From Booklist
The latest story of Norton's venerable Witch World is a sequel to Ciara's Song (1998) and quite as enjoyable as that book, at the end of which Aisling, Ciara's granddaughter, fled Karsten for Escore to escape the use, not to say abuse, her blood-sorcerer brother Kirion would have made of her, and to learn how to use her own powers. Now a trained witch, she returns to destroy her brother lest he destroy Karsten. Disguised, she goes to the duke of Karsten's court, accompanied by her brother Keelan and another conspirator. Fulfilling her mission won't be easy, for Kirion is strongly set on the dark path. Watching and waiting, the conspirators seek a breakthrough point, and Aisling ponders the slight ethical dilemma presented by killing one's brother, even though he is one's deadliest foe. The long-standing Witch World fandom won't be disappointed with this addition to the canon, nor will other, less dedicated fantasy fans--and romance fans, too. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
The Duke's Ballad is the tale of Aisling, a young witch from a family gifted with a magical power that she must protect from her brother, Kirion, who wields magic unlike the rest of the family's. He gains power only by a terrible means: by killing others who wield magic.

Years ago, Aisling fled her native Kars when Kirion, working for the Duke of Kars, tried to kill her. Since Aisling's departure, Kirion has tightened his insidious hold on Duke Shastro. The malevolent sorcerer's dark influence works through Shastro to cast a deadly pall over all of Kars. A fatal chain of events is triggered when Kirion pitches the people of Kars into a war with a neighboring clan.

Aisling recruits her younger brother Keelan and returns in disguise, determined to undermine Kirion's power and unseat his evil pawn from the throne. Accompanied also by a catlike telepathic beast, Aisling becomes part of Shastro's court. But even as she begins to learn the ways of court power, a brutally cold winter besieges the land, testing the endurance of the people of Kars, who have little cheer in that darkest season.

As Kars and its people contend with Kirion's depredations, the warring clan's raids, and the devastating winter, Aisling and Keelan must somehow, through guile, persistence and ingenuity, find a way to avoid the attention of their dangerous older brother, and save the people from his murderous sorcery. Only if they can survive Kirion's terrible power can they deliver the dukedom into the peace and prosperity it once knew.



From the Back Cover
A new novel of the Witch World

Witch World is the most popular and enduring series written by Science
Fiction Grand Master and World Fantasy Life Achievement Award-winner Andre Norton. Since the 1960s, the novels of Witch World have enthralled millions of readers worldwide.

Now Miss Norton has collaborated with Lyn McConchie to write the first new
Witch World novel in more than a decade. The Duke's Ballad is the exciting story of a young sorceress and her friends who struggle, with courage and resourcefulness, against a corrupt and evil lord and his powerful and deadly wizard, to reclaim their native land of Kars.

"A superb storyteller with a narrative pace all her own."
--The New York Times

"Andre Norton is a superb storyteller."
--Chicago Tribune

"One of the most popular authors of our time."
--Publishers Weekly

"One of the most distinguished living SF and fantasy writers."
--Booklist

"This is one of the better SF series going, with Norton using stripped prose to put her stereotypes through their foredestined rounds. Neat, swift, and strongly detailed. Old fans will dance and howl for more."
--Kirkus Reviews



About the Author
One of the most famous science fiction and fantasy authors of all time, Andre Norton was named Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America. She has written over a hundred novels which have sold millions of copies worldwide, including her Witch World, Beast Master, Solar Queen, and the Time Traders series. She lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Lyn McConchie has written many novels. Her collaborations with Andre
Norton include The Key of the Keplian, a Witch World novel, Beast Master's Ark, for which she won the Sir Julius Vogel award for Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel of 2002 by a New Zealander, and the recent Beast Master's Circus. She lives in New Zealand, where she writes and runs a farm.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Duke's Ballad is the tale of Aisling, a young witch from a family gifted with a magical power that she must protect from her brother, Kirion, who wields magic unlike the rest of the family's. He gains power only by a terrible means: by killing others who wield magic.

Years ago, Aisling fled her native Kars when Kirion, working for the Duke of Kars, tried to kill her. Since Aisling's departure, Kirion has tightened his insidious hold on Duke Shastro. The malevolent sorcerer's dark influence works through Shastro to cast a deadly pall over all of Kars. A fatal chain of events is triggered when Kirion pitches the people of Kars into a war with a neighboring clan.

Aisling recruits her younger brother Keelan and returns in disguise, determined to undermine Kirion's power and unseat his evil pawn from the throne. Accompanied also by a catlike telepathic beast, Aisling becomes part of Shastro's court. But even as she begins to learn the ways of court power, a brutally cold winter besieges the land, testing the endurance of the people of Kars, who have little cheer in that darkest season.

As Kars and its people contend with Kirion's depredations, the warring clan's raids, and the devastating winter, Aisling and Keelan must somehow, through guile, persistence and ingenuity, find a way to avoid the attention of their dangerous older brother, and save the people from his murderous sorcery. Only if they can survive Kirion's terrible power can they deliver the dukedom into the peace and prosperity it once knew.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly