Deborah J. Ross

It was nice to visit Darkover again after many years away but I picked a very turbulent time to drop in. The Terran Empire is on the verge of becoming the Terran Federation and dispensing with the designation of Protected World. Darkover finds itself in danger of being taken over as a military base or being otherwise exploited by the Expansionist Party.

Regis Hastur is facing lots of pressure from his grandfather too who is determined to see him married with heirs. Since Regis is in a show more long-time committed relationship with his Paxman Danilo this seems like a vain hope. His grandfather suffers a stroke and dies but not before telling Regis that he has a nedesto older brother. Regis clings to this idea of an older brother both to let him gain some family and to have someone to take over the responsibilities of the Domain of Hastur - responsibilities that he never wanted.

Regis learns that his brother has been raised as a monk in Neversin Monastery. He is a devout christoforos. Regis takes him from the monastery and brings him to Thendara. He wants to honor his brother by having him recognized by the Comyn. But it doesn't take long for his brother Rinaldo to fall under the influence of Valdir Ridenow who is in favor of Darkover joining the Federation and Tiphani Lawson, Terran Council Dan Lawson's wife, who is also very religious.

Things get chaotic when Rinaldo usurps Regis's place and becomes a religious fanatic who is determined to convert all of Darkover to the cristoforos faith. One of the major tenets of which is the banning of any homosexuality. He causes Regis and Danilo to separate and forces Regis to marry. Fortunately, Regis chooses Linnea to be his wife. She is a former keeper who has already had his daughter and who is pregnant with his son. They have a close relationship but it took some time and heartache before Linnea could accept that Danilo would always be part of Regis's life.

Rinaldo's fanaticism leads him to kidnap the children of the Comyn, including his niece Ariel, and send them to a "school" to educate them in the cristoforo religion. Fearing that his daughter will be kidnapped next, Regis brings her to the chieri in the Yellow Forest to hide her from Rinaldo. While he is gone, Rinaldo has himself declared King.

This is the final straw for Regis. He can no longer make excuses for his brother and his brother's actions. He has to act or Darkover will be put under martial law by the Terrans.

This story was exciting and emotionally wrenching. Both Regis's relationship with Danilo and his relationship with Linnea were filled with emotional agony. The political maneuvering for the fate of Darkover was twisty and complex. I enjoyed the story very much and am very tempted to add further Darkover books to my TBR mountain. show less

I read the Darkover books before I was old enough to have the slightest bit of literary discernment. They offered me a world very far from the unhappy one I lived in. Some of them I can stand to re-read, but some of them are unrelievedly awful, and for the most part I prefer my memories of them to the actual books. When Bradley died in 1999, her world lived on and various others began publishing "Darkover" books based on alleged conversations with MZB or outlines left behind.

I think one of show more the more memorable of the original Darkover series is [b:The Heritage of Hastur|472778|The Heritage of Hastur (Darkover)|Marion Zimmer Bradley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175044337s/472778.jpg|461050]. Hastur Lord is a sequel, and one MZB talked about in print before her death. There's no way I could ignore it, once I knew it actually existed.

I must address the egregious mistakes. There's nothing like a glaring error to bring me out of the flow of a story, and there are plenty of them here. "Flout" for "flaunt" was relatively mild compared to this nonsensical combination of words:

"Regis raked his hair back from his face, pulled on the dressing robe that lay across the foot of the bed, and stumbled about in a semblance of his morning ablutions." Say what? Or this about going in to dinner: "Our brother has superceded (sic) you and is anxious for us all to be together..."

That aside, the writing just isn't very good. The plot is clunky, the dialog wooden, and the prose alternately turgid and purple. It's preachy, it's pedantic, and it fits into the canon the way a hand-carved wooden spoon fits into the ancestral silverware. show less

Bleah. Most of the time I couldn't figure out what was going on - then it settled into cliche. Long first section with one protagonist - female, tough, wounded - then sudden jump to a completely different protagonist - male, helpless. The only thing they had in common - well, besides location - was poor self-esteem. Then they _finally_ encountered one another, and the story promptly succumbed to Trinity Syndrome - the female's entire purpose there was to foster and educate the male so that show more he could become a god-hero and solve all the problems. Slightly subverted when he didn't/couldn't solve them immediately - politics and attitudes got in the way, he's still the next generation not today's solution. But Kardith is still only an adjunct to him. At least she didn't get married off at the end of the book. I like Deborah Ross's work, so I'm looking for things to like about this book, but not finding many. An Early Reviewers book that I took far too long to read and review. show less

A new (to me) Darkover novel about the divide between the rulers of the Hundred Kingdoms as to the cost of laran weapons vs. traditional military weapons. Coryn is selected to work in a tower due to his laran abilities but it's a long-term plan by Damien Deslucido to become king of all the kingdoms, displace Hastur rule, and aided by his nedestro brother Rumail.
There are a lot of moral questions that mirror the use of nuclear and biological questions in our own world. Damien has no show more restraints to using bonewater, clingfire, or lungrot as well as his armies to conquer surrounding territories. He also has the ability to deceive truthspell which is used to determine the truth of a person's words. It is an ability unique to his family, bred by laran, but inconceivable to the other Comyn.
This book is more philosophical than some of the others, but it raises important questions. There are also glimpses of future events on Darkover. I'm rereading these in chronological order, not in publication order as I did before, but I remember some of what is coming from those previous reads. Anyway, it's a good read in an enthralling world. show less