The Spell Sword

Rating:
Summary: a good Darkover novel
Review: "The Spell Sword" is another Darkover novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley. This one is set sometime after the Terran Empire rediscovered Darkover. Now there are both the Darkovan natives, as well as men from Terra living on Darkover. This novel begins in a way that we have seen several times before: with a crash of a Terran vehicle on Darkover. This time it is from a team based at the Terran outpost at Thendara. Andrew Carr is a member of the Mapping and Explorations team that is slowly gathering information about Darkover. In a winter storm, the plane crashed and it was only through what Andrew thought was a hallucination that he was able to survive for very long in the storm. Andrew had visions of a woman named Callista guiding him away from the plane and to safety, but he had difficulty believing that these visions might be true. Eventually, Carr does come to accept that the vision is more than a hallucination, but someone communicating with him.

Damon Ridenow has been called to help find Callista, who has gone missing without a trace. Before Damon arrives at Callista's home he has to travel through someplace called "the darkened land" where the land is in shadows, uninhabitable and attacks can come from invisible assailants. Not a place you would want to spend much time. After passing through "the darkened land", Damon learns more about Callista's abduction and also meets Andrew Carr who was led there somehow by the vision of Callista. When Andrew and Damon discuss what has happened, they see the connection and that the only way to save Callista is by working together. Damon is surprised to discover that Andrew, a Terran, also has the potential to be a telepath, which Damon believed was a skill native to Darkover.

Throughout the Darkover series we hear that there are non-human races on the planet: the chieri and the cat-people. While we see the chieri once or twice, we have never seen the cat-people before and this was an area that I was interested in. For the most part, they are not developed as a race or as characters, except that we now know that some can be telepaths like humans (and chieri). We also know that they are mainly enemies of humans (though they have worked with the less reputable humans from the Dry Towns), though Damon does allow that their motives and culture are so far removed from human that it would be difficult to truly comprehend it.

This is a short novel, coming in less than 200 pages, but I found it to be fairly entertaining and I suspect that it sets the stage for the much longer "The Forbidden Tower" which features many of the same characters. "The Spell Sword" serves as introduction to Andrew Carr, Damon Ridenow, and Callista. It is fairly good for a fantasy novel, though it does not feature the depth of some. This is a straight forward story with some action.

Rating:
Summary: a good Darkover novel
Review: "The Spell Sword" is another Darkover novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley. This one is set sometime after the Terran Empire rediscovered Darkover. Now there are both the Darkovan natives, as well as men from Terra living on Darkover. This novel begins in a way that we have seen several times before: with a crash of a Terran vehicle on Darkover. This time it is from a team based at the Terran outpost at Thendara. Andrew Carr is a member of the Mapping and Explorations team that is slowly gathering information about Darkover. In a winter storm, the plane crashed and it was only through what Andrew thought was a hallucination that he was able to survive for very long in the storm. Andrew had visions of a woman named Callista guiding him away from the plane and to safety, but he had difficulty believing that these visions might be true. Eventually, Carr does come to accept that the vision is more than a hallucination, but someone communicating with him.

Damon Ridenow has been called to help find Callista, who has gone missing without a trace. Before Damon arrives at Callista's home he has to travel through someplace called "the darkened land" where the land is in shadows, uninhabitable and attacks can come from invisible assailants. Not a place you would want to spend much time. After passing through "the darkened land", Damon learns more about Callista's abduction and also meets Andrew Carr who was led there somehow by the vision of Callista. When Andrew and Damon discuss what has happened, they see the connection and that the only way to save Callista is by working together. Damon is surprised to discover that Andrew, a Terran, also has the potential to be a telepath, which Damon believed was a skill native to Darkover.

Throughout the Darkover series we hear that there are non-human races on the planet: the chieri and the cat-people. While we see the chieri once or twice, we have never seen the cat-people before and this was an area that I was interested in. For the most part, they are not developed as a race or as characters, except that we now know that some can be telepaths like humans (and chieri). We also know that they are mainly enemies of humans (though they have worked with the less reputable humans from the Dry Towns), though Damon does allow that their motives and culture are so far removed from human that it would be difficult to truly comprehend it.

This is a short novel, coming in less than 200 pages, but I found it to be fairly entertaining and I suspect that it sets the stage for the much longer "The Forbidden Tower" which features many of the same characters. "The Spell Sword" serves as introduction to Andrew Carr, Damon Ridenow, and Callista. It is fairly good for a fantasy novel, though it does not feature the depth of some. This is a straight forward story with some action.

Rating:
Summary: Darkover has lots of magic weapons...
Review: Darkover history has a lot of magic weapons, for an example the legendary Aldones sword. This story is about another sword, one with a matrix in it that aloud Don Steban, one great warrior that has been hurted in battle and can not walk, to fight trough the person who is holding it. This book, also, present us to Andrew Carr, a terran who has been haunted by the spirit of a Keeper wich is trapped by non-humans appart from her friends and family. He found himself atracted by the strange planet and when his plane has crashed in the Hellers he needs to believe in the strange woman, which appears only to him, to survive. Another important caracther that appears in this book is Damon Ridenow, a man who has lost his faith in himself when the Keeper of Arilin Tower send him away. This man starts here his journey, to get back his own confidence and leadership; the following steps in his path will be shown in the book named Forbiden Tower.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent! Synopsis
Review: From back of paperback:

Although Darkover was a world inhabited by humans as well as semi-humans, it was primarily forbidden ground to the Terran traders. Most of the planet's wild terrain was unexplored... and many of its people seclusive and secretive.

But for Andrew Carr, there was an attraction he could not evade. Darkover drew him, Darkover haunted him- and when his mapping plane crashed in unknown heights, Darkover prepared to destroy him.

Until the planet's magic asserted itself- and his destiny began to unfold along lines predicted only by phantoms and wonder workers of the kind Terran science could never acknowledge.

The SPELL SWORD is a Darkover novel to stand with the great ones of the series.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Put it Down
Review: The story line is so exciting, and the characters so lovable. A person can't help but get into it, and have a hard time not thinking about the story or wondering what's next. It took no time at all to read the book, partly because of the suspense and partly because it's only 156 pages. It's an excellent appetizer, some of her other books are longer, but from the three that I've read they all seem to have the same effect.

Rating:
Summary: A good Read
Review: This book is full of suspence, and it has some interesting information. There is also a love story that only makes it better. I would reccomend this book to any fan of MZB.