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File:Andre Norton 001.jpg

Andre Norton (born Alice Norton) was a particularly prolific Speculative Fiction writer. She was dubbed "Grande Dame of Science Fiction and Fantasy" by her biographers, fans, and peers, and has an award comparable to a Nebula for young adult speculative fiction named after her. She published her first novel in 1934 (when she was 21! Her second published novel was actually written first ... while she was in high school) and her last posthumously in 2005.

Norton is well-known for her "soft" Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, and Fantasy novels, although she also wrote such things as spy stories, Westerns, and gothic romance. Her most famous works are probably the Witch World series and her Beast Master novels, the latter of which were later adapted (sort of) to film and a tv series. Her work greatly influenced many modern authors, including Mercedes Lackey and David Weber. A number of female authors were encouraged to write on finding out that "Andre" was the pen name of a woman.

Many of her science fiction stories use the same or similar terms, for instance: "Free Traders," Space Pirates being called "Jacks," a Thieves' Guild/Jack base named "Waystar," the Zacathan and Trystian species, and a popular gambling game known as "Star and Comet." They may also refer to the events or locations of other stories (the Zero Stone duology speaks of archaeological discoveries on the planets from two different series, as well as gemstones from a world in the Solar Queen adventures; one of the Beast Master stories mentions importing "duocorns" from the Astra books). There isn't, though, a coherent future history to most of this; Norton just reused the names rather than invent new ones.

Her complete bibliography would take up several pages, so here is a very incomplete list:

Series:

  • The Beast Master series — Space Western
  • The Central Control series, actually two books only related by the interstellar government being called "Central Control"
  • The Halfblood Chronicles, with Mercedes Lackey
  • The Forerunner series
  • The Janus series
  • The Moon Singer series
  • The Quag Keep series, which was specifically modeled on Dungeons & Dragons
  • The Solar Queen series
  • The Star Ka'at series, with Dorothy Madlee
  • The Sword series - spy stories, set in World War II and the years just following
  • The Time Traders series
  • The Trillium series, with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Julian May
  • The Witch World series
  • The Zero Stone series

Stand-alone works:


Full list here. (Even The Other Wiki had to split the bibliography into a page of its own.)


Andre Norton provides examples of the following tropes: