Scent of Magic by Andre Norton

Browsing through shelves in a book shop I happened upon Scent of Magic by Andre Norton. Though I certainly knew the name, I hadn't read any of her works yet. So I was curious and the blurb sounded interesting.

As it is my habit I glanced quickly at the first pages to get a feeling for the writing style. The first chapter starts right away with a nice, atmospheric set-up and introduction of the primary main character. "... Her first real act was always the same. Before she reached for undersmock her hands went to the small bag, warm between her small breasts, and lifted it to her tormented nose. A deep sniff of the crushed spices and herbs..." This paragraph on page one hooked me - to be exact, I think it was the tormented nose ;) - and I bought the book.

Willadene possesses an nique gift - a nose so fine that she can not only detect faintest traces of spices and flavours but she can also smell magic, good and evil. This gift allows her to leave her life as wretched scullery maid and become apprentice to the Herbmistress Halwice.

The city of Kronengrad faces a conflict over the succession. The political games escalate when an old evil gains influence. And Willadene's special gift is needed to fight it back.

My first impression of the novel was very favorable. Andre Norton knows how to describe Kronengrad as a lifelike medieval city from the daily routine of the common people to the life at court. The scents from Willadene's life in Jacoba's kitchen to Herbmistress Halwice's shop add much to this picture - I felt I could almost able to smell the old meat, the sweat and filth and in contrast to that the spices, herbs and fragrances.

The struggling for power at the court plays out like a chess game, move and counter move. Magic plays at first only a subtle role the story, but the becomes stronger and stronger while the political games move the story forward and draw Willadene deeper into the intrigues.

Scent of Magic starts great and slowly builds its suspense. But then it tapers off somehow to the end. At one point Andre Norton used a solution to a problem that jarred me out of the story because it appeared so wholly unconvincing to me. I had the impression that Norton finished the novel in a rush, possible under time constraints. This may be also the reason that several tiny loose ends remained, dropped hints to something more complex. They confused me a bit because they weren't picked up again.

Andre Norton succeeds in a convincing characterization of Willadene and the duke's daughter. In contrast to them their male counterparts remain pale. Maybe it was purpose to focus on the girls. But two other characters are very intriguing. Herbmistress Halwice and the chancellor are clearly secondary characters, but Andre Norton drops enough hints to paint the pictures of two very complex persons with secrets.

The story is exclusively told from the viewpoints of the good guys. The villains remain colorless, not even the main villain gets more attention in characterization than the bare minimum. A pity, really, because Norton proved how well she can write great characters.

Personally I prefer books where the author explores both sides, good and evil, if there is an evil side at all. The lack of 'good' villains impacts a bit on the story in my opinion, Norton kept it simple. Nonetheless Andre Norton wrote with Scent of Magic a solid, old-fashioned sword & magic novel for fans who don't mind a black-white point of view.