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Yurth Burden
The world of Zacar was wracked with storms and life there was hard. Yet tow races shared it with no love between them. The Raski were the first people, the Yurth the late comers.
This is the story of Elossa, the Yurth girl who followed the Call that every Yurth sensitive must follow when the time came. And this is the story of Stans, the Raski, who had to achieve manhood by blood rite against the hated Yurth.
This is a novel of a world where ancient injustice had been done and never righted, where brooding evil and age-old vengeance awaited peace-makers-- and of two who brought this terror down upon their own heads.
This is the story of Elossa, the Yurth girl who followed the Call that every Yurth sensitive must follow when the time came. And this is the story of Stans, the Raski, who had to achieve manhood by blood rite against the hated Yurth.
This is a novel of a world where ancient injustice had been done and never righted, where brooding evil and age-old vengeance awaited peace-makers-- and of two who brought this terror down upon their own heads.
158 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
2 people are currently reading
184 people want to read
About the author
Andre Norton
692 books1,396 followersAndre 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.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 7, 2011
Whenever I sit down to read one of Andre Norton's novels, it is an expectant feeling which I know will later be satisfied when I finish it, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I have the same feeling when I read C.J. Cherryh, another of my favorite writers. Unlike Cherryh's work, I don't have all of Norton's so I'm always pleased when I find an original copy. With DAW books also, I collect original covers plus the varied ones which may be changed in later editions.
The descriptions are rich, (they always all) yet still conveyed a sense of starkness and pragmatism which reflected the world and the main character's personality. A latter day people of sorts, she goes on a traditional journey usually young people make to the mountains when the "call" comes to them. They are telepathic people, feared for it by others, but peaceful, doing no harm to others though their abilities of mental projection could certainly do so. The young woman's journey takes her into her people's past and what could again be their future. Telling anything more would be a spoiler.
If you're looking for a moderately paced and well written tale with elements both of fantasy and science fiction, Yurth Burden very good choice.
The descriptions are rich, (they always all) yet still conveyed a sense of starkness and pragmatism which reflected the world and the main character's personality. A latter day people of sorts, she goes on a traditional journey usually young people make to the mountains when the "call" comes to them. They are telepathic people, feared for it by others, but peaceful, doing no harm to others though their abilities of mental projection could certainly do so. The young woman's journey takes her into her people's past and what could again be their future. Telling anything more would be a spoiler.
If you're looking for a moderately paced and well written tale with elements both of fantasy and science fiction, Yurth Burden very good choice.
August 2, 2023
What beautiful book. It's a novel where we have two characters from two different tribes. First Elossa a Yurth girl who is following the call and Stans a Raski who to evolve in their tribe must kill a Yurth.
We've got the journey of both and then the scene where they converge. It was interesting to see Stans change (although a bit too fast) and the then the revelation of how everything came to be and the reason on how they both hate one another...
The climax is also good but again, with this number of pages you can't expect much. I enjoy the story but I think the ending was a bit of anticlimatic. Something that is happening for generations between tribes can't change just because two characters want.. Is this simplicity on books written on 70's that sometimes upset me (like almost every tvshow from before 90's)
6/10
We've got the journey of both and then the scene where they converge. It was interesting to see Stans change (although a bit too fast) and the then the revelation of how everything came to be and the reason on how they both hate one another...
The climax is also good but again, with this number of pages you can't expect much. I enjoy the story but I think the ending was a bit of anticlimatic. Something that is happening for generations between tribes can't change just because two characters want.. Is this simplicity on books written on 70's that sometimes upset me (like almost every tvshow from before 90's)
6/10
October 29, 2025
"That the sargon could pick up her own body scent she did not fear. Long ago the Yurth had discovered various herbal infusions for both the skin and the inner parts of their bodies which destroyed the normal odors such beasts could pick up." (Hooray for deodorant!)
-
"His hand relaxed, fell to lie limply on her breast. Another form of contact! Such could carry a greater charge than thought alone." (...)
This is my third book by Ms. Norton. Based on what I've seen, she had no business being such a prolific author. Thankfully, she toned down the alliteration in this one (though there are still some bursts of it). She also gave us a female protagonist (in the other two books I read, there was an overall dearth of female characters). I liked some concepts here, and it might have been a decent book if its author were more skilled, but it leaves a lot to be desired. There are major issues with the story and backstory. The continuity of character names is very problematic. And there are plot holes and loose ends.
Ms. Norton's sentences are hard to swallow. I've said it before, but her writing has no flow. It's just bad. Kind of, but not quite, like the writing of a half-Yoda/half-corrupted AI that didn't have English as a first language. She wrote in a tiring, roundabout way and was awful at showing her readers exactly what was happening (especially in action scenes).
Here's an example of her prose:
"Here was dark, battled only feebly by a flickering of flame she could see from eye corner."
...
The story seems okay at first... It's just a little ridiculous. And it only gets worse from there.
The entire scene is nonsensical.
Elossa constantly uses her mind powers, even though they're supposed to have a limited charge and a long cooldown. Time after time, she "exhausts" her powers, only to use them again in the very next scene.
...
Stans is said to carry a "bow" (the cover shows him with a bow, but that doesn't mean anything). When he actually uses it, it's a crossbow. Also, he's a Raski, and they live in huts in the mud. The crossbow is an unlikely weapon for such a civilization to produce.
The ruined ancient Raski city is introduced to us as "Kal-Nath-Tan." It's called this at least eight times between chapters 7 and 8. Then chapter 9 throws that out the window, and from that point on, it's called "Kal-Hath-Tan" (at least 28 times). So, which is it? (I'm going with the initial spelling, even though the second spelling is used significantly more.) How does something like this even happen?
But it doesn't stop there. Stans is of the House of Philbur. It's definitely Philbur. But there's one instance of it being spelled "Philbert." Philbert?! Then there's "Galdor." It's twice typed as "Galdor" and once as "Galder."
"Galdor rules in the plains... I am no shieldman of Galder's. We of Philbur's blood raise no voice in his hall... Thus we have sent the Son of Philbert each generation..." (How?!)
...
Elossa's lip-licking extravaganza:
"Elossa licked her lips." (p. 32)
-
"Elossa licked her lips." (p. 57)
-
"The girl moistened her lips with the point of her tongue."
-
"She moistened her lips again."
-
"She moistened her lips and launched..."
-
"Again she ran her tongue over her lips; her mouth, in spite of the water she had drunk, felt bone dry..."
-
etc.
...
I couldn't help but notice that in all three books I've read from this author (which I selected at random), she's mentioned "rutted roads" and "gray dawn skies." Fascinating.
She falls into the pattern of using the words "which" and "rather" much more than is necessary (or welcome). Also, "itself" (and the other "selves"). And, in this one, I noticed "farther" was used very frequently. And "alien" (not in the extraterrestrial sense) also occurred too often.
-
"itself": at least 21
"herself": at least 17
"himself": at least 13
"themselves": at least 4
"farther": at least 16
"further": 4
"alien": 11+
-
Uses of "here and there": 4
Uses of "tenuous": 4
Uses of "loom" (verb): 4 (The other "loom" is used once, but that doesn't count.)
Uses of "wary": 12
...
Alliteration:
"She slipped and slid, the skin of her hands scraped raw..."
-
"... a grayish glimmer which gave..."
-
"... she stopped, startled, stared..."
-
"... fighting frenziedly for freedom."
-
"She kept well away from the webbed walls as she went..."
-
"... she swung that ahead in a slow sweep from side to side to make sure..."
-
"... cunningly and carefully constructed..."
-
"... perhaps their precarious partnership..."
-
"... melding of menace."
-
"... she could see the stars strewn across the sky." (I could swear she's used this same combination of words before...)
-
"Around the fruit flew and climbed countless feasters—some feathered, some furred."
-
"She found such fumbling feeble so far..."
-
"... tenuous trails of sickly smelling smoke."
...
Typos/Mistakes:
"... rather farther away then her dream had shown it." (than)
-
"With that tugging in her hand she could not lost contact." (Either "lose" or "could not have lost.")
-
"There came no answer to her question. Nor would there be." (The "be" here does not belong.)
-
" "Yurth may have defenses... The which may act against me," he interrupted quickly." (There shouldn't be a "the" here.)
-
"... of such importance that it drew her eyes in compelling way." (... in a compelling way.)
-
"Thought the Raski, by custom, were always ready to give their own..." (Though...)
-
"Raski civilization had ended once in the great trauma of the destruction of Kal-Hath-Tan, the which she had witnessed herself in a vision." (Again, why is there a "the"?)
-
"Perhaps one time water had washed its way through here..." (... at one time...)
-
"That had been no part of any hallucination—surely it could not!" (... could not have been!)
-
"He must feel as heartened by the thought of escape as she was..." (The "was" does not belong here.)
-
"She fumbled in folds of her clothing and brought forth..." (... in the folds...)
-
I don't think you can use "done" in this way (even if you somehow can, it's still wrong):
"When he had done he nodded to the hills ahead." ("was done" or "had finished.")
"But when she had done he saw her..." (Again, either "was done" or "had finished.")
...
158 pages.
4.5/10
-
"His hand relaxed, fell to lie limply on her breast. Another form of contact! Such could carry a greater charge than thought alone." (...)
This is my third book by Ms. Norton. Based on what I've seen, she had no business being such a prolific author. Thankfully, she toned down the alliteration in this one (though there are still some bursts of it). She also gave us a female protagonist (in the other two books I read, there was an overall dearth of female characters). I liked some concepts here, and it might have been a decent book if its author were more skilled, but it leaves a lot to be desired. There are major issues with the story and backstory. The continuity of character names is very problematic. And there are plot holes and loose ends.
Ms. Norton's sentences are hard to swallow. I've said it before, but her writing has no flow. It's just bad. Kind of, but not quite, like the writing of a half-Yoda/half-corrupted AI that didn't have English as a first language. She wrote in a tiring, roundabout way and was awful at showing her readers exactly what was happening (especially in action scenes).
Here's an example of her prose:
"Here was dark, battled only feebly by a flickering of flame she could see from eye corner."
...
The story seems okay at first... It's just a little ridiculous. And it only gets worse from there.
The entire scene is nonsensical.
Elossa constantly uses her mind powers, even though they're supposed to have a limited charge and a long cooldown. Time after time, she "exhausts" her powers, only to use them again in the very next scene.
...
Stans is said to carry a "bow" (the cover shows him with a bow, but that doesn't mean anything). When he actually uses it, it's a crossbow. Also, he's a Raski, and they live in huts in the mud. The crossbow is an unlikely weapon for such a civilization to produce.
The ruined ancient Raski city is introduced to us as "Kal-Nath-Tan." It's called this at least eight times between chapters 7 and 8. Then chapter 9 throws that out the window, and from that point on, it's called "Kal-Hath-Tan" (at least 28 times). So, which is it? (I'm going with the initial spelling, even though the second spelling is used significantly more.) How does something like this even happen?
But it doesn't stop there. Stans is of the House of Philbur. It's definitely Philbur. But there's one instance of it being spelled "Philbert." Philbert?! Then there's "Galdor." It's twice typed as "Galdor" and once as "Galder."
"Galdor rules in the plains... I am no shieldman of Galder's. We of Philbur's blood raise no voice in his hall... Thus we have sent the Son of Philbert each generation..." (How?!)
...
Elossa's lip-licking extravaganza:
"Elossa licked her lips." (p. 32)
-
"Elossa licked her lips." (p. 57)
-
"The girl moistened her lips with the point of her tongue."
-
"She moistened her lips again."
-
"She moistened her lips and launched..."
-
"Again she ran her tongue over her lips; her mouth, in spite of the water she had drunk, felt bone dry..."
-
etc.
...
I couldn't help but notice that in all three books I've read from this author (which I selected at random), she's mentioned "rutted roads" and "gray dawn skies." Fascinating.
She falls into the pattern of using the words "which" and "rather" much more than is necessary (or welcome). Also, "itself" (and the other "selves"). And, in this one, I noticed "farther" was used very frequently. And "alien" (not in the extraterrestrial sense) also occurred too often.
-
"itself": at least 21
"herself": at least 17
"himself": at least 13
"themselves": at least 4
"farther": at least 16
"further": 4
"alien": 11+
-
Uses of "here and there": 4
Uses of "tenuous": 4
Uses of "loom" (verb): 4 (The other "loom" is used once, but that doesn't count.)
Uses of "wary": 12
...
Alliteration:
"She slipped and slid, the skin of her hands scraped raw..."
-
"... a grayish glimmer which gave..."
-
"... she stopped, startled, stared..."
-
"... fighting frenziedly for freedom."
-
"She kept well away from the webbed walls as she went..."
-
"... she swung that ahead in a slow sweep from side to side to make sure..."
-
"... cunningly and carefully constructed..."
-
"... perhaps their precarious partnership..."
-
"... melding of menace."
-
"... she could see the stars strewn across the sky." (I could swear she's used this same combination of words before...)
-
"Around the fruit flew and climbed countless feasters—some feathered, some furred."
-
"She found such fumbling feeble so far..."
-
"... tenuous trails of sickly smelling smoke."
...
Typos/Mistakes:
"... rather farther away then her dream had shown it." (than)
-
"With that tugging in her hand she could not lost contact." (Either "lose" or "could not have lost.")
-
"There came no answer to her question. Nor would there be." (The "be" here does not belong.)
-
" "Yurth may have defenses... The which may act against me," he interrupted quickly." (There shouldn't be a "the" here.)
-
"... of such importance that it drew her eyes in compelling way." (... in a compelling way.)
-
"Thought the Raski, by custom, were always ready to give their own..." (Though...)
-
"Raski civilization had ended once in the great trauma of the destruction of Kal-Hath-Tan, the which she had witnessed herself in a vision." (Again, why is there a "the"?)
-
"Perhaps one time water had washed its way through here..." (... at one time...)
-
"That had been no part of any hallucination—surely it could not!" (... could not have been!)
-
"He must feel as heartened by the thought of escape as she was..." (The "was" does not belong here.)
-
"She fumbled in folds of her clothing and brought forth..." (... in the folds...)
-
I don't think you can use "done" in this way (even if you somehow can, it's still wrong):
"When he had done he nodded to the hills ahead." ("was done" or "had finished.")
"But when she had done he saw her..." (Again, either "was done" or "had finished.")
...
158 pages.
4.5/10
June 1, 2023
This novel contains classic Norton elements: Two races who hate each other, an ancient technological catastrophe which caused the rift, a quest that joins two young members of the enemy races, psychic powers, high adventure, a fast-moving plot, and, of course, no sex. It ends with the triumph of tolerance and cooperation. Unfortunately, the story seems rushed in the last 20 pages, and the final defeat of unexplained evil powers seems too simple to be satisfying.
July 12, 2022
"To say that a carving on the wall was evil was to impute to stone a quality it did not and never had possessed. But to say that an image which had been wrought by those who wished to give evil a gateway into the world was malign was not opposed to that basic truth."
I thought the writing started off really rough, the sentences felt incomplete, but by half way it had improved and I was enjoying the simple but delightful prose.
Yurth are feared by the Raski and disdained because of it. They have special telepathic capabilities which they use with limitations, by a voluntary code of conduct. Those rules can be broken in life or death situations.
Yurth telepathy comes through a mental discipline, similar in concept to Vulcan meditative training on Star Trek. We later learn that the feat of telepathy can also be achieved through use of drugs which I thought was rather interesting. This latter method is of course the inferior method.
The story has plenty of commentary about the privacy of our minds and how violation of that personal intimacy is a horrid experience. However, there is also at least a brief note on the incredible sense of calm experienced when joined with many agreeable minds, similar to how the Borg describe the experience of their hive-mind, to use another Star Trek reference.
Elossa is a Raski with a Yurth-trained mind? I don't think that's accurate. It's a little confusing because when she inadvertently harms a Raski man she recoils at having hurt one of her own kind, but later after helping him to recover she thinks that her efforts would do little to endear her kind to his kind. I'm still confused. I don't think Raski and Yurth are different kinds of the same species, but that may be the case.
There are quite a few unfortunate typos, nothing too jarring. "Marker" instead of "maker", "straggling" instead of "struggling" and that type of thing mostly. One typo near the end was a bit funny... "she might be making the worst mistake of her fife".
I thought that the line "There was little of the human in that face" was a bizarre turn of phrase in an utterly alien story with no other mention of humans or of Earth. However, I do note that the figures drawn on the cover are very humanoid.
I quite like the idea of the "Yurth burden" which forces the Yurth to take responsibility for their actions very seriously and the result is a great respect for all of life.
This has a bit of a dark psychological horror feel to it. Telepathy isn't a favourite subject for me but I enjoyed this quick read. This was a really good 3 star story as opposed to an average 3 star story.
I thought the writing started off really rough, the sentences felt incomplete, but by half way it had improved and I was enjoying the simple but delightful prose.
Yurth are feared by the Raski and disdained because of it. They have special telepathic capabilities which they use with limitations, by a voluntary code of conduct. Those rules can be broken in life or death situations.
Yurth telepathy comes through a mental discipline, similar in concept to Vulcan meditative training on Star Trek. We later learn that the feat of telepathy can also be achieved through use of drugs which I thought was rather interesting. This latter method is of course the inferior method.
The story has plenty of commentary about the privacy of our minds and how violation of that personal intimacy is a horrid experience. However, there is also at least a brief note on the incredible sense of calm experienced when joined with many agreeable minds, similar to how the Borg describe the experience of their hive-mind, to use another Star Trek reference.
Elossa is a Raski with a Yurth-trained mind? I don't think that's accurate. It's a little confusing because when she inadvertently harms a Raski man she recoils at having hurt one of her own kind, but later after helping him to recover she thinks that her efforts would do little to endear her kind to his kind. I'm still confused. I don't think Raski and Yurth are different kinds of the same species, but that may be the case.
There are quite a few unfortunate typos, nothing too jarring. "Marker" instead of "maker", "straggling" instead of "struggling" and that type of thing mostly. One typo near the end was a bit funny... "she might be making the worst mistake of her fife".
I thought that the line "There was little of the human in that face" was a bizarre turn of phrase in an utterly alien story with no other mention of humans or of Earth. However, I do note that the figures drawn on the cover are very humanoid.
I quite like the idea of the "Yurth burden" which forces the Yurth to take responsibility for their actions very seriously and the result is a great respect for all of life.
This has a bit of a dark psychological horror feel to it. Telepathy isn't a favourite subject for me but I enjoyed this quick read. This was a really good 3 star story as opposed to an average 3 star story.
January 10, 2017
My earliest favorite science fiction author starts out in the typical fashion she does so well, with a rural, magical/esper, medeival level civilization living in uneasy peace with a similar but non-esper one, both in the obvious shadow of a mysteriously vanished advanced civilization. Then she takes a hard, strange turn to explain what happened and how this planet fits into the galactic system. Fairly good.
November 17, 2025
The Yurth Burden is an interesting, but not necessarily stunning piece of science fiction. The adventure is intriguing and levels the question of who is to blame for ages long wars. While the book is an interesting ride, it feels a bit underwhelming by the end. After the first act, it seems to drift a bit off course into a different story entirely. Still enjoyable, but nothing I would recommend committing time to if you have limited reading availability.
I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a fun, short, fantastical / sci-fi combo. It feels a bit like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign where the DM had a basic plot, but ended up having to freestyle after the characters chose to go off track.
I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a fun, short, fantastical / sci-fi combo. It feels a bit like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign where the DM had a basic plot, but ended up having to freestyle after the characters chose to go off track.
September 16, 2023
I doubt anyone is waiting around for a review of Yurth Burden in 2023, but here’s one nonetheless.
This book was a quick little adventure set on an alien planet. There are two main characters, one of each member of the two civilized races, which are antagonistic to one another, if not outright hostile. This creates an interesting dynamic between the MCs as they figure how to come to terms with one another and their own prejudices in order to survive.
The book often utilizes one of the character’s telepathy / illusion / mind control magic which is interesting, and there’s a fun twist about halfway through. If you can find a copy, I’d say it’s worth a read, if you want a harmless, if not slightly forgettable fantasy action / adventure.
This book was a quick little adventure set on an alien planet. There are two main characters, one of each member of the two civilized races, which are antagonistic to one another, if not outright hostile. This creates an interesting dynamic between the MCs as they figure how to come to terms with one another and their own prejudices in order to survive.
The book often utilizes one of the character’s telepathy / illusion / mind control magic which is interesting, and there’s a fun twist about halfway through. If you can find a copy, I’d say it’s worth a read, if you want a harmless, if not slightly forgettable fantasy action / adventure.
March 19, 2025
I was pleased to find an Andre Norton novel I had not read before. It was ok, not her best.
October 21, 2017
I thought this was going to be a space story, instead it turned into a mind-control story. Interesting, but I would have liked a space story better. Norton's imagination does show through here and there, but not enough. Only for die hard Norton fans.
Read
September 1, 2010This book evidently started out as a short story. Arguably, it should've remained a short story. The second part is effectively unrelated. It might as well have had different characters.
The ghosts in this story are products of a terrible accident. Their disquietude is as irrational as the attitudes of the peoples who are descended from survivors helplessly involved in the original accident, either as perpetrators or victims.
Ghosts might reasonably be expected to be unable to learn new ways (though one might hope that, once they got over the original shock, they might also be able to heal and learn wisdom). Survivors and their descendants should be more flexible. Why has it taken so long for them to sit down and talk?
Come to that, where is the Empire from which the ship came? Why weren't they on call to deal with the damaged ship BEFORE its disastrous downfall? Why was there no rescue mission?
After about p70 (in this edition), the rest is just another 'We have this terrible, depersoned enemy, which we have to join forces to destroy'. But even before that, there are indications of depersonalization, mostly affecting the Raski. The Yurth, despite the 'Upper sense', are detached: not asocial, but not given to strong or close bonds. This is (sort of) explained by the burden of inherited guilt they all bear as adults--but they let it keep them from any hopes or aspirations--as if they shrug and pass on any possible future other than eternal penance. After all, the RASKI aren't barred from future spacefaring.
As for the Raski, Norton seems to accept the idea she apparently held to lifelong--that there could be people who had no real intelligence. The Raski have a quasi-feudal society--but they are represented as being unimaginative, never planning for any future, and certainly not a different one. Only Stans of the House of Philbur is represented as a critic--and he argues that he is 'different' because his clan have remembered the past (and were once royal). It's not argued that such a malaise is unlikely to have lasted for more than a generation (if that), or that even shocked survivors of a disaster often recover to the point that they can make at least SOME effort to provide a better life for their offspring. Such an argument doesn't seem to have ocurred to Norton, so how could it occur to her characters?
The upshot of this is that Elossa and Stans have very little hope of initiating any real change, since only Yurth, with few if any Raski, will come to whatever new community is established overmountain, unless or until the Raski themselves begin to aspire to more than sterile revenge (for reasons very few Raski even know about) and halfhearted agronomy. Not a particularly hopeful end, even if the story hadn't gone astray in the second half of the book.
The ghosts in this story are products of a terrible accident. Their disquietude is as irrational as the attitudes of the peoples who are descended from survivors helplessly involved in the original accident, either as perpetrators or victims.
Ghosts might reasonably be expected to be unable to learn new ways (though one might hope that, once they got over the original shock, they might also be able to heal and learn wisdom). Survivors and their descendants should be more flexible. Why has it taken so long for them to sit down and talk?
Come to that, where is the Empire from which the ship came? Why weren't they on call to deal with the damaged ship BEFORE its disastrous downfall? Why was there no rescue mission?
After about p70 (in this edition), the rest is just another 'We have this terrible, depersoned enemy, which we have to join forces to destroy'. But even before that, there are indications of depersonalization, mostly affecting the Raski. The Yurth, despite the 'Upper sense', are detached: not asocial, but not given to strong or close bonds. This is (sort of) explained by the burden of inherited guilt they all bear as adults--but they let it keep them from any hopes or aspirations--as if they shrug and pass on any possible future other than eternal penance. After all, the RASKI aren't barred from future spacefaring.
As for the Raski, Norton seems to accept the idea she apparently held to lifelong--that there could be people who had no real intelligence. The Raski have a quasi-feudal society--but they are represented as being unimaginative, never planning for any future, and certainly not a different one. Only Stans of the House of Philbur is represented as a critic--and he argues that he is 'different' because his clan have remembered the past (and were once royal). It's not argued that such a malaise is unlikely to have lasted for more than a generation (if that), or that even shocked survivors of a disaster often recover to the point that they can make at least SOME effort to provide a better life for their offspring. Such an argument doesn't seem to have ocurred to Norton, so how could it occur to her characters?
The upshot of this is that Elossa and Stans have very little hope of initiating any real change, since only Yurth, with few if any Raski, will come to whatever new community is established overmountain, unless or until the Raski themselves begin to aspire to more than sterile revenge (for reasons very few Raski even know about) and halfhearted agronomy. Not a particularly hopeful end, even if the story hadn't gone astray in the second half of the book.
May 5, 2015
The story in this book was good, a planet dealing with the aftermath of a terrible disaster that wiped out a whole civilization and left 2 races with hardly any memory and no understanding of what happened to their ancestors. The writing is too flowery in some parts, especially where Norton uses dialogue to give backstory- I felt like I was reading one of those bad Star Trek scenes people like to parody. No one really talks like that. So, while this was a fun story, I'd love to read a modern reworking of this story, though I love that there is no romance between the 2 protagonists in Norton's book, and I am not sure modern authors can restrain themselves from turning a story like this into a romance. In the meantime, this is a pretty decent sci-fi book if you want a bit of fast, light reading.
July 9, 2016
I wanted to read some Andre Norton so when I came across this in a second-hand bookshop, I went for it. I doubt this is Norton at her best though - Yurth Burden was a strange story, with a meandering kind-of-plot and characters that didn't engage me too much. The worldbuilding was pretty cool - I liked the scifi+fantasy concept with people crashing on another planet but the story itself more fantasy-like. But I took issue with the fact that the "better", more developed Yurth were described as white, while the Raski were dark-skinned and portrayed as less civilised. Even though the theme was concerned with people working together despite race, the skin colour thing and its relation to our world bothered me.
April 17, 2020
This is the story of two cultures colliding, with Stans from the Raski and Elossi from the Yurth, both of whom are on an adult quest. Following tradition, both are on a quest to prove their readiness to join adult society. As part of the quests, he is watching her, and she is trying to learn more of her people's past.
During the last part of the trek, Elossi runs into danger, as does Stans, and they use knowledge gained there to move forward in a secondary story, where they are digging deeper to try to overcome a centuries-old problem.
Well written tale of how prejudices can run deep and prevent growth and healing.
During the last part of the trek, Elossi runs into danger, as does Stans, and they use knowledge gained there to move forward in a secondary story, where they are digging deeper to try to overcome a centuries-old problem.
Well written tale of how prejudices can run deep and prevent growth and healing.
June 2, 2012
Not a very good book. Norton has a lot better work, this one is a predictable buddy adventure about two people, different sexes, different races, and how they bond to overcome the challenge. Blah Blah blah...... but it was one of those classic books I got on a bargain table...worth the 10 cents I paid for it.
I wrote that earlier and it may be a bit harsh, since I like a lot of her other work. This is a light read compared to some of her material. Good for the historical feel of how a writer develops.
I wrote that earlier and it may be a bit harsh, since I like a lot of her other work. This is a light read compared to some of her material. Good for the historical feel of how a writer develops.
November 25, 2015
Lettura carina, un bel mix fra fantasy e fantascienza. Astronavi, un po' di magia, armi strani e dei terribili. Il finale è abbastanza scontato (lo capisci subito che i due popoli finiranno per collaborare!). Interessante il mondo che è stato creato. Però io con i libri corti rimango sempre insoddisfatta, non riesco a legarmi ai personaggi o a farmi coinvolgere tanto.
May 4, 2011
I don't recall the details and should probably re-read.
November 27, 2012
I enjoyed this short tale.
January 24, 2015
Never really been a Norton fan. I've tried several books, but just never clicked with any of them. Maybe I haven't found the right one, but I'm beginning to doubt that.
March 9, 2015
1978 grade B
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