Terrestrials colonize extra-solar planets;
one colony is isolated and develops independently;
eventually, it is recontacted by an interstellar Terran Empire.
Some future histories focus on a single colonized planet:
Darkover;
Dune;
Anderson's Rustum, although see also Roland;
Heorot by Niven, Pournelle and Barnes, although Niven's Destiny's Road is set on another planet in the same history.
This and the previous post focus on works that are not known by the current blogger - who will return to Lancaster tomorrow, hopefully avoiding high winds forecast for the western coast of the UK.
4 comments:
Paul:
I've read a few of the *Darkover* books — and given up on others. The series as a whole raised my hackles, set my teeth on edge ... choose your physiological metaphor for a negative reaction.
Bradley's Terran Empire is itself very little explored, at least in the stories I've read. It seems mostly just a blundering (and at times, well-meaning) antagonist for the "heroic" Darkovans determined to cling to their medieval, feudal culture.
On another site, I found the following assessment:
"The social and sexual values of the Terran Empire are very blatantly those of 1970's-80's America despite this being an interstellar society thousands of years in the future. Married women take their husband's names, men tend to predominate and homosexuals are mostly closeted. Darkover's fantasy culture, often used for contrast, is presented as more restrictive in some ways (the role of women) and progressive in others (acceptance of homosexuality). But to present-day readers some aspects that seemed progressive at the time, such as Darkovan women (but not men) being able to take each other in freemate marriage, may actually come across as retro, especially to readers living where things like same-sex marriages in general are legal. Likewise, the Terran Empire as a whole often looks visibly dated."
Contrary to Dorothy Parker's advice, I've never thrown a book against the wall, but I came close when a character in one *Darkover* book not only wasn't troubled about being illiterate, but declared that reading harms the eyes and thus those who already had vision problems SHOULD NOT BE PERMITTED TO READ. As someone who's had to wear glasses since I was about ten, and whose greatest pleasure is in reading, that statement made me want to KILL that character, slowly and painfully.
Wikipedia has the following comment about one of the last of the *Darkover* books:
"*Exile's Song* represents a dramatic alteration of Bradley's view of the masculine/feminine, technological/ecological, Terran/Darkover dichotomies that she has explored throughout the Darkover series. In her earliest Darkover writing (1960s), she portrayed the planet's semi-feudal culture as played-out and in need of saving by the technologically superior Terrans. In the middle period (1970s-1980s), the books display a growing ambivalence to both views. In *Exile's Song*, Bradley reverses direction exclusively in favor of the feminine/ecological/Darkover view, describing the Terran Federation as played-out. This makes *Exile's Song* a pivotal book in the development of the series."
Kaor, All!
I am not a Bradley fan, but a few years ago I read two of her novels, HAWKMISTRESS and, if I recall the title correctly, STORM QUEEN, both of them set on Darkover before its rediscovery. I thought that they were tolerably well done, especially HAWKMISTRESS, but not great. I did not acquire a desire to read the rest of her works.
This is not a literary matter, but Marion Zimmer Bradley seems to have been a pretty ghastly human being. Her own daughter accuses her of having sexually molested her, for one thing.
Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen
Nicholas,
On a lighter note, I think it was MZB who threw gate-crashers out of SFWA party at a World Con but, for some reason, she didn't tackle me!
Paul.
The comments I've seen here about Bradley's work does not make me want to look them up. I think other writers, such as Anderson, Pournelle, and Niven's earlier works, handled such ideas and themes as the kinds mentioned above, better than Bradley did.
Sean
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