Ordeal in Otherwhere

Forerunner #2B

by Andre Norton, Davis Meltzer (cover illustration)

Cover code #63821. This is a second printing or later, reprinting Ace F-325 (same cover art). Second book in the "Forerunner/Warlock" series. Other novels in this sequence: Storm Over Warlock (1960), Forerunner Foray (1973), Forerunner (1981) and The Second Venture (1985).

A young girl who has been sold as a slave to a trader wishing to do business with the Wyverns who rule the planet Warlock soon finds herself not only in contact with these strange beings but also involved in a mysterious internecine struggle she does not understand.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure, Sci Fi Fantasy

203 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Andre Norton, born Alice Mary Norton, was a pioneering American author of science fiction and fantasy, widely regarded as the Grande Dame of those genres. She also wrote historical and contemporary fiction, publishing under the pen names Andre Alice Norton, Andrew North, and Allen Weston. She launched her career in 1934 with The Prince Commands, adopting the name “Andre” to appeal to a male readership. After working for the Cleveland Library System and the Library of Congress, she began publishing science fiction under “Andrew North” and fantasy under her own name. She became a full-time writer in 1958 and was known for her prolific output, including Star Man’s Son, 2250 A.D. and Witch World, the latter spawning a long-running series and shared universe. Norton was a founding member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America and authored Quag Keep, the first novel based on the Dungeons & Dragons game. She influenced generations of writers, including Lois McMaster Bujold and Mercedes Lackey. Among her many honors were being the first woman named Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and SFWA Grand Master. In her later years, she established the High Hallack Library to support research in genre fiction. Her legacy continues with the Andre Norton Award for young adult science fiction and fantasy.

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Series Edited by David G. Hartwell and L. W. Currey.

Cover and Title Page Art by Fred Knecht, Jr.

The second book in the Forerunner series which consists of:

Storm Over Warlock (1960)
Ordeal in Otherwhere (1964)
Forerunner (1971)
Forerunner Foray (1973)
The Second Venture (1985)

[P.D.R. Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

At a time when SF and Fantasy were in the doldrums Andre Norton kept it alive, especially for many YA readers. I always loved her books because her female character didn't scream and run away but actually were the real heroines. At a time when it was difficult to find strong female leads Andre Norton gave us so many.

This is still a good read despite its age and YA readers aren't the only ones to enjoy it.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charis Nordholm may be the first human female leading hero in hard SF. (Turns out not true, but within three years) Though there are other books like Memoirs of a Spacewoman I haven't read yet that could make that claim. Another possible is A Wrinkle in Time, but I read it over forty years ago and my memory is not that good.

Norton tells a fine tale of bigotry starting with religious intolerance on Demeter where Charis is trafficked by some shady Free Traders to a deep sexual divide on the world of Warlock. Can she stop the evil company men from looting Warlock? Charis is the true hero in this book, saving Shann Lantee's life twice and overcoming some pretty horrible circumstances as well as resolving the war of the sexes on Warlock. And yes, they do live happily ever after.

An excellent read.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good and well done 1960's read. This novel involves an interesting young female protagonist fleeing trouble on a conserative religious planet. She successfully arrives on another planet to face further difficulties. She meets up with Shan Lantree (from: Storm Over Warlock), two "special" wolverines companions and an alien Curl Cat.

[Alien · Rating 2 out of 5]

Charis wird an einen dubiosen Fremdwelten-Händler verkauft. Der will sie als Verhandlerin auf dem Planeten Warlock einsetzen. Dort herrscht ein Matriachat, die Eingeborenen wollen mit den Menschen wenig zu tun haben. Ihre Vorgängerin wurde verrückt. Sie wird von seltsamen Träumen befallen.

Ich kann die gute Bewertung bei goodreads nicht nachvollziehen.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd little adventure by Andre (Alice) Norton. It's quick and Norton only touches on a few interesting plot points, like a planet where religious zealots have killed or run off government workers and their families. Then the protagonist is off to the planet Warlock, run by Wyverns, female aliens who use dreams to keep their males subservient and to keep off-worlders at bay.

There's some stuff about selling fabric, then our heroine cleverly deduces the "magic" of the Wyverns and uses it to thwart some pirates. She's smart enough to realize that everyone's not playing fair (or nice) and she works to even things out.

It's a decent little adventure (the cover of this edition doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything) and probably the best thing about it are some helpful, intelligent animals. The whole magic/dreaming/telepathy thing is interesting but confusingly described at times. I enjoyed it, but Norton has better books out there.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a typical Andre Norton novel, but better written than many. A young woman, Charis, is sold to free traders after the death of her father during a revolt on an isolate planet. The traders bring her to Warlock because they need her to negotiate with the matriarchical reptilian race with witch-like powers.

However, a company men arrive and ambush both the traders and small government post so that they can steal the Wyverns powers with the help of the male Wyvern who are subjugated by their females. Charis teams up with Shan Lantee (hero of Storm Over Warlock), two wolverines and an alien cat, to thwart the company plans and help to reform Wyvern society.

Norton's prose is often awkward, but this is a good adventure story that could be made into an excellent film.

[Stephen Burridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

I still read or reread old Andre Norton books from time to time, mainly out of a kind of nostalgia. I enjoyed some of her work when I was very young, 8-10 years old. I also read some of it as undemanding fantasy fare when I was in my 20s. In the last couple of years I’ve read “Witch World”, from the early ‘60s; “The Crystal Gryphon”, a later, quite different novel in the Witch World sequence; and now “Ordeal In Otherwhere”. I actually quite liked “The Crystal Gryphon” as a medieval type fantasy with marginal sf elements, relatively low key. “Witch World” I thought just ok. “Ordeal In Otherwhere” strikes me as dated mediocre juvenile sf that just doesn’t work any more. It’s easily the weakest of the three. Not sure how much more Norton I’ll look at.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is solidly done of course, but is a strange amalgam of pseudo-magic and (unrelated?) animal-psychic powers and gender role themes and Norton's Free Trader / Forerunner setting. Truthfully it shares too much with Norton's own Witch World series--abilities tied to gender and societal gender roles and individuals who appear to sidestep those rules--for me to consider this to be its own thing.

And like much of her youngish-adult standalone works, this brushes up against intriguing concepts but does not pursue them. In this case, the Wyvern males operate under the strict mental control of the matriarchy and when let loose by Bad Actors, it turns out that they are not well-adjusted individuals. As one might expect.

[Maggie Sauerer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my first book that I have read by Andre Norton, and while there were elements I liked I thought for the most part that I couldn’t follow what was happening since the plot would change or add characters without any sort of description. It just jumped from one thing to the next without any sort of background information so for the most part I didn’t know what was going on. An example of this is when all of a sudden Charis learned how to use the power, without really fully describing what it did or showing her interactions with the wervyns during this time of learning. I’m interested to read more by her but I hope this isn’t a trend.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the two books of the Dipple series, the main theme dealt with outcasts refugees from in interstellar war. There was a minor theme also, one this is really a major theme in sf—intelligence in other species. Following Storm over Warlock, Ordeal is about humans and their animal companions not only facing an alien race whose power is through dreams & the mind, but also they must face an attempt by an outlaw company to somehow control that power. Norton writes an enthralling adventure story on the surface but also gives the reader a lot to think about in terms of power—how it is used or abused, who benefits, and how to change those terms.

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This may be the strangest book I have ever read. My theory: Norton read "Alice In Wonderland", smoked a couple of joints, drank some whiskey and wine, chewed up some peyote seeds, ate some magic mushrooms, and then set down and wrote this tale. I love Norton's imagination but this thing was bonkers and very difficult to follow at times. And how come they had earthly wolverines (even though they could converse telepathically) on a planet with only otherwise strange creatures? I really don't know if I would recommend this to anyone or not. Proceed at your own risk.

[Sarah Rigg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of my earliest exposure to science fiction was to Andre Norton novels from my public library. The only reason I'm sure of a few of the titles is that I mentioned them in my journals from that time.

[cassian love]

I was really into this book at first, but I don't think I'll ever be able to finish it. I liked it at first and it was very intriguing but it wasn't my taste. I did not finish this book, but I might try to finish it in a few years or something.

[Taylor Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic little novel from one of my favorite series by Andre Norton. This is a direct sequel to Storm Over Warlock. If you have not read the first book, this one may seem random and all over the place, but as a sequel it does a great job further building the world on planet Warlock. The beings native to Warlock (Wyverns) have powers that involve communicating via the manipulation of dreams. The main protagonist is a non-native human who is brought to Warlock. Norton brilliantly conveys the strangeness of the dream scenes with surreal dream-like descriptions as the main character encounters the Wyverns for the first time. I tend to think the people who review this book poorly probably didn't read the first book, because as a stand-alone novel it may seem confusing or poorly paced. As someone who loved Storm Over Warlock, I thought this was a fun continuation.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite typical sci-fi from her from back in the 60's

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sequel to Storm Over Warlock -- a fact I never knew until many years after I read this one. (I was rather young when that happened.)

It opens on the planet Demeter, where an extremely selective plague took out most of the men -- as if aimed at the government men, and those families who were most supportive of them. A fanatic leader persuaded them to take out the machinery, as well. And Charis, daughter of the education expert, is fleeing from the mob.

Well, they catch her. And she finds them dealing with a semi-legal Free Trader who's selling indefinite term labor contracts, so they can have the agricultural slaves they will need to support the colony, with the men dead and the machinery gone -- and is willing to buy hers. If she's willing to sign instead of being left there.

She ends up on Warlock, where a Free Trader is trying to use her to start trade with the Wyverns. There's another woman there -- quite mad, terrified of the "snakes" -- so she was not his first try. She deduces the existence of a Survey base, and suspecting that the trader is operating illegally, tries to contact them, but before anything comes of it, the Wyverns reach her. They draw her toward the sea, at one point preventing her from contacting a Survey member, but providing food, and when she reaches it, she is welcomed, and they start to teach her.

But a Jack raid leads to more complications, and discoveries. The rest of the book involves her suddenly being cut free as the Wyverns must work together, a creature called a curl-cat, a comparison of native planets, a Wyvern attack being exploited as an escape, and broad discretion being used for an ambassador.

[Valerie]

This edition seems fairly durable, but it's bound too close to the margins, so it's often difficult to read words near the end of sentences. Also, there are many uncorrected typos.

This sort of acts as a bridge between Storm over Warlock and Forerunner Foray, since the male lead in Forerunner Foray is Ris Lantee, apparently the son of Shann Lantee and Charis Nordholm (introduced in this book).

It's a better book than the first, but Forerunner Foray is better still in some ways. There's less of a militaristic trend, though conflicts are introduced that don't get resolved (What DID happen on Demeter after the abusive followers of Tolskegg sold Charis into slavery, for example?).

[Bernadette · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the colonial planet Demeter descends into chaos, taken over by prejudice and an outlaw, Charis Nordholm takes the first way out - a indefinite labor contract with a trader. It is this contract that brings her to the planet Warlock to be a go-between in meetings with the mysterious natives. But nothing is quite what it seems on the planet of the dreamers, and Charis must walk a fine line between dream and truth as she discerns what the real danger here is.
*
Not one of Norton's best by any means, but an enjoyable sci-fi escape. It's always a breath of fresh air to have a strong heroine without any romance.

[Doris · Rating 1 out of 5]

We are introduced to Shann Lantee, related to Ris Lantee from the Forerunner series. In that way, then, this becomes a prequel.

Here, we deal with social issues and misunderstandings, plus a militaristic society that wants to take over. The Wyverns remind me of the Web mistresses from a short story by the same author, although that took place on the Witch World.

It was unsatisfying in that it never really reaches a conclusion - it simply ends. Overall worth reading for the social issues it addresses.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I misplaced this book when I was about 10 pages from the end, and just found and finished it a couple of days ago. It probably doesn't say much for the book that in the several months before I read the last little bit I was only mildly curious about how it all turns out.

Still, it's enjoyable, and creates an interesting world of magic, science and telepathy. But the story and the characters never quite grabbed me, and it's the sort of book that I will completely forget within the year.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Companion-like novel to Storm over Warlock. This book also takes place on Warlock, and Shann Lantree is a character in this one as well. However, our main character with this book is female. She is welcomed at first by the witches of Warlock, and when danger strikes, is able to help work towards a peaceful solution for all.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Wyverns of planet Warlock are locked in battle within their cultures. The human slave arrives with the traders who wishes to sell her here.

[Mely]

The first Norton I read, and still one of my favorites. Need to add edition I have (first hardcover, same as I read from the library ages and ages ago).

[Dantegideon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found everyone pretty unlikeable, I have to say. Mark of her talent that it was still gripping enough to finish.

[SciFiOne · Rating 3 out of 5]

1982 grade C

[Asaria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a soft spot for Andre Norton. After all, it's her books that hooked me on fantasy but "Ordeal in Otherwhere" wasn't her best. Oh, it's easy to read, no doubt it, nonetheless I was bored.

[Howard]

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