A New Darkover Anthology

Reading a new piece of fiction set on Darkover always feels a bit like coming home, I've dreamed this world for so long. With Deborah Ross editing, this new antholology touches on both old and new themes, but always within the scope of what feels right for Darkover.

The themes and situations explored in this anthology range from imaginings of events referred to but not written about in Bradley's books (Janni Lee Simner's All the Branching Pathd, about the off-world meeting of key series character Kennard Alton and his wife Elaine Montray), to a comic tale of courting ritual in the Dry Towns (Threads, by Elisabeth Waters and Ann Sharp).

One theme that runs through much of Bradley's work, as well as that of others who ave written in her universe, is that of women trapped by Darkover's rigid gender expectations finding a way to change, escape or at least subvert them. There are, as is not uncommon in The Darkovan anthologies, several stories in which escape from a marriage or other alliance threatened or forced upon one of the parties (usually the woman) due to political or breeding considerations is a key element. Of these, Kari Sparling's House of Fifteen Widows is particularly memorable.

Another common theme (with many variations) deals with the relationship of Terrans and Darkovans - sometimes one in which a Terran, often one with psychic abilities of theirvown, finds a place on Darkover (as in Judith Tarr's The Cold Blue Light), but more often stories based on misunderstandings (as in Barb Caffrey's At the Crossroads and Rosemary Edghill and Rebecca Fox's Second Contact, the very different stories based on the building of the first spaceport on Darkover, in Aldaran lands).

Another theme of interest was the emergenge of stories examining the lives of those born emmasca. Bradley suggested in the original novels that there was a higher proportion of people born intersex on the Darkovan population, as a part of the chieri inheritance, along with the enhanced psi abilities and the occasional extra digits. Two stories in this anthology feature emmasca characters, both raised as "almost male," who make a transition to full functionality in their preferred gender with the help of an unusual display of laran, or psychic power. I found Diana Paxson's story, Evanda's Mirror, particularly evocative, being the story of an emmasca raised male yet having a female identity, who seeks help first from the Renuciates - who reject her with all the classic transphobic arguments you'd hear at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.

All in all, it was a pleasant visit to a universe I've long loved, and I'm happy to hear that the MZB literary trust plans to release annual anthologies.

Any discussion of Marion Zimmer Bradley's work - or of anything derived from her work, as this volume is, must, I think, be accompanied by some comment on the recent revelations by her adult children that in her personal life, Bradley was not only an ennabler of child sexual abuse by her husband Walter Breen, but was herself a perpetrator of abuse against her children and others. It's been very difficult for me, as a survivor of parental abuse myself, to reconcile my continuing love of the world she created with the reality of her actions in this world. In the end, I've come to the same resolution about Bradley and her her work as I have about my own mother. People are complex beings who contain multitudes. My mother was capable of horrendous acts; she was also capable of admirable ones, and in her professional life she did a great many things that I am proud of her for doing. I have found within myself a way to condemn that which was horrendous while honouring that which was admirable. Bradley, like my mother, abused her children; but she also wrote stories that gave me and many other women images of how to shatter the chains that had been placed on us by the patriarchal, misogynistic world we had been raised in, and by all accounts I've read, she fostered the growth of many talented writers, many of them women. I choose to honour her work while condemning her private actions. I know others may not agree, but life is messy and it's hard to put it into neat little boxes - especially when we're shown both the best and the worst of what a human can do, in one person.

C. W. Gortner: The Tudor Vendetta

The Tudor Vendetta is the third and final (one assumes) volume in C. W. Gortner's Spymaster series, featuring Brendan Prescott, secretly the illegitimate son of Henry VIII's younger sister Margaret.

In previous volumes, Prescott has been in the service of William Cecil, working undercover to preserve the Tudor line of succession - first Mary, then Elizabeth. In The Tudor Vendetta, Prescott, forced to flee England for his own safety following his role in taking down the Courteney Plot, returns - in the company of his mentor Francis Walsingham - to take up his role as protector of Elizabeth, now queen of England. Though Mary, her sister, is dead, Elizabeth faces many challenges and dangers, not the least of which is the continued animosity of Catholics both at home and abroad.

It is Cecil's plan to keep Prescott close to Elizabeth, both as an intelligencer and protector, and to keep Elizabeth from going too far in her relationship with Robert Dudley, risking her crown and her life through indiscretion. Elizabeth, however, has other plans for Prescott.

An assassination attempt gives Prescott reason to suspect that a Spanish agent he believed to be dead is still alive and plotting against the new Queen, but Elizabeth fears that an even greater danger is marshalling against her, and sends Prescott to investigate.

An enjoyable tale, drawing on what most historians consider to be no more than gossip arising from the circumstances of Elizabeth's early relationship with her step-father Thomas Seymour (who married Henry VIII's widow Katherine Parr) - but again, there's just enough room in the gaps of history to make the plot a plausible one.

His mission accomplished, Prescott is finally free to settle down to a quiet life in the country with his lady love Kate - but I can't help but hope the Elizabeth will need him again.

Judy Fong Bates: Midnight at the Dragon Cafe

Talking about her debut novel, Midnight in the Dragon Cafe, Judy Bates Fong recalls a cross-Canada road trup she took while young.

During that long ago car trip I was inspired by the immensity of this country, its beauty and varied landscape. Yet there was one constant that made an impression on me then and stays with me today. Almost without fail, every small town we drove through had a local Chinese restaurant, and I knew, much like my family, the people who ran these restaurants would be separated from the community by language and culture, that their lives would be lonely, especially the older generation, and that work and home were melded into one, unchanging and monotonous.

Having gone on more than a few such road trips myself, I can see in my mind's eye the ubiquitous small-town Chinese restaurants Bates refers to, with their unvarying menu of standard North American greasy spoon cuisine and Westernised Chinese dishes. In the late 1950s - when this novel is set - the odds were that the owners and their families would be the only non-white immigrants in the town, isolated despite coming in constant contact with most of the people in the communities where they lived and worked.

In Reading Midnight at the Dragon Cafe, by Judy Fong Bates, I was struck by the simplicity of a narrative that nonetheless manages to say so much, and in such a nuanced fashion, about a complex situation. The book is told through the eyes of six-year-old Chou Su-Jen, who with her mother Lai-Jing has come to Canada to be reunited with Hing-Win, Lai-Jing's second husband and Su-Jen's father. Chou Hing-Win, much older than his wife, has lived in Canada since before WWII, having returned to China only once, when he met and married Lai-Jing. With his best friend Doon-Yat Lim, he owns the Dragon Cafe in the small town of Irvine, Ontario; the son of his first marriage, Lee-Kung, lives in Owen Sound where he works in a Chinese restaurant.

As the novel unfolds, Su-Jen, now known as Annie because students must have "Canadian" names, is increasingly caught between the two worlds - her isolated and insular family, and the wider community of Irvine, which welcomes her on the one hand while reminding her of her difference on the other. Meanwhile, tensions with her family grow as her mother, isolated and unhappy, makes a choice that could shatter Su-Jen's world.

The quintessential Canadian immigrant experience, Midnight at the Dragon Café delicately traces the life of particular Chinese girl and her family in 1960's small town Ontario, but it also paints the broader picture of the difficulties faced by all newcomers, from casual racism to struggles with language acquisition and the balance between accepting new culture and not forgetting one's own heritage.(http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol12/no15/midnightatthedragoncafe.html)

Bates' style is understated, but seductive. I read the book in one long session, unable to put it away until the story had run its course and the resolution known. Highly recommended.

Tess Gerritsen: Die Again

Die Again, the 11th volume in Tess Gerritsen's crime/mystery/thriller series featuring Jane Rizzoli, Boston cop, and Dr. Maura Isles, M.E., is another tautly paced novel with a rather unusual serial killer and lots of clues that need to be processed before the real killer is identified.

Fortunately, this time around there were no personal links to Rizzoli or Isles, and neither one finds herself alone and in mortal danger - they're just two investigators working a case, and the intense jeopardy scene falls, as is proper, to the person who holds the one piece of information that could crack the case.

We also see new developments in our intrepid investigator's personal lives, which in my opinion do not bode well for Jane and Maura, but we will have to wait for the next installment to find out where those are taking us.