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Thendara House (Darkover #13)

3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 · rating details · 1,597 ratings · 36 reviews

The cross-currents of two cultures, one male-dominated, one egalitarian, combined with the human problems of two who switched allegiances, brings into focus all the deepest questions of love and marriage, justice and injustice. THENDARA HOUSE is a novel of speculation which has become a classic masterwork on the role of women on any world, past, present, or future.

Mass Market Paperback, 414 pages

Published September 1st 1983 by DAW Books (first published 1983)

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Feb 23, 2013 Elaine Burnes rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: lesbian, science-fiction

I apparently bought this because I'd heard there were lesbians in it. There are, but it's the middle of the series (in a couple of ways: deep into the Darkover series and middle of the Renunciates section of that series) and I kept wishing I'd read at least the book before. A lot of action in that leads to what happens here.

This was published in 1983 and women's equality was still so far from reality that MZB couldn't help but project the same dynamic into the future. Terran men treat their wom...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Caterina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: done-reviewed

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm on something like my third or fourth reading of this for a reason.

It made me stop, think, and write things down. I started to keep a commonplace book shortly before this last reread; I didn't expect to fill six-odd pages with bits from Thendara House. I knew, when I first read it, that the Oath had blown my mind -- in it went. But as Magda and Jaelle began to question how the Oath applied to them and their situations, so too did I find myself reframing my worldview. In writing down their qu...more

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May 29, 2010 Surreysmum rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1984, fantasy-fiction

[These notes were made in 1984:]. The Mists of Avalon had a definite feminist bent. This has gone further into the realms of radical feminism, and depicts a society (the Free Amazons) where lesbianism is the norm, at the same time as it shows the break-up of a heterosexual marriage. Like Shirley, this is a double-heroine book, with two different personality types learning to cope with adverse situations. Magda and Jaelle, however, also have to learn to cope with each other's cultures (Magda is T...more

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Apr 16, 2009 Chuck rated it 5 of 5 stars

My personal favorite of Bradley's books so far.

An unapologetic sequel to Shattered Chain, immediately following the events of Shattered Chain; Magda has, in order to fulfill her vow to the Renunciates, taken a leave from the Terran Space force and is living in Thendara House, a Renunciate house in the city. To some extent, it's like boot camp in that the purpose of the six month stay is to retrain and adjust thinking, helping women strip off the societal expectations placed on women and helping...more

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Jul 01, 2011 dogpossum rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of the Renunciates mini-series, set mid-way through the Darkovan chronology, written later (in the mid 80s, rather than 60s or 70s), Thendara House continues on from The Shattered Chain, and links to the Forbidden Tower series at various points. This is one of the most indepth explorations of gender, sexuality and sex in female Darkovan characters, and is often read as a continuation of MZB's own thinking about lesbianism, bisexuality, gender and marriage.

The cover is disappointingly tame, b...more

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Dec 10, 2010 Valerie added it

Careful reading of The Forbidden Tower places the start of this book right in the middle of the former. The end is well after the characters from The Forbidden Tower have returned home to Armida. Overlap doesn't really begin until toward the end.

Jaelle has more excuse than Margali for being ethnocentric. True, she has been involved in several different societies on Darkover--but, after all, the diversity of Darkovan societies is based on a very small, ethnically uniform founder group. Interbreed...more Careful reading of The Forbidden Tower places the start of this book right in the middle of the former. The end is well after the characters from The Forbidden Tower have returned home to Armida. Overlap doesn't really begin until toward the end.

Jaelle has more excuse than Margali for being ethnocentric. True, she has been involved in several different societies on Darkover--but, after all, the diversity of Darkovan societies is based on a very small, ethnically uniform founder group. Interbreeding with nonhumans (especially chieri), and adaptations to telepathy and a harsh environment (actually several) have induced variations in language, household structure, etc. But even having lived in several different Darkovan cultures wouldn't really prepare Jaelle to adapt to what must be a VERY varied palette of cultures in the Terran Empire. Her failure to accept the normative Terran solution of an official overculture superimposed on local variations is perhaps understandable--but not less a failure for all that.

Margali's more open and painful adjustment is, in a way, one she was better prepared for by her upbringing. Not only was she brought up in a Darkovan milieu, her Empire training was specifically designed to help her through such transitions. Nevertheless, she has not much less trouble with it than a native Darkovan and a Terran put together. If she manages to make it through, and with a better integrated persona at the end, it's a tribute to her honesty, strength, and flexibility. Though her family makes only cameo appearances in her biography, there's quite a bit of evidence that they gave her a good start, and she made the most of it. Of course, it doesn't help either of them that they're in delayed threshold sickness, and neither of them really grew up in a telepathic culture.

The feminist elements naturally take the foreground here, but the clashes between Darkovan and Empire values are perhaps best illustrated by the failure of the Terran bureaucrats to understand the significance of Jaelle taking PERSONAL responsibility in a matter which the Terrans would consider one of professional responsibility only. Unless or until THAT issue is cleared up, there are bound to continue to be misunderstandings (and even clashes).

Some afterthoughts: It may be more of a reflection of the time the book was written that the culture of the Terran Empire is represented as being so implacably homophobic. The Terrans who go 'over the wall' are not particularly more likely to escape cultural misunderstandings in homosexual than in heterosexual relationships, especially if what they're looking for is not an affair, but a long-term relationship.

On a linguistic note, it's odd that the Darkovans have no word for 'technology' It looks to me as if they're making an invalid distinction here, which can perhaps be traced back to the original settlers. Of COURSE the Darkovans have technology, and not only in the 'matrix sciences'. They have felting mills, windmills, cheesemaking...all 'technology', though there's a current tendency to set aside certain highly mechanized technologies and describe them as 'technology' preeminently.

In preparing for the housing of Darkovan employees, one of the reforms the Terrans might want to consider is eliminating 'Married Personnel Housing'. This is discriminatory. People should live with the same degree of privacy and community when they're married as when they're unmarried. One of the main sources of stress in Jaelle and Peter's marriage is that they're expected to share quarters during ALL their off-duty time. It's not only 'single' people who need 'room(s) of [their] own'. Compare, for example, in Sayers' Busman's Honeymoon, in which even a honeymooning couple are given their own bedrooms. Granted, it's a large house, but still... If you don't even have your own closet space, NATURALLY you're going to get on each other's nerves, even without conflicts in cultural expectations.

The 'deprogramming' that's done in the Guild house shouldn't be necessary. Why are people 'programmed' in the FIRST place? Bradley often bucked and reared about people being broken to harness, but she seems to have accepted without protest the idea that ANYBODY just tamely accepts the harness, and is never chafed by it. It may be possible for some people to live their lives on autopilot. I couldn't say personally, because I'VE never been able to. But I suspect that very few people actually accept the idea of senseless customs. If they don't get answers when they first ask "Why?", most people may just stop asking,,,but I doubt it.(less)

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Aug 07, 2012 Paula rated it 4 of 5 stars

The description is incorrect--it's the clash between an overtly and fairly inflexibly male-dominated culture and one that, like American culture at the time the book was written, was transitioning into a more flexible but still mostly male-dominated culture. The attitudes of the presumably futuristic Terrans were very frustrating to me, especially since I was reading the book well after it was written--all so very West Coast '70s, as if a century of technological expansion could happen while soc...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Jordan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, sci-fi, fantasy, glbt

Good overall, but there are so many characters I want to slap in this book. First, and constantly, Peter. Because he's a big asshole the entire time. Even when he's being nice, it's only because he's doing it to try and get his way. He's constantly manipulating Jaelle and vying for power and position. And when (view spoiler), I kind of wish she had. He's got that wonderful 50's sexism going on where his wife should obey and help h...more Good overall, but there are so many characters I want to slap in this book. First, and constantly, Peter. Because he's a big asshole the entire time. Even when he's being nice, it's only because he's doing it to try and get his way. He's constantly manipulating Jaelle and vying for power and position. And when (view spoiler), I kind of wish she had. He's got that wonderful 50's sexism going on where his wife should obey and help him in everything. And I wanted to slap Jaelle too because she sees what's happening and keeps trying to ignore it and fix things. She got annoyed about things like being called Mrs. Peter Haldane, but never really got that fixed. Maybe she didn't know how to do it within the Terran system, but she just let it slide so many times and did nothing but mentally bitch.

Pretty much any of the Terrans really got on my nerves. They had this superior imperialist attitude. Darkover is apparently a lost group of humans way way way back in history and so the Terran empire assumes that this gives them rights over the place and that the people should be grateful to rejoin the empire. Which they're clearly not, and all the Terrans can't fathom it. One example of their stupidity was the incident with the downed plane. The Terrans are flying what are basically spy-planes all over Darkover without permission and try and logic it away with the fact that the Darkovans aren't using the airspace and because Darkover essentially belongs to them because of their tenuous connection in the past. Montray is especially like that. He really despises the planet and everything about it, therefor choosing to remain ignorant and one giant diplomatic fuck up, despite being the person put in charge. And Alessandro Li really isn't much better, though he makes an attempt to blend in at least. Monty isn't bad, though he's clearly for the empire. Cholayna is definitely the most tolerable of the Terrans. She actually bothers to try and learn and understand Darkover culture.

Camilla on the other hand was the best and really needs to get a happy, or at least decent, ending. (view spoiler) Most of the Amazons were halfway decent, though even some of them still got on my nerves. Mainly Keitha. Though she got better as the book went on. Some of the talks in the Guild House got a bit tedious though. They're basically just feminist arguments dropped right into the story. They do make sense for the story, but they're kind of a slog sometimes.

As far as this whole Forbidden Tower stuff towards the end. I have no idea what is going on there. Well, only vaguely. I have a feeling I probably need to read more books to know what's going on with that. (less)

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Apr 21, 2010 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction, novels

Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote 18 Darkover novels--more if you include collaborations. Darkover is a "lost colony" of Earth that falls into a medieval society ruled by a psychic aristocracy and is later rediscovered by a star-spanning advanced 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, Magda, who has come to live on Darkover and a native o...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Miriam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, gender

Series background: a human colony ship crash lands on the wrong planet. They name it Darkover and do their best to survive in a fairly hostile landscape. Over the centuries they forget their off-world origins and develop a vaguely feudal society. The nobility, called the Comyn, is comprised of seven families of red-heads with different psychic gifts. Women have few legal rights and are the property of fathers and husbands. Renunciates, sometimes called by others the Free Amazons, are women who r...more Series background: a human colony ship crash lands on the wrong planet. They name it Darkover and do their best to survive in a fairly hostile landscape. Over the centuries they forget their off-world origins and develop a vaguely feudal society. The nobility, called the Comyn, is comprised of seven families of red-heads with different psychic gifts. Women have few legal rights and are the property of fathers and husbands. Renunciates, sometimes called by others the Free Amazons, are women who reject the social system and band together in groups for mutual protection. There is also some emphasis on female virginity because only virgin women can become Keepers in the Towers where they use the the great Matrix crystals to amplify their psychic abilities.

Chronologically, the series takes place over a number of centuries, covering from the initial Darkover Landfall to eventual rediscovery by the galactic empire and its aftermath. The books were not written in chronological order, and the chronology seemed, when I tried to figure it out years ago, to not work out entirely. But most of the books work as stand-alones. The ones that have larger story-arcs and continuing characters tend to be set around the Rediscovery period. This book, for instance, comes a decade or so after The Shattered Chain and has some returning characters, but I think you could make sense of it without reading Shattered Chain first. But you really need to read this one before City of Sorcery.

Thendara House is set several years after the Terran Empire rediscovers the lost colony of Darkover. They have a base on the planet, and Madga has spent quite a bit of her childhood there and is familiar with the Darkovan culture. When her friend and colleague Peter is kidnapped and held for ransom, it makes sense that she travel "under-cover" to rescue him. Because of the oppression of native women, she decides to disguise herself as a Renunciate for safety. But when she meets a band of actual Renunciates, they quickly see through her disguise (for one thing, they never travel alone) and threaten to kill her, as is the standard practice for women who take the Renunciate name in vain. It doesn't come up in the context, but I guess this is fine with the government; their culture permits dueling et al and they don't seem to care much about what happens to women without families, anyway. Magda promises she will become a Renunciate for real if they spare her, and they help her save Peter. Jaelle, one of the Renunciates, falls in love with Peter and decides to marry him and live on the Terran Base. Magda takes her place in the Renunciate house in the capital city of Thendara.

That's all set-up. The bulk of the book is the two women's parallel experiences of culture-shock and adjustment. Despite the sword-and-sorcery setting, this is more anthropology than action and may be a decent place to dive into the series, as the perspective of Magda as a semi-outsider learning the nuances of the culture makes it clear more quickly than if you try to pick it up as you go along. (less)

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Oct 31, 2012 Rena McGee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Thendara House is the second book in the Renunciate sequence of the Darkover series. Darkover is a very big paracosm with often-conflicting plots and world building. Feminist issues often come up in this series, given that the Darkovan cultures are strongly patriarchal and women--except for the Renunciates--are considered second-class citizens. Renunciates or “Free Amazons” enjoy greater freedom and exemption from the various restrictions and laws that keep Darkovan women second-class and entire...more

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May 31, 2009 Darla added it

This was a sad discovery. My late husband had this book in his collection and I had never paid attention. Just one more thing I could have had in common with him, but ignored. Good story from the Darkover series. Good, but did not make me want to read the rest of the Darkovers.

Recommended reading from: http://www.feministsf.org/bibs/recomm....

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Mar 17, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, and so wanted to read more. I started with the book before this one, it was a good one to start, even of it takes a bit to get over the heavy handed feminism that is also outdated. But, with that caveat in mind, I really like the anthropology in narrative.. And it's a good fast sci-fi/fantasy read.

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Sep 24, 2011 Leisa Corbett rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is my favorite MZB book because of the character, Magdalene Lorne. She is an Intelligence agent who goes over the wall. During my first reading of the book I was active duty Army in Military. I love this book because it is about a friendship between two woman that is so close the could be family, but they are not lovers

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May 20, 2007 Yoon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sff

Sequel to The Shattered Chain--probably readable without that context, almost certainly better with it. Bradley not only explores feminism in the context of Darkover's often restrictive society--the Order of Renunciates (Free Amazons) specifically exists to show women that they have an alternative, if they should wish to take it--but culture shock. The two, of course, are intertwined. Magda Lorne, as a newly sworn Renunciate, learns the ways of her new sisters; meanwhile, her oath-mother Jaelle...more

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Dec 09, 2010 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first Darkover novel I'd ever read by MZB and I really liked it. I could tell she had started it in the 1960s (although I think she said she finished it in the '80s) due to the sexism that still remained in it. It really made me think about gender roles within a cultural context.

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Oct 05, 2009 Bradley rated it 3 of 5 stars

A fantasy/sci fi book tied up with social issues facing women. Cultural shock, bigotry, and even gender issues complicate this story. The story subtly draws you in and makes you care about the characters. A very engaging tale and worth reading.

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Apr 12, 2009 Tiffany rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely the best part of Darkover series is the Renunciates! Gotta read'em! Darkover is one of the first full fantasy worlds started by Bradley. She was writing around the times of Asimov. One of the first woman Sci-Fi writers.

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May 09, 2012 Andy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Any of Marion Zimmer Bradley's books are worth reading if you like Sci Fi, and I love it! Read many of her books, hate to sit here and list them all. Love to pick up old ones at lawn sales and book exchanges to re read.

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Dec 31, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

As many others before me, I'm sure, I have gained an interest in this Sci Fi/Fantasy series. Quite a journey the characters took both externally and internally. I was especially intrigued by the gift of Laran and how Margali and Andrew, both Terrans come to have it. Perhaps in the next book, that secret may be revealed?

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Dec 02, 2008 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am re reading these (all the Darkover I own) and enjoying them again. My favs are the Renunciates, of course!! But, love the whole world that MZB created.

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May 28, 2013 Julie Haydon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: influences

I read this book for the first time when I was a teenager and it resonated powerfully with me. I loved the strong female characters.

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Jun 17, 2012 Robert Rector rated it 2 of 5 stars

Like the other books id this series, the flaw is nothing actually is developed to any great detail.

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Jun 27, 2011 Kerr Cuhulain rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-fiction

Like the characters in this. Very interesting study of the intersection of two cultures.

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Jun 09, 2009 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, theme-sex-gender-glbt, cover-pretty-white-girl

I snagged a cheap copy of the prequel to this at HPB and so I thought I'd re-read this. In general, the concept is better than the execution, I think. However, it's important to remember that when this was originally published it was breaking a lot of new ground.

Forgot to add: Bradley wrote these books both so they could be standalone books and out of order. I think that if the Renunciate and Forbidden Tower books had been written more tightly, with an eye to continuity as a series within the se...more

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Apr 16, 2011 Kristy McCaffrey rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was my favorite Darkover novel.

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May 31, 2013 Valerie rated it 5 of 5 stars

My favorite Darkover novel!

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Sep 26, 2012 Howard added it

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Jul 14, 2011 Marie Judson-Rosier added it

Fantastic.

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Jan 10, 2010 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I went on a serious Zimmer Bradley jag when I was living in the City. I don't remember this plot specifically, but her writing was some of the most mature I read in the fantasy field. This was a welcome break from the Darkover novels, though I did enjoy those, too.

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About Marion Zimmer Bradley

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.

Born on a farm in Albany, New York, during the Great Depression, she began writing in 1949 and sold her first story to Vortex magazine in 1952. In 1965 Bradley graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Te...more

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Thendara House (Darkover #13)

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