Darkover: First Contact

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

 

“A rich and highly colored tale of politics and magic, courage and pressure . . . Topflight adventure in every way!”

—Lester Del Rey in
Analog
(for
The Heritage of Hastur
)

 

“May well be [Bradley’s] masterpiece.”

—
New York Newsday
(for
The Heritage of Hastur
)

 

“Literate and exciting.”

—
New York Times Book Review
(for
City of Sorcery
)

 

“Suspenseful, powerfully written, and deeply moving.”

—
Library Journal
(for
Stormqueen!
)

 

“A warm, shrewd portrait of women from different backgrounds working together under adverse conditions.”

—
Publishers Weekly
(for
City of Sorcery
)

 

“I don’t think any series novels have succeeded for me the way Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover novels did.”

—
Locus
(general)

 

“Delightful . . . a fascinating world and a great read.”

—
Locus
(for
Exile’s Song
)

 

A Reader’s Guide to DARKOVER

A “lost ship” of Terran origin, in the pre-empire colonizing days, lands on a planet with a dim red star, later to be called Darkover.

DARKOVER LANDFALL

 

One thousand years after the original landfall settlement, society has returned to the feudal level. The Darkovans, their Terran technology renounced or forgotten, have turned instead to freewheeling, out-of-control matrix technology, psi powers, and terrible psi weapons. The populace lives under the domination of the Towers and a tyrannical breeding program to staff the Towers with unnaturally powerful, inbred gifts of
laran.

STORMQUEEN!

HAWKMISTRESS!

 

An age of war and strife retaining many of the decimating and disastrous effects of the Ages of Chaos. The lands which are later to become the Seven Domains are divided by continuous border conflicts into a multitude of small, belligerent kingdoms, named for convenience “The Hundred Kingdoms.” The close of this era is heralded by the adoption of the Compact, instituted by Varzil the Good. A landmark and turning point in the history of Darkover, the Compact bans all distance weapons, making it a matter of honor that one who seeks to kill must himself face equal risk of death.

TWO TO CONQUER

THE HEIRS OF THE HAMMERFELL

THE FALL OF NESKAYA

ZANDRU’S FORGE

 

During the Ages of Chaos and the time of the Hundred Kingdoms, there were two orders of women who set themselves apart from the patriarchal nature of Darkovan feudal society: the priestesses of Avarra and the warriors of the Sisterhood of the Sword. Eventually these two independent groups merged to form the powerful and legally chartered Order of Renunciates or Free Amazons, a guild of women bound only by oath as a sisterhood of mutual responsibility. Their primary allegiance is to each other rather than to family, clan, caste, or any man save a temporary employer. Alone among Darkovan women, they are exempt from the usual legal restrictions and protections. Their reason for existence is to provide the women of Darkover an alternative to their socially restrictive lives.

THE SHATTERED CHAIN

THENDARA HOUSE

CITY OF SORCERY

 

After the Hastur Wars, the Hundred Kingdoms are consolidated into the Seven Domains, and ruled by a hereditary aristocracy of seven families, called the Comyn, allegedly descended from the legendary Hastur, Lord of Light. It is during this era that the Terran Empire, really a form of confederacy, rediscovers Darkover, which they know as the fourth planet of the Cottman star system. The fact that Darkover is a lost colony of the Empire is not easily or readily acknowledged by Darkovans and their Comyn overlords.

REDISCOVERY (
with Mercedes Lackey
)

THE SPELL SWORD

THE FORBIDDEN TOWER

STAR OF DANGER

WINDS OF DARKOVER

 

With the initial shock of recontact beginning to wear off, and the Terran spaceport a permanent establishment on the outskirts of the city of Thendara, the younger and less traditional elements of Darkovan society begin the first real exchange of knowledge with the Terrans—learning Terran science and technology and teaching Darkovan matrix technology in turn. Eventually Regis Hastur, the young Comyn lord most active in these exchanges, becomes Regent in a provisional government allied to the Terrans. Darkover is once again reunited with its founding Empire.

THE BLOODY SUN

THE HERITAGE OF HASTUR

THE PLANET SAVERS

SHARRA’S EXILE

THE WORLD WRECKERS

EXILE’S SONG

THE SHADOW MATRIX

TRAITOR’S SUN

 

These volumes of stories edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley, strive to “fill in the blanks” of Darkovan history, and elaborate on the eras, tales, and characters which have captured readers’ imaginations.

THE KEEPER’S PRICE

SWORD OF CHAOS

FREE AMAZONS OF DARKOVER

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR

RED SUN OF DARKOVER

FOUR MOONS OF DARKOVER

DOMAINS OF DARKOVER

RENUNICATES OF DARKOVER

LERONI OF DARKOVER

TOWERS OF DARKOVER

MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY’S DARKOVER

SNOWS OF DARKOVER

DARKOVER NOVELS IN OMNIBUS EDITIONS

HERITAGE AND EXILE
omnibus:
The Heritage of Hastur | Sharra’s Exile

THE AGES OF CHAOS
omnibus:
Stormqueen! | Hawkmistress!

THE SAGA OF THE RENUNICATES
omnibus:
The Shattered Chain | Thendara House | City of Sorcery

THE FORBIDDEN CIRCLE
omnibus:
The Spell Sword | The Forbidden Tower

A WORLD DIVIDED
omnibus:
Star of Danger | The Bloody Sun | The Winds of Darkover

DARKOVER: FIRST CONTACT
omnibus:
Darkover Landfall | Two to Conquer

DARKOVER LANDFALL

Copyright © 1972 by Marion Zimmer Bradley

 

TWO TO CONQUER
Copyright © 1980 by Marion Zimmer Bradley

 

DARKOVER: FIRST CONTACT
Copyright © 2004 by The Marion Zimmer Bradley
Literary Works Trust

 

All Rights Reserved.

 

 

DAW Book Collectors No. 1305.
DAW Books are distributed by the Penguin Group (USA).

 

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Paperback Printing, September 2004

DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED

U.S. PAT. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES

—MARCA REGISTRADA.

HECHO EN U.S.A.

eISBN : 978-1-101-49830-9

S.A.

For Tanith Lee, to commemorate an old argument which neither of us won, or lost, or ever will

The songs quoted in the text from the New Hebrides Commune are all from the
Songs of the Hebrides
, collected by Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser and published 1909, 1922 by Boosey and Hawkes.
The Seagull of the Land-Under-Waves
, English worlds by Mrs. Kennedy-Fraser, from the Gaelic of Kenneth MacLeod.
Caristiona
, words traditional, English by Kenneth MacLeod.
The Fairy’s Love Song
, English words by James Hogg (adapted).
The Mull-Fisher’s Song
, English words by Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser. The
Coolins of Rum
, English words by Elfrida Rivers, by special permission.

 

To “Cinhil MacAran” of the SCA for the first verse of “Four and Twenty
Leroni
”—to the tune of “The Ball of Kirriemuir”—and to Patricia Mathews for creating the Sisterhood of the Sword and dressing them in red.