Heritage and Exile

Table of Contents

 

 

 

“A rich and highly colored tale of politics and magic, courage and pressure . . . Topflight adventure in every way!”

—Lester Del Rey for
Analog
(for
THE HERITAGE OF HASTUR
)

“May well be [Bradley's] masterpiece.”

—
New York Newsday
(for
THE HERITAGE OF HASTUR
)

“Literate and exciting.”

—
New York Times Book Review
(for
CITY OF SORCERY
)

“Suspenseful, powerfully written, and deeply moving.”

—
Library Journal
(for
STORMQUEEN!
)

“A warm, shrewd portrait of women from different backgrounds working together under adverse conditions.”

—
Publishers Weekly
(for
CITY OF SORCERY
)

“I don't think any series novels have succeeded for me the way Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels did.”

—
Locus
(general)

“Delightful . . . a fascinating world and a great read.”

—
Locus
(for
EXILE'S SONG
)

A “lost ship” of Terran origin, in the pre-empire colonizing days, lands on a planet with a dim red star, later to be called Darkover.

DARKOVER LANDFALL

A thousand years after the original landfall settlement, society has returned to the feudal level. The Darkovans, their Terran technology renounced or forgotten, have turned instead to freewheeling, out-of-control matrix technology, psi powers and terrible psi weapons. The populace lives under the domination of the Towers and a tyrannical breeding program to staff the Towers with unnaturally powerful, inbred gifts of
laran
.

STORMQUEEN!
HAWKMISTRESS!

An age of war and strife retaining many of the decimating and disastrous effects of the Ages of Chaos. The lands which are later to become the Seven Domains are divided by continuous border conflicts into a multitude of small, belligerent kingdoms, named for convenience “The Hundred Kingdoms.” The close of this era is heralded by the adoption of the Compact, instituted by Varzil the Good. A landmark and turning point in the history of Darkover, the Compact bans all distance weapons, making it a matter of honor that one who seeks to kill must himself face equal risk of death.

TWO TO CONQUER
THE HEIRS OF HAMMERFELL
THE FALL OF NESKAYA

During the Ages of Chaos and the time of the Hundred Kingdoms, there were two orders of women who set themselves apart from the patriarchal nature of Darkovan feudal society: the priestesses of Avarra, and the warriors of the Sisterhood of the Sword. Eventually these two independent groups merged to form the powerful and legally chartered Order of Renunciates or Free Amazons, a guild of women bound only by oath as a sisterhood of mutual responsibility. Their primary allegiance is to each other rather than to family, clan, caste or any man save a temporary employer. Alone among Darkovan women, they are exempt from the usual legal restrictions and protections. Their reason for existence is to provide the women of Darkover an alternative to their socially restricted lives.

After the Hastur Wars, the Hundred Kingdoms are consolidated into the Seven Domains, and ruled by a hereditary aristocracy of seven families, called the Comyn, allegedly descended from the legendary Hastur, Lord of Light. It is during this era that the Terran Empire, really a form of confederacy, rediscovers Darkover, which they know as the fourth planet of the Cottman star system. The fact that Darkover is a lost colony of the Empire is not easily or readily acknowledged by Darkovans and their Comyn overlords.

With the initial shock of recontact beginning to wear off, and the Terran spaceport a permanent establishment on the outskirts of the city of Thendara, the younger and less traditional elements of Darkovan society begin the first real exchange of knowledge with the Terrans—learning Terran science and technology and teaching Darkovan matrix technology in turn. Eventually Regis Hastur, the young Comyn lord most active in these exchanges, becomes Regent in a provisional government allied to the Terrans. Darkover is once again reunited with its founding Empire.

These volumes of stories edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley strive to “fill in the blanks” of Darkovan history, and elaborate on the eras, tales and characters which have captured readers' imaginations.

DARKOVER NOVELS IN OMNIBUS EDITIONS

HERITAGE AND EXILE
omnibus:
The Heritage of Hastur / Sharra's Exile
THE AGES OF CHAOS
¹
omnibus:
Stormqueen! / Hawkmistress!
THE SAGA OF THE RENUNCIATES
¹
omnibus:
The Shattered Chain / Thendara House / City of Sorcery

THE HERITAGE OF HASTUR

Copyright © 1975 by Marion Zimmer Bradley

 

SHARRA'S EXILE
Copyright © 1981 by Marion Zimmer Bradley

 

Chapter Two of Book One of SHARRA'S EXILE appeared in a
slightly different form, as a short story entitiled “Blood Will
Tell” in THE KEEPER'S PRICE, edited by
Marion Zimmer Bradley, DAW 1980.

 

HERITAGE AND EXILE
Copyright © 2002 by The Marion Zimmer Bradley
Literary Works Trust

 

All Rights Reserved.

 

 

DAW Book Collectors No. 1220.
DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Putnam Inc.

 

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Paperback Printing, April

DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED U.S. PAT. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES —MARCA REGISTRADA

eISBN : 978-1-101-15749-7

HECHO EN U.S.A.

 

 

S.A.

THE HERITAGE OF HASTUR

For Jaqueline Lichtenberg Who convinced me that this book could and should be written, and kept after me until (and while) I wrote it.

 

 

SHARRA'S EXILE

To Walter Breen, whose extensive knowledge of the Darkover Universe is “extensive and peculiar” and to our son Patrick Breen, who read this page by page as it emerged from the typewriter, sometimes actually reading it over my shoulder as I wrote, in his eagerness to find out what happened next.

Thanks!