Ah, a good Ages of Chaos tragedy.Though, it's not quite either of those. Unlike Stormqueen!, The Fall of Neskaya is sure that the Ages of Chaos were another time, back in the past when things were terrible and everyone fought each other all the time and used terrible laran weapons. Not like these modern days. And I'm sure if you asked the characters what the difference was, they'd be able to split hairs in such a way that there was a difference, but I didn't see it. And while there are certainly tragic events, it's not really a tragedy.I admit, I had a bit of a hard time buying the central premise of the story. So, the Deslucido family is gobbling up small mountain kingdoms in their bid to challenge the Hasturs of the lowlands for power. The Deslucidos are bad mainly because they're not the protagonists, though they do end up using laran weapons in warfare, including direct psychic assault by a Tower under their control, so they're not all that sympathetic. The real reason they're apparently so terrible is because the Deslucido Gift is the ability to lie under truthspell.Truthspell has come up occasionally in other books, but never with the kind of central place that it has in The Fall of Neskaya. Here, people repeatedly react to the idea that the Deslucidos can lie under truthspell with absolute horror, like doing so was the moral equivalent of murdering under a flag of truce or executing hostages without a motive. But truthspell has never been the fundamental underpinning of Darkovan society that it's painted as here in any other book. Everyone acts like there's no way for anyone to be trustworthy unless truthspell is a possibility and that the hundred kingdoms would dissolve into never-ending war without it. Okay, there's a disclaimer at the beginning that some details may have changed between this and other books, but this one was a bit too abrupt.You'd think that a society of telepaths could come up with something else that would let them figure this out, but I guess that would require them to trust each other more. I do like the underlying message that telepathy doesn't actually bring people closer together, though.The actual plot of the book is pretty good, but I thought there were some odd under-utilizations of characters. Liane is pretty important very early on, and then disappears from the narrative for the vast majority of its running time. Damian's son Belisar mostly comes off as a bratty child. Even Coryn seems not quite filled in entirely compared to Taniquel once the second half of the story comes around and Taniquel becomes a major character, which makes the love subplot a bit thin. I could easily believe that Taniquel was in love with Coryn, but had a harder time with Coryn's feelings. I don't have that much more to say about this one, I think. It was well-written and a liked it, with a few issues that kept it from being five stars. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy and seeing where this goes.
Another good novel by..., well I guess most of it by Deborah J. Ross. Marion Zimmer Bradley has been gone for about a decade now and still books are released in her name. She often wrote books with a co-author during her life and if I am to believe them she left a lot of novels at her death that she didn't manage to finish... So the name Marion Zimmer Bradley is still prominently on the books!This book is the first part of a trilogy, 'the clingfire trilogy'. Unfortunately I don't have part two and three yet, so I can't go on reading. This book is one of the many novels about the planet Darkover. About some people having psychic powers, kings that are after each others land, barren land and bad weather conditions. Once started you're not able to put the book down again...
What do You think about The Fall Of Neskaya (2002)?
Ma quale trilogia?Con gli altri due libri della “trilogia” (le virgolette sono quanto mai d’obbligo) questo ha legami tenui a dir molto. Forse, se fosse stato presentato come un libro a sé stante, avrebbe potuto essere parzialmente (e sottolineo “parzialmente”) apprezzato; ma spacciato come parte di una trilogia fa solo sentire truffati. Pecca oltre modo grave, poi, è la totale mancanza di motivazione per certi atti compiuti all’inizio del romanzo da parte del “cattivo” di turno. Nel complesso, rimane un libro inutile. Recensione originariamente apparsa in http://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/ nell’estate 2011.
—Marcello Tarot
I read some books of the Darkover series years before but since I hardly remember them I started to read the series from the beginning again. However, this one kind of stuck in my mind after reading it for the first time. I still tend to like the more fantasy themed books of the series more than others and this one combined my favorite topics. The work in the towers and their involvement in the wars were quite interesting.However, especially the last part of the book is highly themed on a love story which didn't really do it for. It was not bad per se but I liked other parts of the main characters story way more than the actual love story.
—Kathrin
This book was written by Deborah J. Ross in the Darkover world created by Marion Zimmer Bradley; apparently, the idea and some of the early plot concepts came from Ms. Bradley before her death, but the majority of the actual writing was done by Ms. Ross. Nonetheless, it rang true as a Darkover novel; it had the feel of Bradley's writing. I'm given to understand that Ms. Ross had been working with Ms. Bradley for years, and understood her world as well as anyone. It has the added benefit that Ms. Ross actually has a better talent for detail than Ms. Bradley when it comes to proofreading her own work, so there are none of the sloppy mistakes that Ms. Bradley sometimes allowed to slip into her writing. This novel is set in the Ages of Chaos, before the Compact was signed that prevented the use of laran in warfare.I honestly think that this is one of the best Darkover novels, even though it was not, for the most part, written by Marion Bradley. The characters were vivid, the plot excellent, the writing superb. A fine addition to a very fine series.
—Jimyanni
