I've been reading the Darkover books for, oh, maybe 20 years now and it saddens me to think that I won't be reading any more new ones. Having said that, I'm a little annoyed that there series is ending without a real look at what happened in the thousand years between Darkover Landfall and Stormqueen! - how did the religion evolve? Who settled the Dry Towns? Why does Zandru have seven cold hells? If the answers to those questions are any where in the canon, please let me know!

As with all the recent books, this one covers that part of Darkover's history post-Terran rediscovery. There are Renunciates, the Comyn and all the "usual" suspects; what sets this apart is the much larger role the cristoforos have in the plot. Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has been using that world to explore/expound/rant about modern events and idiocies and this book allows MZB to lace into Christianity and homophobia in a way she hasn't done before. I'm not sure I liked that part of the story because it tended to overshadow the other ideas (should they join the Federation? what about the Telepath Council vs. Comyn Council? etc.)

Still, it's a Darkover book and that's never a bad thing.