This is book 4 of the initial Witch World series and continues the story of the Three, the triplets born to Jaelithe, ex-Witch, and Simon Tregarth, man of our universe who entered the Witch World through an interdimensional gateway.

This time, the story is told from the viewpoint of the second-born, Kemoc, the one to whom their mother wished wisdom. After the events of the previous story, the Valley of Green Silences, haven for those who oppose the Shadow in the land of Escore, is ringed around by enemies. Its leaders try to make alliances with other races in Escore who traditionally have not followed the Shadow. On a mission to the Krogan, a people who depend on water and have gills, but can spend limited time on land, Kemoc meets Orsya, a Krogan woman, who tells him (correctly, as events transpire) that the Krogan will not ally with them; instead, her race will attempt to make a deal with the enemy in order to stay neutral and be left alone.

On his return to the valley, Kemoc finds that his sister Kaththea is friendly with Dinzil of the Heights, leader of an allied group. He has an uneasy feeling about Dinzil, who seems to sneer at his disability (Kemoc's hand was injured in the fighting in their homeland of Estcarp, over the mountains). But when he tries to share his worries with his brother Kyllan, he discovers Kyllan is inclined to put his misgivings down to overprotectiveness of their sister, or jealousy. Kyllan warns him not to broach the subject with her as it will only turn her against him. Soon after, a bird messenger alerts the Valley people that more fighters and their dependents are coming over the mountains between Escore and Estcarp to join the armed struggle, and Kemoc joins the party who go to escort them, as the countryside between the mountains and the Valley is riddled with minions of the Shadow.

On the return journey Kemoc is kidnapped by the Krogan who plan to hand him over to the Shadow in return for being left alone, and he only survives due to the bravery and resourcefulness of Orsya. Later, both join forces in a quest to save Kaththea. I won't say more about the plot to avoid spoilers.

I enjoyed this story partly because of the general weirdness which makes it so different to a lot of fantasy, and partly due to the character of Orsya. Kemoc's strength is wisdom, and he puts to good use the knowledge he gleaned in the earlier story when he spent time at Lormt, the old centre of learning in Estcarp, while recuperating from the injury to his hand. He learned words of power which sometimes have unpredictable results in Escore where so much old magic lingers from long-ago power struggles that left the land divided in an uneasy truce between those who follow the Light and those who do evil for the sake of having power.

In the previous story, the coming of the three siblings upset that balance and put current events in motion, but it is clear that Denzil's dabblings were well in hand, and they can't be blamed for his activities which would have caused havoc eventually. For it is possible that Denzil is the Warlock of the title - the term certainly fits his character better than Kemoc's well-meaning blundering and muddling through. I liked it that Kemoc is not the stereotypical man of action: he is a trained warrior and can fight when necessary, but he is also often out of his depth and dependent on Orsya who helps him for her own reasons, partly because she is far more adventurous than most of her people.

The final section features a lot of very weird morphing between different dimensional levels with distortion of perception and bodily reality (reminiscent of some of Michael Moorcock's later fiction, which again shows Norton's influence on the genre) and also shows Kaththea as more than a match for Denzil in her capacity for corruption and downright malice, which is a nice twist. It will be interesting to see how the story plays out, as I think from the title of the next book that the story will continue from Kaththea's viewpoint. This really deserves a 4.5 stars as I enjoyed it most of the series so far, but can't quite award the last 0.5 as the style of writing uses rather clunky dialogue at times which can jar. ( )

I first read this as a teenager. A girl in class whom I hardly knew lent it to me 'I think you'll like it, my brother raves about it'. It totally blew me away then, and having re-read it twice the effect is the same. Why, I don't quite know. Fantasy as a genre was in its infancy when I first read it, maybe it was the shock of the new. Visions of its strange landscape still enter my mind at random intervals...that's how strong an effect it has. Andre Norton was a genius. ( )

Again Andre Norton drew me into the story just like the first time I read it back in the 80s. ( )

This is definitely a guilty pleasure. I don't know why this half fish/half man was so romantically compelling...but who can predict romantic attraction? ( )