The Forbidden Circle

Darkover Omnibus #4

by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Omnibus of The Spell Sword and The Forbidden Tower.

The story of Andrew Carr (Terran who went over-the-wall), Callista Lanart-Alton (disgraced keeper), Damon Ridenow (Darkovan noble, gifted with the laran to be a keeper, but not the gender) and Ellemir Lanart-Alton (Callista's twin) and how they challenged the ancient laws of the Matrix Towers.

With a new cover by Romas Kukalis this onmibus tells the story leading up to the novel The Bloody Sun... and the Second Age of the Terrans against the Comyn.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Sci Fi Fantasy

576 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 5, 2002

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

[Katie King · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? MZB is utterly weird in the most interesting ways! When I read her as a younger feminist I thought she was awful. Nowadays, with a longer personal timeline, with my own feminist assumptions utterly blasted by my own and others' changes and weirdnesses ourselves, and with a delight in how hard it is to push against dogmas of all kinds, even ones I care deeply about, MZB looks quite a lot different. Knowing more about her life makes a difference too. Putting some of this into its own historical timeframes matters. MZB is fun precisely because it isn't just about the worlds between the covers of the books, but lives of many other sorts leak all over the place: her own, her husband's sexual specifics, her own sexual meanings and changes across time and communities, her founding of so many worlds, virtual, role-playing, shared with others, her fandoms, her illness, her many friends and colleagues and mentees. Full of life, contradiction, queering every norm, and writing about it all, obliquely and directly. I admire her enormously, and I don't have to take her worlds as blueprints for feminist goals, but rather as permutations of possibility, some not to desire, some to desire, some undecidable, and all these mixed up so thoroughly that formula and politics have more meanings than are comfortable. MZB, thank you.

[Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, for GOD'S SAKE.

Hell no. HELL NO! Dammit, I hated this! In order:

The Spell Sword: Pretty bland, really. Meh. Woman in peril, woo-ooo astral projection, we speake oldene speech because we liveth in an icy ren faire, blah. This sort of setting has never been my cup of tea, but I like cultural clashes, so when we started with a Terran crash-landed on a frozen mountain I had hope. Sadly, it goes downhill (downmountain?) from then on - the Terran teams up with a clan of inbred hill wizards and they do the lamest battle possible with the "cat-men" and rescue the maiden fair and fine, whatever. It's setup for the next book.

Now, look. Marion Zimmer Bradley is hailed as revolutionary feminist writer, and maybe when she started writing her work was groundbreaking. Maybe. But reading her stuff in 2011 is weird. I don't understand why this feudal setting was chosen, with women controlled by their male relatives. The women aren't particularly strong - if anything, MZB seems to have crippled the men? Everyone is the reverse of action. But The Spell Sword was just generic boringness. The next book had me nearly tossing the book across the room.

The Forbidden Tower: So, having abruptly married into a cult of witchy inbreds and renounced his entire damn background, Terran Andrew Carr is now subjected to a book-long brainwashing ritual. There's practically no action in this book, it's all about interpersonal feeeeeelings and culture clash and crap. Seriously, the amount of "I should have told you" and "Why did you react that way" and general hair-pulling navel-gazing agony? Just knock me unconscious already, because this is fricking awful. And boring. BORING.

Andrew is a cipher, he's got nothing to him other than being a vague sexual threat to his own wife, who can't touch him (she's a virgin priestess, basically, so you know the storyline there). Really he's there to spend the entire book being pressured into a group marriage. Is this particularly feminist? Two sisters and their cousin-husband burst into tears every time Andrew "hurts their feelings" by reacting to something with the totally natural context of his cultural taboos, and yet they also expect him to flawlessly incorporate THEIR culture without compromise. They're mean-girling him into compliance! Even weirder, they're mean-girling him into polygamy.

And can I just tell you how much crying there is in this book? SO MUCH CRYING. Most commonly because someone's feelings were hurt, though also because someone's feeling guilty, or weeping regretfully over something from decades ago. Weep weep weep. And then there's a big life-or-death battle and you think YAY, action! But not QUITE the sort of action you might be thinking about, because you know how to prepare for psychic battle? Well, I'd probably get some sleep, but this gang instead have a night-long orgy. Obviously. And it's not even good sexy writing, dammit, it's all hazy feeeeeeeeeeelings. And then the long-awaited "epic battle" turns out to be 15 minutes of deep emotional discussion. Fantasy by feminist process! SHUT UP!

In conclusion: I hated this freaking book. I hate all the mulling and the talking and the feeeelings. I REALLY hate the sense that Andrew Carr is now having sex with both his sister- and brother-in-law because he's been brainwashed into it, and because they cried until he gave in. Is this the feminist bit, casting Andrew Carr in this totally subjugated role where he obeys while thinking it's his own free will? Seriously, someone tell me.

I'm going to try one more of these because I'm a flipping masochist. There MUST be a reason for MZB to have gotten the reputation she did, right? So one more. One. But I'm watching about twenty episodes of "The Vampire Diaries" first, as a palate-cleanser.

[Juushika · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Spell Sword, Andrew is drawn to the isolated planet Darkover by the psychic vision of a woman he's never met, and there sets out to save her life. In The Forbidden Tower, Andrew and his newfound companions build a life together, one heretical to Darkover's traditions. It makes for an interesting pair. Sword is a competent but unremarkable quest novel, underlaid by character-driven subtleties: clashing cultures, reexamined social and gender identities, and fledgling non-normative relationships. It also introduces a telepathic magic system and society which in and of itself isn't particularly interesting, but which has vast, complex, and fascinating impacts on the characters. Tower moves subtext into text; it's slower and longer, a domestic saga driven by character while plot takes a back seat until the powerful ending. The transition from the implied to the explicit has its flaws: gender essentialism abounds, and the focus on heterosexual relationships and pregnancy threatens to smother the non-normative aspects; the magic system crumbles somewhat under such heavy scrutiny. But imperfect execution doesn't stop this from being an intriguing and compelling duology. These are books set in a world of telepathy and ritually controlled magic, but ultimately they are about the impact on the individual: how the intimacy of telepathy effects a social bond; how restrictions on telepathic practice limit and define telepaths. It's a focus I found personally rewarding and thought-provoking, and I enjoy and recommend these books despite their flaws; I don't know if I'll read more from the Darkover universe.

[Jimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Against the Terrans - The First Age (Recontact)
30 years before Star of Danger
THE SPELL SWORD: Andrew Carr is a Terran who has traveled the stars and planets, at the will of the administrators and computers. Like a sailor, he has been around. He is experienced bisexually, but he still wanders the galaxy lonely.
After a chance visit to a fortuneteller he is shown who his soul mate is. He becomes a member of Mapping and Exploration, so he can then take a team out to the Hellers to find the woman that he is drawn to. Being inexperienced and unprepared to handle the violent environment of the Hellers, their aircraft crashes on the rim of a cliff.
Andrew is saved from his death by the shade of Callista, (proving that he possesses psi talents of his own). At first, Andrew has a hard time believing that Callista is real, until the ghost-girl guides him to safety to Armida. Once arriving at the castle, the Darkovans show their hospitality to the Terran, where he tells his side of the story to the Alton family.
His tale tells Damon and Ellemir of Callista’s imprisonment and her suffering of fear, cold, hunger, and abuse. With Ellemir’s insistent encouragement, Damon Ridenow tries to help Callista’s twin sister rescue her from her kidnappers. Ellemir does not have the Gift that Callista possesses. As told to by Leonie of Arilinn, if Damon were born a woman, he would be a Keeper of a Tower, because of his amazing ability of laran.
Once finding Callista’s hidden starstone and with Damon’s trip into the overland, they find that she is being kept by the cat-men. What purpose could the cat-men have with Callista and not take her starstone too?
The cat-men are too dangerous to take on without the aid of Lord Alton’s, Dom Esteban, swordsmanship. The cat-men are able to hide, and can only be seen through the use of a starstone. Unfortunately, he has been paralyzed from their recent encounter. Therefore, he uses the Alton Gift to aid Damon to battle the cat-men, and uses Andrew’s telepathic abilities to find Callista in the confusing maze of the caves of Corresanti.
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s fight scenes are a bit difficult to follow. There are so many elements happening at the same time with trying to keep straight and figure out who is fighting in who’s body, and who is in who’s mind. In addition, there is Andrew and Callista’s confusing out of their body experiences. It’s hard to tell when they are there or are not there. They are intimate but yet they are not. (And was there a four-way? I agree with Andrew on this one. I’m not sure. I found myself just reading through it because I was getting a headache and dizzy.) At some point, you just have to start enjoying the story.
Damon needs to be able to find Callista, and save her from the threat of the Great Cat. For Damon, returning to Armida with Callista will prove to Dom Esteban that he is worthy of marrying Ellemir, and into the Alton family. Or will Andrew’s interference be more of a harm and hindrance to her rescue? Because of his intense connection to Callista, Andrew has gone native. Ultimately, how willing will Lord Alton and Callista be to give away her virginity, resulting in her lose of being a Keeper.
THE FORBIDDEN TOWER: A marriage between a Terran and Darkovan will be strange and hazardous for both. Some of the challenges that the couple must face are Callista must gain permission from the Keeper of Arilinn, Leonie Hastur, to leave the Tower, take back her oath to be Keeper, and given her blessing to marry Andrew. Faced with the unconditioning of a Keeper, and Andrew’s sexual frustration, will Callista return to Arilinn Tower, as the next Keeper, despite her feelings for Andrew? Second, even though Andrew says he will be patient while Callista unlearns her Keeper chastity conditioning, will he be able to remain patient for seasons, or longer, or realistically, not at all.
Fortunately, for Andrew, being a horse trainer and breaking horses is a respected occupation on Darkover. Andrew grew up on a ranch in Arizona, where he learned to work with horses. Andrew went into space as an Empire civil servant, moving from planet to planet at the will of the administrators and computers. Since coming here to Cottman IV, he has nothing to his claim besides this skill.
The two couples marry at the same time, (making their telepathic link stronger still.) For Ellemir, Damon’s years in the Tower, those years of which he never spoke, she learned that it made him unhappy if she asked him about it, and would always be a barricade between them, but not between Damon and Callista. They have experience of a life in the Tower, where Ellemir stayed home to care for her father.
To Ellemir and Damon’s delight, she gets pregnant from their wedding night. Their close kinsmanship can prove to be disastrous for the expecting parents. This is one of the cultural differences between a Terran and Darkovan. Because Ellemir and Damon can telepathically sense the awareness in the fetus, it is therefore considered a life, their child, regardless of how early in the pregnancy it is. Children are treasured very highly on Darkover.
Soon to be a blessing to the couple Ellemir and Damon, Callista gives Andrew permission to lay with her sister Ellemir, not because of her miscarriage, but because she is not able to lay with her own husband, Andrew. This is another huge cultural difference between Andrew and the other three. Andrew finds himself insulting and hurting feelings, when he believes he is being true to his vows and their honor. The situation is further complicated for Damon Ridenow is an empath, feeling everything Andrew feels. (I find that Andrew’s resistance to lay with Ellemir, even with her and Callista’s permission, unrealistic and difficult to believe. However, for what Marion Zimmer Bradley is trying to convey to the reader, in a wordy novel, is the depth of the telepathic link with the four, it is repetitive and detailed description and explanation is highly necessary.)
By living together, the telepathic link between all four is stronger than ever. Even Ellemir’s laran is greatly awakened and improved. Their challenge is keeping what secrets they can from Dom Esteban, because with his Alton gift, he knows all.
Turmoil and deceit strike with the introduction of Dezi, (Deziderio), as Dom Esteban’s servant. They learn that Dezi is a Comyn bastard. Dom Esteban will not acknowledge him as his son though. However, they learn that Dezi has the Alton gift, has been sent to Arilinn Tower, and dismissed, as Damon was. Dezi holds a hard and mortal grudge against not being acknowledged.
Because Andrew and Callista were not able to consummate their marriage, it is considered null and void until they do so. Dezi desired Callista deeply for her beauty, and hates Andrew equally as deep for being an alien. He schemes to get Andrew out of the picture, so he can then step in as Callista’s husband, and Alton heir. Dezi’s foul act is discovered in the nick of time for Andrew‘s sake. Against Ellemir’s advise Damon shows mercy on Dezi. He battles to take his starstone away and burning it out, instead of killing Dezi.
On one seemingly fortuitous night for Andrew and Callista, she believes herself ready for sex and they attempt to consummate their marriage, with the aid of their telepathic link to Damon and Ellemir’s coupling across the hall. This ends in disaster for Callista and Andrew. Andrew is almost killed because of Callista’s laran reflexively defending her. Because Callista realized it was Andrew she was attacking, she held back, resulting in her channels becoming blocked. Keepers cannot allow sexual energies and laran energies travel at the same time. Callista is dying.
Damon strongly believes that telepaths who do not want to live in the Towers should not have to. They should not have to sacrifice their life because the need of Keepers in the Towers is so great, and the availability of strong laran holders is too few. He believes that there are enough telepaths to train for healing the common man without screens, therefore allowing Keepers to do the work in the Towers. Leonie preaches that the use of laran without screens will be a return to the Ages of Chaos. You cannot do matrix work outside the Towers, for the Keepers maintain that it is not being misused.
In a desperate last attempt to save Callista‘s life, Damon visits with Leonie in the overworld, (the world of thought and illusion. The energy-net double of the real world.) He cannot find what will save Callista in all the libraries of the Towers. Leonie informs Damon that he must do a Timesearch, back to the Ages of Chaos, to find a way to save Callista. In his visit with Varzil the Good, in the Timesearch in the overworld, he discovers a way to save Callista with a forgotten secret become taboo. The old sacramental rite of Year’s End. Damon also leaves with Varzil the Good naming him a Keeper.
Before their journey to the Comyn Council castle, Andrew comes to terms with the relationship between the four and his sexuality. Andrew’s sexual awareness of Ellemir, the tenderness for Callista, and the strong, protective warmth he feels for Damon. They’re all one emotion.
At the Comyn Council, they must face Dezi for another and hopefully for a final time, for Damon Ridenow is named regent. The Alton heir has died under suspicious circumstances. In addition, Dom Esteban Lanart is dying, from a weak heart and must name an heir. Callista is forced to return to the Arilinn Tower because of her illegitimate marriage. Can she prove to not only Leonie but to the council also that her marriage is true, with the help of the taboo discovered in the Timesearch? Damon and the others are in mortal danger, for the Keepers of the Towers claim that Damon has constructed a “forbidden tower” with Callista, Ellemir, and Andrew, and it has been misused in the eyes of the Keepers of the Towers. Being faced with loosing his starstone as punishment. To go through life without laran, a prisoner forever in his own skull, intolerably alone forever, blinded, mutilated, and deaf. The four stand by one another to establish a new age for Darkover and it’s Keepers!

[Jimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Against the Terrans - The First Age (Recontact)
30 years before Star of Danger
THE SPELL SWORD: Andrew Carr is a Terran who has traveled the stars and planets, at the will of the administrators and computers. Like a sailor, he has been around. He is experienced bisexually, but he still wanders the galaxy lonely.
After a chance visit to a fortuneteller he is shown who his soul mate is. He becomes a member of Mapping and Exploration, so he can then take a team out to the Hellers to find the woman that he is drawn to. Being inexperienced and unprepared to handle the violent environment of the Hellers, their aircraft crashes on the rim of a cliff.
Andrew is saved from his death by the shade of Callista, (proving that he possesses psi talents of his own). At first, Andrew has a hard time believing that Callista is real, until the ghost-girl guides him to safety to Armida. Once arriving at the castle, the Darkovans show their hospitality to the Terran, where he tells his side of the story to the Alton family.
His tale tells Damon and Ellemir of Callista’s imprisonment and her suffering of fear, cold, hunger, and abuse. With Ellemir’s insistent encouragement, Damon Ridenow tries to help Callista’s twin sister rescue her from her kidnappers. Ellemir does not have the Gift that Callista possesses. As told to by Leonie of Arilinn, if Damon were born a woman, he would be a Keeper of a Tower, because of his amazing ability of laran.
Once finding Callista’s hidden starstone and with Damon’s trip into the overland, they find that she is being kept by the cat-men. What purpose could the cat-men have with Callista and not take her starstone too?
The cat-men are too dangerous to take on without the aid of Lord Alton’s, Dom Esteban, swordsmanship. The cat-men are able to hide, and can only be seen through the use of a starstone. Unfortunately, he has been paralyzed from their recent encounter. Therefore, he uses the Alton Gift to aid Damon to battle the cat-men, and uses Andrew’s telepathic abilities to find Callista in the confusing maze of the caves of Corresanti.
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s fight scenes are a bit difficult to follow. There are so many elements happening at the same time with trying to keep straight and figure out who is fighting in who’s body, and who is in who’s mind. In addition, there is Andrew and Callista’s confusing out of their body experiences. It’s hard to tell when they are there or are not there. They are intimate but yet they are not. (And was there a four-way? I agree with Andrew on this one. I’m not sure. I found myself just reading through it because I was getting a headache and dizzy.) At some point, you just have to start enjoying the story.
Damon needs to be able to find Callista, and save her from the threat of the Great Cat. For Damon, returning to Armida with Callista will prove to Dom Esteban that he is worthy of marrying Ellemir, and into the Alton family. Or will Andrew’s interference be more of a harm and hindrance to her rescue? Because of his intense connection to Callista, Andrew has gone native. Ultimately, how willing will Lord Alton and Callista be to give away her virginity, resulting in her lose of being a Keeper.
THE FORBIDDEN TOWER: A marriage between a Terran and Darkovan will be strange and hazardous for both. Some of the challenges that the couple must face are Callista must gain permission from the Keeper of Arilinn, Leonie Hastur, to leave the Tower, take back her oath to be Keeper, and given her blessing to marry Andrew. Faced with the unconditioning of a Keeper, and Andrew’s sexual frustration, will Callista return to Arilinn Tower, as the next Keeper, despite her feelings for Andrew? Second, even though Andrew says he will be patient while Callista unlearns her Keeper chastity conditioning, will he be able to remain patient for seasons, or longer, or realistically, not at all.
Fortunately, for Andrew, being a horse trainer and breaking horses is a respected occupation on Darkover. Andrew grew up on a ranch in Arizona, where he learned to work with horses. Andrew went into space as an Empire civil servant, moving from planet to planet at the will of the administrators and computers. Since coming here to Cottman IV, he has nothing to his claim besides this skill.
The two couples marry at the same time, (making their telepathic link stronger still.) For Ellemir, Damon’s years in the Tower, those years of which he never spoke, she learned that it made him unhappy if she asked him about it, and would always be a barricade between them, but not between Damon and Callista. They have experience of a life in the Tower, where Ellemir stayed home to care for her father.
To Ellemir and Damon’s delight, she gets pregnant from their wedding night. Their close kinsmanship can prove to be disastrous for the expecting parents. This is one of the cultural differences between a Terran and Darkovan. Because Ellemir and Damon can telepathically sense the awareness in the fetus, it is therefore considered a life, their child, regardless of how early in the pregnancy it is. Children are treasured very highly on Darkover.
Soon to be a blessing to the couple Ellemir and Damon, Callista gives Andrew permission to lay with her sister Ellemir, not because of her miscarriage, but because she is not able to lay with her own husband, Andrew. This is another huge cultural difference between Andrew and the other three. Andrew finds himself insulting and hurting feelings, when he believes he is being true to his vows and their honor. The situation is further complicated for Damon Ridenow is an empath, feeling everything Andrew feels. (I find that Andrew’s resistance to lay with Ellemir, even with her and Callista’s permission, unrealistic and difficult to believe. However, for what Marion Zimmer Bradley is trying to convey to the reader, in a wordy novel, is the depth of the telepathic link with the four, it is repetitive and detailed description and explanation is highly necessary.)
By living together, the telepathic link between all four is stronger than ever. Even Ellemir’s laran is greatly awakened and improved. Their challenge is keeping what secrets they can from Dom Esteban, because with his Alton gift, he knows all.
Turmoil and deceit strike with the introduction of Dezi, (Deziderio), as Dom Esteban’s servant. They learn that Dezi is a Comyn bastard. Dom Esteban will not acknowledge him as his son though. However, they learn that Dezi has the Alton gift, has been sent to Arilinn Tower, and dismissed, as Damon was. Dezi holds a hard and mortal grudge against not being acknowledged.
Because Andrew and Callista were not able to consummate their marriage, it is considered null and void until they do so. Dezi desired Callista deeply for her beauty, and hates Andrew equally as deep for being an alien. He schemes to get Andrew out of the picture, so he can then step in as Callista’s husband, and Alton heir. Dezi’s foul act is discovered in the nick of time for Andrew‘s sake. Against Ellemir’s advise Damon shows mercy on Dezi. He battles to take his starstone away and burning it out, instead of killing Dezi.
On one seemingly fortuitous night for Andrew and Callista, she believes herself ready for sex and they attempt to consummate their marriage, with the aid of their telepathic link to Damon and Ellemir’s coupling across the hall. This ends in disaster for Callista and Andrew. Andrew is almost killed because of Callista’s laran reflexively defending her. Because Callista realized it was Andrew she was attacking, she held back, resulting in her channels becoming blocked. Keepers cannot allow sexual energies and laran energies travel at the same time. Callista is dying.
Damon strongly believes that telepaths who do not want to live in the Towers should not have to. They should not have to sacrifice their life because the need of Keepers in the Towers is so great, and the availability of strong laran holders is too few. He believes that there are enough telepaths to train for healing the common man without screens, therefore allowing Keepers to do the work in the Towers. Leonie preaches that the use of laran without screens will be a return to the Ages of Chaos. You cannot do matrix work outside the Towers, for the Keepers maintain that it is not being misused.
In a desperate last attempt to save Callista‘s life, Damon visits with Leonie in the overworld, (the world of thought and illusion. The energy-net double of the real world.) He cannot find what will save Callista in all the libraries of the Towers. Leonie informs Damon that he must do a Timesearch, back to the Ages of Chaos, to find a way to save Callista. In his visit with Varzil the Good, in the Timesearch in the overworld, he discovers a way to save Callista with a forgotten secret become taboo. The old sacramental rite of Year’s End. Damon also leaves with Varzil the Good naming him a Keeper.
Before their journey to the Comyn Council castle, Andrew comes to terms with the relationship between the four and his sexuality. Andrew’s sexual awareness of Ellemir, the tenderness for Callista, and the strong, protective warmth he feels for Damon. They’re all one emotion.
At the Comyn Council, they must face Dezi for another and hopefully for a final time, for Damon Ridenow is named regent. The Alton heir has died under suspicious circumstances. In addition, Dom Esteban Lanart is dying, from a weak heart and must name an heir. Callista is forced to return to the Arilinn Tower because of her illegitimate marriage. Can she prove to not only Leonie but to the council also that her marriage is true, with the help of the taboo discovered in the Timesearch? Damon and the others are in mortal danger, for the Keepers of the Towers claim that Damon has constructed a “forbidden tower” with Callista, Ellemir, and Andrew, and it has been misused in the eyes of the Keepers of the Towers. Being faced with loosing his starstone as punishment. To go through life without laran, a prisoner forever in his own skull, intolerably alone forever, blinded, mutilated, and deaf. The four stand by one another to establish a new age for Darkover and it’s Keepers!

[Queen Talk Talk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of change in this book.

These books contain important characters in the history of Darkover. They suffer through and triumph over incredible societal changes. The next books tell of a transitional era.

[Yvonne Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and it's sequal. Damon is one of my favorite characters!

[Susan Snodgrass · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far my favourite in this series

Introduced in the renunciate saga, this cast of characters does not let you down. Each character gets drawn in better detail.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought years ago, first read maybe 15 years, a couple of years after this edition was published.

[Irene Grumman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed satisfying my curiosity about Jeff Kirwin and Damon Ridenow.

[Daniela · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit disapointed, very shallow story. It gets interesting only in the final 100 pages.

[Britt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spell Sword, is, IMHO, extremely weak. It's not very exciting—dreary really. The Forbidden Tower is better. I find the mechanics of "matrix work" to be very ad hoc, with a lot of problems that are solved by deus ex machina hand-waving. Overall, it's less interesting than your average fantasy magic system, really. However, interesting parts of both works are the people and the relationships, which go through significant, interesting growth and change (moreso in The Forbidden Tower), and the relationships are complicated in interesting ways by the telepathy between the characters. I am have a telepathic premonition (okay, really, I've just been reading summaries)... that the dullness of the telepathy is going to plague me through the whole series, but the problem is, due to MZB's skill in building, revealing, and evolving characters, I'm hooked. :-/

[Maddalenah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le 5 stelline sono tutte per The forbidden tower, e probabilmente dovrei abbassare a tre visto che è un omnibus edition che contiene anche The spell sword. Ma non posso, perchè davvero The forbidden tower è uno dei libri che più amo da tantissimo tempo, e quindi assimilo The spell sword come un necessario, lungo prologo e amen.
È un libro che consiglio veramente a chiunque, amanti del fantasy e non.
La torre proibita (titolo italiano :D) è stato il primo libro di Darkover che ho letto, quasi dieci anni fa, e credo che nessun'altro, nemmeno L'erede di Hastur, avrebbe potuto trascinarmi in modo così assoluto all'interno delle vicende del pianeta del sole di sangue.

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As good and easy-reading as i found "The Spell Sword" to read, as hard i found it to fight my way through "The Forbidden Tower", often just managing not even 20 pages at a time. Strange because the later is the continuation of the first. But it took me almost 3 months to get to the end.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

These two classic Darkover novels tell the epic tale of four people who challenged the ancient laws of the matrix towers.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains
The Spell Sword 12/5/1998
and
The Forbidden Tower 10/17/1998

[Jacqueline]

The Spell Sword
The Forbidden Tower

[Fiona Ellwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part way through series, will post review of whole series when complete.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A re-read of two books read separately some years ago, so the reviews have been posted under those individual books, as most of the reviews on GR are done that way.

The Spell Sword - 4 stars - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1954206844

The Forbidden Tower - 2 stars - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1954215831

Gives average rating for combined volume of 3 stars.