11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Alas, Poor Darkover, February 5, 2000
Has anyone noticed that this novel --- and its predecessor, "Exile's Song" are copyrighted by MZB and Adrienne Martine-Barnes? These last Darkover books were apparently not written by Bradley, but by an author trained by her to write in her style. The voice sounds like Bradley, the prose is readable enough, but this work certainly lacks the concision and taut plotting that made "Heritage of Hastur" and "Sharra's Exile" (to name two) so entertaining.
Even if the rumors are untrue, and MZB did actually write parts of this book, it's seriously flawed, and bears all the marks of having been written by a "fan". The opening chapters are effective enough; but there follows a sequence of some 300 pages in which nothing happens. Not until the last few chapters does the plot actually resume, and not all of the action is consistent with what we know about Darkover.
In spite of all these criticisms, the writing had enough flavor to keep me reading until the end. My guess is that Bradley simply lost interest in the series --- Thendara House was the last really worthwhile Darkover book --- and this late entry provides only a small sample of what made this series so popular.
If you haven't read Darkover before, skip this one and proceed directly to "The Heritage of Hastur" or "The Shattered Chain."
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating heroine, May 21, 2005
Margaret Alton is the child of the powerfully psychically gifted Lew Alton, who has been the Senator for Darkover for several years. After a traumatic early childhood, little Margaret lived with her father and stepmother in exile, struggling to overcome her own oppressive Gift without expert Darkovan help, as well as trying to endure what she cannot help sensing of her father, battling his own demons.
This book takes up the story of Margaret, who in Exile's Song returned to the planet of her birth as an ethnomusicologist, accompanied by her beloved professor Ivor Davidson, to collect folk song from the rural places still largely untouched by the Empire.
As this book begins, we find Margaret undergoing the compulsory training in a tower, while Mikhail investigates a suspicious situation in the Elhalyn household, which appears to be haunted, and dominated by a strange woman of unknown origins. Mikhail's handling of the troubled Elhalyn children is touchingly presented, as is his relationship to his sister Liriel.
After much political maneuvering (an annoying but necessary part of these Hastur-era stories) there is the expected midwinter crisis, this one larger than most.
As a bonus, we meet again characters we know well: Jeff Kerwin, Javanne Hastur, Lew Alton, Diotima Ridenow, Mrs Davidson (Ivor's wife), Rafaella the Renunciate, Michael Lanart-Hastur, Danilo Syrtis, and Uncle Rafe, and others. And, as always, the children are delightfully portrayed. Finally, there is travel through time to visit with Varzil the Good, towards the close of the ages of chaos, to learn what happened to the legendary ring in which he preserved the soul of his beloved, Felicia Hastur.
Margaret Alton is a very sympathetic character, especially to those who might relate to music. Her own development is only part of a larger set of events that culminate in the story related in Traitor's Sun. This book is indeed the middle section of a trilogy within the Darkover saga consisting of Exile's Song, Shadow Matrix, and Traitor's Sun, all worth reading.
Archimedes
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A call for editing, July 16, 1999
By A Customer
Like its predecessor, Exile's Song, The Shadow Matrix is a decent story that is severely undermined by misspellings and horrible grammar. Plus, you know it's bad when even the author can't keep track of all of the character names (Mikhail's brothers are twice called "Lanart-Alton," and shouldn't "Lanart" be after "Hastur" anyway?). Did anyone actually edit this book, or did it go straight from MZB (& friends) to the printing press? These problems were very distracting and kept the book from being otherwise enjoyable.
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