Showing posts with label darkover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label darkover. Show all posts

The Spell Sword (The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series) Review

The Spell Sword (The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy The Spell Sword (The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Spell Sword (The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Spell Sword (The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series) Review"The Spell Sword" is another Darkover novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley. This one is set sometime after the Terran Empire rediscovered Darkover. Now there are both the Darkovan natives, as well as men from Terra living on Darkover. This novel begins in a way that we have seen several times before: with a crash of a Terran vehicle on Darkover. This time it is from a team based at the Terran outpost at Thendara. Andrew Carr is a member of the Mapping and Explorations team that is slowly gathering information about Darkover. In a winter storm, the plane crashed and it was only through what Andrew thought was a hallucination that he was able to survive for very long in the storm. Andrew had visions of a woman named Callista guiding him away from the plane and to safety, but he had difficulty believing that these visions might be true. Eventually, Carr does come to accept that the vision is more than a hallucination, but someone communicating with him.
Damon Ridenow has been called to help find Callista, who has gone missing without a trace. Before Damon arrives at Callista's home he has to travel through someplace called "the darkened land" where the land is in shadows, uninhabitable and attacks can come from invisible assailants. Not a place you would want to spend much time. After passing through "the darkened land", Damon learns more about Callista's abduction and also meets Andrew Carr who was led there somehow by the vision of Callista. When Andrew and Damon discuss what has happened, they see the connection and that the only way to save Callista is by working together. Damon is surprised to discover that Andrew, a Terran, also has the potential to be a telepath, which Damon believed was a skill native to Darkover.
Throughout the Darkover series we hear that there are non-human races on the planet: the chieri and the cat-people. While we see the chieri once or twice, we have never seen the cat-people before and this was an area that I was interested in. For the most part, they are not developed as a race or as characters, except that we now know that some can be telepaths like humans (and chieri). We also know that they are mainly enemies of humans (though they have worked with the less reputable humans from the Dry Towns), though Damon does allow that their motives and culture are so far removed from human that it would be difficult to truly comprehend it.
This is a short novel, coming in less than 200 pages, but I found it to be fairly entertaining and I suspect that it sets the stage for the much longer "The Forbidden Tower" which features many of the same characters. "The Spell Sword" serves as introduction to Andrew Carr, Damon Ridenow, and Callista. It is fairly good for a fantasy novel, though it does not feature the depth of some. This is a straight forward story with some action.The Spell Sword (The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series) Overview

Want to learn more information about The Spell Sword (The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

The Forbidden Circle: The Spell Sword / The Forbidden Tower Review

The Forbidden Circle: The Spell Sword / The Forbidden Tower
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy The Forbidden Circle: The Spell Sword / The Forbidden Tower? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Forbidden Circle: The Spell Sword / The Forbidden Tower. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Forbidden Circle: The Spell Sword / The Forbidden Tower ReviewPutting together -The Spell Sword- and -The Forbidden Tower- was a great idea, & this edition fills the bill. This classic entry in the saga of Darkover -- a lost [in time as well as space] colony of Humans who interbred with the alien cheryi, evolved into a feudal society with the addition of "magic" as laran psi-powers, then were rediscovered by humans from Earth [Terrans] -- is an especially good 'textbook' for people learning to use their own inner strengths.
Watching the almost-typical fairytale romance of Keeper Callista Lanart and Terran spacer Andrew Carr bloom into something else is magical in the best sense of the word. Damon Ridenow -- outcast from his beloved Arilinn Tower because he's actually more than just a Matrix technician -- and his love Ellemir [sister to Callista] are not just pretty people filling a need for extra faces in -The Spell Sword-. The four craft a friendship that becomes more than just friendship ... and will have a crucial effect on Darkovan history.
The action really kicks in as the tale progresses in -The Forbidden Tower-. Callista discovers -- painfully -- that the heritage she thought she had left behind as virginal Keeper of Arilinn Tower is almost more than she can bear to shatter [the fact that it nearly kills Andrew isn't just peripheral, either]. Ellimir discovers that she actually is gifted with the power of laran, and Damon takes centre stage as he discovers that he is a Keeper himself ... Keeper of what leronis Leonie Hastur scornfully calls "the Forbidden Tower". As the four individuals become more than just two married couples, they uncover vital knowledge lost in the millenia known as the Ages of Chaos.
The tragic denoument is kept away, which perhaps is just as well. If you truly want to be depressed, pick up -The Bloody Sun- to learn the fates of the four and their children. Although not quite as tragic as the hinted ending of another group of similar people, hinted at in -Sharra's Exile-, it can be a true 'downer' after the triumphant ending of -The Forbidden Tower-.
At least the knowledge is kept, however. It seems that no one can truly vanquish Varzil the Good! Although even *that* might be up for re-examination with -The Fall of Neskaya-...The Forbidden Circle: The Spell Sword / The Forbidden Tower Overview

Want to learn more information about The Forbidden Circle: The Spell Sword / The Forbidden Tower?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...