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    The Spell Sword
    The Spell Sword
    The Spell Sword
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Spell Sword

    Written by Marion Zimmer Bradley

    Narrated by Max Bellmore

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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. But for Andrew Carr there was an attration 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateDec 15, 2017
    ISBN9781501970887
    The Spell Sword
    Author

    Marion Zimmer Bradley

    Marion Zimmer Bradley is the creator of the popular Darkover universe, as well as the critically acclaimed author of the bestselling ‘The Mists of Avalon’ and its sequel, ‘The Forest House’. She lives in Berkeley, California.

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    Reviews for The Spell Sword

    3.5/5

    167 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This, and The Forbidden Circle, has always been one of my favorite stories. I loved being able to listen to it. I cannot wait to see if the rest are ever released on audio-book.
    • 3/5
      Action. Adventure. Romance. Cat people. Good, not great. Okay, not bad. This book shows promise. I mean, I think I've got to read some other Darkover novels before I can really appreciate it. But really, a fun read.
    • 4/5
      I'm a fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley, but my affection for her rests not on the Avalon books, which I didn't care for, but her Darkover series. Darkover is a "lost colony" of Earth that falls into a medieval society. Ruled by a psychic aristocracy, it is later rediscovered by a star-spanning high-tech human federation after centuries, giving the series a feel of both science fiction and fantasy. Most books in the series examine this culture clash and this book is no exception as it focuses on a Terran, Andrew Carr, exploring Darkover, crashes on the planet, and becomes involved in helping to save a member of the Comyn, the planet's aristocracy. 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 and were written out of sequence. This makes it difficult without a guide to know what story to start with. This short book was published in 1974, when MZB was beginning to come into her own as a writer. I might not ordinarily recommend The Spell Sword as a starting point, as it's not one of the best books in the series, but it is a direct prequel to one of the absolute best Darkover books, The Forbidden Tower, which received a Hugo nomination for best novel. (And that one I'd rate five stars.)
    • 3/5
      The Spell Sword took a while to pick up (as is the case with most of Bradley's novels). Earthman Andrew Carr receives a telepathic distress call from a young Keeper named Callista Lanart and, affected by her in a way that his many previous lovers did not, requests a permanent assignment on Cottman IV/Darkover to the mapping section, only to be the sole survivor when the mapping plane crashes during a fierce winter storm in the Hellers (a mountain range noted for its nasty weather). Meanwhile, reluctant near-Keeper Damon Ridenow (who was hopelessly in love with the Keeper who trained him, the "unattractive," middle-aged Leonie Hastur), en route to a kinswoman's castle, loses all of his escort party to invisible foes who prove to be catmen (rendered here as "cat-men;" in Rediscovery, co-written with Mercedes Lackey, they were called "catmen"). Arriving at the Alton Domain, he discovers his kinswoman, twenty-year-old Ellemir Lanart, distraught over the abduction of her twin sister, the Keeper Callista; Ellemir is even more distraught over the fact that she cannot telepathically contact her.As one might expect, Andrew Carr survives thanks to Callista's telepathic urgings, and eventually makes his way to the Alton Domain, where his claims to have had visions and mental conversations with the spitting image of Ellemir are grudgingly believed when Damon is able to ascertain that the Terranen does indeed have laran, or psychic powers. When the Alton lord, Dom Esteban, returns with the remnants of his expedition after a successful engagement with invisible cat-men, Damon is able to construct a plan to rescue Callista from "the darkening lands" that have fallen under the sway of the laran of the cat-men. As Dom Esteban, though in his sixties still the doughtiest warrior and greatest swordsman of the Domains, has been paralyzed from the waist down, he has to resort to his laran -- the Alton Gift, whereby he may dominate another man's thoughts and movements -- to impart to the scholarly Damon his own wondrous swordsmanship. Hence the "spell sword" of the title: Dom Esteban's sword has a first-level matrix ("starstone") in its basket hilt which facilitates his taking over the reflexes and voluntary movements of whoever holds it.The Spell Sword was OK; though a very short novel, the dense type and Bradley's uneven writing made it feel like it was at least a hundred pages longer. I have to admit that I liked it enough, despite her usual flaws (and despite the fact that Callista was a particularly pallid Ophelia, always weeping and on the verge of collapse; sure, she was under a deal of strain, but come on!), to want to read the next Darkover book (chronologically speaking), The Forbidden Tower, in the near future.