Customer Reviews

Hastur Lord: A Novel of Darkover

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I loved this book! Written from a manuscript that Ms. Bradley started before her death, Ms. Ross has picked up the mantle of Bard of Darkover with such grace and skill that I've only noticed a few nuances different from Darkover's creator, Marian Zimmer Bradley. I have enjoyed all the Darkover books Ms. Ross has co-authored (in reality authored alone), so I expected a great read. This was a fabulous read!

This story is not only about the continued threat of the Terrans to take over a world they consider inferior; it is a love story.

Regis, new Regent of Darkover at the death of his grandfather, is caught between his love for his beloved Danilo, love for former lover and the mother of his children, Linnea, and his love of his world. Regis would be perfectly happy spending the rest of his life lived quietly with his sworn paxman, Danilo, but duty calls. When he discovers an older half-brother living in a monistary, he sees a means to an end. Dispite misgivings, he abdicates the throne to his brother. Then the nightmare begins.

This is Regis' story, taken up years after the infamous Sharra Rebellion. This is a story of political power and the uses of it both subtle and draconian. This is the making of Darkover's most beloved Regent.

I have been waiting for quite some time for this book to be published. Any fan of Marion Bradley's world of Darkover will have known that it was expected any time, and the book certainly does not disappoint. Congratulations to Deborah Ross for reworking Marion's notes and manuscript in such a way that this intriguing world comes back to life once more, and - very important - in the way I believe Marion herself would have intended it to be. And the best part is that the book really adds something to what already exists. We finally get to understand how Regis turns from the somewhat insecure and naive (yes, he still was that at the end of Sharra's exile even though it was mostly by his intervention that the Sharra matrix was destroyed, and he was the one able to help Danilo who was even less certain of himself at the time)to the wily and sharp leader we encounter in Exile's Song and The Shadow Matrix. Excellent! Furthermore, it is highly interesting to find out how the threesome relationship between Regis, Danilo and Linnea comes about. After all, so far we only had a small glimpse of this in "World Wreckers" which only took Linnea into account, we knew about the way Regis and Danilo felt about each other from The Heritage of Hastur and Sharra's exile, and finally we see this relationship an established fact in Exile's song (again). For the fans it is also useful to know why Lew Alton had become such a morose character during his stay in the Senate, while he left Darkover with such optimism - being newly restored to his wife and daughter. Using the Alton Gift is never a recipe for becoming friendly and well-natured.

And then the plot itself...and I will not spoil it all, there must of course remain something to read for any new buyer of this book! Suffice it to say that, as has been stated often enough in a number of Marion's books: be careful what you ask for, you might just get it! And finding a brother out of the blue, may not be as welcome as you think. Also interesting are some new facets of the Christoforo brothers and their religion, and admittedly the approach does call to mind the way Christianity originally spread, once certain important people embraced it. Absolutely wonderful. So, here we have a book with an interesting plotline, great characterisation of the main participants, and an intriguing twist to the history of Darkover.

There is only one "but", and that is that both the personages of Rinaldo and Tiphany in my view were not well enough fleshed out. Of course, we read about what Rinaldo does, we see his actions, and his oral explanation for them. But, we never get to really understand him. We are not invited into his head (so to speak). This could have been intentional, as Regis also concludes this at the end of the book but I would have liked to know more about this. And Tiphany really is a caricature of a person, and it sure would have been interesting to know a bit more about this woman than that she was a religious fanatic and quite mad. Whatever made the nice Dan Lawson marry the woman? There must have been something! However, on the whole it was a great re-introduction to Darkover, one I'll probably return to once in a while. Good job, and I am looking forward to the next (there is still another one "in the wings").

I first read Heritage of Hastur when I was 12 years old and it completely rocked my world. I remember just bawling by the end of that book, and I hold it dear to my heart.
This book continues the story of Regis and Danilo that began in that book, and that is why I have given it three stars - anything that picks up and extends that story has some intrinsic value. Unfortunately, in all other respects, the book is extremely disappointing. The character development is almost completely missing. We don't gain any insight into any of the (numerous) major characters over the many pages of the story. Regis Hastur is the backbone of all of the "modern" Darkover stories, and yet here you get almost no sense of him. Like so many other characters (including Rinaldo, Valdir Ridenow and Danilo), it is impossible to get a fix on him because we have so little interior development. Half the time each of these characters seems completely lame, and then the other half of the time they seem quite strong, but there is no real character development. The fights and rivalries that we see seem largely based on the assumption that these people are basically morons - does Dani really believe that Regis just abandons him to Rinaldo? Really? It seems rather incredible, given the history, but if we are going to believe it, we need some explanation about what would be behind such a belief. Similarly, Regis highly values Danilo's advice as his paxman. Why is he so unwilling to trust Danilo's distrust? Very little of it makes sense in terms of motivations or in terms of character arc.
The writing itself is not very graceful. And there is just too much packed into this one story, much of which is not satisfactorily resolved. The story obviously tries to mine various current-day issues - religious strife, disputes about sexual orientation, the role of women, etc. - but it takes too many ideas and does too little with any of them.
The book also needed a real editor. It uses the same "old sayings" over and over - I think each and every chapter must have reused the saying about not being able to put a banshee chick back into its egg; every chapter talked about how few Comyn are still around; etc. (And the Kindle edition, which is what I read, is horrendous - probably every paragraph had a word that had spacing problems. No one ever proofed it - if they did, they should be fired.)
All in all, a very disappointing book.

Ardent Darkover fans have been waiting for this story for a long time. There has been an event gap between Marion Zimmer Bradley's earlier stories about Regis Hastur (The Heritage of Hastur, Sharra's Exile, The Planet Savers, and The World Wreckers), in which he was the heir to Hastur, and her later stories about the return of the Altons to Darkover (Exile's Song and sequels), in which Regis is Hastur of Hastur. We've often wondered what happened to Darkover and to Regis and company in the meantime. Hastur Lord bridges this gap in a wonderful way.

The story is heart-warming and emotionally engaging as it explores issues of love, desire, religion, ethics, charisma, diplomacy, responsibility, and danger, all woven together into a dance that could only occur in that marvelous place in our minds called Darkover.

Many thanks to Deborah J. Ross and Marion Zimmer Bradley for a novel that may very well rank as one of Darkover's finest.

I was in my teens when I read my first Darkover novel. I was in the science fiction section of the library when I noticed a set of books in plain green bindings. There was no cover art and no description of the contents, but for some reason I decided to take a chance on one. The book was "The Spell Sword" and although it's not a particularly outstanding title in the Darkover series, I was hooked. I was fascinated by this world Marion Zimmer Bradley had created and I simply could not get enough of it. I was especially excited when I heard about the new Darkover novel, "Hastur Lord," which focuses on one of my favorite characters, Regis Hastur.

Regis is in his mid-thirties in this novel, and even though that might seem a little old for a coming of age novel, in a lot of ways that's what this is. Regis has struggled his whole life with the demands being a Hastur has placed on him. Although he has committed his life to serving Darkover, he has resisted his grandfather's urgings to accept the crown and become king. He has also refused to be forced into a loveless marriage and to give up his beloved paxman and companion, Danilo. In "Hastur Lord," Regis comes to terms with who he is and the role he must play in Darkovan society. He also must find a way to reconcile his love for Danilo with his growing, and eventually equally strong love for Linnea, who has already born him a child.

The first part of "Hastur Lord" is heavy on the domestic drama with a lot of emphasis on the Danilo/Regis/Linnea triangle. Danilo comes off as petulant, Regis is rather bumbling, and Linnea's reactions seem to be all over the place. Frankly, I got a little tired of it. The book is a bit slow moving as well; it could have used a bit more action. The biggest weakness, though, comes in the character of Tiphani. I felt she was very poorly drawn. The reader is never really given any insight into her character. It's like she was there just to set events into motion rather than being a person the reader can feel to be real. Rinaldo was portrayed as a much more complex, nuanced character, but I'm not sure he was totally believable either. Perhaps the authors were so caught up in their themes of religious and sexual tolerance that it got in the way of creating credible characters.

Despite these flaws, "Hastur Lord" is redeemed by its satisfying resolution. It may take awhile for Regis to begin behaving in a decisive manner, but once he did I was with him all the way. I'm glad MZB left this manuscript and that Deborah J. Ross completed it. Darkover is still a place I love to visit and I'm grateful to have had at least one more chance to do so.

I have been very critical of many of the new additions to the MZB franchises (that sounds awful makes her and pieces of art she created sound like a KFC). I know I will not read anymore of the Avalon series. I always say never when I actually mean it will probably be a long time before I consider doing so again. Anyway from the first few paragraphs of the Hastur Lord I was hooked. Ross has managed to capture some of Marion's magic. And that magic imbued this story in ways that many of the other attempts of either finishing outlined manuscripts or breaking out with newer rehashed stories have lacked. I found myself delighting in the long term love and friendship of Regis and Danilo, the dialogue was fresh and brisk without being stilted. The characters of Rinaldo, Bettany, and Tiphani were tragic and sad. But then many of the stories of Darkover have been filled with death and sadness. It was and still is a very harsh world to live on.
I will always of course wish that someday soon there would be another story involving Magdalen Lorne, or Camilla or Jaelle n'ha Melora. Though this may never happen I believe that Ross has filled at least this storyline with an energy and zest that was seriously lacking in some previous attempts. Good luck and keep them coming!

For the first time I have to rate a "Darkover" novel below a 5-star. I found the story plodding and missing the character of Hastur as created by Bradley. The story is entirely predictable, the characters flat.

This is the story of Lord Regis Hastur, who is the premier Lord of the planet Darkover. Just before his grandfather dies, he tells Regis that he has a brother Ramon. This brother lives in a monastery and has lived there all of his life. Regis must decide whether to leave him in the monastery and not change anything and take his grandfather's position when his grandfather dies or to bring him out of the monastery and decide what position his brother should hold in the running of the world Darkover. Regis decides to bring his brother to his home in the city of Thendara. There are many adventures well it introducing him to the city and to the world that he is never been a part of.Ramon takes an instant dislike to Dani, Regis' Paxman and closest friend (and lover). Because Ramon is a Christofro,space he has very strong feelings against homosexuality. He also dislikes many of the things that he sees as problems in the city and wants to change the mall immediately. He forges a common bond with the wife of the Terran Leget. Her husband is a close friend of Regis and they try to keep the two of them apart and slow them down to a reasonable pace. The leader of another Domain tries to influence Ramon into taking Regis's place by kidnapping Dani and Regis's heir. Regis must find a way to save them, keep the Terrans in check, and stop rioting in the city. During this time he is also found his true love again, loses her, and tries to re-find her again and save his daughter from attempts on her life.
This is a fantastic book a real tribute to Marion Zimmer Bradley. Deborah Ross has done a wonderful job in carrying on the Darkover tradition of Marion Zimmer Bradley. There are so many adventures, plots, by plots, subplots, evildoers, and wondrous adventures that it is surprising that it all fits in one book.I was glad to see the Cheri back in this book. They are a wondrous people and need to be kept alive in people's minds and imaginations. I recommend this book to anyone who loves Darkover and to anyone who wants to start reading the series. This is as good a place as any to get started. I hope that Deborah Ross keeps writing more in the style and keeps the series alive. I'm sure she will if enough of us encourage her to. I hope you enjoy this book is much as I did.

I have been a fan of the Darkover stories for some time. This was one book that I couldn't put down once I started reading it. I liked the way it explained some of the history of the characters and their relationships in other books that occur later in the timeline. thanks!

This was a very disappointing book.
The plot dragged.
The characters nearly all were unbelievable.
And worse, they didn't (to me, at least)
even keep continuity with the rest of the series.
I love Darkover books, and wish I'd skipped this one.