The Darkover series is a collection of science fiction-fantasy novels and short stories written by Marion Zimmer Bradley. The series is set on the planet of Darkover, where a group of humans have been stranded and have developed their own unique culture and society. The books focus on the conflicts between the human settlers and the native population of Darkover, as well as the struggles of the various factions on the planet. The series is known for its complex world-building and exploration of themes such as gender, sexuality, and mental illness.

Occasionally, Bradley collaborated with other authors, and she also edited and published Darkover stories by other authors in a series of anthologies. After Bradley's death, the series was continued, mostly by Deborah J. Ross with the permission of the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust.

Commenting on the significance of the Darkover series, the science fiction critic and author Baird Searles said that the books were "destined to be The Foundation of the 1970s".

Origins

The Origin of Darkover

In the introduction to "The Ballad of Hastur and Cassilda" by Bradley in the anthology Red Sun of Darkover, Bradley wrote that the literary antecedents of this ballad are "obscure" and arose "before Darkover was Darkover". The antecedents are The King in Yellow (1895) by Robert W. Chambers and perhaps J. R. R. Tolkien's poem "The Lay of Beren and Lúthien", found in the first book of The Lord of the Rings. Bradley adapted many names from The King in Yellow into her books and stories, often using them differently, e. g. the name of a city might become the name of a person. Chambers borrowed some terms in The King in Yellow from the writings of Ambrose Bierce.

In her essay (perhaps a transcribed interview) called "A Darkover Retrospective", Bradley mentioned reading the works of H. Rider Haggard, Talbot Mundy, Robert W. Chambers, and Sax Rohmer, but that she did not begin writing fantasy until she became acquainted with the science-fiction/fantasy of C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, apparently when she was in her middle teens and realized that she would never be an opera singer. She wrote, among other things, "about a ruling caste of telepaths which I named Seveners". By the time she was in college this had turned into an "hugely sprawling novel" called "The King and the Sword".

In that book, the Comyn (although called "the Seveners") were much the same as in later novels, with specific telepathic gifts. The seven families were the same, except the Altons were called the Leyniers and the Aillards were called the "Marceau of Valeron", a name that Bradley changed after hearing of the book Skylark of Valeron by E. E. Smith, whom she admired. Other themes are feminism, sexism, the roles of women in society, the roles of men in society, racism, social division (the Comyn nobility and the non-Comyn "commoners"), xenophobia and the clash of cultures, sexual taboos, fate and the horrors of war.

Feminism

According to Nasrullah Mambrol, "though Bradley did not call herself a feminist, she was both criticized and applauded by those who have".

Bradley received much criticism for her book Darkover Landfall because of the way the women of the incipient colony were treated. When the colonists realized that their spaceship would never fly again, the scientists said that for any colony to survive with a founding population of only a few hundred and no real hope of immigration, the greatest amount of genetic diversity must be maintained. That meant that women must have as many children as possible, by as many men as possible, and every child that survives is needed. The experts believed that miscarriages and infant deaths would be greater on a planet unlike Earth, although of course, this idea is unproven. Bradley was particularly criticized for the scene in which Camilla Del Rey is forbidden to have an abortion, although she wants one, because the child is needed for the colony's survival.

In City of Sorcery, Cholayna Ares, a dark-skinned Terran woman (actually from Alpha Centauri), is asked more than once if her dark skin is the result of a disease. There is no overt racism; Darkovans are simply curious because they have never seen anyone like her before. Bradley handles this issue with sensitivity and at times, wry and ironic humor, having Cholayna's Darkovan friends (who are Renunciates) become outraged at the question.

This theme overlaps with "Clash of Cultures" because some Darkovans express a dislike for Terrans without giving a reason other than they have "different ways".

Clash of cultures

Bradley said that the clash of cultures, Darkovan v. Terran, that she strengthened when rewriting The Sword of Aldones, was a "theme of all the early Darkover novels".

Although the books written between 1958 and 1995 were intended to be stand-alone stories in accord with Bradley's "ground rules", with the publication of Exile's Song the story was continued from book to book with The Shadow Matrix and Traitor's Sun. Adrienne Martine-Barnes was the uncredited co-author of these books. The dedication of the ebook edition of Exile's Song say "For Adrienne Martine-Barnes, who created the character Margaret Alton, and worked on this book with me"; furthermore, the copyright page of the ebook editions of The Shadow Matrix and Traitor's Sun both list Adrienne Martine-Barnes as co-copyright holder, along with Ms. Bradley. This broke Bradley's "ground rules". Bradley was at that time approaching the end of her life; she died in 1999, the same year that the third book of this "trilogy" was published.

Chronology

This Darkover chronology uses the time period designations first provided by the author as "A Readers Guide to Darkover" in The Heirs of Hammerfell (1989). Some of these time periods overlap, particularly the Ages of Chaos and the Hundred Kingdoms eras. It is occasionally the case that the official readers guide places a book in one era, but internal plot evidence places it in another (or both). Additionally, Bradley was not particularly sympathetic to her fans' need to organize the books into a consistent chronology, and the timeline evidence from one book to another is sometimes in conflict. Commenting on this problem, Bradley wrote, "I have fiercely resisted any attempt to impose absolute consistency, straightforward chronology, or anything but the most superficial order on the chronicles of Darkover". Furthermore, in the introduction to the "Between the Ages" section of Sword of Chaos, Bradley conceded, "chronology in the Darkover novels was never my strong point anyway", after humorously quoting an old rhyme about a centipede who did not know "which leg moved after which".

Bradley herself recommended that the books be read in the order in which they were written, rather than the Darkovan chronological order, as her writing style changed considerably over her career.

In The Planet Savers, Jason Allison says that the city of Carthon is 5000 years old (pg. 24). In Darkover Landfall, the final sentence suggests that 2000 years elapsed between the colonization and rediscovery by the Terran Empire. In Sharra's Exile, published in 1981, Lew Alton says, in the Prologue, "Travel among the stars has strange anomalies; the enormous interstellar distances play strange tricks with time... The elapsed time on Terra was something like three thousand years. Yet elapsed time on Darkover was somehow more like ten thousand..." This is but one example of inconsistency.

The Founding

At the end of the 21st century, Earth sends colony ships out to the stars. One of these ships becomes disabled and crash-lands on Darkover, the fourth planet in a red giant solar system. Unable to repair their ship and equally unable to make contact with Earth, the survivors establish a colony.

The colonists are primarily Celts and Spaniards, and this mix is reflected in the resultant blended culture. Bradley used a standard "lost colony" trope: to maintain the available gene pool and maximize the chances of colonial survival, the colonists intermarry extensively and produce as many children with as many different partners as possible. Psychic and psionic abilities are acquired through interbreeding with the indigenous people, the Chieri.

Bradley is silent about the developments that followed the first generation of the colony, and does not make clear how many years intervene between the founding and the Ages of Chaos. The novels Darkover Landfall and Rediscovery suggest that at least 2000 years have passed between the founding of the colony and Earth's recontact. The last sentence of "Darkover Landfall" states, "But Earth knew nothing of them for 2,000 years", but as Lew Alton says (above) the time on Darkover was perhaps 10,000 years.

Books describing this era:

  • Darkover Landfall (1972) – the first of the series, though not the first story published.
  • Arilinn (2024), written by Deborah J. Ross

Short stories describing this era:

  • "Vai Dom", Diana L. Paxson, The Keeper's Price
  • "The Forest", Cynthia McQuillin, The Keeper's Price
  • "A Gift of Love", Diana L. Paxson, Sword of Chaos
  • "The Tower at New Skye", Priscilla W. Armstrong, Leroni of Darkover

The Ages of Chaos

Bradley's books constantly refer back to the Ages of Chaos, but few books are actually set in this era. In this era, the descendants of the original colonists have organized themselves into a feudal-type society, with laran (psionic) abilities as the determiner of which individuals are part of the aristocracy and which are commoners. This period is marked by incredible creativity, the development of laran-based technology and weaponry, and the creation of the system of Towers, where those with exceptional laran abilities are housed and trained. All of these dominate political and social life, but these developments are accompanied by a period of nearly constant civil war, in which the Darkovans seem determined to exterminate themselves. Walter Breen's The Darkover Concordance indicates that the Ages of Chaos period begins about a thousand years after the colonization of the planet and lasts a full thousand years.

Books describing this era:

  • Stormqueen! (1978 - by Marion Zimmer Bradley)
  • Thunderlord! (2016 - by Deborah J. Ross)

The Hundred Kingdoms

Many of Bradley's books, and a large number of the short stories, are set at the tail end of the Ages of Chaos, in a period she called the Hundred Kingdoms. The distinction between The Ages of Chaos and The Hundred Kingdoms is not well-defined, creating controversies about the chronology. By this era, the laran breeding programs had been abandoned, and the many small principalities were beginning to consolidate into the seven domains that survived into Darkover's modern era. Bradley's innovation, the adoption of "The Compact", is a turning point in the development of Darkover's social order. The Compact, promulgated by the recurring historical character Varzil the Good, bans all weapons that can be used without bringing the user into equal danger, effectively banning laran weapons, but allowing swords and knives. The Hundred Kingdoms may be read as commentary on the use of weapons of mass destruction in Earth's own endless conflicts.

Books describing this era:

  • The Fall of Neskaya (2001 - with Deborah J. Ross), book one of the Clingfire Trilogy
  • Hawkmistress! (1982)
  • Zandru's Forge (2003 - with Deborah J. Ross), coincides with Hawkmistress!, book two of the Clingfire Trilogy
  • Two To Conquer (1980)
  • A Flame in Hali (2004 - with Deborah J. Ross), book three of the Clingfire Trilogy
  • The Heirs of Hammerfell (1989)

Recontact (Against the Terrans: The First Age)

Eventually Darkover is rediscovered by the Terran Empire, which establishes a spaceport, first at Caer Donn, and later at Thendara, the only large city on Darkover. This re-contact takes place a little more than 2,000 years after the events described in Darkover Landfall.

Books describing this era:

  • Rediscovery (1993 - with Mercedes Lackey)
  • The Spell Sword (1974)
  • The Shattered Chain (1976)
  • The Forbidden Tower (1977), nominated for a Hugo Award

The origins of this guild during the Hundred Kingdoms era are described in Two to Conquer as the merger between the Sisterhood of the Sword, a military-mercenary guild, and the Priestesses of Avarra, a cloistered order that offered medical and other care to women, primarily abused women. Towards the end of Two to Conquer, Carlina di Asturien comes to believe that the two guilds need to work together for the benefit of all women on Darkover. Bradley acknowledged a Patricia Matthews fan story as the origin of the Sisterhood of the Sword, and described the Priesthood of Avarra as a counterforce.

Bradley noted that most of the fan fiction she received was inspired by the Renunciates, that she had met individuals who had taken Renunciate-style names or were attempting to live in women's communes inspired by the Renunciate guildhouses.

Books in the world of the Renunciates:

  • The Shattered Chain (1976) (reprinted as Oath of The Renunciates, the 1983 omnibus of The Shattered Chain and Thendara House)
  • Thendara House (1983) (reprinted as Oath of The Renunciates, the 1983 omnibus of The Shattered Chain and Thendara House)
  • City of Sorcery (1984) (reprinted as Oath of The Renunciates, the 2002 omnibus of The Shattered Chain, Thendara House, and City of Sorcery)

Darkover anthologies

In addition to novels, Bradley edited and published twelve short story anthologies in collaboration with other authors, known as the Friends of Darkover. The period of cooperative collaboration, which started in 1970, ended abruptly in 1992, when Bradley's interaction with a fan rendered the novel Contraband legally unpublishable. The anthologies are now out of print owing to the publisher's concerns regarding the ownership of the copyrights of the individual stories.

The stories in the anthologies stand apart from the novels and do not necessarily fit into the chronology above.

In the 1990 anthology, Domains of Darkover, Bradley stated that the only short stories that she considered part of the official Darkover canon, were those by herself, Diana L. Paxson and Elisabeth Waters, and a single story by Patricia Floss, The Other Side of the Mirror. All of the other short stories published either in the anthologies or in fanzines she considered unofficial.

  • The Keeper's Price (1980)
  • Sword of Chaos (1982)
  • Free Amazons of Darkover (1985)
  • The Other Side of the Mirror (1987)
  • Red Sun of Darkover (1987)
  • Four Moons of Darkover (1987)
  • Domains of Darkover (1990)
  • Renunciates of Darkover (1991)
  • Leroni of Darkover (1991)
  • Towers of Darkover (1993)
  • Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover (1993), includes To Keep the Oath
  • Snows of Darkover (1994)

The publication of the anthologies of Darkover was restarted in 2013.

  • Music of Darkover (2013)
  • Stars of Darkover (2014)
  • Gifts of Darkover (2015)
  • Realms of Darkover (2016)
  • Masques of Darkover (2017)
  • Crossroads of Darkover (2018)
  • Citadels of Darkover (2019)
  • Jewels of Darkover (2023)

Proposed TV series

A TV series based on the Darkover books was announced in 2012, and was to be produced by Ilene Kahn Power and Elizabeth Stanley. In 2018, Deborah J. Ross, co-writer with Marion Zimmer Bradley on several Darkover novels and editor of related anthologies, stated that the proposed series has been scrapped.

See also

  • Darkover (board game), a board game based on the books

Notes

References

  • Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust
  • Darkover Fan Convention
  • Unofficial Darkover encyclopedia