Stormqueen! is my favorite Darkover book, despite the unfortunate punctuation in the title. It's mostly because it takes place back during the glory days of Darkover, when the Towers were all standing, when laran provided light and heat and transportation and wasn't feared or hated, and when the Comyn warred for supremacy and thus provided plenty of opportunities for literary drama and tragedy. I wish there had been more Ages of Chaos books written, because it's my favorite time period on Darkover, but this and Hawkmistress! are the only two. You can tell because of the exclamation points.Though I admit, a lot of my love here is because it gets into the backstory of Darkover. In most of the other books, laran is either indistinguishable from witchcraft, or there are so few Comyn left that it's rarely used other than telepaths picking up each other's thoughts. In the Ages of Chaos, neither of those were true. Compare Sharra's Exile, where are three living Ridenow, to Stormqueen!, where the Ridenow are new arrivals in the Domains, having invaded Serrais lands from the Dry Towns and married the women of the Serrais family. At one point they're described as vibrant, having many sons, which is important when it seems like the Darkovan nobility has a 50% mortality rate (if not higher) in adolescence due to inbreeding and threshold sickness.This is the height of laran power, when long-range telepathic contact was routine even outside the Towers, and when the Towers themselves charged laran batteries that let aircars fly and power lights and elevators in the Comyn's castles, when matrix-surfaced roads and matrix-constructed buildings dot the land, when noble children are taught enough of laran that they can telekinetically lift themselves to flight with the air of gliders, and when the matrix technicians of Tramontana Tower speak casually of working with a twenty-fifth level Matrix. In The Heritage of Hastur, the entire plot revolved around a single ninth-level matrix which was apparently powerful enough to pull the moons down from the sky. Focusing on the laran is a bit of a misdirection, though, because while Stormqueen!'s plot requires the existence of psychic powers to function, most of the tragic elements don't draw on any preternatural source. A noble lord who has seen all his children die but one daughter and doesn't want his lands to pass out of his family when he dies. A foster son who is favored by his father but isn't in the line of succession. Two brothers who quarrel over land. A ruler who cannot understand that not everyone is as ambitious as he is. The stuff of which tragedy is made.I won't say that it's spectacularly well-written, because it's not, but it gets a lot of good-will from me for plausibly showing the consequences of the characters' laran. Allart Hastur has the ability to see the results of his choices, and it almost drives him insane (and does drive a relative of his insane) and sends him into Nevarsin, where every day is the same as the next and he won't be paralyzed by the possible futures. In interacting with Dorilys, who can see the magnetic fields of Darkover and the way she can predict storms, he learns how to shut out some of the less likely futures and no longer see hundreds on hundreds of outcomes from every possible action.And poor Dorilys. Everyone in the book usually makes the best choices they could at the time--well, except Lord Aldaran--and there's basically no other way it could have ended for her. Born with the ability to control lightning, no one was willing to discipline her because they were afraid, which is admittedly perfectly logical. But with all her whims being fulfilled, she never really gains any control over her laran, and that eventually leads to tragedy for everyone even in the moment of their triumph.There's some interesting overtones of history repeating itself. From hints in the book, you get the idea that earlier in Darkover's history, monogamy was strongly discouraged in order to build up more genetic diversity, and that led to large multi-partner family groups where everyone was equal. But when the descendants of Hastur began their deliberately non-specific breeding program, descent and knowing who had children with whom became much more important. As the program continued and laran grew stronger, viable children grew fewer and fewer--the Serrais inbred themselves into sterility, and all children of Lord Aldaran's first marriage died in adolescence--so having more children becomes more important, and the upshot of all this is that women lose more and more rights until they're basically chattel unless they work in the Towers. I wish the book had explored this part more, because the characters occasionally lament the result but I'd be interested to see exactly how the process from stranded Terran colonists with nominal equality to feudal patriarchal hellhole went.Even though that's mostly backstory, I still love Stormqueen! as a familial tragedy among psychic nobility. I wish there had been more Darkover books on this subject instead of on the conflict between Terran and Darkovan culture, but at least this one is good enough that I don't mind as much as I otherwise would.
This was my first Darkover novel & it is a great place to start. It was what made me continue to read others within the series, but I believe I chose the wrong ones to continue with (HAWKMISTRESS comes to mind). I would classify these books as "science fantasy" considering the setting of the series is of a lost colony of Earth on the planet Darkover, who have lost their technology thus reverting themselves back to the stone age. Through this plight, they have pretty much established a feudal system--families have Kingdoms & subjects, clans, etc. But what separates this from fantasy is the discovery of "Laran"--the planet mutates the humans, gifting them with specific Psionics. It's the psionics which replace what could be considered "magic" in a fantasy setting. These mind powers run the gamut from telekinesis, telepathy, pyrokinesis, precognition, mentally communing with animals to controlling the weather--plus many others. With the title of the novel being STORMQUEEN, one can ascertain which Laran ability is focused on with the story.It is a tragic tale & one that becomes a legend within the history of the planet of Darkover itself. It is a legend which is alluded to time & time again within future Darkover novels--the legend of the woman with the most powerful Laran ever to exist on Darkover & how she's kept in a permanent state of comatose so her power will never be unleashed upon the world. The reason she is kept this way is due to the fact she cannot control the power, it could drive her insane & therefore bring about Darkover's destruction.Do not expect a storybook ending, you will not find one here. I believe this fact is what made me really appreciate the novel even more. It's one of the best novels involving psionics--ever! Bradley is a good writer & I believe this is one of her best. If you want to explore Darkover yourself, I suggest starting with this one.
What do You think about Stormqueen! (1978)?
2015 Review: Where Stormqueen! was more about the breeding-program, Hawkmistress! was more about the Hundred Kingdoms. I loved them both in their own rights. Both Dorilys & Romilly are strong characters. Dorilys is frightening wonder, and Romilly is emotionally driven. Both are awesome & I'm eager for Thunderlord!2009 Review of Stormqueen!: It takes place during the Age of Chaos, when the Seven Domains of Darkover are ruled as independent, warring fiefs engaged in a psychic arms race, developing deadly weapons through the use of their psionics and genetically engineering their children to produce ever-stronger mental powers. One of the casualties of this breeding program is Dorilys, the Stormqueen of the title. Sweet-natured, yet extremely willful and spoiled, she is denied nothing--not only because she is Heir to the Aldaran Domain, but because she is able to enforce her demands with psychically-generated lightning bolts. But as she grows older, she becomes less and less able to control her storm-causing abilities. Will Dorilys successfully master her body and mind...or will her mental strength ultimately consume her? https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/6242342-news-flash-more-darkover-novels?ref=ru_lihp_up_abp_1_mclk&uid=6242342
—Jimmy
Ah... Darkover. After having read eleven Darkover books, reading the next two (Stormqueen! and Hawkmistress! in the omnibus The Ages of Chaos) feels like returning home, albeit to a fantasy home. This was surprising since The Ages of Chaos takes place in early Darkovan chronology, before Darkovans meet with the Terrans. The previous Darkover books I read, with the exception of Darkover Landfall have the underlying theme of the clash of Darkover culture with Terran culture. In The Ages of Chaos, this underlying theme is missing. However, there are still aspects of Darkover culture that are familiar from previous novels (although the setting is an earlier time period). What makes the two novels in The Ages of Chaos stand out is the sacrifices that are being made in order to bred and keep laran (Darkovan psi powers) within the ruling families.In the first novel of the omnibus, Stormqueen!, the story centers around a young woman (a pre-teen more accurately), Dorilys, with a special type of laran to call forth lightning and storms. Stubborn, willful, and terribly spoiled as the heir to her father's domain, Dorilys has killed twice already before her father decides he needs more help training and controlling his daughter and her powers. From one of the Towers, a trained monitor is sent to help along with another who has his own laran to fear and to conquer as well as his own personal worries - worries that affect not just him, but the whole of Darkover. The story is told primarily through the viewpoints of the two who are sent to help Dorilys.In the second novel, Hawkmistress!, the story is told through the main character, Romilly, who eventually runs away from home after being told she must marry a man she finds absolutely repulsive. Fed up with being told what she could and couldn't do (as a 'Lady'), she disguises herself as a boy as it is safer than to travel as a young woman alone (she is 14 in the beginning of the story) only to find that she rather enjoys the freedom she has disguised a boy - more freedom than she ever had as a girl. The story is set against the background of a civil war, and Romilly finds herself in the company of exiled men and others who are loyal to the exiled King Carolin. Romilly's laran is the ability to share minds with hawks and horses (and other animals). As her father's daughter, she learned to train hawks and horses, but at the age of 14 was being told it was "unseemly" to be doing such things (things she loved to do). Such is the impetus for her leaving her home (even her prospective husband would not let her continue training hawks and horses). Romilly's only real desire is to be herself and to train hawks and horses. Her laran seems harmless enough, but there are consequences and side effects she hadn't thought of. As time passes and as she сontinues to use her laran (without Tower training), she finds her powers aren't really all that simple to deal with and that they could put her own life at risk.Although I initially thought I wouldn't enjoy these two stories as much as the previous Darkover stories, I was surprised to find I enjoyed them just as much. Part of this, I think, is how Bradley writes. I find her style engaging. As for the stories, you are hardly bored as something is always happening and the characters are always doing something (unlike other books I could name, but won't since they are probably mentioned on this blog somewhere already). This makes for good pacing in a story. Need I say that there were a few twists here and there? How could there not be, these two stories are set in the 'Ages of Chaos' after all. ;)Overall, a good read. The omnibus gets 5 out of 5. :D(Originally posted on my blog - http://www.brigidsflame.com/feymorgai...
—周婉蓮 차우 크리스티나 Cass
Much better than the previous one. This one is much closer to fantasy than to SF... A thousand years has passed and the space cast-aways society evolved into a pseudo-feudal psionic inbred society. Marriages are prearranged in order to strengthen the PSI capabilities but this process leads not only to psychological but also physical issues. Nicely presented tensions and consequences of being to true to your land and family. Individual versus familial conflicts. Characters are a bit bland but it still reads well.
—Jakub
