Brett72
3/24/2013
Marion Zimmer Bradley was the first author I chose after signing up for the Women of Genre Fiction challenge here at WWEnd. Anyone who's been in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of a bookstore has seen the huge trade paperback of The Mists of Avalon dominating the shelf. I've been noticing it for years and fully intended to take the opportunity provided by the WoGF challenge to finally read it.
And yet....
When I looked at Bradley's books in the WWEnd database, I noticed a series of books called "Darkover." These books spanned her whole career of published works! I was intrigued and chose The Heritage of Hastur as my introduction to Darkover and Marion Zimmer Bradley.
What an introduction! This novel was a joy to read. Any trepidation I had about jumping into a long running series midway was soon laid to rest. The Darkover books are meant to be enjoyed as stand-alone novels as well as part of a series. Bradley does a great job of weaving the history and culture of Darkover into the narrative. At no point was I on the receiving end of an information dump or an "Our story so far..." synopsis.
The planet of Darkover is inhabited by a human civilization with medieval level technology, but extensive psychic ability (i.e. magic in a traditional fantasy novel). The Terran Empire, a star faring human empire, has discovered Darkover and limited relations have been established. In other words, the overarching story of the Darkover series imagines what might happen if a science-fiction genre civilization ran into a fantasy genre civilization.
The novel does not hammer you with that idea. In fact, it goes unsaid. The Heritage of Hastur is more of a coming of age novel following two young nobles as they struggle with the expectations of their rigid society, their personal desires, and their ideas for a just society. As you might expect, their choices will have ramifications for the whole of Darkover.
If what I've just written sounds trite, it is because I am not the writer Bradley was. Everything about the story feels natural and unforced. The narrative switches back and forth between the two protagonists, Regis Hastur and Lew Alton. Regis' narrative is in third person and Lew's is in first person. Even this juxtaposition is handled wonderfully and is not jarring at all.
I have given no specifics on the story simply because I could not do justice to the depth Bradley achieves in just a few lines. I leave that for you to discover in this great book. I urge everyone to give this novel a read. I certainly will be delving more into the world of Darkover.