bibliogramma | Marion Zimmer Bradley: Star of Danger (Reply)

Star of Danger (pub. 1965) is one of the earliest written of the Darkover books, but in terms of the internal chronology of the series, it falls well after the time of first contact. Lorill Hastur, who is well advanced in years in this novel, was a boy of 15 or so when the Terrans came to Alderan. Valdir Alton, who was a child when the Forbidden Tower was formed, is now the father of two sons, the younger of whom is 16. And the third generation of Montrays comes home to Darkover. There are inconsistencies between this early novel and many of the ones that follow, but as with The Bloody Sun and The Planet Savers, certain key elements of Darkovan history were already well formed in the author's mind when the book was written.

In Star of Danger, Wade Montray returns to Darkover with his teenage son Larry after spending more than a decade on Earth. Larry, a curious young man with a desire to explore this new world, ventures into the Trade City and makes friends with Kennard Alton, son of Valdir, cadet guardsman. But when Larry is invited to spend the summer with Kennard at Armida, disaster strikes - Larry is kidnapped by bandits who mistake him for Kennard. Feeling personally responsible for Larry's fate, and knowing that if harm comes to Larry, his father will be caught up in a major diplomatic incident, Kennard sets out to rescue him.

The rescue succeeds, but in evading pursuit, Kennard and Larry are lost and must find their way through the rugged terrain of Darkover - forests inhabited by the non-human trailmen and mountains harbouring dangerous predators - to reach safe territory. During their difficult journey, Larry's latent telepathy is awakened and he and Kennard bond more deeply - although the harmony of that bond is often threatened by cultural issues. Eventually the two find ways to work together, relying on both Kennard's psi training and Darkovan survival skills, and Larry's scientific knowledge, to survive in the wilds.

As they near the territories of the Hastur domain, they encounter a lone chieri, who takes them in, offers them hospitality, tells them of the true history of humans on Darkover, and then teleports them to safety, just in time to ward off the brewing diplomatic firestorm. Larry's father explains that his late wife - Karry's mother - had in fact been a Darkovan woman, kin to the Alderan clan, who had followed him to Earth, and that Larry's laran comes from her. There is great hope that the friendship Larry and Kennard have formed will help to improve relations between Terrans and Darkovans.

As a "boy's adventure" story with no female characters at all, there is little to comment on in terms of portrayals of gender and sexuality in this novel. One thing that does strike me, though, is the odd history of Terran knowledge of and attitudes toward the Comyn and their use of laran. All through the series (at least up to the time of the waking of Sharra at Alderan, which is still to come at this point) the Terrans are portrayed as knowing very little about these issues, and by turns disbelieving, or desperately curious, about them. Even in this story, where one of the main characters is the product of a marriage between a Terran man who spent his youth on Darkover and a Darkovan of the ruling classes and a telepath in her own right, the Terrans see Larry's invitation to Armida as a chance to learn something about the Comyn and their abilities. One would think by this time the Terrans would have more clues than they appear to. But perhaps Darkovans have been more successful at keeping quiet, even when they marry Terrans, than one would think possible.