I'm not sure whether it's this edition or the other nearly identical edition which I own. I have the 1996 edition, which I believe is the 1st edition.I wanted to review this as part of a trilogy, because the comments I have for now refer to the whole trilogy (to varying degrees). The other titles in what might be called the omega trilogy (if there were other books mooted, they don't appear on the shelves where I shop, so probably they weren't written) are The Shadow Matrix and Traitor's Sun.Bradley, when speaking of short stories written by other authors in the Darkover series, tended to argue that they were set in alternate Darkovers, and this is why they differ from the main canon; in small details, or in massive variations in plot, character, biology, etc.In a sense, these last three books are also written in such an alternate universe. They were written in a sort of silent collaboration. I've heard at least one name mooted as the coauthor, but I don't know how much credence to give to such speculation. Whether it was the coauthor who introduced the major and minor variations, or whether Bradley herself originated some of them, I couldn't say.Some of the differences are minor, and would matter, probably, only to a geneaeologist or a historian. For example, it's established in other books that Jeff Kerwin, Jr's father was Lewis Alton, Kennard's older brother, and NOT Arnad Ridenow. Given how inbred the Comyn became (and indeed, started out), this is probably a distinction without a difference: except, perhaps, to the two men most involved.For another thing, the Terran Empire is somehow transmuted into a 'Federation' in less than one lifetime. As early as The Spell Sword, Andrew Carr points out that it hasn't really been an empire in anything but name for centuries; nevertheless, people are often remarkably conservative about such matters of nomenclature, and it's never explained why the change is instituted.Frankly, I found the descriptions of the Federation, its politics and policies, completely incredible. The description of some of the planets is a little more credible: but the argument that the peoples of the Empire haven't been able to overcome the petty bureaucracies and monitoring of the citizenry that has (apparently) proved 'more enduring than bronze' is frankly absurd.As for Darkover, the descriptions are just NOTHING like the earlier descriptions. This applies even to details like whether the sea is included in the stories. Theoretically, there MUST be some islands on Darkover: but the only one I've heard tell of is the Island of Silence in books set during the Ages of Chaos. In this trilogy, there are more references to the sea. One character is described as a 'sea crow' (not metaphorically. We're talking about a real bird here). Although there are sometimes sea creatures well inland, the implication is that the bird has flown from the sea.It also applies, unfortunately, to major details like some of the more prominent characters. I don't mean people like Marja Alton or Mikhail Lanart-Hastur. These characters were last seen as children: they might plausibly have developed along the lines projected. I mean people who already have strongly-developed histories. Lew Alton (nephew of Jeff Kerwin Jr's father), for example. Javanne Hastur. People like that.Some of the changes are little short of slanderous. Ashara Alton was never a very convincing hero. She's an even less convincing spectral monster. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine that she might have become corrupted over a lifespan (and ghostly actor) of hundreds of years: but it's still a stretch.As for the treatment of Varzil the Good, this is not at ALL short of slander. The idea that Varzil helped propose and implement the Compact--only to pass on his ring matrix to a far-future relative, with the intention of the successor using it at one point to severely VIOLATE the Compact (and quite likely thereby restart the Ages of Chaos), is disgusting.Further, the transformation of Regis Hastur from a free-ranging adventurer to a housebound paranoid is simply untenable. Regis would reasonably have had to settle down when his grandfather died: fair enough. But though he's represented as not having lost any of his wit or geniality, he is nevertheless transformed into an agoraphobe. Not cool. One other thing that's disgusting is pretty consistent with the rest of the series: the serious classist denigration of democracy. There are differences here, as well. Earlier versions did at least recognize that the 'head-blind' were whole, real people, and quite competent and able to work out their problems. This may be true in the later trilogy: but there's little demonstration of it. There are some shops and studios, to be sure. But there's only one scene, early on, that even shows the inside of a Guild House. There's a character who is of the Com'ii Letzi'i, but she's almost never seen in the Guild House, even when she's in Thendara.In short, if you're looking for Darkover books, you'd be best advised to give these a pass. The establishment of the Telepathic Council is the proper ending of the story. Reestablishing the Comyn in unnecessary. Concealing that there are real telepaths (and a telepathic technology) on Darkover is just silly. All that said, I still wouldn't like to have missed parts of this trilogy. It's something of a "Curate's Egg" situation: parts of them are excellent. If only they hadn't gotten mixed in with the garbage. And if only they hadn't been disguised as Darkover books...
I should have read this before I read Shadow Matrix. I knew a lot of what was coming, because Shadow Matrix recaps a lot of the stuff in this book.I understand that someone who falls prey to threshold sickness would have to take a break from career work. I even understand that she has to get properly trained as a telepath, particularly if she's inherited such fearful gifts as the Command Voice. But if she was so devoted to her mentor (who died before he could finish his last expedition, why wouldn't she then go on to complete her mission? Her primary identity is as an ethnomusicologist, after all, whatever destiny people allotted her before she was born.But I do wonder about one thing: Margali n'ha Ysabet was the daughter of just such an ethnomusicologist. Surely she took steps to make sure that the work of the Scholar Lorne was not lost? Why isn't his work (and that of his wife, who was either a colleague or in a closely related field), ALREADY in the archives of the University? Frankly, I'd like to see Margaret Alton (re)discovering Lorne's work in one of the few archives on Darkover. Then she could add her own observations, with perhaps a postscript including what her mentor has told her about the music of the spheres. THEN she could settle in and set up schools, if that's what she wants to do.I've always found the descriptions of Darkovan domestic life more interesting than the 'adventures'. I really wanted a better description of the poster about the Bridge Society at Thendara House. Or of the museum at Evrard the Musician's house. Or, for that matter, of how cloth from the featherpod tree is woven (felted?).There are adventures in this story, as well. They aren't on every page, true. But they do happen. The Free Amazon Rafaella is one of the more interesting characters--but Liriel and Istvana also carry their weight. They make up for a lot of the makeweight characters. But I wouldn't count ALL the male characters out. Mikhail Alton-Hastur is more than a little interesting, but I'm more interested in young Donal Alar--he has potential. And then there's always Jeff Kerwin (aka Damon Ridenow the Younger). One thing I do wonder is when Javanne Hastur became such a prude. She wasn't much of one when she was younger. Frankly, I always find it amusing when people accused virgins of sluttishness, just because they talk a good game.Having read the whole book, I think somebody less biased should have given Margaret a full accounting of the Sharra Rebellion. She doesn't seem to realized that the Sharra matrix was not originally intended as a weapon (at a guess, it was originally used for mining, or possibly for protection against earthquakes, since earthquakes seem surprisingly rare on Darkover for a planet that has hot springs nearly everywhere).Having been used as a weapon, however, it became weaponized, and when it was used by insufficiently trained and in many cases quite naive users in inadequate numbers, it corrupted those users, in too many cases irretrievably. Without knowing this, Margaret probably gets an inaccurate understanding of what happened, which could too easily lead to mistaken decisions in future.
Do You like book Exile's Song (1997)?
One day I'm just going to write the plots of all the Darkover books on post-its, to show that the other million words are just flat-out unnecessary. This is yet another book filled with thrilling bits of TOTAL INACTION.I love how Darkover characters show no curiosity about a thing until exactly the moment the author wanted to kick off a long bout of mulling. It's insane - a character's seen something weird multiple times without batting an eyelash, then suddenly it's "Oh! What is that?! For I remember my father..." blah blah blah. Only one of the many, many reasons that Darkover characters do not feel real.I also enjoy that this fixation on hissing the word "...SHARRA!" all over the place is now paired with constant murmurings of the word "Ashra!"Anyone else think that MZB was haunted by a Scrabble game where she only had the letters S, R, A and H?Some of the more spectacular elements of this story: Lew Alton's magical (and inexplicable) character transformation, more marriage politics, the vanishing of a Renunciate for most of the book, the always-popular man-beating-woman Darkovian special.Ohhhh, Darkover. How I wish I could throw you on an open fire. I really do. From what I understand you are very resinous and would burn well, and possibly smell of balsam.
—Grace
Exile's Song was the first Darkover novel I ever read after my dad bought it for me in middle school. He himself had read some of the books when he was younger and was a fan. The book is about Margaret Alton, daughter of Lew Alton, himself a Darkovan representative on the Terran Senate. Margaret is a University scholar who studies folk music, and she is sent to Darkover to collect samples of the planet's songs. Lew had taken Margaret off the planet when she was five or six so he could serve on the Senate, and didn't pass on any knowledge to Margaret about the planet of her birth. Much of the novel deals with Margaret (Marguerida) battling with a strange force that has overshadowed her mind since childhood, learning to deal with her late onset of laran, and coming to terms with being a part of Darkovan nobility and a patriarchal society that has little patience with independent, strong-willed women such as herself. Overall, it's primarily a story of psychological growth on Marguerida's part.What I most enjoy about this book is the mystery of Margaret's past. Since this was, again, the first Darkover book I ever read, I knew none of the backstory of Lew and the Sharra Rebellion, so as the reader, I was learning everything along with Margaret. The one thing I don't like is the fact that it was actually written by Adrienne Martine-Barnes, whose writing I just can't stomach after a while. It really keeps me from enjoying this book more than I think I could. Her writing is, to put it simply, annoying as all hell. Her dialogue is even more stilted than Bradley's, and everyone sounds way too light-hearted, even after some horribly traumatic event has taken place. As a result, I neither want to take any of them seriously as realistic characters, nor care enough about them to feel any sense of impending doom when they are in dangerous situations. Barnes writes caricatures, not characters, and I hate them all.Barnes' other problem is that she writes way too much. This book could easily be hundreds of pages shorter, but Barnes insists on including overly long scenes with pointless description and unnecessary conversations. It would be fine if these things added something to the core conflicts, but they don't. Fluff with a capital F. Annoyingly written fluff, at that.
—Lindsay
Margaret Alton is not Marion Zimmer Bradley’s character. Bradley herself has admitted that. Alton is, and has always been, the creation of Adrienne Martine-Barnes, and Barnes was the one who persuaded Bradley to include her in the Darkover canon back when Bradley was still active. Unfortunately, the full fruits of this have appeared now that Barnes is writing Darkover books. In this novel, Alton is a long-lost heiress, gets sent through space solely to study primitive folk-songs (yeah right, that makes no economic sense--what a moronic allocation of resources) has secret telepathic powers she discovers on Darkover, and notes to her own disdain how effing primitive, backward, and unlettered Darkovans are. However, despite her contempt for Darkovans, she doesn't hesitate to marry one. But not some lowly commoner, oh no. It's--surprise! a prince, namely Mikhail Lanart-Hastur. Oh, yes, she also time travels and generally affects everyone with her own awesomeness. Can you say Mary Sue? Barnes goes on to warp and destroy Bradley’s characters to fit her Mary Sue. Gabriel Lanart-Hastur, who was not a bad person in Bradley’s canon, becomes a bellowing, bullying villain. Danilo Syrtis, one of the most benevolent persons in the series, becomes downright sinister. And when I say destroy, I mean it. Barnes kills off Regis Hastur in a later book solely to give Mikhail Hastur a bigger stage. If Barnes actually could create characters worth a damn, she might have some excuse, but all her grown-up younger generation are boring as hell. Skip the Barnes books and save your sanity.
—Avis Black
