This is the last book of the three "Renunciates/Free Amazons" novels in Bradley's Darkover series. That's important because it really does read like part of a series. Although the reader does get told briefly about things that happen in past books that matter, I was glad that I'd read the previous two books (Shattered Chain and Thendara House) to help me understand the nuances of Magda and Jaelle's friendship and the importance of the Renunciate Oath. I also began to suspect that there was room for an entire other novel between Thendara House and City of Sorcery, establishing Magda and Jaelle's ties to the Forbidden Tower. It's hard to tell from the list of titles in the front of the book, but I think that The Forbidden Tower, part of a different subset of Darkover novels, actually is that intervening novel. I hope this is useful information for people reading this review, although I enjoyed City of Sorcery just fine the way I found it!

As is consistent with my experience of Darkover books, City of Sorcery is a great piece of escapism, with swords and sorcery that I found pretty gripping (especially, in this one, a lot of dangerous mountain-climbing and survival in the ice)--and not just any old escapism, but feminist fantasy, something I can relax in reading by feeling safe from unexpected misogyny or a nagging sense of female absence.

While The Shattered Chain and Thendara House explored the radical feminism of the Renunciate sisterhood, City of Sorcery takes some of the old Renunciate characters and throws them together with a few Terran women in a quest. Magda and Jaelle are older and much more confident in who they are. So instead of a deep feminist interrogation of women's self-understanding and potential (although there's some of that still), City of Sorcery asks, how much can five strong women accomplish when they work together?

I think this is the best part of the book, really--the interactions among Magda, Jaelle, Camilla, Cholayna, and Vanessa, who join together to chase two other women into an unknown, dangerous part of Darkover. Bradley is able to maintain each woman's distinct personality and strengths, while describing a group that's able to stay together through immense hardships, despite differences of worldview, loyalties, and ability. I love how each woman's strengths gives her at different times a leadership position in the group, so that even though Jaelle is the official leader, everyone is necessary. I think Bradley did a superb job of portraying this power equilibrium.

(Another thing that I, personally, love about this book is that everyone in it is a woman. Men exist in the periphery, and there might be a couple of lines of dialogue for a town watchman, as well as a fighting scene with some male bandits. But everyone--leaders, followers, random people encountered on the way, and all of the Good Guys and the Bad Guys--is a woman. Bradley doesn't treat this as though it's unusual, so much that I didn't even realize what she was doing until I was about two-thirds of the way through. But that's what's so great--how many fantasy/scifi novels out there have a completely male cast, and how many of them are thought of as totally normal? Lots--the Lord of the Rings model set the standard. (Yeah, Eowyn, Arwen, Galadriel and Shelob are 75% archetype, 25% character.) I'm glad City of Sorcery exists even for just this reason by itself.)

Various terranen women find the home of the renunciates with some fun and games alongside. ( )

MZB is a master storyteller. Most of her books read as if she were rushing to press. There are a few notable exceptions. This isn't one of them. A good enough story, nonetheless. ( )