City of Sorcery (pub. 1984), takes place seven years after the events in Thendara House, and there have been changes. Peter Haldane is now Legate, and Renunciates and women of the Terran Service working together have created The Bridge Society, a means for Terran and Darkovan to share knowledge and learn to work and live together. Jaelle and Magda are sworn freemates, living mostly at Armida, each having born a daughter by men of the Forbidden Tower - Dorilys nHa Jaelle, now five, and Shaya n'ha Margali, aged two. In addition, Magda and Camilla are lovers, though not sworn.During a visit to Thendara, Magda is called to the Terran Zone by a request from Cholayna Ares - a survey plane has been lost in the area between the Hellers and The Wall Around the World, but somehow, the pilot, Lexie Anders, has appeared, her memory gone, regressed to childhood, at the gates of Terran HQ. Magda is able to use her laran to restore Lexie's memories - including a familiar image of robed women and crows calling - and the pilot reports having seen a previously unknown city hidden in the mountain vastness.Driven by ambition to make a name for herself, Lexie hires Renunciate and mountain guide/trail organiser Rafaella - Jaelle's former partner - to take her into the Hellers in search of this mysterious city. Rafaella - who has been nursing resentment against Magda for taking Jaelle away from their partnership and the Guild - leaves a message for Jaelle, begging her to follow with extra supplies. Jaelle shares this message with Magda and Camilla, both of whom have some thoughts on the hidden city. Like all Renunciates, they know that there is a secret society of Renunciates with laran called the Sisterhood; Magda has accidentally intruded on their meetings, and associates them with the imagery in Lexie's memories, while Camilla has heard tales of a hidden city of wise women who can grant the successful supplicant the answer to one question.Driven by their various loyalties, responsibilities, and personal desires, five women - Jaelle, Magda, Camilla, Cholayna and Vanessa ryn Erin, a Terran Personnel Officer who is a member of the Bridge Society and an experienced mountaineer - set out after Lexie and Rafaella. The journey is fraught with difficulty and danger - bad weather, treacherous mountain trails, altitude sickness and savage cold, bandits and wild animals, and eventually a cult of women who oppose the Sisterhood and seek to use the travellers to gain power.In some ways, City of Sorcery is a Pilgrim's Progress for the feminist, a journey toward a legendary place of wisdom and solace that can only be found by facing and overcoming trials and temptations. It is certainly no accident that almost all the characters in the novel are women, with even glimpses of men limited to street and group scenes.In the end, not all the women who set out to find the hidden city survive; of those who do, some are invited onward to enter the city, others decline to go further, but all have had the depths of their own courage, self-knowledge, and sense of sisterhood tested, and found, not necessarily the path they most desire, but the path they freely and knowingly choose.
Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote 18 Darkover novels--more if you include collaborations. Darkover is a "lost colony" of Earth that falls into a medieval society ruled by a psychic aristocracy and is later rediscovered by a star-spanning advanced human federation after centuries, giving the series a feel of both science fiction and fantasy. Most books in the series examine this culture clash and this book is no exception as it focuses on a Terran, Magda, and a native of Darkover, Jaelle. The books were designed to be read independently, and so you could start here, but some books are somewhat connected and that's the case here, and you may see it marked as book two of the "Renunciates Trilogy." The Renunciates are also known as the "Free Amazons" and the first book in the trilogy, The Shattered Chain also deals with Jaelle and Magda and makes an excellent entry into the series. Indeed, it's the book I started with on the recommendation of a friend, and the book that hooked me on the series. The two later books in the trilogy are certainly good reads, even if I do like Shattered Chain best. I quite liked City of Sorcery, one of the last books set in Darkover MZB ever wrote, even if not the last chronologically. It's about five women, including Jaelle and Magda, who go on a journey to "the Wall Around the World." (Think Himalayas.) I liked the comraderie among the women and the sheer adventure. It has a different, more reflective feel than I usually found in MZB.
What do You think about City Of Sorcery (1984)?
I hadn't read any Bradley in a while, and this was my first Darkover novel. She's just as good as I remember her, with strong, colorful characterizations, adrenaline-soaked action scenes, and extremely believable conversations (both internal and spoken). The pacing of this book was excellent, with a good balance of intrigue, exposition, and full-on adventure. I definitely want to read more Darkover.That said, this might not have been the best place to jump in. The story has strong roots in relationships established in previous books, and I'm sure I missed a lot of important nuances. While Bradley does a great job bringing the new reader up to date, I'm sure her work is a lot more fulfilling when read in order.
—Columbine
Completes the Renunciates series.SPOILER ALERT--I will give away very specific information about the fate of characters; DO NOT READ if you DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS to JAELLE, MAGDA, and Cholayna.I have to say that, initially, I thought this was a fairly typical "Quest Fantasy" book. Nothing wrong with that, and Bradley's stuff is always well done. Set about seven years after the events of Thendara House, It largely involves Magda and Jalle, who must venture to beyond the Wall Around The World, a remote mountain range past any known area on Darkover explored either by natives or Terrans. The reason for their journey is they are trying to rescue Rafaella, Jaelle's former business partner, and Lexi, a Terran who, feeling competitive with Magda, has ventured on the journey to gain glory and attention from her Terran superiors. It did not help that Bradley kept doing the verbal equivalent of melodramatic off stage organ riffs--dun Dun DUNN! Saying, "Later she was to regret what she did" and things like that. The kind of stuff I equate with sloppy writing.Accompanying Magda and Jaelle are two Terrans, Cholayna and Vanessa, and Camilla, an older Renunciate. The journey is so well done, with so many suprises, that it doesn't feel like a traditional "Quest Fantasy" book. As always, Bradley writes great action, and her descriptions of mountain climbing and of long travels in the cold are so vivid they read almost like really engaging non-fiction.But I still resisted, thinking it was a variation on a theme, thinking "I've read this book before. Bradley's doing a good job, but . . "I NEVER expected her to kill of Jaelle, a main character, one we've known and loved almost since the beginning of the trilogy. Not in a million years. It's "set up," it makes heart sense, and her death is a vital part of the plot. But I was so blown away, both by Jaelle's death and by the end, that I have to say it's the best plotted book of the trilogy, and of all her works. Not the best book; the depth of character exploration that made me love Shattered Chain and Thendara House isn't as much in evidence, but in terms of plot--actual events--the book's dazzling.I even came to wonder if the stuff I'd hated earlier--the "organ riffs" weren't intended to soften the blow to me as a reader when I "lose" Jaelle. Of course, I read this novel the week my mother died, so my perspective might be off.She woulda loved the Renunciate Trilogy, though.
—Chuck
