A Darkover Retrospective: Marion Zimmer Bradley's writing beginnings

One important thing for a writer is to learn from the example of the careers of other writers. A very inspirational source for me has been Marion Zimmer Bradley's A Darkover Retrospective, which is included in a volume which collects 'The Planet Savers' and 'Sword of Aldones', the first two Darkover books ever published.

Sword of Aldones is the hardest to obtain of all the Darkover books. She essentially re-wrote the story told in Sword of Aldones in the much more mature work, Sharra's Exile.

Marion Zimmer Bradley explains in A Darkover Retrospective why the Sword of Aldones seems to be such an immature work--- she began working on its original form as a teen.

In the beginning, the world of Darkover was called Al-Merdin, and the Comyn--- the telepathic caste--- were called the Seveners, and consisted of seven families with telepathic gifts. The Hasturs, the Elhalyn, the Serrais, the Ardais and the Aldarans were, even at this early stage, much the same as in the Darkover books we know. The Altons were then known as the Leyniers, and the Aillards were then the Marceau of Valeron.

What i find most interesting is that here is a story, started by a fifteen year old girl, which became a series which the writer continued to her death (and beyond.) The story grew and changed as the author did--- which is why the series is more inconsistant than more closely planned series.

Although the Darkover books are commonly called a series, MZB herself did not like the term. For her, a series meant the sort of series--- perhaps a trilogy--- which was really just one very long book, which had to be read in order, and in which any given volume might end in a cliffhanger instead of a resolution.

MZB had her own code for writing Darkover stories. She wanted each volume to be a stand-alone story, with a resolution at the end. She didn't want to assume the reader of any new Darkover book had read the others and so was familiar with the world, its customs and its characters, and she wrote accordingly.

A Darkover Retrospective tells the story of the writing of many of MZB's early Darkover books, and also tells the story of her writing career--- from writing stories for small amounts of money, as well as writing 'potboiler' gothics and even editing an astrology magazine to provide extra family income, from her gradual realization that she was in fact regarded by editors and readers as a 'real' writer, and that this was something she could make a career of.

She also gives us an account of the various changes within the science fiction writing scene at the time and how she interacted with them--- the things she embraced, and the things, like the political/feminist science fiction novel, that she did not enjoy.

The label MZB uses for the genre of fiction that the Darkover books represent is 'science fantasy'. The books are science fiction in that they are set on another planet, with all the trappings of space travel. Yet they are fantasy-like in that there are sword-fights, and 'magic', though this is in the form of psionics--- telepathy, telekinesis and the like, all of which are deemed to have scientific explanations.

The 'Pern' series by Anne McCaffrey is similarly 'science fantasy'--- it's set on another planet, and though there are dragons, they were created by genetic engineering. But otherwise the label 'science fantasy' seems to be little used these days, and I presume that means that when pitching a novel that the writer might consider science fantasy, one is better off not using the words, but just pointing out the similarity to Darkover.

I found 'A Darkover Retrospective' sufficiently useful that I would have wanted to buy the volume containing it even if I had both of the Darkover novels in the book in other editions (I had 'The Planet Savers' but not 'Sword of Aldones'). For me, it's worth re-reading from time to time just as inspiration.


The Planet Savers/The Sword of Aldones

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