MATHEY@SANDIA (12/06/82)
From: Evelyn Mathey <MATHEY at SANDIA> Sharra is a violent, melevolent flame-goddess-force created by MZB in an early book which has been rewritten in two books published by SFBC under the title "Heritage of Hastur(sp?)". Sharra is keyed to a ninth level matrix and is called from a different space-time dimension by a matrix circle. Since 'her' nature is violent 'she' awakens that side of the humans in contact with 'her'. If you don't understand this talk of matrix's etc, I can only recomend that you read some of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books. "The Bloody Sun" was the first written. "Darkover Landfall" is indeed the first in the sense of being set in the earliest time. I don't have the book here where I can check, but I believe that it was not written my MZB but by fans, and that she picked the stories out of many submitted. She has openly invited people to "play in my world" i.e. write about Darkover. The "Heritage of Hastur" is an excellent book to start with as MZB has stated the Lew has always been one of her favorite characters and is most reprsentative of Darkover. If you are really interested in the seven domains, the gifts of each family, the order of the books etc, the Condordance is a good buy. It was put together by MZB's husband and some fans who are close friends. There are also several very active fan groups. If you are not into parapsychology you may not care for the Darkover series. If, however, mental powers turn you on and you haven't read these, I highly recommend them. Do look at the covers carfully before buying. There are several Darkover books which are short stories written by fans. Some are fairly good and some aren't. Most contain at least one story by MZB, but they are a long way from one of her books. As far as I know MZB has been writing SF just about as long as any other woman in the field. She started when SF was very strongly male dominated. -- Evelyn. -------
LS.SRB@MIT-EECS (12/08/82)
From: Stephen R Balzac <LS.SRB at MIT-EECS at MIT-MULTICS> For those who are unaware of it, Sharra is a "character" from Bradley's Darkover series. -------