Book Review - The Saga of the Renunciates

A number of Marion Zimmer Bradley's books have been bound up into omnibus editions, one of which has been entitled The Saga of the Renunciates, consisting of three books written from 1976 up until 1984. It builds upon the rather more snappily named Sisterhood of the Sword, and given my feminist inclinations, I was looking forward to reading these.

The Shattered Chain is the first book in the trilogy introduces the two central characters, Jaelle and Magda/Margali, along with some background for the former. It also marks the first lengthy description of the Dry-Towns (at least in terms of Darkovan chronology).

The trilogy as a whole is MZB's most concerted effort to explore the issues of feminism and female oppression in Darkover up until that point, though she had previously engaged in single volumes such as Hawkmistress! and Two to Conquer.

The book also marks the first extended narrative inclusion of Terrans within their own milieu - Two to Conquer had previously featured a displaced Terran, but now we can see Terrans operating from their own spaceport.

A less pleasant aspect of the plot is that it appears to engender a rather derogatory parallel to Islam, as the women of the Dry-Towns are clearly situated within an Arabic civilisation, but kept literally in chains. While MZB may not have intended the comparison, it is an inevitable one - the Dry-Towners are shown are irredeemably chauvinistic, brutally enslaving the women of Dry-Town society to forever wear chains in symbolic acceptance of their submission.

Nevertheless, the way in which the book manages to weave together three disparate sections into a cohesive whole is enjoyable, and it performs its job of setting up the next two books admirably.

The second book in the Saga of the Renunciates, Thendara House contains both good and bad elements of MZB's concern with gender issues.

On the plus side, we see an in depth look at the combined Sisterhood of the Sword and Priestesses of Avarra, whose coming together was implied in Two to Conquer. They have now become the Free Amazons, or Renunciates, less a military than a female collective of various professionals. Midwives and mercenaries provide the most powerful characters, as the women from The Shattered Chain are found once more, older and increasingly detailed.

However, on the down side the characters seem to often become mere mouthpieces for MZB's didactic intrusions, which while interesting as polemic sit uneasily within a fantasy novel. These work much better when MZB wove them into the plot and the characters, which she also does here, but there are a number of long dialogues which have the feeling of an essay plonked uncomfortably into the middle of a fantasy novel.

Still, Jaelle and Magda draw upon your affections, and you can't help but feel some small emotion for the increasing difficulties of their trials.

City of Sorcery is the final volume in the Saga of the Renunciates takes a different route, which starts off promisingly. The plot is 'suggested by', MZB tells us, Talbot Mundy's The Devil's Guard, written in 1926. Not having read that novel, I can't say how much she takes from Mundy, but it appears to have been a useful style manual - the structure of City of Sorcery is noticeably improved from some of MZB's earlier books.

However, I found the 'mystical order of priestesses' readers will recognise from The Mists of Avalon a bit annoying in their nebulous 'spirituality', not to mention the levels of power MZB seems to attribute to them.

In her defence, it may be that such devices seem triter with the unfortunate rise of 'New Age' charlatans - in The Mists of Avalon, it is entirely in keeping with the plot and feel of that novel. Nevertheless, having read The Shattered Chain and Thendara House, this is a continuation of Jaelle and Magda's journey, and anyone who felt themselves becoming attached to the struggles of those characters will not be disappointed by this final instalment.

Book Review - The Left Hand of Darkness

I picked up this book while looking through the university library a few years ago for some Fritz Leiber, and it proved well worth the read.

The story is atmospheric and magnificently written, providing a discussion of sexuality and gender along with political intrigue. The structural devices used by Le Guin are also interesting, as she intersperses the main plot with short chapters featuring 'historical' accounts, myths, and even scientific treatises on the people of Winter, all adding to the believability and scope of this book.

However, I found that my interest flagged somewhat during the extended trek across the ice (though it should certainly prove of interest to anyone keen on exploration and the like), and I was also disappointed that while the Gethenians are supposed to be asexual neuters, they still come across largely as male.

Partly this is because Le Guin chooses to use the male pronoun for convenience, but also because the characters seem to be written in a masculine mode. Of course, that may simply be my reading, and it is arguable that this in itself raises various questions about gender.

It didn't fulfill my expectations on that score, but as a whole, The Left Hand of Darkness is clearly a novel by a major writer at the very height of her powers, exploring a very intriguing concept.

Book Review - Shapechangers

Roberson’s style is rather hackneyed, with the grammatical torture that can occur in fantasy when an author is trying too hard to make her characters sound authentic.

The dialogue is therefore awkward in parts, and the attempts at developing an archaic mode of speech can make the distinctions between the main cast blur.

Nevertheless, Roberson does manage to inject some deeper issues, as one major topic of the book is genocide, which is a point in her favour. Unfortunately, another is the very clichéd concept of a main protagonist held firm by a ‘mysterious’ prophecy, and Roberson allows herself to stumble into the ‘noble savage’ archetype.

In general a rather average read, though in Roberson's defence this was written early in her career - no doubt she improved in her later books.

Book Review - Heirs of Hammerfell

This volume has the slightly predictable premise of noble twins separated shortly after birth, who then rediscover each other years later and find themselves vying for the same inheritance. The lack of remorse for the dead is also unconvincing at times, though this is something common to much fantasy fiction, as the genre often demands great loss of life through epic battle without much time given over to length descriptions of grief (which admittedly could become painfully dull).

The book in general didn't grip me in quite the same way as the others I've read thus far, though there was an attempt at some socio-economic discussion, with historical resonance in England at least (probably elsewhere too, but being UK educated, I'm not too up on the economic history of other countries...:p).

There is also a small amount of gender issues, but unfortunately not to the same level as in a book like Two to Conquer. Nevertheless, Heirs of Hammerfell remains an enjoyable short piece of fantasy fiction, and sticks to a classic formula - not quite up to Bradley's highest standards, but MZB's not-quite-best is still better than many other writers of the genre.

Book Review - Two to Conquer

This book makes for uncomfortable reading at first, because the main character is an unrepentant rapist. Worse still, he has the ability to force women to yield their bodies to him while mentally aware of the act, leading to extremely unpleasant descriptions of the helpless victim weeping in fear and shame but unable to resist due to the laran compulsion ('laran' is basically MZB's version of ESP). Fortunately, the rapist does pay for his many and horrible crimes, but I won't spoil it for you by saying how. :)

The plot necessarily involves several aggressive sexual encounters, which are made slightly more palatable by the fact it is a female author writing - but only slightly. It was somewhat disturbing reading them, but this was at least partially mitigated by the rapist's punishment.

The plot is engaging, with a Terran teleporting over into the story, which does add yet another layer to the usual high suspension of disbelief required in fantasy, but Bradley handles the plot device well, and it doesn't take up too much of the book - the writing is mainly concerned with the central character, Bard, and his development as a military leader.

So far, I'd say this was probably the most interesting of the four Darkover books I've read up to this point, so would recommend it with the warning that rape is a central part of the novel.

Book Review - Hawkmistress

My mother has owned Marion Zimmer Bradley books for decades, and I previously read The Mists of Avalon during my English Lit undergraduate course in Arthurian Lit (I was thrilled to see a fantasy novel on the reading list!), but only got round to finally making my way through the Darkover series in 2005. I got through a fair few, but my PhD started that same year, which rather slowed the process down.

Still, I hope to get back to them at some point, because thus far, I've enjoyed the inventive plots and occasional feminist statements that I remember from The Mists of Avalon - both are present in Hawkmistress. The Sisterhood of the Sword provided a strong female presence, but unfortunately this was weakened by Bradley casting many of its members as somewhat petty and close-minded, rather than focusing on the female potency they could embody.

Romilly herself (the central protagonist) is a likeable female character in some respects, such as her strength of character, but she does occasionally become irritating in her responses to others - for example, the classbound arrogance of the early part of the novel.

All in all, after a slow start, I found this to be an entertaining read, and I look forward to moving on through the whole series at some point (my PhD reading has finally calmed down a little).

If you hope to follow the chronology of Darkover (though Bradley herself doesn’t recommend it), you might want to check out some of the more recent additions to the Darkover universe, as many of them – such as The Clingfire Trilogy – which takes place during the same period as Hawkmistress and shortly thereafter.

Book Review - Stormqueen!

To go from Darkover Landfall to Stormqueen! is a bit of a jump-cut, missing out a great deal of history – then again, I haven’t read the short story collections of either MZB or those she edited to fill in gaps, so perhaps this occurs later on.

Still, that’s only a niggle if you’re overly bothered about chronology – MZB certainly isn’t, as she repeatedly proves in her published comments on Darkover. I would definitely recommend the story of Stormqueen! itself, as it provides plenty of action, and a suitably intriguing plot, with sibling rivalry, enforced personal codes of celibacy, warfare and tragedy.

The main focus of the book is what MZB calls ‘laran’, which is basically psychic abilities, though the author has developed a whole mythology around it which makes laran much more than just ESP. This isn’t a happy story, and is all the better for it – the central character herself spends the entire book suffering to a greater and greater degree.

So, if you want a feel-good ending, look elsewhere, but if you want a decent read, you could do much worse than Stormqueen! And no, I don’t know why MZB insisted on sticking an exclamation mark at the end of her title either. ;)

Book Review - Darkover Landfall

Though written a decade after Marion Zimmer Bradley’s first Darkover novel, Darkover Landfall is – as the title suggests – the earliest in the chronology. This book lays out the basis for what is to come, and like Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series, it too mixes sci-fi with fantasy as a crashed space ship spawns a culture which does not remember them.

Names crop up that you’ll see again later in Darkover, such as MacAran, and the different factions within the crew somewhat obviously sow the seeds for later Darkovan traits, most notably the strong Celtic – or even more specifically, Scottish – influence. There are a few predictable bits of romance, but also unexpected (as long as you resist reading the blurb on the back or above this review! ;)) twists, which was the main source of my enjoyment from this book.

There isn’t much in the way of feminism, a lack which is always a shame in a MZB book, but the plot doesn’t suffer as much as some other books given that light-weight approach. Though MZB says not to read the book in order, at least in the case of this volume, I would recommend new readers pick it up first - its very short, but still a fine piece of hybrid sci-fi/fantasy.