Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross: The Alton Gift

The Alton Gift (pub. 2007), written by Deborah J. Ross from notes by Marion Zimmer Bradley, is the first book to deal with Darkover in the post-Terran era - and things are not good.

Darkover has clearly suffered in the three years since the departure of the Terrans. Only a generation has passed since the assault of the world wreckers, and the planet's ecology is still too fragile to sustain even the slightest of injuries. Forest fires have ravaged the hill areas, but without access to the fire-fighting chemicals of the Terrans, and with the numbers of Tower-trained leroni too depleted to fight fires in the old-fashioned way, with laran, whole villages have been destroyed, their inhabitants reduced to wandering the roads in search of work. The economy is faltering. And, harkening back to the very first Darkovan novel, a new strain of trailman's fever has appeared - and this time, the trailmen are dying of it too.

Not surprisingly, social unrest has reached levels previously unknown on Darkover. With the Comyn no longer able to uphold its part in the ancient feudal bargain, the social fabric of Darkovan culture is fraying. Added to this is the legacy of the self-imposed isolation that Regis Hastur adopted for himself and his kin after the wave of assassination attempts engineered by the world wreckers, which distanced the Comyn leaders from the people, and the effects of the Terran attempts to foment revolt through political satires spread by their agents among the Travellers.

Meanwhile, Lew Alton is having a crisis of conscience over his use of the Alton Gift to muddle the memories of the Terrans who survived the battle on the Old North Road. On the advice of Danilo Syrtis, he retires to the home of the cristoforo monks at Nevarsin where he hopes to find some peace of mind. Instead, he is directly confronted with his actions when the Keeper of Neskaya asks for his help in dealing with a Terran experiencing the awakening of latent laran as a result of being subjected to forced rapport. The Terran, Jeremiah Reed - now calling himself Joram - had remained on Darkover when the others were evacuated, and is, of course, one of those who attacked the funeral cortege. Lew restores his memories, helps him learn to control his laran, in the process both of them find a degree of healing and redemption - for Joram, a former biotechnician tasked with creating bioweapons, has his own demons to settle.

As the scene shifts from the Hellers to Thendara, Joram - and the knowledge that Lew and Marguerida have misused their power - falls into the hands of Mikhail Lanart-Hastur's enemy, Francisco Ridenow. With the Comyn Council in session, Francisco brings Joram to a council meeting, intending to use his story as a reason to challenge Mikhail's leadership. When Joram, despite being drugged, refuses to accuse Marguerida and Lew, Francisco declares blood feud against Mikhail. In the ensuing duel, Francisco is killed but not before he manages to wound Mikhail with a poisoned blade.

With Mikhail in a laran-induced coma to prolong his life in the hope that he will be able to fight off the effects of poison, Domenic convinces the Council to accept him as Acting Warden of Hastur and Regent in his father's place. Almost immediately he is faced with his first crisis - the trailmen's fever outbreak is spreading.

Under Domenic's leadership, The effort to save the people of Darkover from the plague brings together the diverse elements of society - Renunciate healers, Tower-trained leroni, matrix technicians from outside of the Towers, others of the Comyn, to nurse the already infected. Meanwhile, Joram, Marguerida, and some of those Darkovans who had once worked for the Terrans work to find a vaccine or treatment, drawing on Joram's knowledge and the records of the last outbreak of the fever.

In the end, it takes both Terran bioscience and Darkovan to create a vaccine from the blood of a plague survivor, but the process is difficult for the leroni involved, and it seems impossible to make enough in time to prevent the plague from killing off most of the population. Marguerida makes a desperate attempt, drawing on all the potential of her shadow matrix, to create enough vaccine to begin a treatment program - but in so doing, her consciousness is trapped in the Overworld, and none of the leroni are able to find her and bring her back to her body.

Domenic then makes his own desperate act, and joins the hands of his mother and father, both unreachable by any normal laran contact. While this allows Marguerida and Mikhail to find each other in the Overworld, it is Domenic who brings them back to the physical plane after they have healed each other with the power of Varzil's ring.

As the novel ends, the epidemic is under control, and the changes brought about by the need to find a cure are starting to ripple through the fabric of Darkovan society.

Darkover is changing, and so is the cast of characters that readers had grown used to over so many novels. Regis Hastur, who was introduced in the first Darkover novel Bradley wrote, died in The Traitor's Sun. The Alton Gift sees the passing of both Javanne Hastur and her husband Gabriel. Lew Alton suffers a heart attack, reminding readers that his days too are numbered. Marilla Lindir-Aillard succumbed to the plague. Yet as the old guard passes, Dominic Alton-Hastur is coming into his own as the heir to the Regency. And a new political landscape has been formed, with formerly unacknowledged nedestro heirs to the dwindling Domains - including Domenic's lover Illona Ardais (formerly Rider) - taking their places beside the remaining members of the older Comyn lines, and a Keeper's Council formed to advise the Comyn. Joram is teaching Terran science to a selected group of Darkovan students, with the goal of preparing for the eventual return of the Federation. The stage is set for the next stage of the Darkovan story.

Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross: Hastur Lord

Hastur Lord (pub. 2010) credited to both Bradley and Deborah J. Ross, but published a decade after Bradley's death, is one of the weakest of all the Darkover novels, at least in my opinion. Ross has said that she worked from a disorganised draft Bradley had produced after suffering several strokes, and that she believed Bradley had intended it as a rewrite of The World Wreckers. Certainly, after the sense of a new age coming that Ross gave us with the Alton Gift, it was rather disappointing to go back to a time well before those events, for no discernible reason.

It introduces (retroactively) a few new characters who will be important in the novels set during the era of Mikhail Lanart-Hastur's term as Regent - notably Francisco Ridenow and Kierestelli Storn - and sets up the beginning of the next major conflict between Terrans and Darkovans, but the main plotline is totally unnecessary, and relies on a great deal of out-of character behaviour on the part of both Regis Hastur and Danilo Syrtis.

First, the important stuff. It's set about ten years after the events of The World Wreckers, and about fifteen years before the events of Exile's Song. The Terran Empire is going through a major sea change in structure, leadership and philosophy. Now called the Terran Federation, it seeks to end the days of protected planets. As Lew Alton, still the Darkovan Senator, says in a message to Regis:

You will undoubtedly hear propaganda about how the new Federation will extend autonomy to all member worlds, increase interstellar cooperation, and promote free trade—all the persuasive phrases that people want to hear. Even people on Darkover. Don't fall for it, Regis. This whole process is a power grab by the Expansionist party. They want free access to developing worlds, and they've as much as admitted that their goal is to bring an end to what they call special privileges and protected status.

The political situation on Darkover is not promising. Between Sharra and the World Wreckers, the Comyn are nearly leaderless; those who survive are divided between those who want to become full members of the Terran Federation - led by Valdir Ridenow - and those who want as little contact as possible. The Telepath Council set up by Regis is unable to function as a governing body. If there is any real governing authority anywhere on Darkover, it is Regis himself.

On to the plot. The dying Danvan Hastur reveals that Regis has an older, illegitimate brother named Rinaldo who was shipped off to the Nevarsin monks at the age of three. Regis visits him, and despite the fact that Rinaldo is clearly the most unctuous and hypocritical creature you can imagine, oozing with jealousy and envy and spite, brings him home to Thendara and has him legitimated. Valdir Ridenow sees in Rinaldo an opportunity to mold Darkover's future. Believing that he will be able to manipulate Rinaldo, Valdir plots with him to force Regis to abdicate by holding Danilo and Mikhail - Regis' nephew and designated heir - hostage. Regis agrees, and Mikhail is freed, but Danilo remains a prisoner.

Valdir has misjudged his pawn, however. Rinaldo, seeing in his sudden accession to power the hand of God, embarks on a plan to purge sin and impurity from all of Darkover. Forming an alliance with Terran Legate Dan Lawton's wife Tiphani, a fanatical devotee of a religious group with links to the same church that was the foundation of the cristoforos, Rinaldo begins to enforce his own religious beliefs across the Domains.

He forces Regis to marry Linnea Storn - the mother of his daughter Kierestelli (who has been sent off to live with the chieri for her safety) and his unborn son Danilo - by threatening to have Danilo Syrtis killed. As his fanaticism increases, he has Comyn children taken from their families to be raised in the "true" faith. Regis finds and releases the children - a situation complicated by the arrival of Terran Spaceforce soldiers seeking to free Dan Lawton's son Felix, who has been taken from the Terran Zone by Tiphani.

Returning to Comyn Castle, he gathers whatever members of the Comyn he can find and challenges Rinaldo's kingship, but before anything can be decided, Tiphani tries to assassinate Regis and Rinaldo sacrifices his own life to save his brother. End of silly plot, press reset button but political situation remains dire.

What annoyed me the most about Hastur Lord was the total inability of all these telepaths to communicate. Regis and Danilo have spent at least 20 years together as friends and lovers, but they still doubt each other's love and haven't really talked about the fact that some day Regis must marry, and it must be someone he cares about or it's going to be pointless? Danilo still doesn't know he'll always be the one? And how is it that Regis is so blind to his brother's faults - and discounts Danilo's warnings as mere jealousy? How do they not trust each other completely after being open to each other, mind to mind, all these years? And then there's Regis' blunders with Linnea, who he's been in a relationship with before. None of this works, and that makes the book a grave disappointment, despite its solid pro-diversity stance.