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WoGF Review: The Heritage of Hastur by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Brett Ellis (Brett72): My interest in reading was spurred by my father reading to me before bed when I was a boy. I developed my reading skills because I wanted to know what happened next and the nightly sessions were too slow. My parents took me to see “Star Wars” when I was five and I’ve been hooked on sci-fi and fantasy ever since. Yes, I am part of that generation for whom “Star Wars” was a life-shaping experience. When not reading far too many “Warhammer” novels, I enjoy miniature wargaming and action flicks.
Marion Zimmer Bradley was the first author I chose after signing up for the Women of Genre Fiction challenge here at WWEnd. Anyone who’s been in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of a bookstore has seen the huge trade paperback of The Mists of Avalon dominating the shelf. I’ve been noticing it for years and fully intended to take the opportunity provided by the WoGF challenge to finally read it.
And yet….
When I looked at Bradley’s books in the WWEnd database, I noticed a series of books called “Darkover.” These books spanned her whole career of published works! I was intrigued and chose The Heritage of Hastur as my introduction to Darkover and Marion Zimmer Bradley.
What an introduction! This novel was a joy to read. Any trepidation I had about jumping into a long running series midway was soon laid to rest. The Darkover books are meant to be enjoyed as stand-alone novels as well as part of a series. Bradley does a great job of weaving the history and culture of Darkover into the narrative. At no point was I on the receiving end of an information dump or an “Our story so far…” synopsis.
