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Hunters #2
Zwycięzcy
Asked to investigate a Closed World, Dane, Rianne, and Aratak begin their mission but are interrupted when the uneasy peace between coexisting sentient races is threatened by ghosts and dragons. Reissue.
392 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
17 people are currently reading
267 people want to read
About the author
Marion Zimmer Bradley
803 books4,906 followersMarion 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fan fiction and reprinted some of it in commercial Darkover anthologies, continuing to encourage submissions from unpublished authors, but this ended after a dispute with a fan over an unpublished Darkover novel of Bradley's that had similarities to some of the fan's stories.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)
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)
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 4, 2013
The sequel to Hunters of the Red Moon, The Survivors is better in so many ways. It carries forth the tone of Hunters as a good, straightforward adventure story while shading the characters with interesting complications. Sometime after Dane survives the Hunt with Rhianna and Aratak, he finds himself on a capital Unity world bored out of his mind. Like so many post-need societies, there really isn't any risk in existence -- which is something that Dane feels he needs in order to be complete. So when Aratak shows up with a proposition to investigate a "Closed" world (a society that hasn't advanced enough technologically to warrant association with the Unity) where a few Unity researchers have gone missing, he jumps at the chance.
The new wrinkles added to the setting enrich it quite a bit. We're introduced to other proto-saurian and proto-feline races, discover interesting new things about how the Unity operates, and the tendency of civilized worlds to have only one type of dominant sentient life. The primitive world Dane and company land on features two, which is rare enough to warrant very close study. However, both the Unity researchers and their first rescue team have vanished without a trace, and it's up to them to determine what happens to them.
The planet they land on has undergone some sort of cataclysm in its not-too-distant history, and the sun is relentlessly scorching. Dane, Rhianna and Aratak have to undergo reconstructive surgery to fit in a bit with the natives -- the proto-simians are darkened considerably, while Aratak's gills are hidden and skin changed so its darker and more moist. They're exposed to a culture with strange but absolute cultural taboos; throwing a spear is considered one of the most dishonorable things you could ever do, and one must protect themselves from the demons that live as stars in the night sky. They meet a boy who chafes at the superstitions of the people around him, but there's no good outlet for his differences. He's mercilessly chastised by his father, and there's no other position he can hold beyond a fighting one. Rhianna takes him under her wing, while Dane finds he can barely tolerate the kid. Their arguments over him open up doubts about his relationship and uncovers a surprising streak of self-doubt and loneliness. Even though it's not touched on too deeply, Dane wonders if Rhianna is staying with him out of some sense of duty to him -- he begins to see himself as some sort of backwoods primitive, incapable of being understood by the people who have been raised in a much more advanced society.
Aratak plays well off of another proto-saurian who is much less philosophically-inclined. It's neat to know that his almost-obsessive quoting of the wisdom of the Divine Egg drives his cultural cousins crazy as well. It makes him more of a quirky individual, and I like that shading of him. We also find out why other races look down on proto-simians for their ability to have sex any time they feel like it; while on the planet, Aratak and his companion meet another proto-saurian who has, er, come into season. Their reaction is surprising and extreme; with bestial roaring, they disappear for weeks to answer the call to mate. When they come back, they're ready to pick up right where they left off -- much to Dane's bewilderment. "Leave others their otherness" becomes a proverb that he actually has to work to apply.
There are also noble swordsmen who are only antagonists to Dane and his motley band through circumstances and misunderstandings, a few native and non-native animals who are terrifying in rather distinctive ways, and a surprising but satisfying answer to the mystery of what happened to the researchers and previous rescue team. Again, the novel never quite delves deep enough into the interesting ideas and character developments that get kicked up through the course of the story. It reads more of a travel-quest type tale with hints of a more thoughtful tale struggling to get out. But even these small steps towards complexity suit Dane and company well; the protagonist is more three-dimensional than he was before, and even when we don't like him (which happens half the time) we at least feel something for him.
The Survivors is a good improvement over Hunters, though it's not perfect. I would have liked to see where the series picks up from there, but unfortunately this looks like all there is. You could do worse than picking up these novels; they'd make for good beach or airplane reading.
The new wrinkles added to the setting enrich it quite a bit. We're introduced to other proto-saurian and proto-feline races, discover interesting new things about how the Unity operates, and the tendency of civilized worlds to have only one type of dominant sentient life. The primitive world Dane and company land on features two, which is rare enough to warrant very close study. However, both the Unity researchers and their first rescue team have vanished without a trace, and it's up to them to determine what happens to them.
The planet they land on has undergone some sort of cataclysm in its not-too-distant history, and the sun is relentlessly scorching. Dane, Rhianna and Aratak have to undergo reconstructive surgery to fit in a bit with the natives -- the proto-simians are darkened considerably, while Aratak's gills are hidden and skin changed so its darker and more moist. They're exposed to a culture with strange but absolute cultural taboos; throwing a spear is considered one of the most dishonorable things you could ever do, and one must protect themselves from the demons that live as stars in the night sky. They meet a boy who chafes at the superstitions of the people around him, but there's no good outlet for his differences. He's mercilessly chastised by his father, and there's no other position he can hold beyond a fighting one. Rhianna takes him under her wing, while Dane finds he can barely tolerate the kid. Their arguments over him open up doubts about his relationship and uncovers a surprising streak of self-doubt and loneliness. Even though it's not touched on too deeply, Dane wonders if Rhianna is staying with him out of some sense of duty to him -- he begins to see himself as some sort of backwoods primitive, incapable of being understood by the people who have been raised in a much more advanced society.
Aratak plays well off of another proto-saurian who is much less philosophically-inclined. It's neat to know that his almost-obsessive quoting of the wisdom of the Divine Egg drives his cultural cousins crazy as well. It makes him more of a quirky individual, and I like that shading of him. We also find out why other races look down on proto-simians for their ability to have sex any time they feel like it; while on the planet, Aratak and his companion meet another proto-saurian who has, er, come into season. Their reaction is surprising and extreme; with bestial roaring, they disappear for weeks to answer the call to mate. When they come back, they're ready to pick up right where they left off -- much to Dane's bewilderment. "Leave others their otherness" becomes a proverb that he actually has to work to apply.
There are also noble swordsmen who are only antagonists to Dane and his motley band through circumstances and misunderstandings, a few native and non-native animals who are terrifying in rather distinctive ways, and a surprising but satisfying answer to the mystery of what happened to the researchers and previous rescue team. Again, the novel never quite delves deep enough into the interesting ideas and character developments that get kicked up through the course of the story. It reads more of a travel-quest type tale with hints of a more thoughtful tale struggling to get out. But even these small steps towards complexity suit Dane and company well; the protagonist is more three-dimensional than he was before, and even when we don't like him (which happens half the time) we at least feel something for him.
The Survivors is a good improvement over Hunters, though it's not perfect. I would have liked to see where the series picks up from there, but unfortunately this looks like all there is. You could do worse than picking up these novels; they'd make for good beach or airplane reading.
August 7, 2016
I enjoyed Hunters of the Red Moon quite a bit, and after several years of looking for the sequel at my used bookstore, I finally found it. Unfortunately, this book was a let down. In fact, it tarnished the pleasant experience I had from the first book.
The most serious problem I had with the book was that it never really got going. There is countless hours of wandering through jungle, with the same monster over, and over, and over. It gets to the point that the book even makes fun of itself, as it keeps throwing these stupid things at them all the way to the end. In between these extremely repetitive events, we get the same exact descriptions over, and over ("The sun sets through the trees in shades of violet, and the chirping of owl-like creatures can be heard.") It's essentially that sequence, repeated constantly, until you wonder if the writers ever really had any creativity at all.
There are other serious problems. Dane is portrayed from page 1 all the way to the last chapter as almost entirely unlikable. That would be fine, perhaps, if he was one of the supporting characters, but he is not. The book is written with the sole POV of Dane, and his constant bitterness towards society, the boy Jota, ugly looking aliens, primitive cultures, etc., seems extremely petty, and really makes the book unappetizing.
Also, many events are far too convenient, and just reek of the author making an excuse to resolve events. One of their tools, that never works, just decides to work briefly right when the story needs it to. The society also is built up with a really idiotic taboo that no developing culture would ever have, just for the sole purpose of making melee combat viable (since the adventurers only have experience fighting hand-to-hand.) How likely would a taboo stand in the way of saving your child from a wild animal? There are some other serious logic errors in the end of the book: It feels like the authors didn't even care to think things through, like anything revolving around plot was just right off the top of their heads, that either made no sense, or conflicted with something said somewhere else in the book.
Lastly, the plot is just one giant excuse to have an adventure. There's no real feeling or passion for their goal, and it seems like the writers even forget their purpose for being there the vast majority of the book. I could buy into that idea, if it was executed well, but this "adventure" is almost entirely uninspired and devoid of creativity.
There was also frequent editing mistakes throughout the book: Misspelling of character names, incorrect grammar, and just some really bad writing from time to time that never got fixed.
My rating is really close to being 1 star, but I still enjoyed how unique Aratak was as a character, and I still have some fondness bleeding over from the first book. However, if you enjoyed the first book, I would suggest you just pretend that a second book was never made.
The most serious problem I had with the book was that it never really got going. There is countless hours of wandering through jungle, with the same monster over, and over, and over. It gets to the point that the book even makes fun of itself, as it keeps throwing these stupid things at them all the way to the end. In between these extremely repetitive events, we get the same exact descriptions over, and over ("The sun sets through the trees in shades of violet, and the chirping of owl-like creatures can be heard.") It's essentially that sequence, repeated constantly, until you wonder if the writers ever really had any creativity at all.
There are other serious problems. Dane is portrayed from page 1 all the way to the last chapter as almost entirely unlikable. That would be fine, perhaps, if he was one of the supporting characters, but he is not. The book is written with the sole POV of Dane, and his constant bitterness towards society, the boy Jota, ugly looking aliens, primitive cultures, etc., seems extremely petty, and really makes the book unappetizing.
Also, many events are far too convenient, and just reek of the author making an excuse to resolve events. One of their tools, that never works, just decides to work briefly right when the story needs it to. The society also is built up with a really idiotic taboo that no developing culture would ever have, just for the sole purpose of making melee combat viable (since the adventurers only have experience fighting hand-to-hand.) How likely would a taboo stand in the way of saving your child from a wild animal? There are some other serious logic errors in the end of the book: It feels like the authors didn't even care to think things through, like anything revolving around plot was just right off the top of their heads, that either made no sense, or conflicted with something said somewhere else in the book.
Lastly, the plot is just one giant excuse to have an adventure. There's no real feeling or passion for their goal, and it seems like the writers even forget their purpose for being there the vast majority of the book. I could buy into that idea, if it was executed well, but this "adventure" is almost entirely uninspired and devoid of creativity.
There was also frequent editing mistakes throughout the book: Misspelling of character names, incorrect grammar, and just some really bad writing from time to time that never got fixed.
My rating is really close to being 1 star, but I still enjoyed how unique Aratak was as a character, and I still have some fondness bleeding over from the first book. However, if you enjoyed the first book, I would suggest you just pretend that a second book was never made.
Read
March 9, 2011Evidently I bought this and set it aside, because I have no memory of it, and can't even come up with a framework for how it goes on.
One preliminary point: Bradley and Zimmer argue that all 'protosimians' are in a sort of permanent oestrus, and are the only sapients in the Unity who mate out of season. This seems rather less than likely. On Earth, humans are really the only primates who maintain continual fertility cycles, and sexuality plays as little part in the lives of (say) baboons as in most of the species in the Unity. Why would it be different elsewhere? Is the contention that only protosimians who DO have continual oestrus can develop 'true' intelligence? For that matter, who's setting the standards of what qualifies as 'people'? The attitudes of the protosaurians are somewhat snobbish, at least at first.
Also, I don't think a telepath who was as misanthropic and depressive as the Farspeaker in this story would be anybody's first choice for a communicator--so the implication is that Farspeakers are so rare that none can be honorably retired seems to necessarily follow.
I hadn't remembered, by the way, that the translator disks transmitted subvocalized thoughts. This is likely to cause serious problems. We may subvocalize things we don't actually want to say aloud--is there some way to bypass the translator? Still, it would make it possible to communicate without speaking loudly--an advantage in that respect, if few others.
I can't speak to the oeconomy of 'jungles' on a distant world, but the description given in this book is almost completely untrue about rainforests on Earth. There's virtually no undergrowth under the canopy of rainforests--only around watercourses, in the borders of 'natural meadows' (usually the temporary) product of one or more of the trees falling), and other border areas is there any substantial underbrush. Nor are there any low-hanging branches for the 'camouflage cats' to launch themselves from. Old-growth forests have very tall trees, in which most of the life is in the canopy. Any creature the size of the cats mentioned which launched itself from a height of about 150 feet would likely die even IF its fall was cushioned by landing on a large prey animal. And if it missed... But the fact is that creatures as voracious and active as the predators presented wouldn't live long enough to die in a broken-boned heap. They'd starve, since they couldn't possibly get enough energy from their prey to replenish what they expended in killing it, much LESS have any reserves for another hunt. There's some speculation that the 'rashas' have been deliberately selected and bred to hunt protosimians. If so, they must continually be reintroduced, given the carnage that's described. So many of the rashas are killed, they'd have to have a very rapid reproductive rate to compensate, even in ordinary conditions--and that's not even including the ones who must starve if protosimians put up any kind of resistance or evasive maneuvers, even ineffectual ones. Prey that solitary animals have to hunt out (and even chase down) is too expensive.
Furthermore, the soil under climax forests is, in fact, very poor soil. The nutrients are in the leaf-mould, and are created by indwellers in said mould from the rain of detritus (scales, leaves, feces, etc) from the canopy. These nutrients are conveyed underground, whence they are almost at once sucked up by the tree roots. Old-growth forests are bootstrapping communities, and growth is no faster there than elsewhere. Later descriptions of high-canopy forests are a little more realistic--but I'm a little puzzled by the distaste for the rich, fertile smell of leaf mould. I like the smell of chlorophyll (I'm not sure how xanthophyll smells)--but I very much prefer the smell of leaf-mould. It's that smell that distinguishes between sterile dust and soil.
There's also a flat statement that early humans on Earth exterminated their fellow hominids. There's no real evidence either way--but whatever happened, we have little evidence of their personal natures or intelligence--and I resent both the description of hominids as 'subhuman' (they're related to the local humans, but the 'chain of being' hierarchical model has never been a good basis for description of the variability of life), and to the description of chimpanzees as unintelligent and as 'monkeys'. Chimpanzees are closer than cousins to humans, and are provably capable of quite complex reasoning.
The character of Dane is argued to be quite a travelled man, but he doesn't show much sign of it. The armchair descriptions of Earth lifeforms read like the fantasies of people who haven't even bothered to dip into the pile of National Geographics beside the chair. I can't give much credence to the descriptions of the biology of other worlds from people who don't really have a good grounding in the biology of Earth. Marion Zimmer Bradley evidently learned some things over her career--but this sort of elementary errors are more than a little offputting.
I also don't care for the 'hero''s dislike of a boy who has no taste or talent for the life of an 'adrenaline junkie'. Or for his fetishist worship of his replica samurai sword. Like his partner, I don't pretend to understand his attitudes--nor do I particularly care to.
There seems to be an uneasy snobbishness in many of Marion Zimmer Bradley's works. I'm not clear about Paul Edwin Zimmer's position, but Marion Zimmer Bradley seems to have somewhat defensively believed that there is a natural aristocracy and peasantry, and to hope to be numbered among the elect. For example, Joda's father (who disappears completely from the picture after handing 'his' abused son into fosterage--and where was the boy's mother in all this?) never seems to have considered fostering his son with the First People--nor do any others, from what I can see. If a child has a scholarly bent, why should she or he have to travel off-world to get any sort of nurturance and/or fosterage in such arts?
The proto-saurian First People are traumatically affected by an assault that happened before proto-simians developed. They are committed to nonviolence, and try to impose nonviolence (in limited ways) on protosimians. But they don't display any particular philosophical commitment to nonviolence. They're perfectly prepared to accept the concept of 'justifiable homicide'--they simply debate what the limits of such violence are, and should be. Perhaps their "Saints'" guilty knowledge of prehistoric 'defensive' genocide colors their thoughts. But it's past time to get past that, as well. In all the subsequent years, hsa nobody made any ATTEMPT to find out why they were attacked in the first place? And what they might have done to negotiate peaceful relations with those ancient 'enemies' BEFORE it got to the point of deadly assaults on either side?
One preliminary point: Bradley and Zimmer argue that all 'protosimians' are in a sort of permanent oestrus, and are the only sapients in the Unity who mate out of season. This seems rather less than likely. On Earth, humans are really the only primates who maintain continual fertility cycles, and sexuality plays as little part in the lives of (say) baboons as in most of the species in the Unity. Why would it be different elsewhere? Is the contention that only protosimians who DO have continual oestrus can develop 'true' intelligence? For that matter, who's setting the standards of what qualifies as 'people'? The attitudes of the protosaurians are somewhat snobbish, at least at first.
Also, I don't think a telepath who was as misanthropic and depressive as the Farspeaker in this story would be anybody's first choice for a communicator--so the implication is that Farspeakers are so rare that none can be honorably retired seems to necessarily follow.
I hadn't remembered, by the way, that the translator disks transmitted subvocalized thoughts. This is likely to cause serious problems. We may subvocalize things we don't actually want to say aloud--is there some way to bypass the translator? Still, it would make it possible to communicate without speaking loudly--an advantage in that respect, if few others.
I can't speak to the oeconomy of 'jungles' on a distant world, but the description given in this book is almost completely untrue about rainforests on Earth. There's virtually no undergrowth under the canopy of rainforests--only around watercourses, in the borders of 'natural meadows' (usually the temporary) product of one or more of the trees falling), and other border areas is there any substantial underbrush. Nor are there any low-hanging branches for the 'camouflage cats' to launch themselves from. Old-growth forests have very tall trees, in which most of the life is in the canopy. Any creature the size of the cats mentioned which launched itself from a height of about 150 feet would likely die even IF its fall was cushioned by landing on a large prey animal. And if it missed... But the fact is that creatures as voracious and active as the predators presented wouldn't live long enough to die in a broken-boned heap. They'd starve, since they couldn't possibly get enough energy from their prey to replenish what they expended in killing it, much LESS have any reserves for another hunt. There's some speculation that the 'rashas' have been deliberately selected and bred to hunt protosimians. If so, they must continually be reintroduced, given the carnage that's described. So many of the rashas are killed, they'd have to have a very rapid reproductive rate to compensate, even in ordinary conditions--and that's not even including the ones who must starve if protosimians put up any kind of resistance or evasive maneuvers, even ineffectual ones. Prey that solitary animals have to hunt out (and even chase down) is too expensive.
Furthermore, the soil under climax forests is, in fact, very poor soil. The nutrients are in the leaf-mould, and are created by indwellers in said mould from the rain of detritus (scales, leaves, feces, etc) from the canopy. These nutrients are conveyed underground, whence they are almost at once sucked up by the tree roots. Old-growth forests are bootstrapping communities, and growth is no faster there than elsewhere. Later descriptions of high-canopy forests are a little more realistic--but I'm a little puzzled by the distaste for the rich, fertile smell of leaf mould. I like the smell of chlorophyll (I'm not sure how xanthophyll smells)--but I very much prefer the smell of leaf-mould. It's that smell that distinguishes between sterile dust and soil.
There's also a flat statement that early humans on Earth exterminated their fellow hominids. There's no real evidence either way--but whatever happened, we have little evidence of their personal natures or intelligence--and I resent both the description of hominids as 'subhuman' (they're related to the local humans, but the 'chain of being' hierarchical model has never been a good basis for description of the variability of life), and to the description of chimpanzees as unintelligent and as 'monkeys'. Chimpanzees are closer than cousins to humans, and are provably capable of quite complex reasoning.
The character of Dane is argued to be quite a travelled man, but he doesn't show much sign of it. The armchair descriptions of Earth lifeforms read like the fantasies of people who haven't even bothered to dip into the pile of National Geographics beside the chair. I can't give much credence to the descriptions of the biology of other worlds from people who don't really have a good grounding in the biology of Earth. Marion Zimmer Bradley evidently learned some things over her career--but this sort of elementary errors are more than a little offputting.
I also don't care for the 'hero''s dislike of a boy who has no taste or talent for the life of an 'adrenaline junkie'. Or for his fetishist worship of his replica samurai sword. Like his partner, I don't pretend to understand his attitudes--nor do I particularly care to.
There seems to be an uneasy snobbishness in many of Marion Zimmer Bradley's works. I'm not clear about Paul Edwin Zimmer's position, but Marion Zimmer Bradley seems to have somewhat defensively believed that there is a natural aristocracy and peasantry, and to hope to be numbered among the elect. For example, Joda's father (who disappears completely from the picture after handing 'his' abused son into fosterage--and where was the boy's mother in all this?) never seems to have considered fostering his son with the First People--nor do any others, from what I can see. If a child has a scholarly bent, why should she or he have to travel off-world to get any sort of nurturance and/or fosterage in such arts?
The proto-saurian First People are traumatically affected by an assault that happened before proto-simians developed. They are committed to nonviolence, and try to impose nonviolence (in limited ways) on protosimians. But they don't display any particular philosophical commitment to nonviolence. They're perfectly prepared to accept the concept of 'justifiable homicide'--they simply debate what the limits of such violence are, and should be. Perhaps their "Saints'" guilty knowledge of prehistoric 'defensive' genocide colors their thoughts. But it's past time to get past that, as well. In all the subsequent years, hsa nobody made any ATTEMPT to find out why they were attacked in the first place? And what they might have done to negotiate peaceful relations with those ancient 'enemies' BEFORE it got to the point of deadly assaults on either side?
November 23, 2025
Not great. As a follow-up book for the fist one it is ok, it does give you some answers and it does conclude some of the plot lines that are just dropped in the fist one. If you have the compendium, it is worth reading this one straight after the first. If you have not read the first one this would be a waste of time.
Whilst I normally love McCaffrey's work, these two books combine all the flaws in her writing with almost none of her strengths. AND despite the titles, there are almost no dinosaurs or mention of dinosaurs in this book.
I have already dedicated more time to this book than it deserves, and, quite possibly, more time that McCaffrey spent on it (just from having read the whole thing), so if you have any further interest, go to my YouTuber review.
youtube.com/watch?v=JWfKzMJUsbc&f...
Whilst I normally love McCaffrey's work, these two books combine all the flaws in her writing with almost none of her strengths. AND despite the titles, there are almost no dinosaurs or mention of dinosaurs in this book.
I have already dedicated more time to this book than it deserves, and, quite possibly, more time that McCaffrey spent on it (just from having read the whole thing), so if you have any further interest, go to my YouTuber review.
youtube.com/watch?v=JWfKzMJUsbc&f...
November 3, 2025
Sadly not as good as the first book. The main character lose all the character development from first book and regrades into something worse. The main plot/mysteri feels forgotten about for 80-90% of the book. Has a few good parts but sadly not a very good sequal.
October 10, 2018
Didn't enjoy this as much as the first,but still good.
September 18, 2023
Il faut bien manger parfois, même quand on est un auteur à succès.
January 27, 2020
Good
Well written and an excellent story, it is a pity that it is so short I would have preferred that it had been a bit longer
Well written and an excellent story, it is a pity that it is so short I would have preferred that it had been a bit longer
April 21, 2010
This is a sequel to Hunters of the Red Moon, which should be read first. In that book, Dane, Rianna and Aratak are the kidnapped "prey" in a hunt involving species from different worlds. Think "The Most Dangerous Game" or Gladiator. That one was a fun, entertaining and fast pulp read. In this one the trio moving on to new challenges is investigating a "Closed World" full of unknown dangers. No one would claim this as great literature, and it's not the kind of thing you can enjoy if you nitpick the science and social assumptions to death. This is pulp fiction, with characterizations of the kind of depth you find in costumed superheroes in comic books. That doesn't mean this isn't enjoyable, although I enjoyed the first book more. But I don't think this matches in quality the best of MZB's Darkover books. (Otoh, it's better than the weakest in that series.)
February 8, 2013
A great sequel to an author I wish I could have met. There's nothing better than classic science fiction. My only regret is that I wish I'd read this back to back with the first book, Hunters of the Red Moon. Oh well, fatastic, and still holds up well today.
January 4, 2016
The cover says it's a long unavailable science fiction classic. I'm pretty sure it should have stayed unavailable - and by classic they might mean old.
I was really distracted by the bad grammar, sex- and racism. I'll always give a book about 60 pages to warm up, but this one just got worse. Pass.
I was really distracted by the bad grammar, sex- and racism. I'll always give a book about 60 pages to warm up, but this one just got worse. Pass.
December 27, 2008
The first book is better, but in this book you can see the development of Darkover.
June 14, 2010
The sequel to "Hunters of the Red Moon." Dane, Rianna and Aratak are asked to check out a Closed World with lots of vicious predators.
November 4, 2014
1979 grade ?
2009 grade B+
Series book R2
2009 grade B+
Series book R2
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