stories in this setting but not all. I gobbled up her work when I was younger but reading some of her earlier stuff these days is not as enthralling.
Richard, I’m glad many of Andre Norton’s stories are available free online though I haven’t read any yet. “Tales from High Hallack” sounds interesting and I’ll try and read a few as part of my limited sf journey.
Randy, Norton was (is?) a giant in the field at the time books like The Time Traders and Witch World were published in paperback. I had and read them and a lot of her other work. This book and the subsequent volumes promises to collect all of her short works.
Jeff, I was reading science fiction then, not much in the way of fantasy, Fritz Leiber was about it. Except for having already read the first dozen books in the Hardy Boys series, I wasn’t a mystery reader. So Norton’s SF was meat for me, and these stories, especially the SF ones, were very enjoyable reading.
George, a lot of these stories appeared in digests and then in edited SF-F collections, often themed ones. I don’t think there were any all-Norton ss collections until these. With three volumes already in print and more promised, there must be quite a lot of them.
Bill, I think some of these were published in digests, but a lot of them appeared in edited anthologies.
Prashant, “High Hallack” was the name she gave her home, as well as the name of a castle / country in her fantasy books and stories.
Charles, I’ll bet you’d enjoy reading this, and revisiting old friends.
I notice my local library has volume one on the shelf, so when I go later today to pick up the new Stephen King book I’ll get this too. You never know.
I’ve certainly enjoyed what little of Andre Norton’s work I’ve read. I haven’t read any fantasy to this point, just science fiction. I also don’t think I’ve read any short fiction, just longer works.
Worth a try at the price, Jeff.
Carl, your library may also have it, and it fits right in with the SF-F reading you’re doing this month and next.
ISFDB suggests that she, like “Cordwainer Smith”, was a FANTASY BOOK “discovery”…at least, her first “Andrew North” story cited was published there (an earlier trunk story is included in the volumes here). And all these others seem to have been commissioned for 1970s and later anthologies (such as Lin Carter’s FLASHING SWORDS series), indeed I never got too far with the one Norton text I had, her 1965 novel in the same sequence as some of these stories, apparently, YEAR OF THE UNICORN…but I mostly had skipped the “juveniles” (aside from such quasi-Gernsbackian fiction as the Miss Pickerell novels, and Gordon Dickson’s rather less lecturing THE SECRET UNDER THE SEA and M. L’Engle’s science fantasy…never loved the likes of Heinlein’s TIME FOR THE STARS, either).
Cool, though. Glad you’re having a good nostalgic time with them.
Nope, I’m wrong…though her earliest sf or fantasy publication might’ve been in FANTASY BOOK, she’d been publishing historical novels in the latter ’30s.
Todd, you’re never wrong, just occasionally – very occasionally – incomplete, for a moment. Thanks for the additional information.