Customer Reviews

The Fall of Neskaya: The Clingfire Trilogy, Volume I (Darkover)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I read a Darkover book, I want to forget I'm reading and just GO there. I have been reading in this series for over 20 years, and I, like all her fans, was sure that with Bradley's death, we'd be left without any more visits to the planet of the bloody sun.

Although I enjoyed the story line of the Margaret Alton books, I hated them with a passion. They were too long, rambling, and committed the ultimate sin: They TOLD you instead of SHOWED you. I know that Bradley often commented on this problem in the stories sent to her for her Darkover anthologies, and it grates on my nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard.

So I had some trepidation about this book, even though its co-author was different from the other trilogy. I read it and loved it, but my expectations were low at the time. Now I have re-read it, and I saw even more in the book this time than I did the first. And I "went to Darkover" just the way I wanted to, something I was never able to do with the Exile's Song trilogy.

I was stunned to see one negative review here, comparing this book UNFAVORABLY to those. I'm an editor and I positively itched to take a red pencil to the Margaret Alton books... one more redundant "psychic dialogue" between characters and I would have screamed. I'm sure as some have pointed out there were inconsistencies in The Fall of Neskaya from other Darkover books... hell, Bradley made a few of those herself. <G> But it was a great read, with great characters, and anyone who wants a return trip to Darkover will not be at all disappointed.

When MZB died a couple of years ago, I truly expected that there would be no more Darkover novels and that her literary estate would have sense enough not to farm her creations out to lesser writers. Gladly, that is not the case. Ms. Ross is an absolutely excellent heir to the entire Darkover milieu. While she superbly echoes Bradley in much of the content and even style, she aptly adds to the mythos in important details and concepts. Her extrapolatory gifts appear great. The book is truly a page-turning delight with memorable characters, as heart-achingly real as MZB's own. I greatly anticipate much more from DJR, especially the promised final two volumes of this Clingfire Trilogy.

The Terran colony of Darkover sunk into a feudal state because of a lack of communication between the planet and earth. It is a world where several kingdoms vie for prominence and war is a way of life. The most destructive weapons are created from laran, a form of psychic energy, which can be used at great distances to harm an enemy.

One of the greatest tyrants of the time is Damian Deslucido, who is absorbing small kingdoms in his goal to rule the world. However, his success in absorbing Acorta may prove to be the seeds of his own destruction because the despot planned for his son to marry Acorta's Queen Taniel Hastur-Acorta, but she escapes. On the road she meets Coryn, a near master Laranzu, who helps her regain her health and spirit. They quickly learn the meaning of love, but fate separates them to fight Damian on different fronts with littler hope of victory or getting back together.

Fans of Darkover will know that this novel occurs during the Hundred Kingdom era before the compact by Varzil the Good was instituted. The beloved Marian Zimmer Bradley and her cohort Deborah J. Ross make it clear how they feel about a civilized society containing weapons of mass destruction. THE FALL OF NEKAYA is the opening installment of a new trilogy that lives up to the greatness label of the entire series. The interesting and complex characters will either receive reader empathy or the audience's antipathy depending on who they are. This exciting novel will light up the fantasy universe.

Harriet Klausner

For lovers of Marion Zimmer Bradley and Darkover, this book is pure delight. Written by Marion and her friend, Deborah Ross, this book proves that both Marion and Darkover will live on. I have enjoyed Ms. Ross short stories in Marion's Sword & Sorceress anthologies and will be interested to see where she takes the next chapter of this story.

I was delighted to return to Darkover, but I have some reservations about its new chronicler. There's no way Ross can satisfactorily imitate Bradley, so all Darkover fans have to accept that there has been a change. Perhaps some constructive criticism can be offered to help with the awesome challenge Ross faces as Bradley's successor. For example, more care with diction would be a good thing. I believe that Bradley was careful not to use words or expressions inconsistent with Darkover's own history. "Neskaya" has quite a few that I think Bradley would have avoided as too redolent of Earth: topiary, "trust a fox to guard a coop of chickens" (are there foxes on Darkover now?), flat-fell seams, war-room, various herbs from earth in food for the first time, and dragons (there weren't any before). Finally, I think this book is too long by about 20% and that Ross flirts with sentimentality in both plotting and writing. Bradley was pretty tough-minded, and Darkover is a tough place. In spite of these reservations, I enjoyed the book and look forward to the next from Ross, even while I ask if this is really going to sustain a trilogy.

When the next ship leaves for Darkover, I plan to be on it. I'm so glad Ms. Ross has taken over for whoever was ghost-writing the last few books! Great story, interesting characters. We're back to the true flavor of the series. For those new to Darkover: Hawkmistress!, Two to Conquer, and Stormqueen! are all wonderful stories from the Ages of Chaos, and can help pass the time till the next volume of the Clingfire Trilogy appears! And BTW, there were certainly horses on Darkover since before Terran re-contact.

MZB has often hinted at the *laren* atrocities of the Ages of Chaos, but other than *clingfire*, has often not explained them. Here, the two ladies give a better glimpse of the horrors that led to the creation of the Compact. And why Darkover's people view the Terrans as such wimps - they've been down our path already, and know where it goes.

I look forward to seeing the next 2 books, especially if Ross ended up writing them on her own, w/ only notes from MZB (RIP). Hopefully, Ross is a worthy inheritor to MZB's beautiful tapestry of a world & culture.

The latest Marion Zimmer Bradley, although Posthumously, has continued to give me more of Darkover, which I would like to see continued. Although, we tragically lost MZB in 1999, I am still thrilled at the prospect of her legacy living on through her collaborations. This is a wonderful story of good deeds and suspense, of the evils of greed and lust for power, of the great saying that the road to hell is led by good intentions and of a story well written and of purpose. I only hope that we will get to see and read the next two parts of this trilogy in the next few years. I recommend this story to any MZB fan and for those who would like to fill in some of the pieces to the Darkover saga in a time of strife and chaos that leads to the years known as the "Hastur Rebellion." I also want to know more about the development of King Carolin and his relationship with Varzil the Good - a sorceror known well into the modern day Darkover fold.

I have enjoyed Marion's Darkover series for many years, and this book is a good addition to the set. Set during the Hundred Kingdom period, before the Compact of Varzil the Good, this nicely fills in some of the details about this heretofore only briefly sketched period. Here the Towers are under compulsion to produce laran weapons for the comyn Lords they are allied with, from clingfire to bone-dust, weapons of such great destructive potential they frighten all sane persons. Strong parallels are drawn between these weapons and our own nuclear arsenal, and the policy of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) gets some critical looks.

The story line itself is centered around four individuals: Coryn, a Keeper in Training, Taniel, Queen of one of the smaller holdings, Damian, a comyn lord with visions of uniting all of Darkover under his rule, and Rumiel, Damian's brother, a trained laranzu who is obsessed with being able to control his own tower circle. Coryn and Taniel are very well drawn, believable, and emotionally engaging. Damian and Rumiel are less so, with little real depth and apparently live just to be convenient enemies.

Though the general feeling of this book is highly reminiscent of Bradley's methods and style, there are places where Ross' own style shows, most obviously in her descriptive work, especially when describing things like halls and meals, as she has a tendency to paint these items in much greater detail than Bradley. This is not necessarily a negative, as it can provide a better 'picture' of the world of Darkover, but long-time Bradley readers may be a little surprised. But disappointing to me was the actual Hundred Kingdom world that is portrayed. From many of the other works in this series, I had the distinct impression that this period had a much higher technological level than what is shown. Indeed, the society here is still feudal, mainly middle age technology, with the only obvious difference being the willingness to use some of the most dangerous products of laran gifts, and only a short glimpse into the world of actually building and using high level matrixes.

Although this work approaches an important theme with high resonance to our world of today, in the end I was left with the feeling that this was a very good adventure story in the classic mode of other Darkover books, but has little more to offer. Still, an enjoyable read, and there are still a couple more books to come in this cycle.

For most of her career, Marion Zimmer Bradley focused on the often strained relationships between the people of the lost colony of Darkover, with their mysterious psychic powers called laran, and their cousins of Terra who unexpectedly rediscovered them after several thousand years. But toward the end of her life, having chronicled the Terran-Darkovan relationship from rediscovery through the departure (Traitor's Sun (Darkover)) of the Federation 100-odd years later, she turned to chronicling the Ages of Chaos and the era of the Hundred Kingdoms. As her health failed, she recruited Deborah J. Ross, who had begun by writing Darkover stories for her anthologies, to help her. This book is the first volume of the Clingfire Trilogy (intended to chronicle "the Hastur Rebellion and the fall of Neskaya, the enduring friendship between Varzil the Good and Carolin Hastur...the fire-bombing of Hali and the signing of the Compact") that resulted.

Darkover in Kingdoms times is very different from the world the Terrans will know, though still very traditional. The Free Amazons don't yet exist, though there is a Sisterhood of the Sword which will eventually prove one of their predecessors. Tower personnel use aircars, piloted by telepathy, to deliver substances ranging from fire-suppression chemicals to clingfire--akin to the Greek fire of ancient Earth, but worse, because it burns even stone--and sicknesses like lungrot spore (which can blind or kill) and bonewater dust (which is similar to cancer). Laran-charged "glows" light castle halls. Men serve as Keepers (indeed, women are thought incapable of the work). The Aldarans, even this early, are mistrusted: it's said they seek "human sacrifices" for their "evil rites" and used to brew weather-magic, and the "Aldaran assassin" is a byword. The Kingdoms themselves--each noble family heads one of its own, usually named after it--are continually torn by feud and war, and King Damian Deslucido of Ambervale and Linn dreams of "remaking the face of Darkover," making it "united and harmonious" and bringing a "golden era of peace"--by forcibly uniting the planet under his rulership. What he doesn't know is that his illegitimate brother and trusted advisor Rumail, a laranzu, has an agenda of his own--to unite the planet under its "true rulers," the bearers of laran.

Coryn Leynier is the youngest son of the king of Verdanta, one of the tiny mountain realms. When a forest fire threatens it, Rumail unexpectedly appears with offers of help from his Tower, Neskaya--and the suggestion that Coryn is gifted with laran and must be tested. From the first, Coryn mistrusts Rumail, to the point where, although he is very willing to go to a Tower and be trained, he's reluctant to make Neskaya his goal. Fortunately he is sent instead to Tramontana, where he meets Aran, who will be his sworn brother, and Liane Storn, who, though she comes from a family with whom his own has feuded for generations, becomes a close friend. What he doesn't realize is that in the process of "testing" him, Rumail has set a kind of psychic trap in his mind.

Then Damian, treacherously, through the help of Rumail's powers, captures the little mountain kingdom of Acosta and kills its king, Padrik. But Padrik's widow, Taniquel, isn't as easily subdued as he had hoped. Faced with a forced marriage to Damian's son Belisar, she flees into the wilderness, already aware that she's pregnant with Padrik's heir. On her way she meets Coryn, going to Neskaya to train as an under-Keeper now that Rumail has been exiled from it, and the two fall in love. Eventually they part, Tanaquil going on to the kingdom of Hastur, where her uncle Rafael II is King, and Coryn continuing to Neskaya. Not until he visits Hastur a couple of years later, hoping to secure a promise of neutrality for his Tower in the coming war with the Deslucidos, does Coryn realize just who he helped. Certain that he can never aspire to marriage with her, he still can't help reaffirming their bond--nor can she.

Damian and Belisar appeal to the Comyn Council, asking that Taniquel be returned to them to be duly wedded, but when she contrives to show that they are capable of lying under truthspell, the council rejects the petition. Now it's war--somewhat inaccurately called "the Hastur Rebellion, as if *we* were the ones who started all the trouble"--and both Tramontana and Neskaya are inevitably drawn into it. After Belisar's first attempt on Hastur is routed, Rumail contrives to take over Tramontana, hoping to use its telepaths to inflict madness and discord upon King Rafael's fighters and so turn the tide in his brother's favor. In desperation Taniquel sends herself into the astral plane and summons Coryn, who leads Neskaya in the effort to overcome the renegade--and succeeds, but when Rumail's long-dormant psychic command is triggered, he's trapped in the overworld at what may be the cost of his life. Only Taniquel's love has the prospect of saving him before his physical body wastes away.

I've often thought that the early history of Darkover presented at least as many opportunities for good stories as the culture-clash of Federation vs. natives, and this book proves how right I was. With treachery, political maneuvering, valiant battles of both physical armies and mental powers, and a love story that could fit just as easily into Terran history, it's complex but very satisfying and reads more quickly than you might expect for something of its length. Ross's style and voice are so similar to Bradley's that if her name didn't appear on the cover you might never guess that a second person had been instrumental in the book's creation. The pace builds steadily toward the climactic duel of the Hastur and Deslucido armies and the battle between the hijacked Tramontana Circle and the Neskaya defenders, and the characters are a well-drawn crew--Coryn, who doesn't realize just how important he is; Taniquel, grimly resolved to retake Acosta for her son, who learns "on the job" how to be a queen and what it entails; Rafael, who longs for peace but knows that sometimes you have to fight for it; Damian, who seems genuinely convinced that his plan will save the world, and Belisar, who supports him but turns out to be a weak reed for a king to lean on; sinister, ambitious Rumail; the various people of the Towers, the Leyniers, and even the servants and maids of honor, each seem to be individuals with their own personalities and motivations. This may be the best of the Darkover volumes to date.