Storms of Victory: Witch World: The Turning

"Storms of Victory" is somewhere near the 20th book in Norton's popular Witch World series. It's also the first installment of the "Turning" trilogy, followed by Flight of Vengeance (Witch World: The Turning, Bk. 2)and On Wings of Magic: Witch World: The Turning Book 3. As such, it sets the stage for a larger story, but "Storms of Victory" can be read alone. The book contains two separate novellas that come to a satisfactory conclusion by the end of this first volume. Both are decent fantasy stories with a strong sense of adventure and no profanity or scenes that might be inappropriate for younger readers. This volume is an important part of the Witch World saga, and I recommend it to fans of the series. If you're new to Witch World, this is not a bad place to dive in, but parts of it would be easier to understand if you've read previous Witch World books. (MINOR PLOT SPOILERS) The first tale, "Port of Dead Ships," was written by Andre Norton. A young Sulcar woman sets sail with Simon Tregarth, Jaelithe, and several other familiar Witch World characters to find out why so many ships have been found floating aimlessly, their crews mysteriously vanished. The expedition encounters assorted creepy creatures along the way, and finally an ancient evil that threatens to destroy them. The second story, "Seakeep," was written by P.M. Griffin. Una has recently inherited the rule of a small territory named Seakeep. Suspecting that a neighboring ruler might be planning an invasion, Una hires a band of mercenaries called Falconers to protect her holdings. Unfortunately, the Falconers despise women. Una and the leader of the mercenaries struggle to work out their differences while identifying the pirates who have been wrecking ships along Seakeep's wild coastline.

This is a good book which helps to "flesh out" the period of time of the turning of WW. A must for every WW fan, it is a great read and wonderful addition to your library. I have read my copy of the turning trilogy several times.