Book description
In this Bradley's latest Darkover novel, the many colourful threads of
that part-human, part alien world are rewoven into a strikingly
different literary tapestry. One such thread could be called the
Heritage of Ardais, for the heir to the Ardais Domain has vanished and
must be found. The major thread and pattern concerns the role of women.
While only women can command the power of the matrix and the secret
sciences which keep Darkover from Terran hands, in most respects they
are still chattel - indeed in some barbaric parts even kept enchained.
Yet there are the strange bands of pledged women known as the Free
Amazons, equal to men and outside the laws that keep the rest of their
sex subservient. And it is the Free Amazons who provide the key both to
the Ardais mystery and the Terran-Darkover dilemma. Marion Zimmer
Bradley (1930 - 1999) Marion Zimmer was born on a farm in Albany, New
York, in 1930, and married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949. She received a
B. A. from Hardin Simmons University, Texas, and did post-graduate work
at the University of California, Berkeley, during which time she helped
found the Society for Creative Anachronism. She sold her first story in
1952 and was a writer of note for over four decades. Bradley is best
known for two signature series: the 'Darkover' science fantasy series
and her Arthurian masterpiece, The Mists of Avalon and its sequels. She
also edited anthologies for 14 years and published Marion Zimmer
Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, which ran for 50 quarterly issues between
1988 and the end of 2000. Marion Zimmer Bradley died in Berkeley,
California, on September 25, 1999, four days after suffering a major
heart attack.
