Reviews for The Spell Sword

The average rating for The Spell Sword based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-06-19 00:00:00 Drake Blaze DAW Collectors #119 Cover Artist: George Barr Name: Bradley, Marion Eleanor Zimmer, Birthplace: Albany, New York, USA, (3 June 1930 -25 September 1999) Alternate Names: Lee Chapman, John Dexter, Miriam Gardner, Morgan Ives, Marlene Longman, Astra of the Spheres, Marion Zimmer, Marion E. Zimmer, Marion Eleanor Zimmer. Although Darkover was a world inhabited by humans as well as semi-humans, it was primarily forbidden ground to the Terran traders. Most of the planet's wild terrain was unexplored... and many of its peoples seclusive and secretive. Andrew Carr there was an attraction he could not evade. Darkover drew him, Darkover haunted him and when his mapping plane crashed in unknown heights, Darkover prepared to destroy him. Until the planet's magic asserted itself and his destiny began to unfold along lines predicted only by phantoms and wonder workers of the kind Terran science could never acknowledge. Darkover Series: 1. Darkover Landfall (1972) 2. Stormqueen! (1978) (with Paul Edwin Zimmer) 3. The Fall of Neskaya (2001) (with Deborah J Ross) 4. Zandru's Forge (2003) (with Deborah J Ross) 5. A Flame in Hali (2004) (with Deborah J Ross) 6. Hawkmistress! (1982) 7. Two to Conquer (1980) 8. The Heirs of Hammerfell (1989) 9. The Spell Sword (1974) 10. The Shattered Chain (1976) 11. Rediscovery (1993) (with Mercedes Lackey) 12. The Forbidden Tower (1977) 13. Thendara House (1983) 14. City of Sorcery (1984) 15. Star of Danger (1965) 16. Winds of Darkover (1970) 17. Thunderlord (2016) (with Deborah J Ross) 18. The Heritage of Hastur (1975) 19. The Planet Savers (1962) 20. The Sword of Aldones (1962) 21. Sharra's Exile (1981) 22. The World Wreckers (1971) Written by others: Hastur Lord (2010) (with Deborah J Ross) 24. Exile's Song (1996) (with Adrienne Martine-Barnes) 25. The Shadow Matrix (1997) (with Adrienne Martine-Barnes) 26. Traitor's Sun (1999) (with Adrienne Martine-Barnes) 27. The Alton Gift (2007) (with Deborah J Ross) 28. The Children of Kings (2013) (with Deborah J Ross) 29. The Bloody Sun (1964) A novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-20 00:00:00 Alexandre Pepin An Earthman, Andrew Carr, crash lands on an alien planet while pursuing a girl he has only seen in his dreams. After the crash, Andrew stumbles through a blizzard, but the girl guides him along, appearing to him as a ghostly apparition like Obi Wan Kenobi on the planet Hoth. With her help, he makes his way to a hut where he takes shelter. Soon we learn the mysterious girl’s name is Callista, and that she herself is in trouble. She has disappeared, doesn’t know where she is, can see only darkness, and does not understand how she formed a psychic link with a human from another world. The book grips us early, with a few well-worn but still effective mysteries: who is this mysterious girl? Where has she disappeared to? Why is so much of science fiction occupied by mysterious girls? Does her disappearance have anything to do with the darkened lands, a blasted area everyone is warned to avoid, a place of withered gardens and evil men, from whom all wanderers return babbling mad? I would never dream of spoiling the answer to that last question, but I’ll let you make an educated guess. As Andrew wanders through the snow guided by the ghostly Callista, we are introduced to the other point-of-view character, a local man named Damon, who is having his own problems with the blizzard. As he and his men travel home, they are attacked in ambush by bodiless swords that slash at their throats. Damon abandons his men to their deaths (an act the book doesn’t know what to do with, and so largely ignores for the remainder) and makes his way through the raging snow to the home of his betrothed, who is Callista’s sister. There, he discovers that Callista’s guardian has been found dead with her eyes torn out, and Callista is gone. So - we have two men, one a visitor to this planet and one a native, each with a connection to the missing girl, each pushing through the storm, each a stranger to the other but edging inexorably towards a rendezvous at that house, and when they meet, we can be sure, each to be recruited to the rescue of this same damsel-in-distress. This first third of the novel is quite evocative. Bradley maintains a skillful balance between science fiction, fantasy, and horror tropes, and also an enticing tone that is moody and forlorn - weather inhospitable, things abandoned, people lost, darkness spreading, crops dying, lonely girls in dreams calling for help. There is a touching scene in the hut Andrew takes shelter in, where the man from Earth shares the night with the phantom of his dream woman. They cannot touch, neither even knows where she is, but they lie beside each other in the darkness, providing for the other whatever comfort they can. Damon, meanwhile, has psychic abilities (all scientifically explained by “matrix technology,” of course), and there are some lovely descriptions of his out-of-body experiences in the “overworld,” an abstract plane of darkness and dim outlines and the vague presence of disembodied strangers, as he tries to locate Callista. He can't seem to find her. Bizarrely, when Andrew arrives at the house and meets Damon, the narrative abruptly grinds to a halt. It feels like a train making an emergency stop. And then it stays stopped. The vast bulk of the rest of the novel takes place in this house, almost like a stage play, except without the urgency and subtext of great theatre. Instead, there is lots of talk….sitting around in the cottage as the blizzard rages outside, discussing what they know, exchanging opinions about the likely whereabouts of Callista, and whether she’s probably still alive or not, and who probably took her, and why they probably took her, and why that’s not a convincing reason but this other reason is probably a more convincing reason, recounting events to each other that we as readers have already witnessed in the previous chapters, explaining how matrix technology works, explaining what the overworld is, chest-thumping over who has the greater right to rescue Callista, etc etc etc. They spend pages planning their rescue: can the matrix stones be used to locate Callista? Can they match their psychic whatsit through the matrix doodads to Callista’s psychic whatsit in order to trace her? They talk and talk. It’s all so belabored. In the middle of all this, we learn, to our dismay, that Andrew’s characterization is the standard nonsense - he used to enjoy girls at every port, never getting attached, and now suddenly, with this dream girl, he is awakening to the desire to know her, to understand her, to be with her forever; he is discovering the real meaning of love. At the same time, through sheer force of talk, all the mysteries are solved: she has been kidnapped by the cat-people (yes, you heard that right - the cat-people.) The cat-people are responsible for the darkened lands. She is being kept somewhere in a cave in the middle of the darkened lands. Thus, their mission is: Go to the darkened lands. Kill the cat-people. Rescue the damsel. In preparation for their rescue mission, they work on their psychic connection, using the stones as some kind of focus. Through this process, Damon discovers his feminine side (being a psychic is usually reserved for virgin women), and Andrew discovers his homosexual side (his psychic links with Damon feel sexual, which both “warms and disturbs” him.) It’s nice that these two men can learn to be more feminine and homosexual and all, but can’t they have done it while enacting a plot of some kind? A story? Some sort of movement? The static nature of this long 2nd act is baffling. It takes up 70% of the book. Also baffling is the relationship that Bradley allows to build between Andrew and his dream girl, Callista. Through their psychic link, he has fallen in love with his damsel-in-distress, and lo! she has fallen back in love with her rescuer-to-be, too. Bradley treats this unhealthy and unequal power differential as if it is deeply romantic, or as if the book were written for 11 year-old girls who are waiting for their prince to come. But this can’t have been written for kids. There are too many slashed throats and gouged-out eyeballs, and in one scene, someone’s skull is bashed in and his brains are strewn over the ground. And yet, the characters follow the classic Disney Sleeping Beauty arc. Before they even meet in the flesh, Andrew is referring to the helpless Callista as “beloved,” and she responds in kind. It's sort of icky. At the very least, some irony would have been welcome. Once they leave that damned house and the rescue actually begins (and it really does feel like Act 3: The Rescue), the pace quickens. There is some nicely staged action, a cool fight against the shadowy cat-people as our heroes enter the blasted area. The final scenes are atmospheric, even a little tense. There is some great imagery of a decrepit village in the heart of the darkened lands, insane villagers staring dull-eyed out of cracked windows, cat-people stalking from behind, concealing themselves somewhere, back there, off in the mist. It’s all very effective. The climactic rescue itself, though, is predictable and comforting in a Young Adult sort of way. Damon learns he can fight! He’s got the stuff! And the damsel is rescued with a few easy sword fights and a quick defeat of the Great Cat, who for the life of me felt like the Main Boss in a Final Fantasy game. As Callista is taken to freedom, she sobs and clings to her rescuer like a grateful damsel, and Andrew swears to marry her and love her forever. I know this isn’t meant to be creepy, but thoughts of the Florence Nightingale effect inevitably come to mind. In the end, the stakes in this mini-adventure feel oddly small. An alien and a native man meet, grow to trust each other, teach each other some cool psychic talents, and rescue a girl. I imagine Bradley's primary interest here is the growing trust between the two men, representative of their two cultures, but it's all rather simple and straightforward. The settings are very limited, as if Bradley had to save on the budget. None of the characters come particularly alive, but the first and third acts contain some authentically involving atmospherics, and the world of Darkover itself is an inviting place, one I feel I would like to come back to. Perhaps the sequel, The Forbidden Tower, contains more depth. Certainly, a reader of the whole Darkover series will no doubt read this one, and it will likely please them. For the rest of us, there may be better, more ambitious places to start.