About the Author

Marion Zimmer was born in Albany, NY, on June 3, 1930, and married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949. Mrs. Bradley received her B.A. in 1964 from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, then did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-67.

She was a science fiction/fantasy fan from her middle teens, and made her first sale as an adjunct to an amateur fiction contest in Fantastic/Amazing Stories in 1949. She had written as long as she could remember, but wrote only for school magazines and fanzines until 1952, when she sold her first professional short story to Vortex Science Fiction. She wrote everything from science fiction to Gothics, but is probably best known for her Darkover novels. In addition to her novels, Mrs. Bradley edited many magazines, amateur and professional, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, which she started in 1988. She also edited an annual anthology called Sword and Sorceress for DAW Books. Over the years she turned more to fantasy; The House Between the Worlds, although a selection of the Science Fiction Book Club, was "fantasy undiluted." She wrote a novel of the women in the Arthurian legends -- Morgan Le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and others -- entitled Mists of Avalon, which made the NY Times best seller list both in hardcover and trade paperback, and she also wrote The Firebrand, a novel about the women of the Trojan War. Her historical fantasy novels, The Forest House, Lady of Avalon, Mists of Avalon are prequels to Priestess of Avalon She died in Berkeley, California on September 25, 1999, four days after suffering a major heart attack. She was survived by her brother, Leslie Zimmer; her sons, David Bradley and Patrick Breen; her daughter, Moira Stern; and her grandchildren.

Reviews

In the second Clingfire book (after 2001's well-received The Fall of Neskaya), Ross does justice to her late coauthor's vision even if the plot is weaker than most in the Darkover saga. At the end of the age of the Hundred Kingdoms, "laran" (psi power) can be used to make terrible weapons that can kill thousands from a long distance. Carolin Hastur, heir to the Hastur throne, and Varzil Ridenow, a noble child with extraordinary laran, resolve to eliminate the threat posed by these weapons. What the pair devise will forever change the face of their world. These two characters, however, are less interesting than Carolin's friend Eduin MacEarn, who finds himself in a Hamlet-like struggle after vowing to take vengeance against the Hasturs who defeated his father. Unfortunately, a deus ex machina to dispense with Eduin's uncertainty arrives about halfway into the story, after which little conflict or suspense remains. Darkover fans who wondered how Varzil's Compact of Honor came about will welcome this entry, but it's unlikely to win the series new readers. (June 3) Forecast: In contrast to book one, this volume is essentially the work of Ross alone. The Bradley franchise may be ready for retirement if too many fans feel this one and, especially, volume three aren't up to snuff. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.