Witch World by Andre Norton

People are always asking me about my favorite books and what I enjoyed. Well, the book that really started it all for me was Witch World. Now that sounds as if it should be something like Witches of Eastwick but it's not.

Description from Goodreads:

Ex-colonel Simon Tregarth was a hunted man--and the hunt was beginning to come to its inevitable deadly end. Tregarth was desperate, and his situation required a desperate solution. His only alternative was wild beyond imagining--sorcery.

Simon was forced to give himself up to the mysterious Siege Perilous, the ancient stone of Power. It would judge him, determine his worth, and then deliver him into a world in which his mind and spirit should be at home.

Simon Tregarth's lot would pit him against an uncanny world where the laws of nature operated... differently. Where in fact, "magic" was science. For Simon Tregarth there would be no return, he could never escape from the WITCH WORLD


My thoughts:
This is a world in which magic and science meet and clash. The witches rule their domain and they have no experience with machinery. Then enters Simon, someone from outside their world and their rules don't necessarily apply to him. I truly like Simon. He faces events with fortitude...something people seem to have forgotten just lately in this fast food generation. For instance, he thinks the end is near, so sits down to have a steak dinner as a last meal. No whining; no crying; just dinner.

I also like the fact this story sends Simon to the world he would be most suited for. Haven't we all wished that we were where we were meant to be? Where we would shine. It is in this world that he can become the man he'd like to be. And he even meets a woman to love, even though that love is forbidden. The love story is very secondary so don't think this is a romance. It is full on sci-fi and fantasy set in a medieval type world that yet has some technology. It's a great mix.

It was first published in 1963, so you can pick it up for next to nothing at a used book store. Although Norton's estate has been re-publishing many of her novels, sometimes two in one binding. This is definitely a keeper.