The Door Through Space [Paperback]

Marion Zimmer. Bradley (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: New York: Ace Books, Inc.,; First Edition edition (1961)
• ASIN: B001QMEK8Y
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,917,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marion Eleanor Zimmer was born in Albany, NY, on June 3, 1930, and married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949. Mrs. Bradley received her B.A. in 1964 from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, then did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-67.
She was a science fiction/fantasy fan from her middle teens. She had written as long as she could remember, but wrote only for school magazines and fanzines until 1952, when she sold her first professional short story to VORTEX SCIENCE FICTION. She wrote everything from science fiction to Gothics, but is probably best known for her Darkover novels and for her Arthurian novel, THE MISTS OF AVALON.
In addition to her novels, Mrs. Bradley edited magazines, amateur and professional, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine, which she started in 1988. She also edited an annual anthology called SWORD AND SORCERESS, which is still published annually under the title MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY'S SWORD AND SORCERESS.
She died in Berkeley, California on September 25, 1999, four days after suffering a major heart attack.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Darkover's first draft, April 4, 2007

By 

Joe Sherry (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Door Through Space (Paperback)

It is interesting just how much of The Door Through Space Bradley cribbed for her Darkover series: The Terran Empire colonizing the universe, a world bound by compact rather than charter to the Terrans, culture clash, Dry Towns, The Ghost Wind, a hint of ESP, chains binding women, the red sun, catmen, and the exclamation of the word "Sharra". These are both superficial as well as deeply thematic similarities to Darkover. In truth, if The Door Through Space was only given minor edits, it could pass as a Darkover novel. This was Bradley's first published novel and Darkover was obviously a work in progress throughout her entire career, but it is interesting to note how much of this novel she used to create an entire series of novels completely unrelated to this one. The world of Wolf could easily be Cottman IV. Had the word "matrix" shown up anywhere in TDTS I would have cried foul.

Race Cargill is a Terran intelligence agent who has been stuck behind a desk because of a bitter dispute with another agent who has "gone native". When Cargill's sister comes to Race because her husband, the former friend and agent who maimed Cargill, has apparently threatened her and her daughter, Cargill goes back into the field instead of leaving the planet for good. Adventure ensues.

Honestly, the book isn't that good. It is a pulpy science fiction and fantasy blend that works less well than any of her later, more developed Darkover novels. Add to the fact that having read the majority of Darkover, The Door Through Space comes off as a cheap copy, no matter that this book came first. It is a weaker Darkover novel without any of the trappings that make Darkover compelling. It is as if Bradley were trying out the ideas which would later mark her as a top talent in the 1970's and 1980's. The novel is short enough, which is good, because 300 pages of this would be rough going. The novel is not all bad and there are positives in her description of the customs and traditions of the cultures she introduces. Her handling of character, however, is less skillful.

Overall, no need to read this. Science fiction has been done far better, and Bradley herself would later re-write this novel into the vastly superior Darkover series.

-Joe Sherry

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A treasure for MZB fans, February 17, 2009

By 

Lolalu - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Door Through Space (Kindle Edition)

C'mon, folks!! OK, this is pulp science fiction and it's not as good as the 50 novels that will follow it, but Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote this in 1961 and it's her first published book. It's fascinating to see so many ideas making their way onto paper for the first time.

Another reviewer, Joe Sherry, does a good job of summarizing the plot so let's not recap that. This novel owes a lot to C.L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Andre Norton, and yes, Robert E. Howard, the only male in that group of four. It's predictable--don't read it to be surprised by the plot because it's by the numbers. Characters are flatter than crepes even though they have exotic scarring from blood feuds. Back alleys, spaceports and drug dens could have come from a box of Writers' Helper.

No, read it to walk under a red sun for the first time alongside MZB. Listen to the clank of Drytowner women's marriage chains. Marvel at how well most tech references held up (except for maybe vacuum tubes as a sought-after trade item.) Scarcely a page goes by without seeing the very first shoot of something that will grow into a lush and consistent world myth.

Elizabeth Waters' introduction alone is worth the price of the book for its glimpse into Bradley's early years as an abused child and later her work in a circus as a knife-thrower's assistant/target. "Oh, that explains rather a lot," I thought. Despite having had a "Visit Scenic Darkover" bumper sticker years ago, I'm not a devotee, just someone who's read most of her books and enjoyed them. "The Door Through Space" provides history, context, and the chance to see a major author at the start of her long, rewarding career. It will be a treasure for the real MZB fans.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An Awful Book by and Excellent Author, March 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Door Through Space (Paperback)

Before she went on to write some of the greatest classics in science fiction and fantasy, Marion Zimmer Bradley, believe it or not, wrote some awful novels. This is one.

The "Door through Space" is an unremarkable (and almost unreadable) space-travel novel so like many others written at this time. It is pseudo-hard science fiction -- that is, a technologically-focused book with a little metaphysical nonsense thrown in. Marion Zimmer Bradley, when an editor, once said she would never buy a spaceship story in which "the spaceship was more interesting than the people". This is one of those.

That's not to say this book doesn't have some redeeming qualities. It's thin, pulpy-looking, and a looks good on the bookshelf next to the rest of my Bradleys. I picked my copy up for a quarter at a garage sale. I wouldn't have paid a penny more.