Book description
The power of laran. It has been fifteen years since Marguerida Alton
returned to Darkover, discovered the terrifying powers of her special
laran, and fell in love with Mikhail Lanhart-Hastur, heir designate to
the regency of Darkover. With the proper instruction Margerida has, over
time, learned to control her telepathic Gift, and can even work with her
unique shadow matrix. Now Marguerida's life is more settled - though no
less hectic. As the seconds-in-command to the aging Regent, Regis
Hastur, life in Comyn Castle for Marguerida and Mikhail is far from
serene. But the current tensions in Darkover have more to do with the
Terran Federation than with anything internal to Darkover. For nearly
ten years, Lyle Belfontaine, the corrupt and ambitious Station Chief at
Federation Headquarters in Thendara, has been pressuring Comyn Council
to relinquish Darkover's Protected status and join the Federation as a
full member planet. Yet this is something Comyn Council will never to
agree to do, for it would mean the death of their culture and the rape
of their planetary resources. But when the military coup rocks the
Federation, cutting off all communication with local envoys, Belfontaine
sees an opportunity to wrest by force what he has been unable to gain
through diplomacy and plans a violent takeover on Darkover. Can Mikhail
and Marguerida face the might of Terran weapons with only their combined
telepathic laran powers? 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.
