The Alton Gift

Eine Rückkehr auf Darkover ist immer wieder schön - wenn ich dabei noch auf Lew und Magurida Alton treffe, macht mich das wirklich glücklich. Ich würde diesen Roman nur echten Darkover-Fans empfehlen, die bereits den Magurida-Alton-Zyklus gelesen und gemocht haben. Für andere Leser könnten doch zu viele Fragen offen bleiben.

In der Corona-Zeit möglicherweise nötige Triggerwarnung - ein Handlungsstrang dreht sich um das Wiederaufflammen des Waldläuferfiebers, das fast pandemieartige Zustände annimmt.

This is another collaborative effort between MZB and Deborah Ross. Perhaps because it is quite clearly a sequel to a book solely by Bradley it doesn't work for me quite as well as their series about Varzil the Good did.

That's not to say there's anything wrong with this book. Fransisco Ridenow is back and causing trouble in his normal spiteful way. Domenic starts to really develop both his love life and to mature into his role as heir to Mikhal. We also find out more about the true nature of his laran.

Trailmen's Fever also returns, and thanks to some reconciliation of past blames, Darkover is lucky enough to have someone around that can help them find a cure - but ultimately it is laran and a the Darkovans that sort it out.

Lew and show more Marguerida face up, in different ways, to their use of the Alton Gift on the terranan after the battle of the Old North Road (the assault planned and executed in Traitor's Sun).

I think my issue with this book is that, pretty much, all of the elements are foreshadowed, and with sufficient prominence that the story doesn't really contain too many surprises, which is a shame because it is otherwise an engaging plot and series of other developments.

There is a little hint at the end about another book to come. show less

I got slightly annoyed by a few things in this one: I didn't like the portrayal of Margery and Lew, the ethical debates were very tedious, and I didn't think that Darkover should have degraded to quite that extent. Though it took me a while to get into this one, I did eventually do so, and enjoyed it. Everything resolved itself well- it just took a while.

Overall an excellent book and a worthy continuation of the Darkover Series, Bradley shall be missed but Ross is a worthy successor

ard to get through...sense of doom all through. Too much negativity and and not enough uplift to balance.

While I do tend to like the books that come chronologically prior to "Rediscovery," this is a really great part of the series as well.