Have read & re-read all of the Darkover books several times. Just finished this book for at least the fourth time. There are only 4 or 5 stories which are up to Ms. Bradleys level, but since she picked them, all are good. Several extend some of Ms. Bradley's books ie. A Lesser Life tells of a time after and puts a happier end to STORMQUEEN.

There were no clunkers in this batch, and several top-flight stories. Highly recommended.

I haven't hit the MZB "scene" yet, so I thought I'd give her a try with this book. I know she is a prolific writer, and I can only hope that her other works are better. This must have been written in a bad period in her life.

The plot was compelling, and I had to finish the book to see what would happen. If this is the ultimate end of a book, then MZB and her publishers have succeeded.

Unfortunately, this book is cliche-ridden, factually inaccurate and unbelievable. I do have a familiarity and a sensitivy to the occult and its issues, so this is not the reason for my low rating. My main problem was with the main character, Winter, who failed to evoke even a strand of empathy from me to the point at which I was pleased whenever anything bad happened to her.

Citing an example from one of the many annoyances in the book, when Winter first meets the two parapsychologists who eventually aid her, she rants, raves, and yells at them, convincing them that she might be crazy. Many chapters later, one of the parapsychologists looks back and remembers the Winter from their first meeting as an "ice princess." I'd hardly describe a raving lunatic as someone who would be remembered as an "ice princess." This is just one example of many quirks and discrepancies that distracts the reader from the story.

Why did I finish reading it? As I said earlier, the plot was interesting, and I had to find out what happened. The ending was not what I expected, which pleased me. However, making my way through the book was such an annoying and frustrating journey that on the very day I finished it, I put the book in a box with all the other stuff I'm putting together for a garage sale that I'm having next week.

...but not her worst, either. I haven't read any of the other titles in this series, so I didn't know what to expect. MZB's output has varied wildly in quality from brilliant to disastrous, and I was ready for this to go either way. For me, this sat smack in the middle.

I wasn't overwhelmed by the characters. Perhaps it is that our main character, Winter Musgrave, is part-amnesiac and terrified through the first third of the book, but it was very difficult to get comfortable with her. Once we have some idea what is happening to her it is easier to dig in. I think that MZB has an interesting premise with this one, and I think the "why" of the mystery is well thought out. However, (note: I am trying to avoid any spoilers, otherwise this might be more coherent) I think Winter's eventual visit to her family serves only to introduce characters for another novel and doesn't seem structurally significant, and the ending did not satisfy.

I've never been more tempted to put a book down after the first fifty pages as I was when I began reading this book. Bradley is one of my favorite authors and the biggest draw about her novels is their remarkable ability to keep you engrossed in the text. The beginning of this book, however is a completely different story. You go through the motions along with the main character, winding your way through the broken and patchy memories of an inconsistant past. Who wants to go through that? Even though you might be tempted to give up and move on to something else, stick with it. The end result will please you. As the memories slowly begin their emergence, the novel becomes more and more inticing, with the whispers of forgotten friends calling through the haze to reach you. Anyone who is a fan of Bradley's gothic storytelling will not be sorry that they read this. I know your not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but don't judge this one by the first fifty pages or so.

I have read the entire Trillium series and indeed Black Trillium was the very first fantasy novel I had ever read. Thus it was with some anticipation that I awaited this, the final book of the series. This review is written to warn of any others who might approach this piece of fiction with their hopes up - it is written to prevent you from being shot down the way i was.

Seasoned readers of fantasy will find the ideas extremely jaded. Ideas of sacrifices to gods and cults are far from original. Readers of the Black trillium might also share my sentiments over the way MZB has characterized haramis. From the bright and intelligent, though somewhat proud youth, we see her transformed into a crotchy, insesnsitive and bitchy old lady. Needless to say I was extremely put off by this. Besides this, the protagonist of the story also far from earns our sympathy. In fact I found I could not empathise with her at all.

To summerize the ramblings above, Lady of the Trillium is a poorly written and unoriginal tale that must rank among the worst books I have ever read.

Having not read any of the Trillium series, I was a bit skeptical about being able to get something out of this book. However, as a fan of MZB, I took the chance and was not disappointed. Of particular fascination was the relationship between Mikayla and Fiolon, who share a special psychic bond with each other, and the struggle of each of them to assume their respective magical responsibilities. Definitely worth a read!

Mikayla begins her unwanted life as an Archimage when Haramis says that she's the next Archimage. Mikayla doesn't want it though ... she wants the life that she's had planned. To marry her best friend, Fiolon and live her life as a royal princess.

Mikayla's resistance makes Haramis' life harder. She wonders why Mikayla isn't glad for the training she is receiving; Haramis would have killed for a chance like what she's giving Mikayla.

Mikayla finally sees that Haramis is doing something good ... but now Mikayla's life is in danger. Will Haramis arrive in time and will Fiolon remain as loyal and loving as he ever has?

This is the first of the Trillium series I have read I enjoyed it very much. Even though a lot of reviews have not enjoyed this book I think it's worthwhile and a very good read!!!

Sometime in the future, the human race realizes how much the population is outgrowing the planet and decides to train people to go explore the galaxy to look for other inhabitable planets. The trainees are chosen for their intelligence at a very young age, then spend their entire childhood learning a skill such as medicine, engineering, physics, etc. When they reach adulthood, the best six of them are sent off to other star systems to spend the rest of their lives searching for a place that may be hospitable to humans. This is the story of one such group.

The premise is good, but I think this story had more potential than it lived up to. Too many details seemed unbelievable and the characters remained undeveloped. Better written novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley include The Mists of Avalon and The House Between the Worlds.

The book was okay but the pictures were not that great. I read it when I was 12 and it seems to have alot of bad things in it for young adults. There is too much phornography. Other than that it is a good book

Excellent character study of three gals and three guys (covering the gamut of sexual orientation) locked aboard space ship headed for nowhere. Death is certain--but when? The head game going on was why any of the six were picked from a class of forty. Group psychology and future sociology study of humans cut off from mankind. Only the outer space setting qualifies story to be labeled sci-fi. Good read.

However, there are three stories (all from the Ages of Chaos, oddly enough) that stood out as true gems, and I give the whole book one star for each of them:

First, there is "Clingfire," which takes two minor characters from the novel Stormqueen! (Coryn, Keeper of Hali Tower; and his lover Arielle, far below his station), fleshes them out, and puts one of the early, male Keepers in what seems to be the classic dilemma of the later female teneresti: is doing work that you love more important than spending your life with the person you love most?

Next, there is "Just a Touch..." which is nearly as powerful as the story it reminded me of ("The Alton Gift", which appears in _The Keeper's Price_), but with a much more uplifting ending. This was my favorite in the anthology, and in and of itself makes the collection worth seeking out.

The third story that deserves special mention is "The Plague." The theme is typical for a Darkover story (in a stressful situation, a woman of supposedly limited skills discovers her laran is far stronger than she thought), but the circumstances are unique, and the author captures the understanding I would expect Darkovan culture to have of bacteria ("tinylives") very well, and doesn't start sounding like she's giving a 20th-century Terran explanation (I hate that!)

For these three stories, the anthology is worth trying to get your hands on, but none of the rest particularly stand out (except for "Mists" and "Man-eater" which both annoyed me and stood out as BAD). However, there are much more enjoyable and better-organized anthologies of Darkover short stories, IMHO.

There are some excellent stories in this anthology, notably "An Object Lesson" by Mercedes Lackey, in which she once again brings back the character Tayksa the ex-assassin, a character she has written several stories about in previous anthologies. (This was an excellent story, even if it WAS merely a set-up for an abysmally clever pun.) But there were also some stories that I didn't think much of, particularly "The Gift From Ardais", by Barbara Denz, which started out well, was well-written, and ended in a needlessly depressing way, serving no point that I could discern. Less bad, but still not much to my liking, was "To Serve Kihar", by Judith Sampson, which seemed to me to have an implausibly upbeat ending, not justified by the story to that point. Now, I'd rather see unjustified optimism than unjustified cynicism, but it still isn't really a good story if I don't feel the ending is justified by the story leading up to it.

an unfortunate side trip in the Darkover saga. MZB has created an amazing, detailed world in her books, but when writing about the Renunciates, or Free Amazons, the feminist tone gets entirely too shrill (and I'm female!). A good read for the world detail and background story to enhance the rest of her novels, but really requires patience to wade through the women-against-the-men rhetoric.

The saga of the renunciates is an omnibus of MZB's three "Darkover" novels that deal with the Renunciate's Guild - a group within Darkovan society that allows women to free themselves from the oppressive rules of their world. At this point of Darkovan history, the planet (a lost colony of Earth) has been rediscovered by the Terran Empire. It works well as a single volume, as it's the three-part story of a "Terran" woman (Margali) who becomes involved in the guild by accident, and her personal growth as a result.

Personally, I find the third story rather tedious - it is a quest story in which a group of women go searching for a mythical or secret Women's City, involving a lot of walking through frozen mountains and (I thought) a fairly anticlimactic ending.

Some of the Terran gender relations in the book seem somewhat dated, reading like a reflection of the late 70s-early 80s period when the stories were written, although the alien Darkovan version seems much less so.

In general, a rewarding book, which should appeal to anyone who enjoys speculative fiction with strong feminist characters.

This is one of two Darkover novels I have read that, in my opinion, have plots superior to their characters. (The other is The Bloody Sun.)

I do love this book, I have been drawn back to re-reading it many times. So why only three stars?

Well, one thing I'll warn you about right now, if you're someone who tried to read the Thomas Covenant series and stopped at the rape scene, don't bother reading either Two to Conquer or the rest of this review. You'll hate every second of it.

That said, on to my personal perspective:

There are *serious* problems with the characters in this book. I've heard people complain that the Renunciates trilogy is full of stereotypes of men and women. If that's the case, it is MILD compared to what you'll find in this one.

Perhaps part of the problem is that the main characters are both very definitely anti-heroes. MZB sometimes writes antangonists with astonishing depth and understandable yet non-cliched motivations for their actions: Dyan Ardais and Robert Kadarin of the Sharra subcycle are two excellent examples. However, she does have a tendency to fall back on the stock overbearing mysogynist as antagonistic male character. In a novel the size of, say, The Shattered Chain or Stormqueen! it doesn't matter if a stereotypical mysogynist like Kyril Ardais or Darren of Scathfell has a small part in the plot.

However, writing an entire novel with two men who think that women are always asking for it and "cry rape" after the fact (even when one of said "women" is a girl who has only just hit puberty) as the major characters is disturbing in the extreme, and they are SO over-the-top with this that it doesn't seem that they can be real. This is a real disappointment for me, since MZB's characters are usually incredibly vivid and real and non-stereotypical, complex human beings.

To compound the problem, the women are too bloody forgiving! Especially Melisendra - there are times I think she could have had as much of a personality as Dio Ridenow (who is also sometimes a bit too tolerant of her man) if MZB wasn't so caught up in making her a political and moral contrast to Bard and Paul.

More irritating still, the characters somehow manage to embody EVERY feminist cliche out there: the overweight, not conventionally beautiful woman who is nonetheless sensual and loving and noble and intelligent, not to mention far more attractive than she seemed at first glance (Melora); the pledged virgin who is thin to the point of anorexia and obsessed with her own purity (Carlina and to a lesser extent Mirella); the working-mom Superwoman who manages to have it all - a career (as court leronis), an adoring lover, and a son (Melisendra); the short, scholarly gentleman who is shown to be more of a "real man" than the more traditionally masculine men around (Varzil); and of course the boorishly macho men who go so far as to literally rape and torture women until a woman teaches them better (Bard and his "dark twin" Paul). This is just too much.

More's the pity, because the central item of the plot (the two Cherilly's duplicates meeting, wondering how far they can trust each other, and learning about themselves through each other) is a very good one. It just could have done without all the preaching.

Like most of Marion Zimmer Bradleys' books "Two to Conquer" starts of with an interesting prologue. Unfortunetly after the prologue the story gets off to a slow start. But as The book is read, you become more interested and it goes much faster. The book is very interesting inroducing new ideas about far away galaxies and duplicates of ourselves and everything around us. It also shows how different people can overcome ill feelings tward each, come to terms with these feelings and make peace. There are many other interesting concepts but i wont ruin your fun. Overall this was a very interesting book.

This book presents us to several short stories written by MZB with her incredible imagination, showing many different worlds, going from Earth to Darkover. You can read one story telling about the renunciants organization(Darkover), another one is about Lythande (a blue star magician with a secret). In my opinion, the best short story in this book, is the one about the Centauru's Children - where having a baby is the same to a death sentence to the mother... Well everyone can decide what is the most interesting of the 15 short stories of this book and vote in it.

"The Other Side of the Mirror" is an enjoyable anthology. It contains many stories that could have happened in Darkover. the stories span times from the beginning to the time of Margret Alton. Sometimes the stories are slightly wacky while at others they fit almost seamlessly with the books already in print. I especially enjoyed the last story, I hope that you will too.

Devlin and Emmerich are decent filmmakers, but their writing ability leaves a lot to be desired. The publisher bears the responsibility, however. The book has numerous typos and the kind of word and continuity errors that a good editor should have caught. During a critical moment, I wasn't anxious for the characters, but laughing. A character "collapsed like a sack of steak knives." Steak knives! And a character who dies on one page is back again 15 pages later. Still, the book is interesting for the background, the revelation of character and for the inherent vision--the images of light, shape and sound--that a good filmmaker must have. Please, D&E, at least hire an editor, since Signet can't be depended on.

I loved teh movie Stargate, and it's spin-off series Stargate SG1, yet this book was a terrible disappointment. Filled with continuancy errors (i.e. there is a creature that is male for most of the book, then it becomes female, a bomb countdown gets mixed up), I found reading this book a painful experience, and when I finished it, I planned to write the publisher and complain. If you want to read this book, get it from a library, and watch for the continuancy errors; it's not often that you see errors this bad in a published book.

"The passage to discovery is about to be entered..."
It all began in North Africa 8000 B.C. when a young boy walks into a dazzling beam of light in the sky. Egypt 1928, on the Giza plateau near a great pyramid, a mysterious object shaped like a giant ring is discovered, baffling scientists and archaeologists. In 1994, the U.S. government with the help of Egyptologist Daniel Jackson discovers that this mysterious object is a Stargate. In other words, a device able to create a passage through space. And now, a special team of scientists and soldiers is going to be sent through the Stargate to an unknown destination. With no idea what they will find and absolutely no clue if they can return, the team is going to have the ultimate adventure of their lives...

I first saw the movie "Stargate" (1994) before reading this book. After watching the movie and instantly finding it a terrific film, I knew I would really like to read the novelization. And I must say, I totally enjoyed reading it though I do have my complaints about it. Here is a brief descriptions of the two main characters:
Daniel Jackson: A brilliant young genius, Daniel though is scorned by the scientific community. From the first moment you read about him, I assure you that you'll find him a likable guy. Daniel is very witty and I love it when he gives his speech in the beginning of the story.
Colonel Jack O'Neill: Jack is a retired operative of the U.S. special forces. Though tough and in every way a soldier, he also has a troubled past. Can't help but love him, I love his outward facade of being the 'perfect commander'. :)
Another of my favorite characters is Lieutenant Colonel Adam Kawalsky. The banter between him and Daniel is great and I also like the tension between him and Colonel O'Neill.

THE GOOD: First I'll give you the good. The book is well-written by authors Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. It flows very well and it's a pretty easy read. The characters are very likable, one of the most important elements of a great book. It's sometimes so terribly disappointing when you read novelizations from your favorite movies to find that your favorite characters are so dislikable when you read about them. The action and suspense is strongly given off the reader, definitely a page-turner at some points in the plot, making the book hard to put down. But most of all, some parts in the story is just totally HILARIOUS! Like there's the one instance where the people of the mysterious planet give Daniel and the soldiers a feast. That part just had me cracking up!

THE BAD: But unfortunately, there's also the bad. The publisher and editor of the book should be very ashamed of themselves as some other reviewers have states. Besides having lots of misspells and typos, there's also plot errors! There's a place where it is clearly stated that someone dies, then later on at one point he's alive and helping out a fellow soldier! Tsk, tsk, tsk!

On the overall, the book is a terrific one to read, though I recommend you read after watching the movie. Since the movie is rated PG-13, I guess I will rate the book the same. There is no sex though there is one instant which adults will definitely not want their children to read. Plus, the language is also pretty bad throughout the book. Best for kids 15 or older in my opinion though I would strongly suggest parents to look through the book before letting their children read.