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Summary: How humans got on Darkover and received the starstones.
Review: I started with the later books of the series and always wondered how the humans came across their matrixes. Then I found this book. It was great, it filled in a lot of details. Like what really happened in Darkover's beginning, not just the myths that you read about in the later stories. If you've never read MZB before, start with this one. If you have read her before, read this anyways.
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Summary: Good place to start...
Review: I'd never read any other Darkover novels and I thought this one was great. It really got my interest and now I'm totally hooked. If you want a series that'll draw you in, start here.
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Summary: Best science fiction series ever
Review: Really, that's my only serious complaint about the book. I would have liked to see MZB spend more time on the founding of what became Darkover. Given that I haven't become bored with Darkover books more than twice as long (Stormqueen! comes to mind, for example), she obviously would have been capable of it. Also, in the short novel with a teeny little 14-years-later epilogue, we're presented with at least as large of an ensemble cast as the one found in Stormqueen!, and I couldn't develop the same amount of affection for the characters because there just wasn't TIME. I would have loved to know more about Judy and her daughter Lori, or about what Father Valentine did after initially beginning his "penance," but it just wasn't there.That depressed me. Otherwise, the book is quite good. I particularly enjoyed the evolution of the names that become important in later novels. (Del Rey becomes Delleray, New Skye becomes Neskaya, etc.)
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Summary: Too Short!
Review: Really, that's my only serious complaint about the book. I would have liked to see MZB spend more time on the founding of what became Darkover. Given that I haven't become bored with Darkover books more than twice as long (Stormqueen! comes to mind, for example), she obviously would have been capable of it. Also, in the short novel with a teeny little 14-years-later epilogue, we're presented with at least as large of an ensemble cast as the one found in Stormqueen!, and I couldn't develop the same amount of affection for the characters because there just wasn't TIME. I would have loved to know more about Judy and her daughter Lori, or about what Father Valentine did after initially beginning his "penance," but it just wasn't there. That depressed me. Otherwise, the book is quite good. I particularly enjoyed the evolution of the names that become important in later novels. (Del Rey becomes Delleray, New Skye becomes Neskaya, etc.)
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Summary: If your not familiar with Darkover, this book with bore you
Review: Short and sweet? Hey I guess this book is a necessary evil, we need to know how humans got to Darkover in the first place. I had to many issues with this book, especially with the cheri. So they boinked a human and now we have Hastur's? And Father Valentine, I'm still not sure whether I liked the fact that he was sexually repressed (like most preists) or hated him because he was the founding spiritual leader (St. Valentine of the Snows?) And I really didn't care for any of the characters. This book must've been written by a "Freind of Darkover" because it lacked depth. Alright "Salt" was a really good "FoD" story. If you feel like you have to read this book.
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Summary: The first Darkover book, chronologically.
Review: The ship has crashed, there's no seeming way off the desolate planet, but still it looks like there's dissention in the ranks. The overly pastoral-minded colonists view this planet as just as good as the one they were on their way to and the spacers just want to GO!
The female characters are a little too motherly for my tastes (all overly-feminine acting), but that was the times. Written the year I was born it was, nonetheless, a quite enjoyable read.
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Summary: Survival on a distant planet
Review: This book, chronologically the first in the Darkover series, is more science fiction oriented than the others. It tells a fascinating story of the survivors of a shipwreck on the planet Darkover. The crew faces the problems of dealing with new lifeforms and their effects on humans and meet with the mysterious Ghost Wind, a strange force which affects their emotional states. Very short ( an evening's read) as novels go, it is a good introduction to Bradley, her Darkover series and would serve as a good intro to science fiction in general.
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Summary: Survival on a distant planet
Review: This book, chronologically the first in the Darkover series, is more science fiction oriented than the others. It tells a fascinating story of the survivors of a shipwreck on the planet Darkover. The crew faces the problems of dealing with new lifeforms and their effects on humans and meet with the mysterious Ghost Wind, a strange force which affects their emotional states. Very short ( an evening's read) as novels go, it is a good introduction to Bradley, her Darkover series and would serve as a good intro to science fiction in general.
Rating: 
Summary: get the background
Review: This is the first Darkover book I read (about 5 years ago), and it got me hooked. I read about a dozen of them, then moved on the some of MZBs newer books. This one is definately not the best of the series, but it is a very intriging introduction to what comes later on the planet Darkover. Start with this one to get some backgound, then move into some of the other early ones, which are great!
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