Tales of the Witch World 3

This collection of stories set in Norton's Witch World universe will appeal mainly to the longtime fan. Nineteen writers, 17 of them women, contribute their elaborations of events and people in those war- and magic-torn lands. Many of the tales, set in the Dales after the fall of Escarp and its witches, tell of young women who learn to cope with unusual powers. In ``The Scent of Magic,'' Juanita Coulson writes of an orphan of the nomadic Vupsall who must accept her powers in order to save her people; another young woman evades recruitment by the witches and finds love in A. C. Crispin's ``Heartspell.'' The only boy ever raised among Falconer women is the subject of ``Falcon's Chick'' by Patricia Shaw Mathews. In a charming debut, ``Were-Flight,'' Lisa Woodworth tells of an orphaned shape-changer, brought up in an abbey, who fulfills her destiny to metamorphose into a cat. This volume, a pleasing addition to the Witch World oeuvre, is not, however, the place for the neophyte to enter that realm. (July)