La città della magia

Darkover (Publication Order) #19

by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Riccardo Valla (Traduttore)

Un'antica leggenda della Terra di Darkover narra di una setta di sapienti che guidano segretamente i destini dei Sette Regni, e di una città misteriosa agli estremi confini settentrionali...

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Adventure, Ebooks

254 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series, often with a feminist outlook.

Bradley's first published novel-length work was Falcons of Narabedla, first published in the May 1957 issue of Other Worlds. When she was a child, Bradley stated that she enjoyed reading adventure fantasy authors such as Henry Kuttner, Edmond Hamilton, and Leigh Brackett, especially when they wrote about "the glint of strange suns on worlds that never were and never would be." Her first novel and much of her subsequent work show their influence strongly.

Early in her career, writing as Morgan Ives, Miriam Gardner, John Dexter, and Lee Chapman, Marion Zimmer Bradley produced several works outside the speculative fiction genre, including some gay and lesbian pulp fiction novels. For example, I Am a Lesbian was published in 1962. Though relatively tame by today's standards, they were considered pornographic when published, and for a long time she refused to disclose the titles she wrote under these pseudonyms.

Her 1958 story The Planet Savers introduced the planet of Darkover, which became the setting of a popular series by Bradley and other authors. The Darkover milieu may be considered as either fantasy with science fiction overtones or as science fiction with fantasy overtones, as Darkover is a lost earth colony where psi powers developed to an unusual degree. Bradley wrote many Darkover novels by herself, but in her later years collaborated with other authors for publication; her literary collaborators have continued the series since her death.

Bradley took an active role in science-fiction and fantasy fandom, promoting interaction with professional authors and publishers and making several important contributions to the subculture.

For many years, Bradley actively encouraged Darkover fan fiction and reprinted some of it in commercial Darkover anthologies, continuing to encourage submissions from unpublished authors, but this ended after a dispute with a fan over an unpublished Darkover novel of Bradley's that had similarities to some of the fan's stories. As a result, the novel remained unpublished, and Bradley demanded the cessation of all Darkover fan fiction.

Bradley was also the editor of the long-running Sword and Sorceress anthology series, which encouraged submissions of fantasy stories featuring original and non-traditional heroines from young and upcoming authors. Although she particularly encouraged young female authors, she was not averse to including male authors in her anthologies. Mercedes Lackey was just one of many authors who first appeared in the anthologies. She also maintained a large family of writers at her home in Berkeley. Ms Bradley was editing the final Sword and Sorceress manuscript up until the week of her death in September of 1999.

Probably her most famous single novel is The Mists of Avalon. A retelling of the Camelot legend from the point of view of Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar, it grew into a series of books; like the Darkover series, the later novels are written with or by other authors and have continued to appear after Bradley's death.

Her reputation has been posthumously marred by multiple accusations of child sexual abuse by her daughter Moira Greyland, and for allegedly assisting her second husband, convicted child abuser Walter Breen, in sexually abusing multiple unrelated children.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third in the Renunciate aka Free Amazon trilogy, began in The Shattered Chain and continued in Thendara House. On one level, it is quite a good action adventure story and is a road trip undertaken by a group of women from different backgrounds, who become close friends drawn together by shared hardship and peril.

The story begins seven years after the events of Thendara House. Jaelle and Magda both have daughters by men in the Forbidden Tower group at Armida, though they are now on a visit to the city of Thendara. Magda is recalled to Terran HQ to use her psychic powers (laran) to contact the mind of a Mapping and Exploring operative, Lexie Anders, who has regressed to the level of a three-year-old child following a powerful mental shock. Lexie had been flying a mapping plane at the limits of the known Darkovan world, near a huge mountain range known as the Wall Around the World when her plane disintegrated and she was teleported back to Terran HQ. Magda succeeds, despite the fact that Lexie has always been jealous of her reputation. Recovered, Lexie reports that she saw a city near the Wall. Magda is intrigued by legends of a city of women, because at the end of the previous book she had a mysterious experience which led her to believe she had been briefly in contact with them psychically.

Later, she discovers Lexie has set off on an unauthorised expedition, aided by Jaelle’s partner, Rafaella, to find the legendary Sisterhood. She is apparently motivated by jealousy of Magda, and wants to make a bigger name for herself by a fantastic discovery. Rafaella, who has nursed a grudge for years against Magda for taking away her former business partner Jaelle, leaves a message asking Jaelle to follow with pack animals and trading goods. Magda and Jaelle prepare to leave, together with Camilla, a tough fighting woman who is Magda’s lover, but Magda’s tactlessness alerts personnel worker Vanessa and she insists they talk to Magda’s boss. Cholayna had given Lexie authorisation for a leave of absence in the belief that she was going on a walking holiday. The two off-world women insist on accompanying Jaelle, Magda and Camilla. Vanessa is an experienced mountaineer and Cholayna, although older than the others, proves to be a tough cookie despite becoming ill along the way.

The bulk of the story concerns the dangers they meet enroute, including the ferocious Darkovan winter conditions. The privations of mountain travel are well conveyed and there is good tension in the descriptions of the conditions and terrain they must cross. But, well into their journey, and still trailing the other two women, they discover that a mysterious rival group to the secret Sisterhood is involved with hostile intent.

There is a good twist near the end when they catch up with the other two, which I won’t spoil, nor the tragedy which befalls two of the characters. However, the various enemies are rather muddled in their motivations. Why would the anti-Sisterhood hang out in such an inhospitable place if their goal is to gain ascendancy in the corridors of power in Thendara? Why do they have to lure certain people such a long way into the boondocks in order to capture them? It would make more sense if instead they wanted to keep people away from their lair and this was their way of making sure travellers wouldn’t come that way again. But their stated motivation makes it odd that they have a base so near the legendary Sisterhood. Similarly, certain other characters who have changeable loyalties come across as erratically so for plot purposes rather than convincing reasons for example, why does Lexie shove a stunner (supposedly set on ‘kill’) in Cholayna’s face in the final fight as if attacking her, and then switch to fighting to save her life a minute later?

Another problem I had was with the mutable terrain. In The Shattered Chain Jaelle and Magda cross Scaravel pass enroute to ransom Peter Haldane from captivity. My impression from that book was that it didn’t take very long to reach the pass. Yet in this, it takes weeks by a circuitous route. In fact, once they reach the settlement of Nevarsin beyond it, and Cholayna is showing signs of altitude sickness, they discuss whether she should return with Vanessa, and Magda says “You would not have to cross the passes except Scaravel; you could go by the Great North Road which is well-marked and well-travelled all the way”. I know they are following Rafaella’s directions, but why would she use such an unnecessarily indirect route, travelling for weeks over very hazardous terrain when they could have taken a main road, gone over Scaravel and straight on to Nevarsin in a matter of days? I like a series to have consistent geography and this was quite an irritation. I have found out since, that someone has gone to a lot of trouble to try to draw up a map of Darkover and reconcile the various inconsistencies between books, marking out the routes taken by various characters, including the routes in the Renunciate novels http://www.phy.duke.edu/~trenk/darkover/darkover_map.html. However, even they have had to suppose that the pass of Scaravel in this book is not the same as in the earlier book; that the range of mountains is called ‘Scaravel’ and the passes are two different ones over the same range. That isn’t the impression I received; the characters refer to it as a shared experience where they were attacked by banshees and don’t say this is a different pass, so I think this is a mistake by the author.

Some readers might be frustrated also that ultimately we do not get to see the mysterious city. I don’t count its portrayal in a short story which appeared years later in the ‘Renunciates of Darkover’ anthology which showed a version of Magda and Camilla nothing like the characters as developed in the novels. The ending of this novel, despite personal losses, does not point to Magda becoming so selfishly withdrawn or Camila becoming a wimp who would not bring her to her senses very quickly, let alone letting ten years drag by. So I think we have to accept the official and best ending for the characters of this trilogy as being the finale of the present book.

[Daniela Núñez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really a science fiction reader, but I saw rhis book was mainly about women and decided to give it a chance. The book itsef it's not so bad. It tells the journey of a group of women, related to one another one way or the other, in search of higher knowledge. However, as excited as I was for them to find this higher knowledge, it never came, as most of the book only talked about their preparation for the trip, the dangers they faced while scalating to this poweful place and so on. The end was such a let down, for it left so many questions unanswered.

I did like the dynamic that women in this book had. They swore to renounce men except for their pleasure and goals and had an entire sisterhood to back them up. Also, the concept of laran and psychic power was fascinanting: how the main character was able to empathize and know so much about others thanks to this, is so interesting.

I doubt I'll ever read another book of this series but this one I kind of enjoyed.

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completes the Renunciates series.

SPOILER ALERT--I will give away very specific information about the fate of characters; DO NOT READ if you DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS to JAELLE, MAGDA, and Cholayna.

I have to say that, initially, I thought this was a fairly typical "Quest Fantasy" book. Nothing wrong with that, and Bradley's stuff is always well done. Set about seven years after the events of Thendara House, It largely involves Magda and Jalle, who must venture to beyond the Wall Around The World, a remote mountain range past any known area on Darkover explored either by natives or Terrans. The reason for their journey is they are trying to rescue Rafaella, Jaelle's former business partner, and Lexi, a Terran who, feeling competitive with Magda, has ventured on the journey to gain glory and attention from her Terran superiors.

It did not help that Bradley kept doing the verbal equivalent of melodramatic off stage organ riffs--dun Dun DUNN! Saying, "Later she was to regret what she did" and things like that. The kind of stuff I equate with sloppy writing.

Accompanying Magda and Jaelle are two Terrans, Cholayna and Vanessa, and Camilla, an older Renunciate.

The journey is so well done, with so many suprises, that it doesn't feel like a traditional "Quest Fantasy" book. As always, Bradley writes great action, and her descriptions of mountain climbing and of long travels in the cold are so vivid they read almost like really engaging non-fiction.

But I still resisted, thinking it was a variation on a theme, thinking "I've read this book before. Bradley's doing a good job, but . . "

I NEVER expected her to kill of Jaelle, a main character, one we've known and loved almost since the beginning of the trilogy. Not in a million years. It's "set up," it makes heart sense, and her death is a vital part of the plot. But I was so blown away, both by Jaelle's death and by the end, that I have to say it's the best plotted book of the trilogy, and of all her works. Not the best book; the depth of character exploration that made me love Shattered Chain and Thendara House isn't as much in evidence, but in terms of plot--actual events--the book's dazzling.

I even came to wonder if the stuff I'd hated earlier--the "organ riffs" weren't intended to soften the blow to me as a reader when I "lose" Jaelle.

Of course, I read this novel the week my mother died, so my perspective might be off.

She woulda loved the Renunciate Trilogy, though.

[Saturn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forse questo è uno dei libri meno "indipendenti" della saga di Darkover. Si ricollega strettamente agli eventi di Thendara house (I regni di Darkover) e si afferma come l'evolversi e la conclusione del rapporto fra Margali e Jaelle. Le due donne legate da uno stretto vincolo di reciproco sostegno e aiuto (una specie di matrimonio) si ritrovano a percorrere un arduo cammino alla ricerca di un luogo inaccessibile, che si rivela ovviamente anche un percorso di riflessione personale per tutte le donne che sceglieranno di intraprendere la spedizione. I personaggi sono tutti ben caratterizzati, soprattutto la figura di Carilla: un'amazzone ed ex mercenaria che dopo lunghi anni deve fare i conti con la verità sul suo passato. Ho notato un po' di confusione nel dover gestire tanti personaggi che rimangono insieme per quasi tutta la narrazione (e non hanno aiutato gli errori di traduzione con persino nomi invertiti...) e anche un finale un po' affrettato in cui succedono tante cose in breve tempo. Bello l'alone di mistero che avvolge la narrazione e che non si dissipa mai fino in fondo!

[karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

review to come!

[Mareli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the first part of this book, with the quest for Avarra's priestesses and how the quest reunited so many different women. But, the ending was confusing and left me with no explanation at all.
All in all, the Renunciate theme is one of the best in Darkover series. How this women live so different from the Darkover way for the "gentler sex" is fascinating.

I didn't care so much for Camilla and Margali story, not because it was between two women but Margali's feelings for Camilla were so confusing for me.

A good book, which would be better with more details in the ending :)

[Alejandro Orradre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una historia a la que cuesta entrar, pero después entretiene. Una trama de montañeras y búsquedas, tanto externas como internas.

[Thomasin Propson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back again, traveling with Magda and Jaelle and Camilla! A travelers' tale, with the snow and mountain heights and psi powers one expects from Darkover.

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Physical and emotional challenges, and the overwhelming need to support friends despite hardship are the main themes here. As they travel into the most uninhabitable area of Darkover in search of what may be a myth, the trials bring confidences and revelation to all.

But despite all that, it didn't quite ring as true to me. In large part because I didn't like the ending, not just Jaelle's death but the whole "search and the true heart will find" aspect that left us hanging.

[Christopher Sutch · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are several reasons why this is one of my least favorite Darkover novels. I should begin by saying that I first read the book shortly after it was first published. I was 14 then, and not as experienced or discerning a reader as I have since become. But even then I was _very_ unsatisfied with it, not only as a Darkover novel but as an "adventure" novel more generally. The GOOD news is that it's a better novel than I remember. But on the other hand this is a problematic novel as well. First, as scholarship and the work of the group set up by MZB's estate to revise and republish all of her works as shown, this novel was actually co-written with an uncredited author, and it's quite apparent, textually, that this is so. Bradley was probably responsible for the first 15 chapters; after that the style changes subtly. Gone are the things I consider to be "problems" in the usual Bradley Darkover novel (the things I read them for "in spite of" not "because of") such as the too-frequent repetition of important information or the often-on-the-same-page contradictions of fact or character/motivation. In many ways this is a good thing: the text is easier to read and makes more sense. Yet it is also undeniable that the later part of the book doesn't feel exactly like a "real" Bradley work. Another problem is Bradley's decision to write a Talbot Mundy knockoff adventure novel using the characters from somem of her most thought-provoking and important second-wave feminist books in the Darkover series, Magda Lorne and Jaelle n'ha Melora. This is not to say that the novel doesn't _touch on_ important issues; it's just that the main focus is on a plot taken from an imperialist British source (with all of the racism and Orientalism that that implies). Finally, the adventure story isn't even satisfying because it doesn't actually end. The "City of Sorcery" of the title is never reached (if it indeed exists at all), the conflicts are all wrapped up in a few pages at the end, rather than gradually being resolved and given a denouement with a satisfying sense of timing or one that doesn't leave threads hanging in all the wrong ways. There are some good reasons to read this book, but overall it's a letdown even from its immediate predecessor in the series, _Thendara House_ (which is flawed in some of the same ways this work is).

[amysedai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars...I think? Ugh, I can’t write a proper review because I just finished this book, and I’m mad at it. I’m not one to throw books, but I can surely say that I now fully understand the inclination. Really, all that stopped me was thinking that I would just have to go and pick it up again if I did throw it.

So I originally read this entire trilogy some 20 years ago. I remember liking Thendara House (book 2) the best, but I came across this one on my shelves recently and read it again. Wow! I didn’t remember anything about it.

I can’t say there is anything that particularly stands out about this one. Everything I think I want to write in a review ends up saying more about me than about the book. Here is what I will say, though it’s still about me: the me from 20 years ago had just come out and was so desperate to see myself represented in fiction, tv, movies, etc so this entire trilogy was a breath of fresh air. I absolutely loved it and clung to it for dear life as an island where I didn’t feel so misunderstood and alone. I have to admit that there are hundreds of LGBTQ+ books released every month now, and we finally made it, baby! But 20 years ago, this was a rare beacon on some deserted and lonely high seas. I will always cherish it for that sentimental reason alone.

But it is from 1984, and a woman writing a novel, even a fantasy novel, can only be so graphic and explicit about matters of not only lesbianism, but non-monogamous lesbianism. Except for some very dark corners of the library, we don’t find much of this kind of writing in 1984, and so for that reason it is brave and even trailblazing. But it is, by today’s standards very discreet, mild, rated PG only for suggesting that things of an intimate nature may have happened.

Plus, the ending pissed me off. So four stars...maybe, because of the sentimental thing. Cuz we have to face it, it’s super cheesy. Don’t miss out if hoaky 80s sci-if meets fantasy with Amazons and telepathy is, like, your thing.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dopo la delusione della Caduta di Neskaya (che pure non è stato scritto dalla Zimmer Bradley, quindi scrupolo inutile) ero restia a riprendere in mano un romanzo del ciclo di Darkover. Ma avevo bisogno di una lettura leggera in un periodo molto intenso e l'ho pescato a caso dalla pila: non mi aspettavo un episodio dell'era terrestre, tantomeno uno con le stesse protagoniste della Catena spezzata, ma ormai con questa saga mi butto completamente alla cieca ed è stato bello ritrovare quei nomi (pur con un "buco" di trama in mezzo, visto che non ho letto il secondo libro dedicato a loro) e allo stesso tempo sapere qual era «la guerra combattuta col potere» di tanti secoli prima.

La trama poi è molto interessante: una spedizione in un territorio inesplorato e ostile che inevitabilmente diventa un viaggio alla scoperta di se stessi; finale aperto e agrodolce (spoiler: è vero che le bambine nella Torre Proibita sono comunque seguite dai Sapienti, che sono la loro seconda famiglia, ma nessuno si chiede che fine abbiano fatto le madri? Jaelle muore, pazienza, ma Magda? non ci pensa neanche, alla figlia, quando decide di rimanere nell'Eremo di Avarra? La Zimmer Bradley voleva tenersi lo spazio per un altro capitolo della saga? Però un accenno poteva mettercelo); interamente incentrato su personaggi femminili forti, indipendenti e soprattutto intelligenti, con i loro pregi e difetti. Un po' sottosviluppate le terrestri, in particolare Alexis (non si è capito nulla dei motivi dietro la sua psicologia), però nulla di fastidioso. Ecco, questo sarebbe potuto andare avanti per altre cento pagine, non quella ciofeca della Ross. Un po' di refusi e di confusione dei nomi, ma è colpa della traduzione datata.

[Lieutenant Retancourt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ce dernier tome de la série des Amazones est un peu plus inégal en partie due à l'évolution psychologique décevante de Magda qui a abandonné la Maison de la Guilde pour aller jouer les leronis dans la Tour Interdite (remplie de mecs) et qui ne pense qu'à retourner auprès de sa fille.
Cependant, l'aventure se présente et elle doit partir sauver une femme qu'elle n'apprécie pas en compagnie de sa cheffe, Cholayna Ares, seule femme noire de la planète, de Vanessa, une Terrienne grimpeuse de montagnes, et Camilla, la femme que Magda est censée aimer mais alors, avertissement pour les lesbiennes CE LIVRE A ETE ECRIT PAR UNE HETERO, IL Y A ZERO SCENES LESBIENNES. Néanmoins, aucun homme dans ce tome, ce qui est un progrès quant au précédent, et beaucoup de scènes aventureuses dans les Montagnes, des combats périlleux, des hommes égorgés, des moments de sororité et de dépassement de soi. Très centrée sur les femmes, l'univers et les personnalité sont bien plus développées que dans d'autres livres de SF. La fin reste ouverte ce qui sous-entend que les personnages continueront sans doute leur quête de la cité de la Sororité dans d'autres tomes.
"Feminism is a political practice of fighting male supremacy in behalf of women as a class, including all the women you don't like, including all the women you don't want to be around, including all the women who used to be your best friends whom you don't want anything to do with anymore. It doesn't matter who the individual women are." Andrea Dworkin

[Devlocke · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Darkover novel, just read it because it was a gift to my girlfriend and I didn't have anything else to read in the house. Solid. I get why it was recommended to my GF as well, it was a good recommendation. That said, having read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy series over the years, and jumping into this series at what is apparently the 14th entry, I wish I had read earlier works. I gathered from this one that some or most of the characters in it had been involved in previous books, so there was context for these characters that I didn't have and that was frustrating. Also context for the whole world, really, that I wish I had.

As my first Darkover book, it was a good book, but I would not recommend it to anyone as a first Darkover book, based on my experiencing it as my own first Darkover book. As a one-off, it's fine, if not great. But I suspect that it's great if you're familiar with the context provided by previous books in the series?

[Erik the Red · Rating 1 out of 5]

Marion Zimmer Bradley, and her literary work, must be viewed through two, often competing, lenses.

First, she was writing stories with strong, relatable female protagonists battling male oppression at a time when very few other authors were prepared to do so. Many modern readers cannot conceive of a time when women were not allowed to have a credit card in their own name, which was but one of the policies Bradley was dealing with in her time. She was a feminist long before it became fashionable. She was one of a very few voices that spoke powerfully to young women about their own worth. Much of her writing, read today, can be seen as trite, obvious, or overbearing, but it must be remembered that it was none of those things at the time it was written. This was a woman who co-founded, and named, the Society for Creative Anachronism, who championed pagan rights when the mainstream saw them as satanic, and who encouraged and published unknown female authors like Mercedes Lackey. Viewed through this lens, Bradley was a progressive woman to be lauded, as she was, posthumously, when she received the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement in 2000.

Second, and hideously, Bradley was a pedophile, who molested her own children. She also procured and groomed children for her husband, Walter Breen, to assault. She admitted to knowing what he was doing to these children, but refused to stop helping him, much less report him or interfere with his desires. Her own daughter was her accuser, so we can be assured this is not a "he said, she said" situation. Viewed through this lens, then, her life and work become irredeemably tainted.

We are, perhaps, used to evaluating art for art's sake, commenting on Ender's Game, or Harry Potter, as though their authors' views, hateful as they are, should not condemn the output of their minds and hands. Perhaps we are right to do so; after all, these views are only beliefs and words, no matter how widespread a bully pulpit their famous speakers are able to command. However, when beliefs and words turn into actions, we must draw the line. Since 2014, when definitive proof finally came to light, I have found myself unable to recommend anything written by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I remain so appalled by her actions that I can never give more than one star to anything she has written, no matter how groundbreaking, how heartfelt, how astounding it may be. I urge everyone reading this to join me in boycotting her work forever.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* (extremely rare) There is something very wrong with this book &/or this author; never again.
** (seldom) Has flaws, or I just couldn’t get into it; no thanks.
*** (usual) Not great, not bad; no need to return to it.
**** (often) Better than average; I’d read it again.
***** (rare) A superb example of the genre, &/or an incredible piece of art; I re-read it often.

[Jill Gerhardstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars is probably generous, but I loved that the story focused entirely on women without being obvious about it.

I disliked this for the same reason that I dislike the Lord of the Rings books. They spent the whole book traveling and never really made it to their destination. (I'd probably feel differently if there had been a fourth book showing what happened when they actually made it to the City of Sorcery.) There was more misery porn than plot and two significant characters died in a way that didn't progress the plot or have any meaningful consequences for the other characters. (To be fair, we were told there would be emotional consequences, but they were never shown.)

If you're into mountaineering or travel-adventure stories and aren't overly concerned with a cohesive plot, you might enjoy this more than I did.

[Luferzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

No fue tedioso de leer en cuanto a la historia, pero la NARRACIÓN, ewww, Magda a veces decía o pensaba unas cosas tan feas y después de leer el pasado de la escritora, muchas cosas tuvieron sentido, no quiero que las partes que si disfruté del libro se vean nubladas por esa información, pero es muy difícil separar el arte del artista, cuando en el libro narran situaciones delicadas como las que la escritora le hizo sufrir a su hija, no sé, algunas partes son chistosas, lindas, entretenidas, y Camilla es lo mejor de todo el libro, creo que solo por ella no le doy peor calificación, aunque partes de su historia se narran de forma muy cruda, pero eso no es culpa del personaje, sino de la autora, yo creo que ahora me voy a tener que leer algo de Jane Austen, porque necesito algo fresco, que se sienta como tomar un vaso de agua luego de caminar por horas en un desierto.

[James]

This book was digitized and reprinted from the collections of the University of California Libraries. Together, the more than one hundred UC Libraries comprise the largest university research library in the world, with over thirty-five million volumes in their holdings. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found online in the HathiTrust Digital Library.HP's patented BookPrep technology was used to clean artifacts resulting from use and digitization, improving your reading experience.

[Macjest · Rating 3 out of 5]

The conclusion of the Renunciates trilogy. I was a bit dissatisfied with some of the characters. Sometimes it seems like MZB goes out of her way to make certain characters disagreeable. It was hard to accept Lexie as the "villain" because we never got the chance to know her. The ending was disappointing because of what happened to some of the characters and the fact that we never get to learn more about Avarra.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 4 out of 5]

9/10. Media de los 18 libros leídos de la autora : 8/10

En su día estaba colgadito de su saga de Darkover (Fantasía). Hace no mucho re-leí parte de uno de estos libros y me resultó simplón, pero como estoy manteniendo la nota que les puse en su día, pues queda la autora con una media fantástica de "8".

La saga artúrica Las nieblas de Avalon tb está muy bien, es una novelación distinta pero bien escrita. Lo de siempre pero con otro toque, vamos. Y sus incursiones en CF tampoco defraudan

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Terran on a Mapping expedition in a plane crashes but is miraculously returned with no memory of why she crashed or what she saw. When a senior intelligence officer probes her mind she sees a what is surely the City of the Sisterhood of Avarra in the snow and glacier covered far reaches near the Wall Around the World. When Lexie hires Jaelles partner to take her to the are to seek the city Magda and Janelle follow, to help or convince them the search is fruitless.

[Jan Niblock · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an adventure that took Magda, Camilla, Jaelle, Vanessa and Cholayna on through the mountains to find Rafaella and Alexis Anders. They were all on the path to trying to find the Sisterhood who dwelled in the City of Sorcery. But there were so many things that was blocking their paths including the greater evil. This story was truly one of adventure and hardship. The ending was very sad to me.

[Joyce Reynolds-Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Research read, and I have to confess that the most fascinating parts were the mountaineering sections. Lacks the intensity of its predecessor Thendara House but still worthwhile for finishing out the trilogy.

[Melliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the final book of a trilogy, I had forgotten what an ultimately dissatisfying ending this has! I enjoyed the interplay of the characters and cultures, but I think I prefer the Darkover books in which laran is a bigger theme.

[Kerith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best of three major Renunciate novels, in my opinion, but it makes for a decent quest/adventure tale. Especially if you like mountain climbing. I'd forgotten how much I disliked the ending, though.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of this is very boring. Did not find their journey that interesting until the last third. But the payoff is not enough to justify the long, mostly useless, path that leads there. So the end feels rushed. I'm not sure why this book is structured the way it is tbh.

[Mistress of the Weird · Rating 1 out of 5]

Once upon a time I liked Marion Zimmer Bradley...until I found out she was a pedophile. Now I can never look at her work the same way without that haunting me. There are some things about an author I can ignore while reading - but that is not one of them.

[Berni Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sigh. I still want to live on Darkover.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would this have made as mych sense to me if I wasn't reading the series in order? I don't know.

This was good.

[N. R. Gravel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A change to my typical male lead books but the difference was welcomed. It was a little slow to start and has a ton of dialogue but overall enjoyable.