A fairly short book about the coming to the feudal-style planet Darkover of Andrew Carr, a Terran who has been rootless since leaving Earth. The story is told in alternating viewpoints to begin with, as we switch between Andrew and a Darkovan nobleman, Damon Ridenow.

At a fortune teller’s stall, Andrew sees a vision of a beautiful young woman in the fortune teller's crystal, and forms an instant obsession with her, arranging a transfer from his existing job to work on Darkover in the Mapping and Exploration team. When the plane he is onboard flies over the Kilghard Hills, it is caught in a snow storm and crashes, killing the rest of the crew. With little food scavenged from the wreckage, his chances of survival appear slim, until the ghostly figure of the woman he saw in the crystal appears to him and guides him to a waystation. Her name is Callista. She is imprisoned by unknown enemies and is being kept in a dark place where she cannot telepathically contact her family, but for some reason is able to find Andrew.

Meanwhile, Damon has been summoned by his twenty-year-old cousin Ellemir because her twin sister Callista, Keeper in training at the Tower at Arilinn, was abducted from her bed while on a visit, and the women’s father is absent at the Comyn Council. A darkness has fallen on nearby countryside, the people are suffering, and it seems an enemy has obtained one of the crystals used by telepaths on Darkover and is using it against them. Damon must contend with his own sense of inferiority, derived from being exiled from Arilinn and having to drift from one role to another ever since.

Gradually these two men with a lack of purpose in their lives are drawn together, and form romantic bonds with the two sisters. The story is a fairly well-paced action adventure, with psychic elements. It forms a prequel to ‘The Forbidden Tower’ and also to the cameo appearance of these characters in the later ‘Thendara House’ novel about the Renuniciates/Free Amazons.

The main flaws for me are firstly the infantilising of the women: despite Ellemir, for example, being in charge of the estate in the absence of her menfolk, she is continually called ‘child’ by Damon, even when he is supposed to be falling in love with her. Both women tend to burst into tears fairly easily, yet Callista is a highly skilled telepathic worker who has gone through strict conditioning against her own emotions, in order to understudy the aging Keeper at Arilinn. The author seems more comfortable in writing from the men’s point of view in this novel.

The other problem is that the use of laran, the psychic abilities of Darkovans, which Andrew discovers he shares, seems very malleable – near the end of the book, Andrew is able to do something which would surely draw surprised comment - he teleports twice - yet this is never referred to or explained and, as I’ve now discovered from reading the sequel, he never performs this feat again. ( )

This is a short novella about Andrew Carr, the Terran we met briefly in an earlier book. His mapping plane crashes in a storm, and he survives only by using laran with the help of a young girl. The cat people have taken the girl, so in turn, he goes to rescue her. It's a further look at one of the indigenous species of Darkover as well as the integration of the Terrans with Darkover's people, but it's too short to go into depth. ( )

Pretty good novel. A quick read.

Pretty good novel. A quick read. ( )

Action. Adventure. Romance. Cat people. Good, not great. Okay, not bad. This book shows promise. I mean, I think I've got to read some other Darkover novels before I can really appreciate it. But really, a fun read. ( )