DREAD COMPANION

Rating:
Summary: Future changeling
Review: "Changeling -- a creature begotten by some supernatural being and then secretly exchanged for the rightful child."

"Dread Companion" begins and ends in a future where humanity had long ago reached the stars and scattered itself across thousands of planets. Terra itself is nothing but a half-remembered legend of origin.

Norton combines a theory of parallel universes with themes from folklore to create her story of a changeling who drags her brother and governess out of the twenty-fifth century AF (After Flight) and into the world of Faerie.

It's an odd amalgamation, but I think it works well because her story is anchored by the governess, Kilda and her brave attempts to rescue her charges. Almost as soon as she meets the children, Kilda realizes that the girl Bartare has some kind of unnatural hold over her younger brother, Oomark. The governess does everything she can to solve the mystery of Bartare's invisible 'Dread Companion'---invisible that is, until Kilda and her charges are yanked into Faerie.

Kilda has to drink the water of Faerie before she can even see properly. The boy Oomark stays with her, but eats freely of alien fruit. When Kilda finally regains her normal vision, Oomark has begun a physical transformation into a creature of hooves and horns---a faun. Kilda must now struggle to stay human, locate a gate back to the sane world of the 25th century, keep Oomark by her side, and find Bartare who has gone to join the Dread Companion she believes to be her true mother.

"Dread Companion" was published in 1970, sandwiched between the Witch World novels, "Sorceress of the Witch World" (1968) and "The Crystal Gryphon" (1972), as well as many other works by this prolific author. Norton fans will discern several common elements between her excellent Witch World fantasy series and this stand-alone SF novel. Examples: there are nurturing trees that are havens from evil hound- and vulture-like creatures; and Bartare's kidnapper turns out to be a Great One of the Light---not that it matters so unhuman is She.

I think if you can find a copy of "Dread Companion," you will read some of the best descriptions of Faerie ever written, even though this book is officially classified as science fiction.

Norton has written of a place that is wondrous, terrible, and truly alien.