Marion Zimmer Bradley

Deborah J. Ross

The teenage son of a Darkover noble, Corin Leynier discovers that his growing laran powers may hold the key to stopping the ambitious tyrant King Damian Deslucido and his nedestro laranzu brother Rumail from trying to unite all Darkover under Damian's rule. Reprint.

The Fall of Neskaya

A novel set against the turbulent backdrop of the Hundred Kingdoms, a time of war and strife, details the extraordinary friendship between two young men--Carolin Hastur, the heir of Hastur, and Varzil Ridenow--that changes Darkover's destiny. Reprint.

Zandru's Forge

After an interstellar civil war, heir to the throne Gareth Elhalyn, takes on a secret mission to stop the seedy population of Darkover from arming the Dry Towners with forbidden weapons in this expansion of the late fantasy author's unpublished work. (This book was listed in a previous issue of Forecast.)

The Children of Kings

In the spirit of classic period swashbucklers brimming with romantic courtly intrigue and dangerous liaisons, with cloak and dagger and perfumed handkerchiefs, this anthology offers nine fantastic stories of adventure, derring-do, love, and glamorous yet subtle magic.

Lace and Blade

In this highly anticipated sequel to Traitor's Sun, Lew Alton's daughter Marguerida, a psychic, must decipher visions of impending doom, while her son searches for his place in a world of shifting loyalites, and the rulers of Darkover face a new threat, an ancient enemy that has risen again.

The Alton Gift

King Carolin and Varzil Ridenow, a Keeper, join forces to bring peace to Darkover, but, hiding in the shadows of Thendara, an enemy from Carolin's past, caught in the grip of a compulsion spell, is desperate to bring about the death of these two courageous men. Reprint.

A Flame in Hali

The authors of The Alton Gift continue the sweeping Darkover fantasy saga with more gripping action involving the Hastur family.

Hastur Lord

An interplanetary conflict has left Kithri abandoned on a desolate mining planet with Eril, a shell-shocked pilot. A freak accident sends them back to a time when the world was lush and green, when an alien civilization stands on the brink of a war of total destruction. They must choose - to remain outside the conflict or to stand up for their beliefs, even at the cost of never getting home again.

Jaydium

"The combination of love and blades is a match to be enjoyed in many highly diverse ways." - SF Revue A decade ago, readers thrilled to the debut of a new series of elegant, romantic fantasy stories. Best-selling author Jacqueline Carey hailed the first Lace and Blade as "a banquet of adventure, intrigue, and romance." Publisher's Weekly wrote, "Readers will be left starry-eyed and hoping for the series to continue." Now those hopes are fulfilled in this new volume, brimming with tales that enchant and delight. Here are stories of love and betrayal, of alchemy and swordplay, of lovers lost and found, of dreams denied and fulfilled -- from the secret heirs of Alexander the Great to a bard who sings traumatized dragons back to sanity to an African girls' cricket team to an American patriot on the eve of the Revolutionary War, from the rooftops of Victorian Paris to 17th Century India to imaginary but no less vivid lands and characters who will whisper to you of sweet, sweet dreams long after the final page is turned. This volume includes stories by Robin Wayne Bailey, Carol Berg, Marie Brennan, Doranna Durgin, India Edghill, Rosemary Edghill, Heather Rose Jones, Pat MacEwen, Diana L. Paxson, Marella Sands, Dave Smeds, Judith Tarr, and Lawrence Watt-Evans.

Lace and Blade 4

In the era of The Hundred Kingdoms, a time of war and unrest, King Carolin of Hastur and his friend Keeper Varzil Ridenow work selflessly to put an end to the destruction caused by the long range weapons of the magical matrix Towers. But Eduin Deslucido-who once called Carolin brother-has been consumed with a vengeful rage, and will stop at nothing to destroy the king and his plan for peace.

High in the mountainous Hellers, Corin Leynier, adolescent son of a minor nobleman, wakes from a nightmare of ravening forest fire, only to find that the fire is real. Running toward the fire lines, Corin fights to suppress waves of nausea and dizziness - feelings that have become more and more frequent over the passing months - to help his kinsmen. As the inhabitants of Verdanta lands, nobleman and commoner alike, struggle hopelessly to contain the worst fire in memory, all seems lost, and Verdanta doomed by uncontrollable flames, until help arrives unexpectedly in the person of Rumail, laranzu of Neskaya Tower. At Rumail's summoning, Tramontana Tower sends fire-fighting chemicals carried by air-glider, and the fire is finally contained. But Rumail has not come to Verdanta on an errand of mercy. He has come with the express intention of testing the Leynier children for laran potential, and quickly realizes that Colin is in the throes of "threshold sickness," a potentially deadly illness that accompanies the awakening of powerful laran. He offers to monitor Corin, and arang for him to enter Tramontana Tower for training. But durig Rumail's examination, Corin senses something terribly wrong - he knows that Rumail has implanted a seed of evil deep within his mind - yet when he wakes, he finds he cannot speak of it. For unknown to the Leyniers, Rumail is the nedestro brother of the powerful and corrupt King Damian Deslucido. Damian has enlisted the help of his laranzu brother in his plans of conquest - plans to unite all Darkover under one tyrannical rule - his own - and Rumail will stop at nothing - not even unethical use of his telepathic powers - to help his brother achieve his bloody and vainglorious aim.

Clingfire

After generations of struggle to protect the unique native culture of Darkover from the ambitions of the ruthless Terran Federation, the Terrans have finally been forced to abandon Darkover due to interstellar civil war. As Lew Alton wrestles with the dark shadows from his past, his daughter Marguerida's psychic Gifts warn of her of impending danger. But danger to whom? Her husband Mikhail as powerful head of the Hastur Domain is her most obvious worry, for many would stand to gain from his demise. Her son Domenic searches for his place in a world of shifting loyalties, torn by his love for two very different women and troubled by his destiny as the heir to Hastur. But while Darkover's powerful rulers face their personal demons, desperate refugees flood the streets of Thendara, Darkover's capital city, for in the mountains and ancient menace is once again on the rise - a power against which neither sword nor the psychic sorcery of Darkover can prevail.

In 1985, Deborah J. Ross sold her first Darkover short story to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Free Amazons of Darkover. "Midwife" relates the adventures of a young woman who inadvertently becomes the surrogate mother of a banshee chick -- a smelly, sightless, carnivorous bird. Bradley featured Ross's short stories -- dramatic, bittersweet, romantic, and humorous -- in subsequent anthologies, and often cited Ross's turnabout-twist story, "The Death of Brendon Ensolare," as one of her favorites. Eventually the two collaborated on novel-length works set in the world of the Bloody Sun. Following Bradley's death in 1999, Ross has continued the series, as well as editing six more Darkover anthologies. For the first time, here are all of Ross's Darkover short stories, some of them previously unpublished, now collected in one volume. ...A pair of City Guards cadets invent an imaginary recruit in order to avoid their chores, and then must face the consequences... In the Ages of Chaos, a young wizard must rely on his uncertain powers to survive a haunted Tower... When the new lord of a captured castle is found murdered, the all-too-obvious suspect is an Aldaran assassin... Only the legendary Keeper could save her circle under the onslaught of forbidden weapons, but the results would cripple generations of women to come...and in the title story, written as a birthday gift, Ross sends Marion Zimmer Bradley herself to Darkover to solve a crisis in "A Heat Wave in the Hellers"...

And Other Tales of Darkover

A Heat Wave in the Hellers

The third and final volume of The Seven-Petaled Shield series! For Shannivar, warrior of the Azkhantia Steppe, the future is grim. She faces twin threats: the mighty Gelon empire, ruthessly conquering independent nations like her own, and the malevolent entity of Fire and Ice, unleashed from its prison in the Far North. And she must face them alone. After meeting Zevaron, an exiled prince in search of aid from Azkhantia, Shannivar and Zevaron had traveled together and fallen in love. But their journey to the north to investigate dangerous omens failed when Zevaron was enthralled by the monstrous Fire and Ice. Now Zevaron's hatred for Gelon, the empire that destroyed his kingdom and killed his mother, threatens to consume not only him, but all the living world.

Book Three of The Seven-Petaled Shield

The Heir of Khored

When a power-mad tyrant uses mind-control tech to silence opposition, a diplomat's daughter appeals to Darkover's natural psychics to save both their worlds.

The Laran Gambit

The Fall of Neskaya, Book One of the Clingfire Trilogy, marks the legendary author's final return to Darkover before her death. Set in the tumultuous era of The Hundred Kingdoms, a terrible time of strife and war, this unique fantasy world is divided into a mutlitude of small belligerent domains vying for power and land. One ambitious and corrupt tyrant will stop at nothing to control Darkover-even wield the terrifying weapons of the matrix.

The Clingfire Trilogy, Volume I

An exciting fantasy adventure set in Marion Zimmer Bradley's popular world of Darkover Court life for Prince Gareth Elhalyn, grandson of the legendary Regis Hastur, has become unbearable. In a desperate attempt to escape, Gareth appeals to his powerful grandmother, Linnea, and with her blessing, disguises himself and travels to the barbarous, warlike Dry Towns where no one will recognize a prince. In the Dry Towns, Gareth overhears rumors of deadly, illegal Terran blasters and stumbles upon a terrible reality no one could have suspected. Meanwhile, Linnea has never ceased to search for her lost daughter, Kierestelli, whom she and Regis were forced to send into hiding with the native chieri. Almost by chance, Linnea reconnects along the telepathic relays with Kierestelli, now called Silvana of Nevarsin Tower. Silvana, convinced that her parents abandoned her, rejects her mother’s overture and returns to her hidden home among the chieri. But the chieri once roamed the stars themselves, and they have no forgotten the terror of warfare in space—lessons that they pass on to Silvana. Unknown to the ruling Comyn, danger now fills the skies above Darkover, and Silvana holds half the key to protecting their world. Gareth holds the other half, if he can only stay alive long enough to discover where that key is....

Thus begins the second novel in Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross' monumental Clingfire trilogy - the epic story of a cataclysmic time in the history of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover. The era of the Hundred Kingdoms was a time when power-hungry petty monarchs abounded on this frigid and magical world - a time of uncontrolled war and lawless disregard for all but the most imperialistic of political aims. a legendary friendship is forged between king and keeper which will lead to a new destiny for Darkover.

Zandrus Schmiede

Die Feuer von Darkover

First-rate world-building from a writer gifted with soaring imagination and good old-fashioned Sense of Wonder. — C.J. Cherryh A romantic and intellectually sexy gender discussion wrapped up in a compelling novel. — J. M. Frey, Lambda Literary Award reviews Poised on the brink of war, the people of the planet Bandar are stunned by the arrival of a disabled Terran space ship. But the Terrans are even less prepared to understand the politics, gender fluidity, or mob reflexes of the natives. The Terran captain uses increasing force as the only way to ensure desperately needed repairs. Hoping to bring enlightened human values to the natives, a young scientist's intervention leads to disaster. After a vicious assault, a pregnant native becomes radicalized. A failed poet sees the Terran occupation as a way to gain the recognition he craves. A widow whose farm is bombed using Terran weaponry journeys to the capital in search of help and ends up facing a firing squad. And a reporter becomes the voice of the resistance, determined to take back his world from the invaders... As violence escalates, the fate of both peoples rests with those who have suffered the most. Can they find a way to forgiveness . . . and peace? Lambda Literary Award Finalist James Tiptree, Jr. Award 2014 Long List

Deborah J. Ross

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