Darkover Landfall

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 show more 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. show less

This story was okay but you could really tell the author was doing an origin story for a series already well under way. I liked it for the most part. It was interesting but felt incomplete for the reasons I already stated. It was interesting to see the author attempting to deal with women's issues looking back on the beginning of the women's movement from 50 years on. On the whole the book felt very melancholy to me.

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 show more 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. show less

-semplicemente il naufragio di un astronave su un pianeta fortunatamente abitabile
-la storia della nascita di Darkover

potrebbe benissimo avere 3* perchè, anche se la traduzione è scarsa. resta un romanzetto che si lascia leggere volentieri.
Però meriterebbe 1* perche ci sono dettagli che mi disturbano (c'è qualcosa di stonato nel modo in cui viene trattata la sessualità) e dettagli che mi disturbano troppo, tipo che una donna sapendo quanto un uomo la desideri debba soddisfarlo
e soprattutto dettagli che mi disturbano VERAMENTE troppo come che esistano al mondo (qualunque mondo) motivazioni eticamente accettabile per togliere a una donna la sovranità sul proprio corpo o dottori che giustifichino la maternità forzata

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 show more 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. show less

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 show more 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. show less

This was actually the first Darkover book that I read -- yes, I'm geeky enough so that I try to read series in order -- and only the fact that the series is over 20 books long convinced me to not let it be the last that I read. Darkover Landfall is the brief story of how Earthmen first crash-landed on Cottman IV, the world that they would eventually name Darkover; since the series proper doesn't start until at least a couple thousand years after the events in Darkover Landfall, and since the premise of said series largely revolves around the idea of a super-advanced, space-faring society encountering offshoots marooned in the Middle Ages (albeit with psi powers pinch-hitting for magic), Ms. Bradley can't quite escape from the aura of show more time-killing here. Basically Darkover Landfall struck me as a warmed-over and (necessarily) open-ended sci-fi/fantasy-dress version of Lord of the Flies; I might re-read it once I've read as many of the Darkover books as I intend to, but since I'm only on the 11th book (The Forbidden Tower), that will probably be at some indeterminate point in the far, far future. show less