Review: Steel Magic

Steel Magic by Andre Norton (1965; Starscape reprint, 1995)

Though the great science fiction writer Andre Norton has passed away, her work lives on forever. Norton wrote for all ages, and her works for young people received no less care, attention, and imagination than her books for adults.

Starscape is now reprinting Norton’s beloved Magic Books series of middle-grade novels. Though a series, each book stands alone, with a separate cast of characters.

Steel Magic is a classic quest tale. Three children, visiting their uncle somewhere in New England, set out to explore the overrun gardens and woods, planted a generation or two ago by a mysterious Mr. Brosius, who then disappeared. Fans of Arthurian legends will come to instant alert at that name — Brosius? Ambrosius? As in the surname sometimes ascribed to Merlin?

But of course.

The boys, Eric and Greg, want to find a lake that supposedly lies in the tangle of woods. Their sister, Sara, tags along, the picnic basket she won at a fun fair firmly in hand, despite her terror of spiders. They find the lake, and in the middle of it, find the ruin of a small castle. Thinking it no more than a folly built by the former owners, the children enter — and find not a playhouse, but a doorway to Avalon.

There they find Avalon in serious trouble from dark forces. Only they who are capable of touching cold iron can find the three treasures that have been lost, but only if they can overcome their own fears. With the help of magical guides and the steel utensils in the picnic basket, Sara, Eric, and Greg set out to save Avalon and their own world.

While the pattern of the story and the ending are somewhat predictable, the telling of the three children’s adventures reveals Norton’s halmark imagination and surreal visions of her fantasy worlds.