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Old 11-15-2010, 01:50 AM   #5
ATDrake
Wizzard
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Posts: 11,517
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Roundworld
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You're welcome. Just as a tip, don't be tempted to buy any of the Fictionwise short stories labeled "Darkover series" or anything else that's not obviously a novel or collection. They've practically all been bundled up much cheaper in the collected versions and you can pick up any strays during a future sale.

Also, I had a quick peek at Kobo to see what was available from her later works. It seems like only the omnibus editions of Heritage of Hastur/Sharra's Exile and The Spell Sword/Forbidden Tower are officially available from publisher DAW, from "classic" Darkover, though there are also some co-written sequels that were produced from outlines after MZB's death. These are of varying quality and best considered glorified fanfic (which does not keep them from being okay and decently entertaining reads, just that it's best to read them later, like the lesser-quality original Darkovers).

Fortunately for you, Heritage/Exile is probably the very best in the Darkover sequence, and essential reading. You can jump into it without knowing all that much about the background, because Exile was re-written from the earlier version called "Sword of Aldones", which was the very first Darkover ever. And Heritage was written as a prequel to explain how Darkover got the way it was when it was originally setup, so this is effectively the culmination of the re-tooled, re-imagined version of the series once MZB thought she had it all figured out.

Spell Sword/Forbidden Tower is also a pretty good quality reading set, although not among the very best. The first book is more like older Darkover with a simpler adventure-type story, Forbidden Tower is a direct sequel to that, but written much later and incorporates a lot of the increasingly complex psychic/relationship ideas that MZB would incorporate into her "high" Darkover phase when the better-quality books were written.

Unfortunately, those better-quality books are mostly missing from the digital catalogue, but hopefully they'll one day put them up, and in the meanwhile, you do have the very best of them to read.

If you'd like any reading suggestions in particular (MZB wrote a wide variety of styles in her Darkover novels, so if you're looking for a YA, a quest-adventure, a gender relationships one, a coming-of-age story, or a scheming-and-plotting epic political/family drama, there's plenty to pick from if you've a particular preference), please feel free to ask in the Reading Recs forum and I'm sure plenty of people will help direct to you to the novels you might like best.
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