Marion Zimmer Bradley - The Forbidden Circle

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Table of Contents

The Critics Hail Marion Zimmer Bradleys Darkover Novels:

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 [Bradleys] 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 dont think any series novels have succeeded
for me the way Marion Zimmer Bradleys
Darkover novels did.
Locus (general)

Delightful... a fascinating world and a great
read.
Locus (for EXILES SONG)

Darkover is the essence, the quintessence, my
most personal and best-loved work.
Marion Zimmer Bradley

A Readers Guide to the Novels of Darkover

THE FOUNDING

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

THE AGES OF CHAOS

A 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!

THE HUNDRED KINGDOMS

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 HAMMERFELL

THE FALL OF NESKAYA

THE RENUNCIATES

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 restricted lives.

THE SHATTERED CHAIN

THENDARA HOUSE

CITY OF SORCERY

AGAINST THE TERRANS THE FIRST AGE (Recontact)

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

THE WINDS OF DARKOVER

AGAINST THE TERRANS THE SECOND AGE ( After the Comyn)

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 Terranslearning 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

HERITAGE OF HASTUR

THE PLANET SAVERS

SHARRAS EXILE

WORLD WRECKERS

EXILES SONG

THE SHADOW MATRIX

TRAITORS SUN

THE DARKOVER ANTHOLOGIES

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 KEEPERS 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

RENUNCIATES OF DARKOVER

LERONI OF DARKOVER

TOWERS OF DARKOVER

MARION ZIMMER BRADLEYS DARKOVER

SNOWS OF DARKOVER

DARKOVER NOVELS IN OMNIBUS EDITIONS

HERITAGE AND EXILE
omnibus:
The Heritage of Hastur / Sharras Exile
THE AGES OF CHAOS
omnibus:
Stormqueen! / Hawkmistress!
THE SAGA OF THE RENUNCIATES
omnibus:
The Shattered Chain / Thendara House / City of Sorcery
THE FORBIDDEN CIRCLE
omnibus:
The Spell Sword / The Forbidden Tower

The Spell Sword
This one is for Caradoc.

The Forbidden Tower
For Diana L. Paxson who asked the question which
directly touched off this book;
And for Theodore Sturgeon, who first explored the
questions which, directly or indirectly, underlie
almost everything I have written.

Authors Note On Chronology

I am always being asked by those who have read anywhere from three to nine of the Darkover books to tell them exactly when and where any given book fits, chronologically, into the series. While I am always grateful for the interest of my readers, usually the only answer I can give is a shrug. I have always tried to make each of the Darkover books so complete that each one can be read by itself, even if the reader has never seen any of the other books before.

I do not really think of them as a series but rather of Darkover as a familiar world about which I like writing novels, and to which the readers seem to like returning. Where absolute consistency might damage the self-sufficiency of any given book, I have quite frankly sacrificed consistency. I make no apologies for this.

Nothing is more frustrating to me than to read the second, or fourth, or sixth book of a series, and to have the author blandly assume that I have read all his other books and know the whole background. When readers start nitpicking, demanding to know (for instance) why two locations are a days journey apart in one book, and three days ride in another, I begin to understand why Conan Doyle attempted to throw Sherlock Holmes over the Reichenbach falls, and why Sax Rohmer repeatedly tried to burn, drown, or dismember Fu Manchu so thoroughly that even the publishers could not resurrect him for another book.

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