The Planet Savers & The Sword of Aldones [Paperback]

Marion Zimmer Bradley (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ace (August 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441670261
• ISBN-13: 978-0441670260
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,781,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Two books, a short story, and a "retrospective"., January 9, 2001

By 

Christopher Ware (Fremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Planet Savers & The Sword of Aldones (Paperback)

Let me start by saying that these are the first Darkover books I've ever read. Since they were the first ones published, it seems kind of appropriate. The two "novels" (they are short enough to be novellas) are THE PLANET SAVERS and THE SWORD OF ALDONES. Sandwiched in between those two is a short story called THE WATERFALL. Finally, we get an article written by Ms. Bradley regarding her feelings about the Darkover phenomenon.

Let's start with THE PLANET SAVERS. My first impression is that it was way too short. It was only 97 pages. Just as the characters started to get interesting, the story was over. There was no room for any character development aside from the main character and, so, the relationships he had with the others weren't very convincing. Not only this, but the action was too quick. It just seemed to happen so easily. I would have loved to see a lot more detail regarding their trek. It just seemed all to easy for them to succeed. Where was the adversity?

Next came THE WATERFALL. I have no idea what this story was about. The narration was terrible, the inner thoughts of the main character were nearly incomprehensible, and I had no understanding for her motivations. This is a terrible example of short story writing. I understand what happened in the story, but I don't understand why.

Then there was THE SWORD OF ALDONES. This was much longer than the first story in the book. Probably around 180 pages or so. While the story was very interesting, there were too many references to politics and history of both the world and the characters that weren't explained. I was getting a headache trying to follow all the people that were being talked about, but weren't even in the story. There relationships between all the characters were so convoluted and full of unexplained history that it was difficult to keep any of them straight. I'm sure the author had them all straight in her head as she was writing the story, but she did a terrible job of communicating them to the reader. Plus, I got the feeling that this was a pivotal story in the history of Darkover, but I just couldn't get a grip on why.

Finally, there is the DARKOVER RETROSPECTIVE by Ms. Bradley. This was, as near as I can tell, published in 1980 and so is a bit out of date. In it, she discusses the history behind the development of the Darkover saga and how it came to be. It's an interesting read for anyone who's read a lot of the books, but a lot of the significance was lost on me since I'd only read these two.

Anyway, if you're a fan of Darkover, this is probably a must have. If you're just starting out, you might want to try THE BLOODY SUN instead.