HERITAGE and EXILE

Reviewed 11/24/2011

Heritage and Exile, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Cover Art by Romas Kukalis
HERITAGE and EXILE
Marion Zimmer Bradley
New York: DAW Books, 2002

Rating:

5.0

High

ISBN-13 978-0-7564-0065-?
ISBN-10 0-7564-0065-1 779pp. SC $8.50

This volume actually contains two complete novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley. That is the reason for the mixed-case title above, and in the image of the front cover. The novels are The Heritage of Hastur (1975) and Sharra's Exile (1982). They are fairly long; the first runs to 399 pages, the second to 380.

The Darkover series itself is a collection of related novels: The titles number 22 by Marion Zimmer Bradley, some with collaborators, and five more to date, I believe, written by others after her death. There are also twelve anthologies, described as stories which fill in the gaps in the main sequence. It is a remarkable body of work, probably unique in extent in the annals of science fiction or fantasy. Given the right production team, it could be turned into a spellbinding soap opera; but given the treatment afforded Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea novels, I very much doubt a combination of talents can be found that will do it justice.

Some general impressions of the universe of Darkover as Marion Zimmer Bradley conceived it. Elements of science fiction and fantasy combine, although the fantasy dominates. There are spaceships, interstellar travel at FTL rates, blasters and nerve disruptors as well as projectile weapons. The Terran Zone at Thendara, around the planet's principal spaceport, has electronic communications, motorized vehicles, and all the other trappings of modern life. In contrast, the people of Darkover hold themselves aloof, separate from the Terran Empire and its modernity, preserving the barbaric ways that had come down from the Ages of Chaos. Theirs is a planet frozen in medieval times — seven domains, each headed by a noblesire ensconsed in a stone castle, with horses for transport, swords for defense, and kinship for fealty. And one more thing: laran — the powers of the mind, unique in the Empire: powers both enormous and perilous, as the Ages of Chaos had proven beyond doubt. Laran is the hallmark of the Comyn, the nobility of Darkover, a blood heritage conferring telepathy and other powers, each generally unique to a noble lineage. But affairs and assignations are common, and a nedestro, a child out of wedlock by a common woman, may be accepted by the Comyn if it possesses laran.

The Heritage of Hastur

As the story opens, two young men ride together to the Council in Thendarra. Regis, of noble Hastur blood, feels estranged from the Comyn, the caste of telepaths, because at 15 years he still shows none of their laran, their power to read minds. The other is Lew Alton, a nedestro of the Domain of Alton. In him the gene has bred true; his laran is strong, and had enabled his father to force the council to acknowledge him. He has already spent three years at Arilinn, one of the Towers where youths are taught to master laran and keyed to a matrix, a crystal that focuses and extends their powers.

Lew, at 25, well accepted despite his maculate birth, a competent soldier and leader, nevertheless feels denied the sense of belonging to society and misses it keenly. Young Regis Hastur, however, is rebellious. Despite his exalted station, he dreams of embarking on one of the Terran spaceships that regularly lift from Darkover bound for worlds unknown.

Yet even as the ships of the Empire come and go routinely from the spaceport at Thendara, even as men and women of Darkover embark upon those ships and return, most of Darkover knows not that it was one of the first planets colonized from Terra. Only in the ostracized Domain of Aldaran, secure in its mountain fastness, was this knowledge preserved. And there Kadarin, a man from off-world, plotted with the Lord of Aldaran to force the Empire to grant full status to Darkover. They have discovered the existence of a matrix hidden since the Ages of Chaos, an instrument that will enable them to match anything the Empire can wield. It turns out to be more than they can handle, raining destruction and harrowing loss on citizens of the Empire and Darkover alike. That destruction is stopped, but the perpetrators escape and the instrument is not destroyed. The most able telepaths of the Domains are unable to destroy it; the only choice is to send it off-world. And, after six years, events demand its return.

Sharra's Exile

Lew Alton has spent six years away from Darkover. First he went to Terra itself, to see if advanced medical science could heal his horrible wounds. Then, only partially healed, he wandered with his father Kennard Alton, Lord Alton, to the pleasure planet Vainwal. There he met and loved a woman of Darkover, but found he could not give her a son. For the Sharra Matrix had burned him more deeply than he had understood, even altering his germ plasm, so that the thing which emerged from his wife's womb was monstrous. It was allowed to die. Hard as he made the barriers against telepathic contact, he could not hide the image in his mind from her. Their marriage died too on that day.

Then came word that, due to the absence from Darkover of both Kennard and Lew, Lord and heir of Alton, the domain would be forfeit. Kennard had just died of old age. More than his privileges would be lost if Lew failed to return and challenge the forfeiture; he was forced to return, and since he could not be parted from the Sharra Matrix, it too returned to Darkover.

Its presence there immediately revealed itself to all with laran, and Kadarin soon learned of it. He had been one of the Empire's best intelligence agents, but had defected. Now they had a price on his head. He was wanted by the Comyn, too, for high crimes— a major breach of the Compact among them. Yet neither Terran spaceforce or the telepathic adepts of the Towers were able to locate him. Until the night of the Festival, when the horror erupted once more.

The battle to contain it, and eliminate Sharra for all time, would call forth the ultimate exertion of Lew Alton's laran powers, of Regis's newly developing Hastur Gift, and the skills of the greatest Keeper from the Towers. It would require yet one more thing: The Sword of Aldones, a half-legendary relic sequestered in the rhu fead and protected by wards dating from the Ages of Chaos, wards which would strip the mind of any Darkoveran who tried to enter.

The characters in these novels seem to live more intensely. They're constantly drawing themselves up haughtily, seething with inward rage, hiding annoyance (or expressing it) at some affront, fighting back tears or unable to hide them, shivering with cold or exhaustion, speaking in cold disparagement of another's words, screaming in horror or quivering with fear, feeling nausea and disorientation from psychic influences, grinning merrily at some humor, wanting to embrace someone but refraining out of respect for honor or custom, or finally giving in to love or lust.

They resort, however, to very little violence. Like feudal Japan, Darkover society is hedged about with rules made necessary by chaos in a prior era. The resemblance ends there, however; Comyn do not slaughter commoners for minor impolitenesses. Rather, they love and respect their retainers, and treat the remainder of the population with western-style civility. Blood feuds still take place, but rarely; they are usually bypassed somehow. Wanton violence is for the bad guys, and the instigators of the worst of that are not of Darkover.

Bradley has constructed this world of Darkover well, and reveals it sparingly as the story proceeds. In this respect the tale reminds me of Tolkien's masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. But she does permit lapses. For one, the Terran Empire permits, with no cautionary measures in evidence, the passage on their starships of not only the Sharra Matrix (which recently destroyed one of their cities on Darkover and at least one starship at the port adjacent to that city), but allow it to be carried by one of the people involved in that attack.1 For another, the laran powers of the main characters seem to grow at need, as when Regis discoveres he is able, just in the nick of time, to provide a demonstration of Darkover strength by destroying a pile of Terran weapons. At the same time, powers well established in previous pages seem to go unused at moments when they're most needed. (See the Errata for both.)

1 It could be argued that the Terrans don't know that the sword Lew carries hides the Sharra Matrix, and that he was involved in its use. But the instigator of that use was one of their best intelligence agents, until he defected, and they have a price on his head. It seems unlikely they'd be in the dark about this.
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