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Darkover (Publication Order) #23
Four Moons of Darkover
Features a memorable group of tales set in the land of Darkover, a place where ancient powers have awakened humans to their own hidden talents
284 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Marion Zimmer Bradley
752 books4,720 followersMarion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series, often with a feminist outlook.
Bradley's first published novel-length work was Falcons of Narabedla, first published in the May 1957 issue of Other Worlds. When she was a child, Bradley stated that she enjoyed reading adventure fantasy authors such as Henry Kuttner, Edmond Hamilton, and Leigh Brackett, especially when they wrote about "the glint of strange suns on worlds that never were and never would be." Her first novel and much of her subsequent work show their influence strongly.
Early in her career, writing as Morgan Ives, Miriam Gardner, John Dexter, and Lee Chapman, Marion Zimmer Bradley produced several works outside the speculative fiction genre, including some gay and lesbian pulp fiction novels. For example, I Am a Lesbian was published in 1962. Though relatively tame by today's standards, they were considered pornographic when published, and for a long time she refused to disclose the titles she wrote under these pseudonyms.
Her 1958 story The Planet Savers introduced the planet of Darkover, which became the setting of a popular series by Bradley and other authors. The Darkover milieu may be considered as either fantasy with science fiction overtones or as science fiction with fantasy overtones, as Darkover is a lost earth colony where psi powers developed to an unusual degree. Bradley wrote many Darkover novels by herself, but in her later years collaborated with other authors for publication; her literary collaborators have continued the series since her death.
Bradley took an active role in science-fiction and fantasy fandom, promoting interaction with professional authors and publishers and making several important contributions to the subculture.
For many years, Bradley actively encouraged Darkover fan fiction and reprinted some of it in commercial Darkover anthologies, continuing to encourage submissions from unpublished authors, but this ended after a dispute with a fan over an unpublished Darkover novel of Bradley's that had similarities to some of the fan's stories. As a result, the novel remained unpublished, and Bradley demanded the cessation of all Darkover fan fiction.
Bradley was also the editor of the long-running Sword and Sorceress anthology series, which encouraged submissions of fantasy stories featuring original and non-traditional heroines from young and upcoming authors. Although she particularly encouraged young female authors, she was not averse to including male authors in her anthologies. Mercedes Lackey was just one of many authors who first appeared in the anthologies. She also maintained a large family of writers at her home in Berkeley. Ms Bradley was editing the final Sword and Sorceress manuscript up until the week of her death in September of 1999.
Probably her most famous single novel is The Mists of Avalon. A retelling of the Camelot legend from the point of view of Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar, it grew into a series of books; like the Darkover series, the later novels are written with or by other authors and have continued to appear after Bradley's death.
Her reputation has been posthumously marred by multiple accusations of child sexual abuse by her daughter Moira Greyland, and for allegedly assisting her second husband, convicted child abuser Walter Breen, in sexually abusing multiple unrelated children.
(from Wikipedia)
Bradley's first published novel-length work was Falcons of Narabedla, first published in the May 1957 issue of Other Worlds. When she was a child, Bradley stated that she enjoyed reading adventure fantasy authors such as Henry Kuttner, Edmond Hamilton, and Leigh Brackett, especially when they wrote about "the glint of strange suns on worlds that never were and never would be." Her first novel and much of her subsequent work show their influence strongly.
Early in her career, writing as Morgan Ives, Miriam Gardner, John Dexter, and Lee Chapman, Marion Zimmer Bradley produced several works outside the speculative fiction genre, including some gay and lesbian pulp fiction novels. For example, I Am a Lesbian was published in 1962. Though relatively tame by today's standards, they were considered pornographic when published, and for a long time she refused to disclose the titles she wrote under these pseudonyms.
Her 1958 story The Planet Savers introduced the planet of Darkover, which became the setting of a popular series by Bradley and other authors. The Darkover milieu may be considered as either fantasy with science fiction overtones or as science fiction with fantasy overtones, as Darkover is a lost earth colony where psi powers developed to an unusual degree. Bradley wrote many Darkover novels by herself, but in her later years collaborated with other authors for publication; her literary collaborators have continued the series since her death.
Bradley took an active role in science-fiction and fantasy fandom, promoting interaction with professional authors and publishers and making several important contributions to the subculture.
For many years, Bradley actively encouraged Darkover fan fiction and reprinted some of it in commercial Darkover anthologies, continuing to encourage submissions from unpublished authors, but this ended after a dispute with a fan over an unpublished Darkover novel of Bradley's that had similarities to some of the fan's stories. As a result, the novel remained unpublished, and Bradley demanded the cessation of all Darkover fan fiction.
Bradley was also the editor of the long-running Sword and Sorceress anthology series, which encouraged submissions of fantasy stories featuring original and non-traditional heroines from young and upcoming authors. Although she particularly encouraged young female authors, she was not averse to including male authors in her anthologies. Mercedes Lackey was just one of many authors who first appeared in the anthologies. She also maintained a large family of writers at her home in Berkeley. Ms Bradley was editing the final Sword and Sorceress manuscript up until the week of her death in September of 1999.
Probably her most famous single novel is The Mists of Avalon. A retelling of the Camelot legend from the point of view of Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar, it grew into a series of books; like the Darkover series, the later novels are written with or by other authors and have continued to appear after Bradley's death.
Her reputation has been posthumously marred by multiple accusations of child sexual abuse by her daughter Moira Greyland, and for allegedly assisting her second husband, convicted child abuser Walter Breen, in sexually abusing multiple unrelated children.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
Shelved as 'abgebrochen-dnf'
September 22, 2024DNF S. 44 / 13%
Habe dieses Buch in einer Bücherzelle entdeckt und fand die Idee eines Planeten mit 4 Monden und eigener Kultur etc spannend.
Leider habe ich zu spät bemerkt, dass es sich hierbei nicht um einen "normalen" Band der Darkover-Reihe, sondern um eine Sammlung von Fan Fictions, herausgegeben von der Autorin.
Die vielen Namen, Orte, Eigenbegriffe etc sind nur zu verstehen, wenn man entweder die Reihe bereits kennt oder dauernd googelt. Die erste Geschichte habe ich gelesen und fand sie auch durchaus ansprechend und gut geschrieben. Allerdings macht es wenig Sinn weiterzulesen da mir einfach die Zusammenhänge fehlen und ich momentan keine Lust habe eine Reihe zu beginnen.
Deshalb wurde dieses Buch vorerst mal abgebrochen.
Sollte mir aber Teil 1 der Reihe in die Hände fallen, würde ich nicht wiederstehen können.
Habe dieses Buch in einer Bücherzelle entdeckt und fand die Idee eines Planeten mit 4 Monden und eigener Kultur etc spannend.
Leider habe ich zu spät bemerkt, dass es sich hierbei nicht um einen "normalen" Band der Darkover-Reihe, sondern um eine Sammlung von Fan Fictions, herausgegeben von der Autorin.
Die vielen Namen, Orte, Eigenbegriffe etc sind nur zu verstehen, wenn man entweder die Reihe bereits kennt oder dauernd googelt. Die erste Geschichte habe ich gelesen und fand sie auch durchaus ansprechend und gut geschrieben. Allerdings macht es wenig Sinn weiterzulesen da mir einfach die Zusammenhänge fehlen und ich momentan keine Lust habe eine Reihe zu beginnen.
Deshalb wurde dieses Buch vorerst mal abgebrochen.
Sollte mir aber Teil 1 der Reihe in die Hände fallen, würde ich nicht wiederstehen können.
Read
September 23, 2014There are a few of the Darkover books I still haven't got copies of, but most of them are anthologies. This is the most recent anthology I've gotten hold of, and unlike most of them, I hadn't read any of these stories before, although I was familiar with some of the backstories most of the stories were based on.
As with most anthologies, the quality is uneven. And as with many anthologies, the author of the original series exercises fairly strict editorial control...which doesn't seem to have much impact on the quality, because Bradley chooses what SHE prefers--which may or may not be what readers prefer.
(1) THE JACKAL: Several of Bradley's stories delve into the psychology of ghosts. The basic premise is that the recently dead cling to the world of the living when they should be moving on (though it's not entirely clear where). But what happens to the ghosts of the mentally ill could have very real consequences. And who acts as therapist to the dead?
(2) DEATH'S SCEPTER: Toward the end of the 'Hundred Kingdoms' period, the Hastur heir cedes rule to his younger brother, because the elder is more suited to laran work, and the younger to statecraft. At this period, there would have been plenty of heirs for any position, and such exchanges must have been relatively more common than in later times: but there are still some who resent it, and continually force the principals to revisit the choice.
(3) A KING'S RANSOM: On Earth, the idea of a letter of credit goes back to Phoenician times. But evidently, the determinedly aliterate Darkovans had lost sight of the idea, for a while. I should note that Bradley was enamored of the idea that people are not rational. I think she was misled on that count, as are the majority of people who consider themselves wiser than their ancestors who DID believe in rational decisionmaking. But in fact, there is considerable evidence that people become less likely to make rational decisions when they are crowded, harried, and denied time and materials to base rational decisions on. Freud, after all, was working in Vienna in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries: when all of the derationalizing forces were acting, in other words.
(4) A MAN OF IMPULSE: For all those who wondered how the almost exclusively homosexual Dyan Ardais ended up with a son...this probably isn't how.
(5) SWARM SONG: I have made several comments on the growing terraforming of the biology of Darkover. This story involves honeybees: another thing that probably wouldn't have been brought along on the colony ship.
(6) OUT OF ASHES: This is not strictly a Darkovan story. It involves urban firefighters who work as telepathic pairs--but who discover that loss of a partner need not mean the end of a career.
(7) MY FATHER'S SON: During the Ages of Chaos, the breeding programs were used to create riyachiyas (and the male equivalent, riyuchiyus). These ambiguous creatures are described first in Stormqueen! In that latter book, the process of creating the creatures seems to imply that they were, in fact, only DEFINED as nonhuman. Their parents are fully human, except that their host mothers are kyrri (I don't know the plural of this word), as I recall. There was probably some genetic manipulation, but I think it unlikely to have resulted in creatures substantially different from humans. These slaves, created originally for sexual gratification, were somewhat arbitrarily defined as less intelligent than humans (some claim to take pleasure from pain). But the only proven difference from most humans is that they are defined as sterile...but so are many emmasca, and THEY are not represented as inhuman and stupid. In this story, a riyuchiyu is described who is said to be different from others of the breed--he's said to be smarter, he's probably not sterile, and he is created to be not a sex object, but a devoted foster brother--and he therefore faces emotional problems other members of the breed are believed to be immune to, while still being subject to the general prejudice against nonhumans.
(8) HOUSE RULES: The basic concept of the Oath of the Renunciates is to allow women a place where they're able to make their own decisions about their relations with other individuals and with their society. But the concept that children raised in the Guild House will necessarily want to follow in the paths of their mothers (or foster mothers, for that matter), doesn't really follow. And the rule that boys over the age of five may not live in a Guild House is not set in stone. The larger houses might have to be strict, because they have many members, and have difficulty balancing often complex needs. But it does seem that there should be a general agreement that children approaching maturity should be temporarily fostered away (say for a year or two) so that they can decide whether they want to join the Renunciates for life.
(9) TO CHALLENGE FATE: 'Fate' always seems to me to be an evasion. The basic concept seems to be that people have their lives preplanned (although it's often not clear who or what is doing the planning). The central character in this story could easily have left and gone somewhere where her overlord could not interfere with her. Even in the most orderly times on Darkover, there were places where Lord Alton's word had no weight. The woman in this case is trying to find such an escape...until she encounters a ghost wind--and a demon (read chieri) lover.
(10)THE DEVOURER WITHIN: Experimentation with laran can go in odd directions--and can become dangerous, sometimes.
(11) SIN CATENAS: I don't frankly find the problems of the central character in this story important. Why does she feel she has to deny her siblings? But her decision to choose her own husband would be uncontroversial in any but feudal societies anyway.
(12) CIRCLES: If Bradley found stories of people married against their will boring, I personally found this whole "Bandits have taken over our castle! What shall we DO?" sort of story extremely tedious. Castles are all very picturesque: but the basic construction of a society in which castles are necessary or believed to be necessary is not a particularly healthy one. Today's outlaws, as Bradley herself often recognized, are very likely to be the victims of bandits in a few generations. Which needn't mean that the victims of bandits are no better than their own bandit ancestors: but the society is structured in such a way that this is the most likely outcome.
(13) FESTIVAL NIGHT: This is set after a catastrophe late in the series--a plague, evidently. Two chance-found companions fall into the circle of influence of someone who is trying to 'restore order' by setting himself up as a latter-day lord.
(14) A LAUGHING MATTER: A troublesome young monitor trainee is sent off to be nanny to an autistic child: and her talent for practical jokes becomes a bridge for communication.
(15) MOURNING: In the worst period of the Ages of Chaos, a family in the Hastur clan tries at least to get children ruled off-limits in laran warfare.
(16) THE DEATH OF BRENDON ENSOLARE: Set during the time when the elderly Dominic Di Asturien was cadetmaster of the Guard, this involves a misunderstanding which grows into a potential tragedy.
(17) SORT OF CHAOS: A terribly punny story involving a pair of siblings who can't work together because unconscious sibling rivalry causes their laran to sabotage each other.
As with most anthologies, the quality is uneven. And as with many anthologies, the author of the original series exercises fairly strict editorial control...which doesn't seem to have much impact on the quality, because Bradley chooses what SHE prefers--which may or may not be what readers prefer.
(1) THE JACKAL: Several of Bradley's stories delve into the psychology of ghosts. The basic premise is that the recently dead cling to the world of the living when they should be moving on (though it's not entirely clear where). But what happens to the ghosts of the mentally ill could have very real consequences. And who acts as therapist to the dead?
(2) DEATH'S SCEPTER: Toward the end of the 'Hundred Kingdoms' period, the Hastur heir cedes rule to his younger brother, because the elder is more suited to laran work, and the younger to statecraft. At this period, there would have been plenty of heirs for any position, and such exchanges must have been relatively more common than in later times: but there are still some who resent it, and continually force the principals to revisit the choice.
(3) A KING'S RANSOM: On Earth, the idea of a letter of credit goes back to Phoenician times. But evidently, the determinedly aliterate Darkovans had lost sight of the idea, for a while. I should note that Bradley was enamored of the idea that people are not rational. I think she was misled on that count, as are the majority of people who consider themselves wiser than their ancestors who DID believe in rational decisionmaking. But in fact, there is considerable evidence that people become less likely to make rational decisions when they are crowded, harried, and denied time and materials to base rational decisions on. Freud, after all, was working in Vienna in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries: when all of the derationalizing forces were acting, in other words.
(4) A MAN OF IMPULSE: For all those who wondered how the almost exclusively homosexual Dyan Ardais ended up with a son...this probably isn't how.
(5) SWARM SONG: I have made several comments on the growing terraforming of the biology of Darkover. This story involves honeybees: another thing that probably wouldn't have been brought along on the colony ship.
(6) OUT OF ASHES: This is not strictly a Darkovan story. It involves urban firefighters who work as telepathic pairs--but who discover that loss of a partner need not mean the end of a career.
(7) MY FATHER'S SON: During the Ages of Chaos, the breeding programs were used to create riyachiyas (and the male equivalent, riyuchiyus). These ambiguous creatures are described first in Stormqueen! In that latter book, the process of creating the creatures seems to imply that they were, in fact, only DEFINED as nonhuman. Their parents are fully human, except that their host mothers are kyrri (I don't know the plural of this word), as I recall. There was probably some genetic manipulation, but I think it unlikely to have resulted in creatures substantially different from humans. These slaves, created originally for sexual gratification, were somewhat arbitrarily defined as less intelligent than humans (some claim to take pleasure from pain). But the only proven difference from most humans is that they are defined as sterile...but so are many emmasca, and THEY are not represented as inhuman and stupid. In this story, a riyuchiyu is described who is said to be different from others of the breed--he's said to be smarter, he's probably not sterile, and he is created to be not a sex object, but a devoted foster brother--and he therefore faces emotional problems other members of the breed are believed to be immune to, while still being subject to the general prejudice against nonhumans.
(8) HOUSE RULES: The basic concept of the Oath of the Renunciates is to allow women a place where they're able to make their own decisions about their relations with other individuals and with their society. But the concept that children raised in the Guild House will necessarily want to follow in the paths of their mothers (or foster mothers, for that matter), doesn't really follow. And the rule that boys over the age of five may not live in a Guild House is not set in stone. The larger houses might have to be strict, because they have many members, and have difficulty balancing often complex needs. But it does seem that there should be a general agreement that children approaching maturity should be temporarily fostered away (say for a year or two) so that they can decide whether they want to join the Renunciates for life.
(9) TO CHALLENGE FATE: 'Fate' always seems to me to be an evasion. The basic concept seems to be that people have their lives preplanned (although it's often not clear who or what is doing the planning). The central character in this story could easily have left and gone somewhere where her overlord could not interfere with her. Even in the most orderly times on Darkover, there were places where Lord Alton's word had no weight. The woman in this case is trying to find such an escape...until she encounters a ghost wind--and a demon (read chieri) lover.
(10)THE DEVOURER WITHIN: Experimentation with laran can go in odd directions--and can become dangerous, sometimes.
(11) SIN CATENAS: I don't frankly find the problems of the central character in this story important. Why does she feel she has to deny her siblings? But her decision to choose her own husband would be uncontroversial in any but feudal societies anyway.
(12) CIRCLES: If Bradley found stories of people married against their will boring, I personally found this whole "Bandits have taken over our castle! What shall we DO?" sort of story extremely tedious. Castles are all very picturesque: but the basic construction of a society in which castles are necessary or believed to be necessary is not a particularly healthy one. Today's outlaws, as Bradley herself often recognized, are very likely to be the victims of bandits in a few generations. Which needn't mean that the victims of bandits are no better than their own bandit ancestors: but the society is structured in such a way that this is the most likely outcome.
(13) FESTIVAL NIGHT: This is set after a catastrophe late in the series--a plague, evidently. Two chance-found companions fall into the circle of influence of someone who is trying to 'restore order' by setting himself up as a latter-day lord.
(14) A LAUGHING MATTER: A troublesome young monitor trainee is sent off to be nanny to an autistic child: and her talent for practical jokes becomes a bridge for communication.
(15) MOURNING: In the worst period of the Ages of Chaos, a family in the Hastur clan tries at least to get children ruled off-limits in laran warfare.
(16) THE DEATH OF BRENDON ENSOLARE: Set during the time when the elderly Dominic Di Asturien was cadetmaster of the Guard, this involves a misunderstanding which grows into a potential tragedy.
(17) SORT OF CHAOS: A terribly punny story involving a pair of siblings who can't work together because unconscious sibling rivalry causes their laran to sabotage each other.
June 12, 2017
Mais contos da boa e velha Darkover. Eu sinto saudades imensas dessa série, uma das melhores de ficção científica que já li.
Como os contos são escritos por fãs, temos contos bons e outros nem tanto.
Um dos meus preferido é “A man of impulse”, do meu anti-herói favorito: Dyan Ardais! Que vai explicar como ele acabou com um herdeiro.
Outro conto que valeu a pena foi “My father’s son” sobre dois meio-irmãos, onde um deles é de uma raça menor, que sempre foi apresentada nos livros como meio-animais, os kirri, e que apesar disso os irmão são extremamente parecidos. É uma daquelas historias que você gostaria de saber o que aconteceu depois...
“House rules” sobre as regras da casa das renunciantes também é muito boa. A história explica um pouco sobre a criação dos meninos pelas renunciantes e de como nem tudo é escrito em pedra.
“A death of Brendon Ensolare” é uma piadinha com o livro do “Tenente Quetange”, onde jovens cadetes se aproveitam de um erro e fingem que existe mais um soldado e abusam do pobre colocando toda a culpa de suas faltas nele. A piada funciona bem até que sai do controle.
Várias histórias do livro são bem curtinhas, então a leitura é rápida e fácil.
Como os contos são escritos por fãs, temos contos bons e outros nem tanto.
Um dos meus preferido é “A man of impulse”, do meu anti-herói favorito: Dyan Ardais! Que vai explicar como ele acabou com um herdeiro.
Outro conto que valeu a pena foi “My father’s son” sobre dois meio-irmãos, onde um deles é de uma raça menor, que sempre foi apresentada nos livros como meio-animais, os kirri, e que apesar disso os irmão são extremamente parecidos. É uma daquelas historias que você gostaria de saber o que aconteceu depois...
“House rules” sobre as regras da casa das renunciantes também é muito boa. A história explica um pouco sobre a criação dos meninos pelas renunciantes e de como nem tudo é escrito em pedra.
“A death of Brendon Ensolare” é uma piadinha com o livro do “Tenente Quetange”, onde jovens cadetes se aproveitam de um erro e fingem que existe mais um soldado e abusam do pobre colocando toda a culpa de suas faltas nele. A piada funciona bem até que sai do controle.
Várias histórias do livro são bem curtinhas, então a leitura é rápida e fácil.
September 6, 2020
One of the issues with anthologies of (mostly) amateur writing is that the quality of the work is very uneven. This anthology, however, is the best of these amateur Darkover anthologies that I've read to date (I'm reading them in chronological order of publication...yeah I may have a mental illness, or at least OCD...). Before I get to some details, I just want to recognize Bradley's generosity. Much like HP Lovecraft (whom Bradley read when she was younger, and, along with Robert W. Chambers, influenced her enough for there to be traces of the Mythos in Bradley's _Darkover_ novels), Bradley should be remembered as someone who helped younger writers find a market for their work. She almost single handedly produced an entire generation of (mostly female) science fiction and fantasy writers with her lengthy series of amateur anthologies (both this Darkover series and her long-running _Sword and Sorceress_ anthologies). Among the best known of these writers today is Mercedes Lackey (she doesn't appear in this particular anthology, but found some of her first publications in Bradley editions). Bradley was a generous editor and should be remembered as such along with the body of her own work.
The opening story of this anthology, "The Jackal" by Vera Nazarian, is probably the weakest piece in the book, although it does feature some unusual (for Darkover) uses of laran and pushes the boundaries of science fiction and horror fiction. Aside from that piece, almost every other work in this book is very impressive (oddly enough, the two stories by Bradley herself are of minor status). There is a set of stories in the middle that are especially good: "To Challenge Fate" by Sandra Morrese, "The Devourer Within" by Margaret J. Carter (the Lovecraftian title is a little mismatched with the story's plot, but it was still an excellent piece of work), and "Festival Night" by Dorothy J. Heydt: these stories alone are worth picking this book up and reading it. The authors don't stick to wornout forulae (either in generic plot elements or in tropes peculiar to the Darkover mythos), they instead push the boundaries of both form and content into interesting territories.
This is thei first Darkover anthology I can recommend without qualifications.
The opening story of this anthology, "The Jackal" by Vera Nazarian, is probably the weakest piece in the book, although it does feature some unusual (for Darkover) uses of laran and pushes the boundaries of science fiction and horror fiction. Aside from that piece, almost every other work in this book is very impressive (oddly enough, the two stories by Bradley herself are of minor status). There is a set of stories in the middle that are especially good: "To Challenge Fate" by Sandra Morrese, "The Devourer Within" by Margaret J. Carter (the Lovecraftian title is a little mismatched with the story's plot, but it was still an excellent piece of work), and "Festival Night" by Dorothy J. Heydt: these stories alone are worth picking this book up and reading it. The authors don't stick to wornout forulae (either in generic plot elements or in tropes peculiar to the Darkover mythos), they instead push the boundaries of both form and content into interesting territories.
This is thei first Darkover anthology I can recommend without qualifications.
November 9, 2020
Obviously, I'm reconsidering most of my Darkover books.
This collection of short stories by various authors in the Darkover fandom had nothing that struck out as particularly engaging (there was a lot of set pieces) and was marred by 2 stories by MZB, including a *shudder* romantic one about Dyan Ardais-- both of them attempting to resolve complaints she had had about things she had written I think.
This collection of short stories by various authors in the Darkover fandom had nothing that struck out as particularly engaging (there was a lot of set pieces) and was marred by 2 stories by MZB, including a *shudder* romantic one about Dyan Ardais-- both of them attempting to resolve complaints she had had about things she had written I think.
July 22, 2020
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
August 2, 2018
I didn't go into this with very high hopes, because it is basically just an authorized collection of fanfiction, but while it wasn't amazing--far from it--it actually wasn't as dire as I had feared. There were a few jewels within, a lot of mush, and some stories that tried to be clever but were brought down by one thing or another.
Probably my favorite story from the book was "Swarm Song." It's very simple, without any complex characters, long-term motivations, or ancient feuds, just a girl who's set to be married to someone she doesn't want to be. She's in the Dry Towns, but her mother is from the Domains and she has a measure of laran, and how she uses it is pretty much the point of the stories. There are bees involved, in the animated gif sense. It's short and cute and it was great.
"A King's Ransom" was interesting because it dealt with an aspect of Darkovan society that isn't covered in any of the books that I can remember--economics. Though it goes unmentioned in my review, a point that bothered me in Sharra's Exile is how the Comyn pay for anything, since they come from a backwater world with no resources except laran. The question isn't even raised anywhere, even though feudal societies were full of nobility going backrupt and needing money. This story deals with traders and economics, and while it's relatively short, I think the angle it takes. It's very Edo Japan, with the Comyn as the warrior nobility--and while Bradley claims that she views them more as gentleman farmers in the story's introduction, I think that's obviously wrong for the vast majority of Darkover's history--and merchants as despised underclass who produce nothing but have all the money. It also features a witchery even more powerful than laran...credit! Next to "Swarm Song," this was the standout.
"Death's Scepter" was odd because of the titular object. When I think of matrix weaponry, I think of something more like the Sharra matrix, or the products of laran mechanics like bonewater dust or clingfire, not what was apparently a wand of death with fig-leaf justification for its existence. Leronis might mean "sorceress," but laran isn't sorcery and just making it fantasy magic loses some of what makes Darkover interesting.
Similarly, "The Jackal" has an ancient curse and a ghost and is probably something that would be better set on the moors of Scotland rather than in Darkover. I know psionics are basically just a way to slip magic into science fiction, but ghosts? Come on.
"Sin Catenas" was a decent story about a woman (she's supposedly a pre-teen, but not written like that at all) who falls in love and plans to marry someone as soon as she turns fifteen, and then her philandering father betroths her to some random lord, but then her mother, who's the lady of the Domain, dies on the eve of her birthday and she's saved because now she's the lady! Except it's the eve of her birthday, so her father would be her regent for the remaining hours and could seriously screw up her life and that's totally ignored. Lost potential.
"Circles" takes place extremely early in Darkover's history, before the Towers exist, before the breeding programs, and when laran was still called "the gift of the chieri." It's notable mostly for the end, which I found to be pretty creepy in its implications.
"The Death of Brendon Ensolare" is a version of the Lieutenant Kijé story, where Bredan Escobar has his name misheard on the first day of cadet mustering that year. And since I had never read the story of Lieutenant Kijé most of the rest of this story wasn't spoiled for me, though if you click that link or have heard of it before or indeed read the intro to the story where it's mentioned, it'll be spoiled for you too. It had a nice combination of humor and tragedy and was a great way to almost round off the book.
The other stories didn't stand out much for me, sadly. I think it's primarily because they were so short that the ideas within ended up underdeveloped or the conflict was barely started before it was resolved. I think Four Moons of Darkover would have done better with fewer but longer stories. As it is, it's mostly like the taste of good food but not being allowed to eat it.
Probably my favorite story from the book was "Swarm Song." It's very simple, without any complex characters, long-term motivations, or ancient feuds, just a girl who's set to be married to someone she doesn't want to be. She's in the Dry Towns, but her mother is from the Domains and she has a measure of laran, and how she uses it is pretty much the point of the stories. There are bees involved, in the animated gif sense. It's short and cute and it was great.
"A King's Ransom" was interesting because it dealt with an aspect of Darkovan society that isn't covered in any of the books that I can remember--economics. Though it goes unmentioned in my review, a point that bothered me in Sharra's Exile is how the Comyn pay for anything, since they come from a backwater world with no resources except laran. The question isn't even raised anywhere, even though feudal societies were full of nobility going backrupt and needing money. This story deals with traders and economics, and while it's relatively short, I think the angle it takes. It's very Edo Japan, with the Comyn as the warrior nobility--and while Bradley claims that she views them more as gentleman farmers in the story's introduction, I think that's obviously wrong for the vast majority of Darkover's history--and merchants as despised underclass who produce nothing but have all the money. It also features a witchery even more powerful than laran...credit! Next to "Swarm Song," this was the standout.
"Death's Scepter" was odd because of the titular object. When I think of matrix weaponry, I think of something more like the Sharra matrix, or the products of laran mechanics like bonewater dust or clingfire, not what was apparently a wand of death with fig-leaf justification for its existence. Leronis might mean "sorceress," but laran isn't sorcery and just making it fantasy magic loses some of what makes Darkover interesting.
Similarly, "The Jackal" has an ancient curse and a ghost and is probably something that would be better set on the moors of Scotland rather than in Darkover. I know psionics are basically just a way to slip magic into science fiction, but ghosts? Come on.
"Sin Catenas" was a decent story about a woman (she's supposedly a pre-teen, but not written like that at all) who falls in love and plans to marry someone as soon as she turns fifteen, and then her philandering father betroths her to some random lord, but then her mother, who's the lady of the Domain, dies on the eve of her birthday and she's saved because now she's the lady! Except it's the eve of her birthday, so her father would be her regent for the remaining hours and could seriously screw up her life and that's totally ignored. Lost potential.
"Circles" takes place extremely early in Darkover's history, before the Towers exist, before the breeding programs, and when laran was still called "the gift of the chieri." It's notable mostly for the end, which I found to be pretty creepy in its implications.
"The Death of Brendon Ensolare" is a version of the Lieutenant Kijé story, where Bredan Escobar has his name misheard on the first day of cadet mustering that year. And since I had never read the story of Lieutenant Kijé most of the rest of this story wasn't spoiled for me, though if you click that link or have heard of it before or indeed read the intro to the story where it's mentioned, it'll be spoiled for you too. It had a nice combination of humor and tragedy and was a great way to almost round off the book.
The other stories didn't stand out much for me, sadly. I think it's primarily because they were so short that the ideas within ended up underdeveloped or the conflict was barely started before it was resolved. I think Four Moons of Darkover would have done better with fewer but longer stories. As it is, it's mostly like the taste of good food but not being allowed to eat it.
May 14, 2018
Qualità altalenante, ovviamente
Si tratta pur sempre di un’antologia, dopo tutto...
Se da un lato abbiamo perle come “Lo sciacallo” di Vera Nazarian, dall’altro abbiamo ciofeche come “Le api” di Roxana Pierson, per esempio. Ma sono diverse le letture piacevoli, con spunti non poco interessanti, e resta l’amaro in bocca se si pensa che non siano stati approfonditi in seguito.
Nota incomprensibile su quanto scrive la Bradley stessa #1: «Io avevo contato di compilare almeno un’antologia – poiché a loro ne ho già dedicata una intera – senza un racconto concernente le Libere Amazzoni; ma sembra che l’argomento sia troppo popolare per evitarlo anche in questo volume. Così, costretta a scegliere tra molti racconti, cos’ho fatto? Ne ho scritto uno anch’io.» (“Le regole della Casa”, p. 141). Ecco. Avrebbe proprio potuto risparmiarcelo.
Nota incomprensibile su quanto scrive la Bradley stessa #2: «[…] ci sono soltanto poche trame-base; e quella su una ragazza costretta dai genitori a sposare un uomo di loro scelta – quando lei preferirebbe un altro, oppure non sposarsi affatto – è una cosa che nel mondo occidentale accadeva molto spesso fino, diciamo, al diciannovesimo secolo. La sua frequenza la rende un cliché, un fatto tanto comune da essere proverbiale. Ma a giudicare da quanto gli scrittori continuano a interessarsene, sembra che non abbia ancora annoiato nessuno. E poiché tanti continuano a scriverne, devo presumere che a tanti piaccia leggerne. […] Così, eccola di nuovo.» (“Sfidare il destino”, p. 155). Messa così, sembra quasi che il racconto le faccia schifo: perché pubblicarlo, allora, se dice altrove che, per ogni antologia, deve scartare una marea di racconti di qualità che le pervengono?? (Tra parentesi, di gran lunga meglio “Sfidare il destino” che non l’ennesima merda amazzonica di cui sopra).
Si tratta pur sempre di un’antologia, dopo tutto...
Se da un lato abbiamo perle come “Lo sciacallo” di Vera Nazarian, dall’altro abbiamo ciofeche come “Le api” di Roxana Pierson, per esempio. Ma sono diverse le letture piacevoli, con spunti non poco interessanti, e resta l’amaro in bocca se si pensa che non siano stati approfonditi in seguito.
Nota incomprensibile su quanto scrive la Bradley stessa #1: «Io avevo contato di compilare almeno un’antologia – poiché a loro ne ho già dedicata una intera – senza un racconto concernente le Libere Amazzoni; ma sembra che l’argomento sia troppo popolare per evitarlo anche in questo volume. Così, costretta a scegliere tra molti racconti, cos’ho fatto? Ne ho scritto uno anch’io.» (“Le regole della Casa”, p. 141). Ecco. Avrebbe proprio potuto risparmiarcelo.
Nota incomprensibile su quanto scrive la Bradley stessa #2: «[…] ci sono soltanto poche trame-base; e quella su una ragazza costretta dai genitori a sposare un uomo di loro scelta – quando lei preferirebbe un altro, oppure non sposarsi affatto – è una cosa che nel mondo occidentale accadeva molto spesso fino, diciamo, al diciannovesimo secolo. La sua frequenza la rende un cliché, un fatto tanto comune da essere proverbiale. Ma a giudicare da quanto gli scrittori continuano a interessarsene, sembra che non abbia ancora annoiato nessuno. E poiché tanti continuano a scriverne, devo presumere che a tanti piaccia leggerne. […] Così, eccola di nuovo.» (“Sfidare il destino”, p. 155). Messa così, sembra quasi che il racconto le faccia schifo: perché pubblicarlo, allora, se dice altrove che, per ogni antologia, deve scartare una marea di racconti di qualità che le pervengono?? (Tra parentesi, di gran lunga meglio “Sfidare il destino” che non l’ennesima merda amazzonica di cui sopra).
April 21, 2010
Marion Zimmer Bradley is famous for her Avalon books, but I'm a fan of her Darkover stories, set in an original world and a blend of science fiction and fantasy. This is one of a series of anthologies that basically are collection of "fan fiction" by other authors based on MZB's Darkover. I was impressed on reread of the first such book, The Keeper's Price. Enough I ranked it just below five stars, and was tempted to give it full marks. Not that I would argue it's deathless literature, but as a Darkover fan I loved it, and was surprised how memorable the various stories were even decades after I first read it--there were some I remembered just from the title, and no story I didn't completely enjoy.
The next three collections, The Sword of Chaos, Free Amazons of Darkover and Red Sun of Darkoer, though still enjoyable, didn't impress nearly me as much. I'm afraid I feel the same about Four Moons of Darkover. The first collection seemed mostly taken from a contest, and perhaps that pushed the quality up. So many in the contents page of the next three anthologies seemed the usual suspects, and 10 of the 16 stories included are by authors who appeared in previous MZB anthologies. Two of those stories are her own, and for a Darkover fan it's worth getting the book for these pieces fitting in parts of the lore. In the case of "House Rules" it deals with an aspect of the "Free Amazons" that has always bugged me (and from what MZB said in the introduction, I'm not alone) while "Man of Impulse" sheds some light on the character MZB said came closet of any of hers to a villain--Dyan Ardais. All the rest of the stories are enjoyable--I don't think there's any particularly weak link--but then I didn't think there was any standout either.
The next three collections, The Sword of Chaos, Free Amazons of Darkover and Red Sun of Darkoer, though still enjoyable, didn't impress nearly me as much. I'm afraid I feel the same about Four Moons of Darkover. The first collection seemed mostly taken from a contest, and perhaps that pushed the quality up. So many in the contents page of the next three anthologies seemed the usual suspects, and 10 of the 16 stories included are by authors who appeared in previous MZB anthologies. Two of those stories are her own, and for a Darkover fan it's worth getting the book for these pieces fitting in parts of the lore. In the case of "House Rules" it deals with an aspect of the "Free Amazons" that has always bugged me (and from what MZB said in the introduction, I'm not alone) while "Man of Impulse" sheds some light on the character MZB said came closet of any of hers to a villain--Dyan Ardais. All the rest of the stories are enjoyable--I don't think there's any particularly weak link--but then I didn't think there was any standout either.
February 27, 2016
THE JACKAL:
This short story tells of a curse on Harksell Keep, but is the curse for real or is it just full of myth to scare the superstitious away?
MAN OF IMPULSE:
Dyan Ardais will be surprised when he meets the Lady of Lindirsholme, Marilla Lindir.
HOUSE RULES:
Lora is faced with a decision to send her son away when he is five years old like in her previous house, or to change that rule in her own house to suit her.
THE DEATH OF BRENDON ENSOLARE:
Cadets face the consequences of practical joke gone all wrong.
This short story tells of a curse on Harksell Keep, but is the curse for real or is it just full of myth to scare the superstitious away?
MAN OF IMPULSE:
Dyan Ardais will be surprised when he meets the Lady of Lindirsholme, Marilla Lindir.
HOUSE RULES:
Lora is faced with a decision to send her son away when he is five years old like in her previous house, or to change that rule in her own house to suit her.
THE DEATH OF BRENDON ENSOLARE:
Cadets face the consequences of practical joke gone all wrong.
November 29, 2010
like all anthologies there were some that I liked better than others. what hit me the most was the intros to the stories. One of them remind me of just how fast the internet and computers took off. taking about how one day it just might be everywhere and that books could become outdated. It was nice to here MZB's voice again it has been a whail since I visited her world.
July 5, 2013
Una raccolta di racconti con protagonisti di vario genere (nobili, esperti di laran, amazzoni, ecc.) ambientati naturalmente su Darkvoer, in varie epoche. Forse un po' troppo eterogenea, neanche le Lune di Darkover fanno abbastanza da filo conduttore, comunque tutti bei racconti, alcuni con idee veramente veramente particolari di aspetti del laran o di possibilità di vicende legate ad esso.
May 22, 2015
The Darkover stories have always dealt with people's roles in society"," This collection of fiction"," by many authors"," is no exception. The underlying theme is the individual's right to choose his or her own role in life"," even when it means challenging the existing order of society.Many of the tales are desperate adventures"," but three are LOL funny.
July 6, 2011
It was pretty good, a couple were very good, but I find I am having less and less to say about these anthologies. I enjoy them, but I think you pretty much have to be a Darkover fan in the first place to really enjoy them.
Read
September 2, 2007Reread in 2003.
April 18, 2009
A very nice collection of stories. I particularly liked "The Death of Brendan Ensolare" although "Sin Catenas" was good too.
January 22, 2019
Anthology of fill in stories in the timeline of Darkover. I really like the ones with familiar characters but there were some unique ones.
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