Bradley rewrote several of her earlier books to bring them more in line with the main sequence. If she did so with this book, I haven't seen a copy.The Spell Sword isn't really enchanted, of course--there's just a matrix attached to enable the injured Dom Esteban to take over the reflexes of his less-gifted son-in-law-to-be.The Catmen of Darkover are almost never really introduced anywhere in the series. They're offstage shadows, mostly, blamed for breakdowns and attacks that could as easily have been left to human bandits. There's no real analysis of their motives and culture. It wouldn't be surprising if (say) the Ya-Men (who never really appear at all except when driven out of hiding by a Ghost Wind), or the timid Trail-Men, or the Forge-Folk (Who may be mutated humans) would resent the takeover of their world by Earth-humans. But the Cat-Men have no real obvious motive for moving in on Alton lands, or other lands into the Hellers, UNLESS human incursions into territories they once considered exclusively theirs had become insufferable over time. But in that case, why would they wait for a charismatic leader? Unless, of course, they're really too individualistic to be realistically effective as soldiers. Worse, there's no real ATTEMPT to get to know them. Several people (most notably Damon Ridenow, whose GIFT is communicating with nonhumans), simply dismiss them as unknowable. The only meeting that's accepted is fighting. No other communication is even offered, though it's evidently possible for humans to communicate with the cat-folk. If the Dry-Towners (not noted for their empathy) are able to trade with them, why can't a Ridenow? And I don't mean the Great Cat, either. He's evidently an aberration, and seems quite likely to have been insane. What about the ordinary cat-folk? Take one example. The 'darkened lands' are said to be darkened because the nocturnal cat-folk find sunlight painful. I can definitely relate: so do I. But why do the cat-people feel they HAVE to go out in the daytime? If they're nocturnal, why not remain so? And why would they have fled their native lands (IF they have--we only have the word or humans that they have) unless they were driven? You can't dismiss them as motiveless demons. The desperation that led the Great Cat to experiment with an unmonitored matrix screen may have been simple madness--but the ordinary cat-folk chose to follow him. And though mention is made of the females, there's no real encounter with any in our field of view. As for the abuses they're accused of, there's no real evidence that the cat-folk have any tradition of keeping prisoners or pets. They may literally not know the first thing about it. If humans find THEIR motives inexplicable, may the reverse not be true? The Great Cat argues that he knows nothing of rights, only of power, and he will use his power to defend his territory. This may be what he really meant--or it may not. Maybe he's as reluctant to grant rights to those not members of his own species as the humans are.But we'll likely never know, will we? Because the response of the humans isn't to try to communicate, but rather to try to exterminate. Once the cat-men are no longer in 'human' territory, nobody, apparently, takes any further interest in them--not even to see if there's a way to stop these episodic incursions by removing the drivers. Cat-men before? No interest. Cat-folk invading? Kill or expel them. Cat-people after? No interest. It's a cycle that's bound to be repeated, until the last of the cat-folk dies, or SOMEBODY starts taking an interest. The general problem of bandit fortresses is rather better handled in the Darkover books than in many others. Bandits tend to attract the disaffected: but these are rarely engineers or builders. The Caves of Corresanti in this book were evidently a human laboratory in the past (maybe a chieri one, but I doubt it). During the Ages of Chaos there were such laboratories outside the Towers. Part of the Compact involved the abandonment of such laboratories, even (to a large degree) inside the Towers. But some of the equipment evidently was too difficult to dispose of properly, or nobody made a serious effort to do so. A dangerous oversight, as proven in this case, and later nearly devastating for Darkovan society. If you don't dismantle your matrix screens, they're there for the using, for whoever chooses not to abide by the Compact.Technical note: this book ends with a note on chronology by the author.In other books from this time (notably Thendara House), there's a comment that the Terran Empire ought to have intervened to mediate between the humans and catmen, and to prevent a near-genocide. Well, YEAH! The question is, why didn't they? The evidence is that they didn't because they weren't notified that it was happening. It's unlikely that they wouldn't have failed to intervene out of concern for Terran-Darkovan diplomacy: this is too important to let pass.I find on rereading the review that I've left the foreground story almost out of the review. The story of the formation of what became the Forbidden Tower is interesting in itself, but it's not necessary to read it to understand how the relationships began. I'd thought it might be, and so I went back to get the book. It's not anything like as well-written as the later books, but it has its points. For one thing, it has a fairly well-developed discussion of Darkovan countryside society, as seen from the perspective of an outworlder. It also has a few illustrations (well, the cover picture and one line drawing). And it has a dedication (some Darkover books do, and others don't), which reads "This one is for CARADOC." But it's not really necessary to read this one to understand the later books, though remembering it might have helped the characters figure out how the conditioning Callista and others like her underwent might be unraveled, I could see this volume being written by the characters themselves as a form of therapy, in fact. As an adventure story, it's fairly light stuff. The ghostly visitant leading the wayfarer to shelter is a little unusual, but not as much as the wayfarer himself seems to think--he must not have read much fantastic literature himself. Which makes me wonder what sort of fantastic literature exists in the Terran Empire of the series. There must be some--and it seems unlikely that people who weren't homebodies wouldn't have read ANY of it. The spell sword in the title is really not particularly important. Its function is to get the poor swordsman Damon (relatively) safely to the Caves. But if it hadn't existed, there would undoubtably have been another way found. Andrew Carr (somewhat astoundingly, to himself and others) finds a way. And the insecure and fearful Damon, if he'd had more confidence, wouldn't have been in the position he was or doing what he was doing if he hadn't been so fearful (he'd still have been at a Tower, likely, though probably not, given the circumstances, Arilinn). But there are many ways he could have used his powers to sneak into (and probably out of) the territory claimed by the catmen, with or without the help of Andrew and the Altons. It's more or less a matter of happenstance that Damon comes to realize that the methods of training and using telepaths on Darkover is very wrong and abusive. It's also a matter of mischance that the famed swordsman Dom Esteban suffers a spinal injury which renders him paralyzed from the waist down, making him unable to lead the rescuers of his daughter, the Keeper. Not that Damon wouldn't have had to come along, as a guide, at least, because it's argued that Andrew couldn't have made his way through an unfamiliar area even with an escort, and therefore somebody in rapport with Andrew had to go along.The spell sword is actually a form of skyhook, it develops. The uncoordinated Damon always did understand what he was taught intellectually--he just couldn't put it into practice without viscerally experiencing it. But this is not clear to anyone until the end--and Damon's ability to cede control of his muscles and reflexes to Dom Esteban's control is necessary to provide the needed training.This raises an interesting question, however. It's established in this book that the majority of Darkovans are left-handed (genetic drift?). Damon is right-handed, which makes him awkward in a society where the majority of tools, weapons and processes would be designed for the left hand. But Dom Esteban is, presumably, left-handed, though he seems to have been at least partly ambidextrous. So which hand did he take control of? And would Damon have been able to make the shift? At one point, there's an encounter with Dry-Towners, who use different weapons and techniques. Dom Esteban had had encounters with Dry-Towners before, and automatically alters his technique--but this would have to be mirrored, surely, to work in a righthander?
Having tried to read earlier works in the Darkover mythos, I didn’t have great hopes for The Spell Sword. Yet, I had stolen the idea of a planet of psionic people for my Traveller campaign from my original encounter with the series and what friends had told me about. So, with one of my player-characters claiming origin on Repse (“Esper” spelled backwards), my “Darkover,” I decided to revisit the classic book of psionic civilization (Okay, so I ripped off van Vogt’s Slan, MacLean’s Missing Man, and McCaffrey’s The Crystal Singer as well when I drafted “my” Repse.) in order to stimulate additional ideas for my ongoing role-playing campaign. I didn’t actually get any new ideas for my campaign (but an assurance that I had captured the feeling that I was going for). Yet, I was happy that I revisited MZB’s universe.Admittedly, The Spell Sword is rather late in the chronology (in terms of the fictional history, not publication chronology), but it has the advantage of not trying to explain every detail in MZB’s world-building and focusing on story. Of course, I’m a sucker for a romantic adventure and I was immediately pulled in to the idea of a psychic manifestation saving a person from a hostile environment and the rescued becoming so enamored with the rescuer that a bond was woven between them. I liked the fact that the protagonist(s) experienced self-doubts and I liked the idea of the mystery/misunderstandings between the protagonist as stranger and the established social order dropping away in a logical fashion. Too often, writers hold off on resolving mysteries and misunderstandings for far too long and illogically having people cooperate while distrusting each other. That’s hard to do and not usually worth it unless the big reveal is going to unveil some abhorrent treachery.Rather than giving the big overview, The Spell Sword is a personal story. It contrasts the technological orientation of the Terran civilization versus the chivalrous/spiritual orientation of the autochthonous Darkoveran civilization, as well as the peril of abuse of power (in this case, abuse of mental/psionic power) by another civilization and the impossibility of completely understanding the motives and actions of another civilization by means of personal crises, discoveries, and transformations. So, it touches on some genuine lessons about humanity and the desire for understanding, but it doesn’t have an innate social agenda like some science-fiction/fantasy of the era. Further, by keeping the narrative rather short and focused on the personal, MZB avoided some of the criticism she sometimes received for being verbose.Better yet, the resolution of the primary problem in this book potentially sets the stage for another and potentially richer story. In The Spell Sword, a Terran (Andrew Carr) is grafted into Darkover society as an emergency measure. The novel doesn’t try to answer the question of how that society will react. I judge from the chronological (fictional chronology, that is) listing on www.goodreads.com that the working out of this reaction is a vital part of The Forbidden Tower. If so, I look forward to reading it. The limited focus of this novel allowed it to be published as a compact volume which could be read in one day’s round trip commute on the train. As a result, the succinct plot and resolution allowed me to savor what people have always liked about Darkover without the aspect of which some have complained. I’m pretty sure I’ll move forward in this chronology from this point and only go back to the “earlier” books at a later time. This one works much better than my encounter in Darkover Landfall way back when.
What do You think about The Spell Sword (1974)?
Como segunda entrega de la serie Darkover, deja bastante que desear comparada con otros libros de la saga. Aquí nos encontramos con una historia simple, plana, una aventura épica sin ninguna pretensión y con un final absolutamente predecible. Por su parte, los personajes son igual de simples y planos. Si a todo esto le sumamos que muchas situaciones y acontecimientos se repiten y se repiten, dando la sensación de que la autora no sabía cómo engrosar un poco más el libro, finalmente nos encontramos con un producto literario bastante aburrido.
—Beatriz
I'm a fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley, but my affection for her rests not on the Avalon books, which I didn't care for, but her Darkover series. Darkover is a "lost colony" of Earth that falls into a medieval society. Ruled by a psychic aristocracy, it is later rediscovered by a star-spanning high-tech 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, Andrew Carr, exploring Darkover, crashes on the planet, and becomes involved in helping to save a member of the Comyn, the planet's aristocracy. The series as a whole features strong female characters, but it has enough swashbuckling adventure to draw the male of the species, and indeed this series was recommended to me by a guy (when we were in high school!)Although some books are loosely connected, having characters in common, they were written to be read independently and were written out of sequence. This makes it difficult without a guide to know what story to start with. This short book was published in 1974, when MZB was beginning to come into her own as a writer. I might not ordinarily recommend The Spell Sword as a starting point, as it's not one of the best books in the series, but it is a direct prequel to one of the absolute best Darkover books, The Forbidden Tower, which received a Hugo nomination for best novel. (And that one I'd rate five stars.)
—Lisa (Harmonybites)
[These notes were made in 1984:]. A nice little adventure story in the old Earthman meets alien culture mode - except that Andrew learns to fit in quite a bit faster than most Terrans, and Damon quickly takes over principal interest (Bradley seems to like these two-hero novels). One curiosity about this book is that Callista, the love interest, does not appear in her own proper person until near the end of the book. The rest of the time she is a presence in telepathic contact with Andrew, who is, for some reason, the only one she can contact. Damon consents to be "possessed" by Lord Esteban, who was a skilled swordsman, but is now paralysed. Damon's struggle is with his own self-image as a coward - and when he is finally left unaided against his enemy the Great Cat, he proves himself. Enjoyed it.
—Surreysmum
