Thunderlord

Darkover (Chronological Order) #3

by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Deborah J. Ross

A follow-up to The Ages of Chaos omnibus, Thunderlord is a brand-new novel of the genre-bending Darkover universe, expanded by Marion Zimmer Bradley's collaborator Deborah J. Ross.

Far in Darkover's past, the Ages of Chaos were a time of constant warfare, when immensely powerful psychic weapons ravaged the land and slaughtered entire armies. Perhaps none was more dangerous and unpredictable than the mental Gift to sense--and control--thunderstorms. When the realm of Aldaran and their Scathfell cousins came to blows, that Gift turned the tide of battle, and Aldaran prevailed.

A generation later, the heir to Scathfell, Gwynn, has grown up in the shadow of that conflict, his life shaped by the loss of his entire family. Now he plots his revenge for his family’s humiliating defeat by seeking to marry a woman who carries the storm control Gift, so that his sons will be able to wield the terrible power of storms against Aldaran.

Since childhood, Kyria has been able to sense approaching storms. She had never expected to marry a rich man; independent and athletic, she defied tradition by donning her brother’s castoff clothing and trapping small game to keep her family from starvation. When Gwynn’s emissary arrives with a marriage proposal that will secure her family’s financial future, she agrees. Along with her younger sister as her companion, she sets out for Scathfell, where she will be formally wed.

During their passage through rugged mountains, a blizzard drives them to seek shelter in a traveler’s hut, where they meet Edric, the young heir to Aldaran.

Edric has inherited the storm control, but he has never dared to use it. His whole life, he has been warned against the consequences, not just to his enemies but to everyone he loves. Now, disguised as an ordinary traveler, he journeys home after years of study, disciplining himself to control his powers.

When he meets Kyria, he senses the presence of the same storm power, but unschooled and dormant. They know each other only as Edric and Kyria--for under shelter truce, all identities are concealed--and are drawn to one another.

Thus begins the saga of two kingdoms, divided by bitter history and present-day suspicions, one armed with devastating power and the other determined to overcome it, no matter what the price. Can their love and resourcefulness overcome even the overwhelming power of a Thunderlord?

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Romance

408 pages, Hardcover

First published August 2, 2016

About the author

Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series, often with a feminist outlook.

Bradley's first published novel-length work was Falcons of Narabedla, first published in the May 1957 issue of Other Worlds. When she was a child, Bradley stated that she enjoyed reading adventure fantasy authors such as Henry Kuttner, Edmond Hamilton, and Leigh Brackett, especially when they wrote about "the glint of strange suns on worlds that never were and never would be." Her first novel and much of her subsequent work show their influence strongly.

Early in her career, writing as Morgan Ives, Miriam Gardner, John Dexter, and Lee Chapman, Marion Zimmer Bradley produced several works outside the speculative fiction genre, including some gay and lesbian pulp fiction novels. For example, I Am a Lesbian was published in 1962. Though relatively tame by today's standards, they were considered pornographic when published, and for a long time she refused to disclose the titles she wrote under these pseudonyms.

Her 1958 story The Planet Savers introduced the planet of Darkover, which became the setting of a popular series by Bradley and other authors. The Darkover milieu may be considered as either fantasy with science fiction overtones or as science fiction with fantasy overtones, as Darkover is a lost earth colony where psi powers developed to an unusual degree. Bradley wrote many Darkover novels by herself, but in her later years collaborated with other authors for publication; her literary collaborators have continued the series since her death.

Bradley took an active role in science-fiction and fantasy fandom, promoting interaction with professional authors and publishers and making several important contributions to the subculture.

For many years, Bradley actively encouraged Darkover fan fiction and reprinted some of it in commercial Darkover anthologies, continuing to encourage submissions from unpublished authors, but this ended after a dispute with a fan over an unpublished Darkover novel of Bradley's that had similarities to some of the fan's stories. As a result, the novel remained unpublished, and Bradley demanded the cessation of all Darkover fan fiction.

Bradley was also the editor of the long-running Sword and Sorceress anthology series, which encouraged submissions of fantasy stories featuring original and non-traditional heroines from young and upcoming authors. Although she particularly encouraged young female authors, she was not averse to including male authors in her anthologies. Mercedes Lackey was just one of many authors who first appeared in the anthologies. She also maintained a large family of writers at her home in Berkeley. Ms Bradley was editing the final Sword and Sorceress manuscript up until the week of her death in September of 1999.

Probably her most famous single novel is The Mists of Avalon. A retelling of the Camelot legend from the point of view of Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar, it grew into a series of books; like the Darkover series, the later novels are written with or by other authors and have continued to appear after Bradley's death.

Her reputation has been posthumously marred by multiple accusations of child sexual abuse by her daughter Moira Greyland, and for allegedly assisting her second husband, convicted child abuser Walter Breen, in sexually abusing multiple unrelated children.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Sherwood Smith]

Back in the seventies, the Darkover series was important to so many of us. It was a series in which the agency of the female characters mattered; there were wars, yes, as in so many fantasies, but the psi connections, and the Free Amazons, etc, paralleled our own struggles to break the pink curtain between competent heroes with agency and female "problems" or prizes .

Deborah Ross has inherited the series, and I think she does a superlative job. For one thing, I think her prose is better than Marion's, and also her characters a bit more complex. And yet she perfectly captures the Darkover 'feel' in this volume, featuring two very close sisters who travel over the mountains so that one can marry the Scathfell Lord--feuding enemy of the Aldarans--which marriage will basically save the Rockraven family, who has been on hard times every since the Stormqueen days.

But fierce weather and then a bandit raid interrupt, and the plans are thrown into chaos. The loyalty of the sisters, the questions of laran and genetics, the feud and its expectations, all gallop toward a tense climax. The sisters find their own way to resolution, completing a very satisfactory tale. It's lovely to revisit Darkover with these new stories--I can't wait to see what Ross does next.

[Karen’s Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was really nice to be able to return to the Darkover world. I didn't realize how much I missed it! I enjoyed this read and hope to see a sequel one day to see how the Aldaran and Scathfell families fare.

[Sally Ember · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a long-time fan and reader of most of the Darkover novels and stories, so I picked this one Thunderlord , "Thunderlord," and enjoyed it, at first. However, it was very disappointing in several ways.
---1) the primary character disappeared about 1/3 of the way into the novel and never completely re-appeared as the narrative perspective, for no explicable reason.
---2) both of the main narrative voices are female, but the author, Deborah J. Ross Deborah J. Ross, chose to focus on the less-focused-upon male character and give that character the title and cover features. Why?
---3) the number of opportunities to involve other characters was numerous, but almost none of them was more than a 2-D stand-in for a character.

There were also more than a few situations that were handled facilely and not credibly, regarding both "romances," the kidnapping, and especially at the end (no spoilers), with the author and editor both taking the lazy/easy route to reconciling difficulties, which Marion Zimmer Bradley Marion Zimmer Bradley would never have done.

All told, not a great read unless you're a hard-core Darkover fan and want more stories set there regardless of how poorly written they are.

[Melissa McCauley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve been a rabid Darkover fan for over 30 years, but this novel left me dissatisfied. It is set during the “Ages of Chaos” (my favorite period) and is supposed to be a sequel of sorts to “Stormqueen”. {sigh} I’ll just list my main problems: 1) The title is “Thunderlord” but it is about 2 sisters – false advertising. (Plus – It’s a story about strong women in a misogynistic society and they can’t even get their own title? Jeez) 2) The oldest, spirited, sister at first seemed to be the main character, but practically disappeared about 1/3 of the way through and the other sister was too bland to keep my interest 3) Ross really missed a great opportunity to show how Gwynn’s character reacted to circumstances and turned into a monster… but then totally let it fizzle out. I love a great psychological profile. 4) The ending as a whole was trite and silly (downright ridiculous). If any more “MZB” post-mortem collaborations come onto the market I’m going to take a pass.

[Jimmy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand that there wasn't hardly anything to go on from the MZB notes on Thunderlord!. However I did not expect a book about sisters. I wanted a book about the Thunderlord, not about the Rockraven sisters. There was not enough from the Edric & Kyria side of things. I wanted more laran, and I wanted more weather related laran than what was delivered. The jacket cover promises more action than was delivered. The one other thing I did not like was the behavior of Gwynn Scathfell. I never truly believed that he loved Alayna. He only loved her for the possibility of delivering him a son.
Despite the things that I did not like, Deborah J. Ross did a stellar job not just developing this story, but also in the telling of it. I treasure everything she has done and keeps doing, for the fans of Darkover with respect to MZB's wishes.

[Mareli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it was a nice surprise to know that there are Darkover books I didn't read yes. This one is a sort of direct sequel of Stormqueen and we meet the next generation of the same characters we met in the previous book. So Renata's son Edic, heir of Aldaran is a powerful man, with a strong laran, the power to call the tempest like his aunt. But being trained he's conscious of his gift and he's afraid to use it. On the other side, Scathfell heir, Gwynn, grew up with stories of Scathfell destruction by ALdaran, is trying to fight that power having sons with the same laran. And so, the lifes of those two heirs are intertwined by two sisters.

The end is a bit easy, I thought about it myself ;), but the story is very good and well written.
I'm happy to be in Darkover world again!

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have loved every Darkover novel I have ever read - including this one. I miss Marion Zimmer Bradley, but Deborah Ross is doing a good job. This one is set during the Age of Chaos. There is intrigue and some suspense and romance and even a bit of science fiction. In fact, there is even a happy ending to this one! What more could you ask?

[Damona · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you'll pardon my saying so... Lord Scathfell is a nitwit. By the whims of fate, he has been given a wife he loves, while his former betrothed, his wife's sister, whom he never even met, has also found someone she loves, and all he's going to do is cause trouble and whine about it? Ugh.

I like Alayna, I like Kyria, I like Edric... Gwynn-Alar, Lord Scathfell, is an annoying twit.

[Peter Fiske · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed the entire series ever since I read the first one a very long time ago. Since Ms Bradley's death, I have never had a reason to doubt Ms Ross' s abilities to take over the Darkover books. Well Done!

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minus one star for not having an exclamation point in the title.

Thunderlord is a sequel to Stormqueen!, but set a generation later. After the defeat of Scathfell at the hands of Aldaran thanks to Dorilys's weather witchery, an uneasy peace settles on the Hellers. I say "uneasy" because it turns out that it's peace only through exhaustion, and later through fear. The Scathfells aren't sure whether the Aldarans still have any weather-based laran in their family, and they definitely don't trust the Aldarans' offers of friendship and peace. It's one of the hard truths that children have to learn as they interact with other humans, that it takes two people to maintain a friendship, but only one person to maintain a grudge.

The cover and title are misleading. The book is called "Thunderlord," with a picture that kind of makes me wish that I had read the book on my kindle, but while Edric is one of the main characters, he's not the most important one. The primary characters are a pair of sisters, Kyria and Alayna Rockraven, related to Dorilys through their great-aunt Aliciane, and the book is mostly about Alayna's marriage to Gwynn-Alar Scathfell. Kyria is the elder sister and originally received the marriage offer, but after being captured by bandits and presumed dead, her sister Alayn fulfills it in her stead. After that point, the book swaps viewpoints to Alayna for most of the rest of its length, with the occasional chapter or section from Lord Edric Aldaran's perspective.

While I read Thunderlord, I kept in mind something my wife told me about Game of Thrones. Part of the reason she stopped watching is that she thought that the viewer was being set up to dislike Sansa in comparison to Arya. Sansa liked balls and knights and gallantry, whereas Arya liked animals and climbing trees and getting her hands dirty, and obviously the former is airy nonsense while the latter is practical life skills. It's an example of the devaluation of traditionally feminine activities and failure to realize that the historically-constrained sphere of what was considered proper for women required its own branch of skills and practice to navigate, and that distinction is evidence between Kyria and Alayna. Kyria spent her childhood wandering in the wilderness, whereas Alayna was the more delicate child who hoped to become a dutiful wife and mother. Once she does marry Lord Scathfell in Kyria's place, she's quick to assert herself as the co-manager of the household, refusing to let servants do all the work, taking her own hand in advising her husband and managing their estates, and coming up with a plan to bring peace between the Scathfells and the Aldarans when her husband fixates on his desire for vengeance to the exclusion of all else.

It's true that Alayna spends much of the book managing Gwynn-Alar's moods, and I can see why some people wouldn't want to read that. But I appreciated her deft hand.

Unfortunately, the ending seems to come out of nowhere. After an entire book about how strong the pull of vengeance can be, and how good men can come to believe that other good men are their enemies and cannot be convinced otherwise in face of evidence of the contrary, the book ends happily after a few pages of wrap-up. It's not the direction that the rest of the narrative was taking and so it seems unearned. I don't know that I would have preferred a tragic ending, but it would have felt more authentic to the story. Without the ending I would have given it four stars easily, but as it is, it's only a middling book and not at all as good as its predecessor.

[Leigh Kimmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

In many ways I feel that this is more Deborah J Ross's book set in Marion Zimmer Bradley's fictional world rather than a true posthumous collaboration. Maybe that's why I feel less uneasy about reading it, if it doesn't have so much of a shadow cast over it by the very serious questions about MZB's personal life.

Also, it's much lighter than the novel to which it is a nominal sequel. All the time I've been reading it, I've been wrestling with just what I mean when I say that. Most obviously, it has a happy ending, whereas STORMQUEEN is fundamentally a tragedy, the story of spoiled young Dorylis whose Gift came upon her too young, who never learned wisdom or control as a child and thus could not learn it when she needed it.

By contrast, this story starts with adventures of derring-do as the two sisters Kyria and Alayna, travel from Rockraven to Scathfell, where Kyria is betrothed to its lord. But Kyria is kidnapped by bandits and taken to their stronghold, setting off a chain of events and misunderstandings that are only possible in a world where travel and communications are painfully slow. At times the turns of events take on an almost soap opera character, but everything is clearly moving toward a happy ending at the end, when the characters come to their senses and sort out an amicable solution to a longstanding feud. In fact, I could anticipate several major plot twists as soon as the critical elements were introduced.

Its a popcorn book, but not a bad book. Sometimes you want or even need something lightweight and nicely predictable, that you can read without being braced for horrible surprises thrown at you by the author.

[Jan Niblock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how this story followed up on the characters from “Stormqueen”. My only thought was about ages, it seemed the Gwynn-Alar Scathfell should be a lot older than Alanya Rockhaven, like a whole lot older. And the Edric Aldaran would be so much younger also, as he was born after the fall of Scathfell. But that was just a little thing that bothered me but did not take away from this great story.

I found that the story was very well thought out and explained so much about how easy it was to fall into the rabbit hole. Here Gwynn was raised on stories of hatred and revenge to the point that he could not overcome the fact that it was in the past. And that the past should just remain in the past.

The events that caused Kyria to be kidnapped and later rescued by Edric resulted in what made for a better story. Both sisters, Kyria and Alanya were very close but total opposites. While Kyria was older, she was more a tomboy and one never to hold back what she was thinking. She was fiercely independent and would not let anyone control her. While Alanya was more of a romantic and loved doing “girly” things like with clothes, hair and manners. The fact that both of these sisters end up the with the correct husband for them is a stroke of fate. I could not see Kyria and Gwynn ever being able to have love where you could see that Gwynn did love Alanya.

What an excellent ending to their story.

[Jill Gerhardstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh, this book was predictable to anyone with a passing familiarity with Darkover. That wouldn't be so bad, but it depended on the characters making stupid decisions to move the plot forward. Lord Scathfell is afraid of losing another war to Lord Aldaran? Lord Aldaran marrying Lord Scathfell's promised bride (who faked her death) should solve everything! It did not solve anything, but no one seems to understand why Lord Scathfell might be angry about being deceived -- he got to marry the loving younger sister, so who cares that his lifelong rival stole his original fiancee?

If Lord Aldaran had simply rescued Kyria and brought her safely to Scathfell, the alliance he claimed to want could have happened naturally and without bloodshed.

I did enjoy the follow-up to Stormqueen though; it's always fun to see the consequences play out a generation later.

[N.W. Moors · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book continues the story begun in StormQueen with Edric, Donal and Renata's child, having the Rockraven storm ability. Gywnn-Alar, Lord Scarthfell, conceives the idea to wed a Rockraven woman in order to have the storm laran in his family and protect against Aldaran. He betroths Kyria but she is kidnapped by bandits, so he ends up wedding her sister Alayna instead. Meanwhile, Edric rescues Kyria but they decide to let it be known that she died. This leads to misunderstandings and confrontations between the two lords and their people that echo the first book.
It's not the best Darkover book, but it's pretty good. It's nice to be back in this world with a new (to me) book. I got to see Allart and Cassandra again in a visit to Thendara which is always nice to see how their lives have continued after StormQueen.

[Justin Delamar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was still a good book but the title, cover art and description were a bit miss leading. From those three together it makes it seem like the character Edric and Kyria were going to be the main focus of this story which I was really looking forward to but instead the main character that shines in this story is Alayna, Kyria’s sister. We really only see Edric and Kyria for less than a third of the book. That being said the story of Alayna was one of sorrow and self realization. Still recommend those who like the Darkover series to read it but just be warned, it’s not what it seems to be. I guess you could say that this is a prime example of not judging a book by its cover.

[Groucho42 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Failure. Zimmer and her estate entrusted Ross to write more books. Bad decision.

Kyria and Alayna are on the way to the former's wedding to a lord she hasn't met. After a meet cute with the lord she will marry, she's abducted, he rescues her, then they disappear from the story until the author wants to use them for the plot. Almost all the rest focuses on Alayna in far too detailed a way, a dull way. It should have switched between the two.

The characters and plot are far too standard and Alayna's story is too dull to hold the interest it is forced to try to hold. Not good.

[Shelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can definitely tell MZB was not the actual writer. Still well done, but just a different feel to the writing.

One thing that stood out to me was that the way the two male leads were presented. In STORM MISTRESS!, Aldaran & Scarfell are brothers. That would mean that Edric & Gwynn-Alar are cousins (even tho Edric actually has no Aldaran blood). In THUNDERLORD, the two men's familial relationship is .... forgotten? ignored? That is weird to me.

[Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deborah J Ross continues to do justice to the Darkover stories of Marion Zimmer Bradley. An excellent follow up to the decades old story Stormqueen. A story of two sisters, and how they manage to create peace between two warring kingdoms.

[Janette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely to return to this part of Darkover's history again. It doesn't have quite the same depth as Stormqueen which is one of my all time favourites but a great read nonetheless. I'm not sure that it would be a good start for someone new to the series though.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the first couple of chapters Thunderlord appeared to be more of a romance novel instead of fantasy/science fiction. Things picked up as the main female protagonist is abducted on her way to her wedding and a family fued is revealed.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable story and love the filling in of history and additional information...close sequel to Stormqueen. Only problem for me is this book is before Terrans come back and they are using horses...where the hell did they get horses.....the riding animals on Darkover are chervine.

[Mer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title and book cover are misleading but the story told is well-done and very good entertainment. I put aside several other books and kept coming back to it.

I did skip a lot of pages without losing the story line.

[Queen Talk Talk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feuds do sometimes last decades

What outsider doesn't think an old feud should be dropped? The hurt, fear, and way of thinking are very hard to overcome. Truly all actions come from fear or love.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to return to this world after a long absence. Nothing special beyond that.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was slightly disappointed in this book because I saw the resolution in the middle of the book. The plot was very obvious, but the story telling was good.

[Sibylle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice story, but I liked MZBs early solo stories better.

[Msgypsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The magic of Darkover still holds me

Ross is a wonderful successor to Bradley. I am so pleased that new Darkover material continues to pop up from time to time.

[Freyja · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was standard Darkover, nothing unique. Having said that, it's readable and sufficiently interesting.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might have been the best book of the entire series.

[Char · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liked this book a lot. Took a second to get going but was really good once it did.