Key Out of Time
By Andre Norton
Ross knew he might be recklessly endangering all of them. But if Ashe were immured somewhere in that rock pile over their heads, then the risk of trusting Loketh would be worth it. However, because Ross was chancing his neck, it did not mean that Karara needed to be drawn into immediate peril, too. She would have a good chance to hide here safely with the dolphins at her command and the supplies, scant as those were.
“Holding out for what?” she asked quietly after Ross elaborated on this subject, thus bringing him to silence.
Because her question was just. With the gate gone, the Terrans were committed to this time, just as they had earlier been committed to Hawaika when, on their home world, they had entered the spaceship for take-off. There was no escape from the past, which had become their present.
“The Foanna,” she continued, “these Wreckers, the sea people—all at odds. If we join any, then their quarrels must also become ours.”
Aura nosed the ledge behind the girl and squeaked a demand for attention. Karara looked around at Loketh; her look was as searching as the one the native had earlier turned on her and Ross.
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Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy who also wrote historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote under the pen names Andre Norton, Andrew North, and Allen Weston. She was the first woman to be Gandalf’s Grand Master of Fantasy, SFWA Grand Master, and inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
Biography and career
Biography
Alice Mary Norton was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1912. Her parents were Adalbert Freely Norton, who owned a rug company, and Bertha Stemm Norton. Alice began writing at Collinwood High School in Cleveland under the tutelage of Sylvia Cochrane. She was the editor of a literary page in the school’s paper, The Collinwood Spotlight, for which she wrote short stories. She wrote her first book, Ralestone Luck, which was eventually published as her second novel in 1938.
After graduating from high school in 1930, Norton planned to become a teacher and began studying at Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University. However, in 1932, she had to leave because of the Depression. She began working for the Cleveland Library System, where she remained for 18 years, latterly in the children’s section of the Nottingham Branch Library in Cleveland. In a 1996 interview, she recalled defending the acquisition of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien for the library. In 1934, she legally changed her name to Andre Alice Norton, a pen name she had adopted for her first book, published later that year, to increase her marketability since boys were the primary audience for fantasy.
Literary career
In 1934, her first book, The Prince Commands, being sundry adventures of Michael Karl, sometime crown prince & pretender to the throne of Morvania, with illustrations by Kate Seredy, was published by D. Appleton–Century Company (catalogued by the U.S. Library of Congress as by “André Norton”). She wrote several historical novels for the juvenile (now called “young adult”) market.
Norton’s first published science fiction was a short story, “The People of the Crater”, which appeared under the name “Andrew North” on pages 4–18 of the inaugural 1947 number of Fantasy Book, a magazine from Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. Her first fantasy novel, Huon of the Horn, published by Harcourt Brace under her name in 1951, adapted the 13th-century story of Huon, Duke of Bordeaux. Her first science fiction novel, Star Man’s Son, 2250 A.D., appeared from Harcourt in 1952. She became a prolific novelist in the 1950s, with many of her books published for the juvenile market, at least in their original hardcover editions.
As of 1958, when she became a full-time professional writer, Kirkus reviewed 16 of her novels and awarded four starred reviews. Her four-starred reviews to 1957 had been awarded for three historical adventure novels—Follow the Drum (1942), Scarface (1948), Yankee Privateer (1955)—and one Cold War adventure, At Swords’ Points (1954). She received four-star reviews subsequently, the latest in 1966, including three for science fiction.
Legacy
Often called the Grande Dame of Science Fiction and Fantasy by biographers such as J. M. Cornwell and organizations such as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Publishers Weekly, and Time, Andre Norton wrote novels for more than 70 years. She profoundly influenced the entire genre, having more than 300 published titles read by at least four generations of science fiction and fantasy readers and writers. Notable authors who cite her influence include Greg Bear, Lois McMaster Bujold, C. J. Cherryh, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, Tanya Huff, Mercedes Lackey, Charles de Lint, Joan D. Vinge, David Weber, K. D. Wentworth, and Catherine Asaro.
Andre Norton
