Good to the last drop. Hard to put down. One of the best in the series. ( )

Re-read. I tend to forget how awful this one is in the years between readings. Poorly plotted, repetitive, internally inconsistent and yet here I am. It's the resolution of the set up in the much better Heritage of Hastur and thus must be read. Regis and Lew do seem to rise above the horrible writing, but only just. I don't recommend this for anyone but Darkover completists doing a re-read. ( )

Marion Zimmer Bradley is best known for The Mists of Avalon, which spawned a number of sequels, mostly (if not entirely) by other hands. I don't care for them. Then comes The Fall of Atlantis, two enjoyable if fairly forgettable books posthumously marked as backdrop for the Avalon books. Inexplicably, if I go by Goodreads, her next most popular book is The Firebrand, about the Trojan War, which I found absolutely unreadable. Yet I do consider myself a fan of MZB's but that rests almost entirely on her Darkover books, of which she wrote 18 in her lifetime, although there were some further (some posthumous) collaborations. Darkover is a "lost colony" of Earth that devolved into a medieval society ruled by a psychically talented aristocracy and centuries later rediscovered by a star-spanning high tech federation, giving the series a feel of both science fiction and fantasy. The series as a whole features strong female characters, but it has enough swashbuckling adventure to draw the male of the species, and indeed this series was recommended to me by a guy (when we were in high school!)

Although some books are loosely connected, having characters in common, they were written to be read independently. This particular book is a direct sequel to Heritage of Hastur, which should be read first; it makes a fine entry point into the series, and many consider it MZB's finest novel. The Darkover books were written out of sequence too, and I don't actually recommend you read them chronologically. The first chronologically, for instance, Darkover Landfall, is more fun if you read others in the series first, then this origins novel to see oh, so that's where that came from! Also, some books early chronologically were early in Bradley's career, when she was still learning her craft, and it shows. In fact, this book is a rewrite of a very early book published in 1962, The Sword of Aldones. She conceived that book in her teens, and as a mature writer felt the theme deserved a better treatment than what she was capable of back then. I've read both versions, and this is definitely the better book, even if I don't think it quite hits the high mark of Heritage of Hastur. ( )

Young Lew goes to the Hellers to meet his mother's people, and to get him out of the Domains' hair.
There, he finds the love of his life, an illegal circle operating without any real training, and a horrific destiny.
The Terrans, who abide by the Compact but refuse to enforce it beyond ensuring their people do not carry weapons into the city learn WHY the Compact exists and becomes one of the best at enforcing it. ( )

Je m'appelle Lew Alton et je sais qu'il est trop tard. Je vis en exil sur la Terre et je n'ai pas oublié ma main calcinée, ma bien-aimée en flammes et la matrice de Sharra qui a causé tout ce malheur. Cette pierre maudite, je l'ai encore. Dès que je veux la quitter, la forme-feu se lève dans ma tête et il faut que je revienne au sombre amour.
Je ne voulais pas être Héritier du Domaine. Mon père m'a forcé à prendre rang parmi les Comyn qui me méprisent. Un bâtard ! je me suis révolté. Et maintenant j'erre avec ma blessure et mon père me suit partout. Il attend que je revendique mon bien. Ténébreuse est une planète épuisée dont le sort ne me concerne pas. D'ailleurs je ne pourrais pas y retourner sans Sharra. Ses adorateurs, s'ils sont encore en vie, gardent l'espoir d'embraser l'univers et voudront délivrer cette grande forme nue qui, dans la nuit des temps, se débat en soulevant des gerbes d'étincelles. Il faudrait rappeler celui qui l'enchaîna jadis...

Cette extraordinaire histoire, point culminant du cycle de Ténébreuse, a été racontée pour la première fois par un auteur de vingt ans. Mais le temps a passé, le cours des événements a changé, et la grande Marion nous livre ici une version définitive – et plus intense que jamais – de ce roman où le souffle poétique est l'haleine même du feu.