cjh%CCA-UNIX@csin.UUCP (02/29/84)
A recent submission attacked the pacing of THE MANY-COLORED LAND. I don't recall it taking as long as 150 pages to describe the leading contemporary characters, but however long it took was certainly reasonable; there are eight of them, and all of them are going to be important in the 1200 pages (est.; the last book isn't out yet) that follow. I'm looking forward to the conclusion of the work (title forgotten; out so far are tMCL, THE GOLDEN TORC, and THE UNBORN KING (which has a marvelous portrait of one of the characters which I could swear is cribbed from a portrait of one of the Medicis, matching a reference in the book). (NB I \don't/ have infinite patience; I was bored to death by the first Thomas Covenant book, went back after all the cheering, and gave up finally half way through the second.) Steven Maurer accuses Bradley of falling into the trap of excess politicization. First he's inaccurate about past books: Her Darkover novels have always been written with a bit of "feminine slant" (i.e. the plots center around: women forced to have children, women rebelling against the sexist society they live in, the cruelty of men, protagonists who are helpless in their fate, woman/woman relationships, etc. This leaves out the first 9 (at least) in the assemblage; most of these are routine adventure stories, but WINDS OF DARKOVER has a gutsy female protagonist and HERITAGE OF HASTUR was the beginning of a string of much solider books. Second, Peter Haldane was set up as a pig in THE SHATTERED CHAIN---it's obvious why Magda left him, and it's almost as obvious why Jaelle (whose upbringing in the Dry Towns has affected her far more than she likes to acknowledge) is infatuated with him (at least temporarily--in an essay published in the late 1970's Bradley says she certainly isn't expecting J to stay with "that turkey Peter Haldane" for long). Now I find it rather less believable that a dilute form of his attitudes should so permeate Terran Empire headquarters; although we have virtually no idea, even putting all the books together, what the Terran Empire is like, I doubt (for instance) that they would insist on calling Jaelle Mrs. Haldane, but that's less important. The entire book is about how one deals with borderline-to-completely unconscious mindsets---the obvious ones of the Terrans and the subtler but just as disabling ones of the Sisterhood. (Bradley got a \lot/ of flack for the scene in DARKOVER LANDFALL in which a female pilot was refused an abortion because children were vitally necessary; while she might not write that particular scene again she is still not a one-sided feminist.) As to Jaelle sticking with Peter in the face of maltreatment---can you gauge infatuation? The impression from THE SHATTERED CHAIN is that this is her first serious love. Look around you, and even in hotbeds of liberalism you will see many women (and not just ones acculturated to subordination) sticking with men who mistreat them (and vice versa). Moreover, how much of a sense of duty does Jaelle feel to the Sisterhood and to Darkover as a whole to bridge the gaps over which stiff-necked Comyn and patronizing Earth[men, mostly] sneer at each other. Equally important, how does she compare her position to Magda's? Envying her the social warmth of Thendara House (against the thermal warmth and social abstraction of Terran HQ), gradually realizing that the adjustments are as difficult for Magda (who, though she is trained to examine and accommodate to different cultures, is dealing with a group less used to such than the Terrans and not knowing how alien she is), possibly even feeling duty to (mixed with competitiveness with?) her oath daughter to hold up her end of the bridge as long as Magda holds up hers. THENDARA HOUSE is far from perfect, but it is not the maudlin diatribe described by Maurer. (My biggest complaint isn't anything previously mentioned, but the [almost] supernatural Dark Sisterhood that we get glimpses of, which in addition to being unnecessarily elliptical reads like a gigantic sequel hook.)
ishizaki@saturn.UUCP (Audrey Ishizaki) (03/03/84)
I just bought the PAPERBACK of the latest and greatest in The Many-Colored Land series. The name is The Adversary, and was published by Pan (is a British edition). There is no other publishing history listed in the front. I bought it at the bookstore at Stanford, and have no idea of its availa- bility elsewhere. Personally, I enjoyed The Many Colored Land, and thought it was the best of the series (so far), but am looking forward to reading this new book. The cover claims that "now the epic chronicle comes to its triumphant conclusion". Can't wait. audrey ishizaki hplabs!ishizaki