Darkover Revisited

I have decided to continue rereading the Darkover novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley, partly for the fun of revisiting a favorite series, but also as part of the ongoing GLP. I started the ball rolling by asking my mom if I could borrow her copies of the books. I knew she’d probably have all the ones I didn’t. My mother did not forget my request, and she had two bags of books waiting for me when I went to visit her last Thursday.

I did not realize how many Darkover books there were. And it never occurred to me what terrible shape my mother’s copies would be in. After being read by everyone in the family and then sitting for decades in a smoke-filled house, they are warped, smoke-stained, and in some cases, falling apart. Not that any softcovers from the ’70s and ’80s are likely to be in perfect condition, but my, some of these are really bad! Their condition is such that I’ll probably recycle (rather than donate) the ones I’m not going to keep.

In any event, I am doing both myself and my mother a favor. I had managed to collect a number of Darkover books myself. We both need to lighten the loads on our bookshelves. My mom does not want her books back, so I can toss them as I please. I will only keep those I intend to read again someday, and I’m sure that number will be relatively small. Some of the books (particularly the fan fiction anthologies) I don’t plan to read at all.

Here is a list of Darkover books that I cobbled together from various sources. The number after the dash is the book’s approximate position in the Darkover timeline. The titles with links are ones I read when I first decided to revisit Darkover (or the ones I have read since writing this post, added as updates).

  1. The Planet Savers (1962 as a novel)–16
  2. The Sword of Aldones (1962)
  3. The Bloody Sun (1964)–14
  4. Star of Danger (1965)–12
  5. The Winds of Darkover (1970)–13
  6. The World Wreckers (1971)–17
  7. Darkover Landfall (1972)–01
  8. The Spell Sword (1974)–08
  9. The Heritage of Hastur (1975)–15
  10. The Shattered Chain (1976)–07
  11. The Forbidden Tower (1977)–09
  12. Stormqueen! (1978)–02
  13. The Keeper’s Price (anthology, 1980)
  14. Two to Conquer (1980)–04
  15. Sharra’s Exile (1981)–18
  16. Sword of Chaos (anthology, 1982)
  17. Hawkmistress! (1982)–03
  18. Thendara House (1983)–10
  19. City of Sorcery (1984)–11
  20. Free Amazons of Darkover (anthology, 1985)
  21. The Other Side of the Mirror (anthology, 1987)
  22. Red Sun of Darkover (anthology, 1987)
  23. Four Moons of Darkover (anthology, 1988)
  24. The Heirs of Hammerfell (1989)–05
  25. Domains of Darkover (anthology, 1990)
  26. Renunciates of Darkover (anthology, 1991)
  27. Leroni of Darkover (anthology, 1991)
  28. Rediscovery (with Mercedes Lackey, 1993)–06
  29. Towers of Darkover (anthology, 1993)
  30. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover (anthology, 1993)
  31. Snows of Darkover (anthology, 1994)
  32. Exile’s Song (with Adrienne Martine-Barnes, 1996)–19
  33. The Shadow Matrix (with Adrienne Martine-Barnes, 1998)–20
  34. Traitor’s Sun (with Adrienne Martine-Barnes, 1999)–21
  35. The Fall of Neskaya (with Deborah J. Ross, 2001)
  36. Zandru’s Forge (with Deborah J. Ross, 2003)
  37. A Flame in Hali (with Deborah J. Ross, 2004)
  38. The Alton Gift (by Deborah J. Ross, 2007)
  39. The Hastur Lord (by Deborah J. Ross, 2010)
  40. The Children of Kings (by Deborah J. Ross, 2013)
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  1. Pingback: Done With Darkover | Blue-Footed Musings

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