I just didn't GET this book...the three ladies who wrote it are, as far as I'm concerned, three of the most important female fantasy writers of all time. Yet I simply couldn't get into this book. The writing styles were just too different, and the story moved too slowly...this is a danger of multiple perspectives: the authors must backtrack to catch "their" character up to the others, and the reader is left slogging through a 400-page mess. I think that if this book had been a little better organized (and the characters a bit more believable) I would have enjoyed it more. As it was, it just left me with this vauge headache and the need to go back, re-read certain passages, and finall, put the book down and not come back to it.

this book had me bored to tears. i literally threw this book down a few times wondering when things were going to culminate? everything is tediously described three times by three different characters. three generations of a royal family are seen through three women of this royal house; the old queen, the middle aged heir and the young princess. in that it's pretty standard but instead of moving this story, which at its heart is wonderful, every scene is retold through each character's eyes with barely any variance.

this story of a kingdom threatened by an invading emperor who lusts for conquest sounded pretty interesting to me. his son, who the reader finds quickly is really loving and wishes for peace, is in this kingdom to help conqueror it. the three main characters, through who the story is told, are the queen, the heir and the young princess. the queen is aging and must pass on the throne but cannot when they are all forced to flee into hiding by the invaders. this summary is brief but the story is closely connected with the characters and i don't want to hand out to many teasers.

at the begginning of the book i was intrigued by the idea of this mystical kingdom with hidden secrets and mysterious rituals but by the third chapter i was wondering when something was going to happen to already. "tiger burning bright" hints that angels may play a very important role but then abruptly ignores the subject leaving the reader wondering why the lengthy description if they play no real role?

chapter after chapter is devoted to what every character is thinking, feeling, wearing and what they plan to do but never actually do. build up is all well and go and i am a never ending fan of suspense, holding it as critical part of a story but between three authors one would think that all this suspense was leading somewhere.

the long awaited ending was something i wouldn't call overly original, reading instead like some trashy romance novel. i knew who would end up with who by the fifth chapter and kept wondering when it would happen already. though many like the story line and i found i liked certain scenes or detail/ideas in the book overall i found it a dissappointing if not completely tiresome read.

Once again, three of the leading science fiction/fantasy authors have shown their mettle. The characters in this book are both believable and riveting. It is so refreshing to see strong women in leading roles in a story which does not depend on their gender to move the story. I would hardily reccommend this book to anyone who enjoys books about intrigue, fantasy, adventure or human relationships for it contains elements of all these. I read the book in one night because I literally could not put it down without having the urge to pick it back up

Alama, Pauline J.: "Raven-Wings on the Snow" A dark variation on Andersen's "The Wild Swans", providing a vile motive for the king's desire for a daughter.

Combs, Jan: The bardic narrator and her juggler partner borrow "Kendat's Ax", the town relic, to deal with a none-too-bright ogre. (A good archer would have worked just as well.)

Corwin, Richard: "The Glass Sword" continues Corwin's storyline from S&S #4 and _Spells of Wonder_. Kali has asked a boon: a mortal lifetime before she must return to Nirvana to weave the spell that in time will end the new age now dawning.

Dougherty-Carthum, Kati: Queen Dylas' closest friend has tried to teach her to think straight under pressure (so summarized because the specifics of self-defense obviously aren't the title's "Lessons Learned"). Capture by bandits puts Dylas to the test.

Edghill, India: "Tiger's Eye" Ratrichaya has been imprisoned to serve as her brother's Pavilion witch, in this alternate India in the time of Alexander's attempted conquest.

Edghill, Rosemary: "Little Rogue Riding Hood" grew into the novel _The Warslayer_.

Heald, Denise Lopes: The narrator, unable to master her father's power stones to help in his war against the magickers, became a thief to seek "The Needed Stone" from their very fortress.

Heydt, Dorothy J.: Like Linville's "Light", "In the Sacred Places of the Earth" concerns a woman seeking to retrieve a loved one perceived as 'virtue walking' - here her husband - from death, although this story involves the Eleusinian mysteries of Greece rather than ancient Egypt, and a task for Cynthia rather than simple directions. See S&S #19 for more of Cynthia: "I have been an impious woman in my day, and done several goddesses an injury and well they deserved it." :)

Holman, Howard: "The Tower of Song", font of magic, tests candidates for the position of Royal Bard, but none have survived in over a century, and "the Darkness with its Dark Things" is coming. Sketchy world-building, real story is the unnecessarily secret nature of the test.

Johnson, Michael Chesley: King Brald suffers from a curse he can't break alone; none of "The Stone Wives" - his 31 previous brides, now part of an incomplete chess set - conceived even once within her allotted year. But Tiwa of Elaan (#32), despite her resentment of imprisonment, is also a sorceress.

Lee, Mary Soon: "The Fall of the Kingdom" had its genesis with the birth and death of children: the narrator, who nursed the White Lady (not explicitly identified as Guenevere) after her own infant son's death, and her Lady's neglect of duty after the loss of her own child at birth.

Linville, Susan Urbanek: Nekhti's elder sister Ameni was her "Light", but at 15 has been killed by a runaway cart in Abydos; Nekhti is determined to restore her to life, but doesn't know the cost. (Her journey isn't easy, but neither is it realistically difficult.)

Manison, Pete D.: "Magic Threads" Kyreen the Weaver produces magical garments for many occasions, frequently to reinforce various mental states in the wearer, from passion to confidence.

Paxson, Diana L.: "A Passage of Power" features the wisewoman Bera. Shaky start with a muddle of vision/dream and waking, not clearly relevant to the bulk of the story. Plot: Since Bera's old teacher is dying (Bera's coping) and Halvor is dead, Halvor's children by a thrall have no protection from his widow's malice.

Perkins, Gerald: "The Queen in Yellow" - Katane of the Finger Lands - faces a forced marriage to the son of a conquering mage-queen, who cast an enchantment that reflects any of Katane's own magic back at her. (Don't confuse with Robert Chambers' _The King in Yellow_.)

Schmeidler, Lucy Cohen: Gavriella won the "Sword of Peace" as part of her battle spoils: an enchanted sword that resists shedding blood, having a mind of its own.

Silverthorne, Lisa: Sauchony's the only warrior left in the temple while the other sisters are on retreat; having paid more attention to sword-wielding than prophecy, she wouldn't even have known that "Armageddon" was coming this weekend, when she's drawn temple fire duty. (Yelling to four horsemen riding up: "Wait! Apocalypse is the next village over!") :)

Smeds, Dave: "The Land of Graves" The sorceress Tecia's excavation isn't pure archaeology, but intended to restore an ancient water system and reclaim a stretch of swampland - very practical. When she's summoned to come *at once* to deal with a revenant released by a tomb robber, she does *not* charge off like a fool to deal with something that won't come out again until twilight. :) Excellent story.

Waters, Elisabeth: "Bed of Roses" (Waters also performed the final assembly on the entire anthology after MZB's death.) Rosa rejected her suitor Dathan to join the Order of the Holy City - a fighting order whose members always work in trios from the 3 faiths involved. Rosa and her superiors suspect Dathan of engineering the kidnapping of Rosa's little brother that he's offered to "help" her with for a night in her bed.

Watt-Evans, Lawrence: "Arms and the Woman" Siria is actually a camp-follower, who attached herself to the expedition against the Undead Lord since, after all, the prophecy's very clear how simple it is to send him back to the grave for another 400 years, so it shouldn't be too dangerous. But given that the Council nearly didn't send the expedition in time after too much politicking, would they have made *all* the arrangements properly?

i absolutely love the "sword and the sorceress" series for their innovative stories with imaginative plots and innovative stories that are the trade mark of short stories. when i saw this on the book shelf i eargerly snapped it up, thinking i had found another treasure to add to my burgeoning collection but alas that wasn't exactly the case. while mrs. waters did an incredible job of picking up where such a notable author left off i couldn't help feeling this book just didn't rise up to the standards of the rest of the series.

many of the stories were written in unimaginative almost base ways. only a few stories really stuck out in my mind. "little rouge riding hood" which struck me as an inventive rip off of xena with the main character playing a t.v. herione who wears leather and does flips and such. it was clever but more a modern day fantasy which are usually left out.

the other story that held my attention was "the needed stone."
it tells the story of a girl who acquires stones in the hope that she can unlock the magic from one of them to help her ailing father and meets stone. he desperately needs her help to rescue his sister from the sorceress compound where she will be made into a thrall. it's not master literature but it is an entertaining story. also as others have reviews "a passage of power" is wonderful, but readers who haven't read the other stories from "sword and the sorceress 15" of bera may find themselve in the dark since the story in referenced quite a bit.
if you can stand about two pages i suggest you read "armagddeon" it a witty farce that made me laugh.

a few gems stand out in this book but not enough to make it worth buying. many of the stories are lack luster and after i read them i could only go "ok and what exactly was the point." the stories like "lesson learned" which has little to no real plot and "the stone wives" which seemed like the retelling of a fable, made me wonder what mrs. waters was thinking when she added them to the line up. if you run across this book in a library with a few hours to kill i would say go for it but i wouldn't pay that much for it.

The "Sword And Sorceress" series is a series of collections of short stories set in the "Sword and Sorcery" genre, except that in this series, all the protagonists are female. This is because, as Marion Zimmer Bradley has always explained in her introductions, historically in the "Sword and Sorcery" genre, the only female characters were "Bad conduct prizes" for the heros. This series as a whole is very good, although some volumes were stronger than others; I'm very fond of volumes 17, 16, and 15, as well as several of the earlier ones. This volume doesn't quite live up to the high standards of its three most recent predecessors, but it is probably as good as any volume in the series earlier than that.

There are only two stories in this volume that are continuations of the adventures of characters met in previous anthologies: "A Passage Of Power", a story of Diana Paxson's Bera, the Norse wisewoman, and "In The Sacred Places Of The Earth", about Dorothy Heydt's Cynthia, the Witch Of Syracuse. I will say that there were fewer typos and general copyediting mistakes in this book than there have been in some of the earlier ones; whether this was due to Elisabeth Waters paying more attention to such minutinae than Ms. Bradley did or not I can only guess. (Note to Rosemary Edghill, author of "Little Rogue Riding Hood", however: the singular of "staves" is not "stave", it is "staff".) My primary complaint about this book is that it seems to be awefully heavy on the "Sorcery", and awefully light on the "Sword"; I think that the aforementioned "Little Rogue Riding Hood" is the only true "swordswoman" story, with perhaps "Arms and the Woman" coming close. Almost all the rest center around mages of one stripe or another.

My second (minor) quibble is that "Raven Wings On The Snow", by Pauline Alama, while a well-written story, is really just a retelling of a fairy tale, something that Ms. Bradley had always maintained was not allowed, and while I know that she always said that any of her rules could be broken if the story was good enough, I didn't think that this one was; it was good, but not THAT exceptional.

I am told, (by someone who should know, one of the authors) that there are plans for two more "Sword and Sorceress" collections. Hopefully, that information is correct; I'll be looking foreward to them.

I have been a fan of Mr Howard for nearly 12 years now, which in my opinion, makes me a bit of a connoisseur, and frankly this book was a bit of a disappointment. Undoubtedly the contributing writers are well-respected and immensely able but their writing lacked the Howardian flavour I have come to love. Ghor's sudden personality shifts are hard to follow and the various ideas in the story lack sufficient depth. This book is not the way Mr Howard would have written it. Nevertheless, this should be read because the original idea belonged to the great REH.

Ghor is a nice blend of Conan and the Cthulhu Mythos together. Abandoned as a child because of a deformity, Ghor is adopted by a pack of wolves. Raised by them, he adopts the ways of the wolf, yet when he meets up with humanity joins them. Constantly struggling with his wolf upbringing and his human surroundings, Ghor becomes a mighty war hero wherever he goes.

This is an excellent adventure book that takes a Conan like hero and plots him against all sorts of evil (and good), including some Cthulhu creations as well.

Originally Ghor was an unfinished story by Conan creator Robert Howard. Upon finding this unfinished story, a magazine decided to finish it. What they did was have a different chapter every month written by a different top fantasy writer. It made the reading interesting.

While most of the chapters were great. Some were excellent. Unfortunately there were a couple chapters that I just wanted to get through to reach the next writers' chapter. Overall a really good read.

I WAS VERY SUPRISED ABOUT HOW WELL THIS STORY CAME OFF. THE VARIUOS WRITERS DID AN EXCELLENT JOB IN WRITING AN EXCITING BOOK THAT FLOWED SMOOTHLY. IT DID NOT COME OFF AS A SERIES OF SHORT STORIES. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK FOR ROBERT E. HOWARD FANS, AND FANS OF FANTASY IN GENERAL.

A tribute to the influence of Marion Zimmer Bradley, Return to Avalon is a collection of short stories devoted to the fantasy genre. Authors include Melanie Rawn, Diana L. Paxton, Laura Resnick, Dave Wolverton, Katharine Kerr, Adrienne Martine-Barnes and others. I mostly enjoyed the book, but felt the publicity was misleading. It was not any sort of continuation of MZB's Avalon stories, nor were most of them connected to Avalon's legend in any way. The main focus in each story was finding strength within, communicating with the Goddess, and early Christians confronting the Old Religion. I feel that some of the authors did not have signficant talent relaying their creative ideas on paper.

It's difficult to tell what these stories have to do with Bradley's work, or what most of them have to do with any conception of Avalon. A handful are interesting, but most are simplistic or muddled--and few show real skill with words. They could easily have been collected under a different title, suggesting that the titular link to Bradley is more a marketing ploy than a developmental reality. I really don't recommend it.

I think that this book was a very good idea, but it is nothing like The Mists of Avalon, the book it was a tribute to. It was, however, a worthy achievement of those authors who contributed to the book. Some of the stories will be forever memorable in my mind. I loved this book, and I hope that all fantasy fans at least give it credit for effort!

For those who have heard of Marion Zimmer Bradley's tales of the planet of the bloody sun, this would be a good book to start with. It gives a synopsis of sorts of a great many of the previous books in the series, and while it's no substitute for those books, you'll at least have an idea of what's gone on in all those previous books.

The plot, I have to admit, is something straight out of the pulp fiction school, and sounds like something Bradley has done before - but that doesn't detract from the excellent quality of the writing, something that's been sorely lacking in the more recent Darkover novels. Still, this novel made me want to go back and reread even those. Who knows - maybe I'll change my mind about them after reading this one.

I have been reading and enjoying Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series for several years now. I purchased this book on the strength of knowing that I have never been disappointed by a MZB novel. Although this book did not disappoint me I felt that it was slightly rough around the edges. It is a novel in a series that has "Series Novel Syndrome". SNS being the problem wherein if one has not read the previous volumes then one will miss miss major points of "historical" fact that are key to some of the major points of the story. Although I have read all of the previous novels I found myself having to recall several previous Darkover story lines in order to follow this somewhat convoluted plot. I loved the book and recommend it to any Darkover fans but newbies to Darkover beware, you should read at least "Sharra's Exile" first to get the most out of this novel. "Sharra's Exile" by the way is a wonderful novel and is MZB at her very best

Actually this is the first of the Darkovan books I had read. It was just sitting there so I decided on reading it. I think that if I'd starting reading the first of the Darkover books, Darkover Landfall then I wouldn't have read all the rest of the books. Marguerida Alton travels to the planet known to Terrans as Cottman IV with her mentor Ivor Davidson to collect folk music. They are really in for a surprise! All the new people they meet is awesome! But tragedy comes, Ivor dies. That's when the real adventure comes! Knowing nothing of her history Marguerida is surprised and frustrated. She is bowed to and everyone calls her "domna" which means highly honored lady. Marguerida decides to ignore it as best she can. Instead of finding why this is she finds an uncle, goes with her friend and guide Rafaella n'ha Liriel to collect folk music. She has a bout of threshold sickness and has to be taken to a castle where she falls in love with Mikhail Lanart Hastur! Her newly awakened laran is powerful and she gets a shadow matrix from the overworld. Her Uncle Gabriel moves her to Armida and that creates a number of problems. Her father comes to meet her! Read this and then find out the details and what else happens in Marguerida's new and exciting life!

This book is a collection of stories written by "The Friends of Darkover", which is to say, mostly fans of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series, set on the world of Darkover, and edited by Ms. Bradley herself. It's one of several such collections, and like most of them, it's hit-and-miss. Some of the stories weren't all that impressive; in fact, I didn't care ofr any of the first three. But some of them were interesting, if none of them actually come to mind as being memorable for positive reasons.

There was one story written by Ms. Bradley herself, "Man of Impulse", which further developed a character mentioned elsewhere in the canonical Darkover books, and apparently popular with readers: Dyan Ardais. So if you are determined to read everything ever written by Bradley, you need to read this story, even if you don't care for the fan fiction.

And there was a story, quite a good story in fact, which Ms. Bradley put in this book in spite of the fact that it was not written for Darkover; it was intended for her "Sword and Sorceress" series, but for reasons unclear to this reader, she felt it fit better here. The story is "Ashes To Ashes", by Patricia B. Cirone, and it seemed to me that it would have fit much better in its target anthology, rather than this one. But it was a good story in any case, so I'm glad it was published SOMEWHERE, regardless.

"The Four Moons of Darkover" are part of a series of anthologies that deal with specific themes; in this case, the all-influential moons of Darkover. I personally enjoyed this anthology because it features some really good amateur work (which was encouraged by the late great Zimmer Bradley, who included the mechanics of joining in the backs of her anthologies---the world of literature is certainly lesser for her passing), and I believe that some of the authors are now pros. I had wanted to try my hand at it but I'll leave it to those who are much better at it. Every Darkover fan knows that the moons have got a lot to say about what happens on Darkover and especially to the gifted ones, who possess laran. In some stories it's literally moonlight madness, and all laran-gifted creatures beware, especially of the light of all four moons! Under that kind of light, ANYTHING is possible. I gave the book 4 stars, because of course, not all the stories are great, but over all, it's worth having for the entertainment value. Some explanations of legends mentioned in other Darkover books are also well written. I happen to have this book because I bought it quite some years ago, and if you can get a hold of it, sit back and prepare to be entertained.

Years ago I somehow forced myself to slog through The Mists of Avalon, and, not having enjoyed it, swore an oath never to read a novel by this author. A colleague working on a performance of Mozart's Magic Flute with me gave me a copy of Night's Daughter, Bradley's novelization of this terrifically weird and breathtaking opera. Being fascinated by takes on the opera, I made an exception to my anti-Bradley rule; yet I have emerged only with further disdain for Bradley. These characters are ciphers; this prose is trite; this novel has no structure. Granted, people have said the same things of the opera. But the ritual of participating in a theatrical event, and of listening to beloved music, achieve the effect Bradley (in her author's note) hoped to achieve in fantasy literature: of illuminating the spectator's inner life with powerful archetypes, of causing each of us to go on a journey and emerge a greater person. A good performance of the opera will accomplish this magic. Bradley's novel, sadly, accomplishes nothing; truly, hers is the empty bluster of the Queen of the Night.

This book is so full of symbols. It is a wonderful book, but aht else can you expect from the great Marion Zimmer Bradley? True, it is not completely like Mozart's wonderful opera, but then who says it should be? I wish it was back in print!

Let me start by saying that these are the first Darkover books I've ever read. Since they were the first ones published, it seems kind of appropriate. The two "novels" (they are short enough to be novellas) are THE PLANET SAVERS and THE SWORD OF ALDONES. Sandwiched in between those two is a short story called THE WATERFALL. Finally, we get an article written by Ms. Bradley regarding her feelings about the Darkover phenomenon.

Let's start with THE PLANET SAVERS. My first impression is that it was way too short. It was only 97 pages. Just as the characters started to get interesting, the story was over. There was no room for any character development aside from the main character and, so, the relationships he had with the others weren't very convincing. Not only this, but the action was too quick. It just seemed to happen so easily. I would have loved to see a lot more detail regarding their trek. It just seemed all to easy for them to succeed. Where was the adversity?

Next came THE WATERFALL. I have no idea what this story was about. The narration was terrible, the inner thoughts of the main character were nearly incomprehensible, and I had no understanding for her motivations. This is a terrible example of short story writing. I understand what happened in the story, but I don't understand why.

Then there was THE SWORD OF ALDONES. This was much longer than the first story in the book. Probably around 180 pages or so. While the story was very interesting, there were too many references to politics and history of both the world and the characters that weren't explained. I was getting a headache trying to follow all the people that were being talked about, but weren't even in the story. There relationships between all the characters were so convoluted and full of unexplained history that it was difficult to keep any of them straight. I'm sure the author had them all straight in her head as she was writing the story, but she did a terrible job of communicating them to the reader. Plus, I got the feeling that this was a pivotal story in the history of Darkover, but I just couldn't get a grip on why.

Finally, there is the DARKOVER RETROSPECTIVE by Ms. Bradley. This was, as near as I can tell, published in 1980 and so is a bit out of date. In it, she discusses the history behind the development of the Darkover saga and how it came to be. It's an interesting read for anyone who's read a lot of the books, but a lot of the significance was lost on me since I'd only read these two.

Anyway, if you're a fan of Darkover, this is probably a must have. If you're just starting out, you might want to try THE BLOODY SUN instead.

The planet savers is magical novel, in it al the elements of darkover novels are present, but it reaches deeper into the conflict of the non-human and human relation with the aded confusion the telepatic contact brings into it. This novel brings back darkover known caracters such as Regis Hastur in contact with the non human habitants of their world, an with terrans, who are trying to place themselves in one world or the other, and finding it imposible.

This isn't up to MZB's usual level of writing, but it's decent for a quick read (it was an airplane flight read for me). It suffers from being a bit preachy at times, from the 'good guys' being overly trusting and unable to look about critically, and from being somewhat unoriginal (too many 'alternate earth' books out there these days). On the positive side, the story moves along smoothly and the imagery and types of magic used/described are fairly original. -omar

This book was fairly good. The action was appealing and the characters were pretty well-developed. But I have to say that if you hadn't read "Glenraven" first you would have been lost. This book deals with two seperate worlds: the one we're used to, and Glenraven. Glenraven is a little province in Italy that hasn't advanced along with the rest of the world- in fact, Glenraven appears to have hidden in a fold of time. Somehow creatures from Glenraven escape into the real world. They wreak havoc upon the already upside down world of Kate Beacham, an alleged witch. And everything turns into a whirlwind from there. The plot is pretty well-laid, and there are some intriguing tensions between characters that enhance the quality of the book. You want to keep reading to find out what happens next.

The only majorly disappointing thing I found in this book was the fact that MZB didn't really bring in characters from "Glenraven." She had developed some really strong personalities in JayJay and Matthiall. MZB only mentioned those two about two times, maybe three, in "In the Rift."

If you read "In the Rift" before "Glenraven" you should take the time to read "Glenraven." It'll clear up a lot of misconceptions you might have.

Sorry if I was confusing to you. "In the Rift" is a very good book. I just think maybe MZB should have tied in the characters more.

I enjoyed this book and breezed through it rather quickly. If you are looking for something in depth, try somewhere else. But if you're looking for something fun and light-hearted pick up this book. The main character, Kate Beacham, is a Wiccan who is being harassed and threatened by close-minded people in her small town. She was assaulted in the alley behind her work by three masked men, and when she came home she found her horse dead in the drive with a note through his head saying that she would be next. When she loaded her shotgun and went to bed, she found a Fodor's guide book to a place called Glenraven on her nightstand that she was positive she had not seen before. When she opened the book to take a look at it, words magically appeared in it telling her to get out of the house fast. Being a practitioner of magick, she obeyed the book and went outside just in time to see a large hole open in the air and group of people on horseback gallop out being pursued by a monster. After killing the thing with her shotgun, Kate finds these strangers in her yard and in her house without a way home. The book tells her that she has to help them, otherwise both their worlds are in jeopardy. She has to learn to trust and be trusted by these strangers from another world in order to save them all.

... if I hadn't read the Renunciates trilogy.

While trying to avoid several spoilers to said trilogy, there is a completely unresolvable conflict between Rediscovery and the trilogy. Minor distortions of time and space, little contradictions, don't bother me so much -- but this one can't be resolved in any way that makes any sense.

(Not to mention, given Lorill Hastur's supposed experiences in this book, as well as his twin Leonie's, their subsequent denial in both The Shattered Chain and The Forbidden Tower that ANY Terran could have laran ability just flat-out makes no sense. *sigh*)

Read it, and try to enjoy it, because seeing the great Keeper Leonie of Arllinn as a mischevious teenager is fun. But try to keep it separate in your mind from the rest of the Darkover series.

it starts out with a ship from earth sending a team down to darkover for exploration. this shuttle crashes and ends up standed in the middle of a blizzard. an interesting subplot also
tells the story of a young leonie hastur and her first trip to
a tower for training of her laran. this i find slightlty more
interesting becasue most darkover novels potray her in later life
as a very unapproacable keeper and this book shows a more softer
human side. anyway one of the people on the shuttle is also telepathic and her and leonie develop a friendship that is forbidden. the outcome of all of this is just superb and well worth reading.

Bad? Not at all. I thought it was fascinating. It is particularly interesting to read about how the people of Darkover came to become such powerful telepaths, why the Comyn mostly have red hair and other really interesting insights.

My only complaint is was too short and I wanted more. Of the dozen or so Darkover books I've read, I really did enjoy this one too.