Darkover Landfall (original 1972; edition 1972)

Transferred from my spreadsheet to Goodreads

So this was interesting. It was really more about the characters than an amazing new world or it's inhabitants. For it's age it held up well minus some gender issues with the male characters. Not a lot happened so it was a little slow and there definitely didn't seem like there was a conclusion or a climax to the story. I'm curious about what happens to this marooned colony of humans but not sure if I'm curious enough to read the next book. ( )

I'm a fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley, but my affection for her rests not on the Avalon books, which I didn't care for, but her Darkover series. Darkover is a "lost colony" of Earth that falls back into a medieval society. Ruled by a psychically gifted aristocracy, after centuries it's rediscovered by a star-spanning high-tech human federation, giving the series a feel of both science fiction and fantasy. The Darkover series as a whole features strong female characters, but it has enough swashbuckling adventure to draw the male of the species, and indeed this series was recommended to me by a guy (when we were in high school!)

Although some books are loosely connected, having characters in common, they were written to be read independently and were written out of sequence. This makes it difficult without a guide to know what story to start with. Darkover Landfall comes first chronologically in terms of the timeline of the events of the series, but it isn't where I'd recommend you start. First, it comes relatively early in MZB's career, when she was just coming into her own as a writer, and there are much stronger books in the series. Second, I think you get more pleasure out of this origins book if you first enjoy other books in the series, so as to get the most enjoyment out of seeing how it all started. I'd suggest the (1979 version) of The Bloody Sun or The Spell Sword and its sequel The Forbidden Tower or The Shattered Chain (my own introduction) or Heritage of Hastur as better starting places and books that should be read first before tackling this one. ( )

The story of the crash landing, of the Skye colony declaring that one planet is as good as another for them - and of their help in saving the non-colonizing members of the ship.
The first experience of a Ghost Wind, of the meeting of the Cherie - and of how the Darkover we know today began to be born.
It also tells us WHY there are SO MANY red-headed Darkovans. ( )

I've already read the darkover books six years ago and enjoyed them. This first volume wasn't among my favorites then. The reason for this might have been that I read this book somewhere in the middle of the series and missed some of the recurring themes of the series, which of course aren't present in this book. Another reason might be that the last time I might have been a bit young for some of the adult themes.

This book describes how the planet later to be known as Darkover is first discovered. A terran spaceship is shipwrecked on an unknown planet. The ship was supposed to bring some settlers to a new colony on another planet. In this colony they would have had an environment which was already prepared for settlement. Instead they are stranded in the middle of nowhere and have to fight to survive. They have to learn what dangers await in this strange environment: plants and animals and most of all the weather. The harsh climate proves to be just as dangerous as the scent of indigenous flowers. Apart from the new environment the shipwrecked also have to settle disputes among themselves. While part of the group wants to restore the spaceship and get back on their way, the others want to settle, no matter where, and have already decided to stay.

The second time around reading this book I found that I liked it much better than the first time around. In fact I wanted to squeeze this in for a chapter each evening while actually reading another book, but I instead read this in about two reading sessions.

I liked how the characters dealt with the problems they stumbled into. It makes you wonder how oneself would fare if confronted with a similar situation. Somewhere in "uncivilized" country and forced to live on what one could build for oneself. Even apart from the series this is a very recommendable read. ( )