jmeyers888's review against another edition
3.0
It was really hard to get into this book. It took me 50 pages to finally start enjoying it., but after that it moved quickly and was interesting.
vaderbird's review against another edition
3.0
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
taisie22's review against another edition
5.0
I read this series many years ago and loved them. A recent reminder has me rereading from the beginning in the proper order (something I didn't do the first time). It's a bit dated but not enough to bother me. I still love this book.
A group of Terran colonists crashlands on a new planet and are forced to develop a new civilization based partly on where Earth standards but mostly on what they want in this new world. A large group of them are Scots who bring their culture in music and Gaelic tongue to Darkover.
"They lament, he thought, but they know life goes on. The Scots have been exiles for centuries, for millennia. This is just another exile, a little further than most, but they will sing the olds songs under the new stars and find new mountains and new seas..."
It's a great introduction to the series and I enjoyed it immensely.
A group of Terran colonists crashlands on a new planet and are forced to develop a new civilization based partly on where Earth standards but mostly on what they want in this new world. A large group of them are Scots who bring their culture in music and Gaelic tongue to Darkover.
"They lament, he thought, but they know life goes on. The Scots have been exiles for centuries, for millennia. This is just another exile, a little further than most, but they will sing the olds songs under the new stars and find new mountains and new seas..."
It's a great introduction to the series and I enjoyed it immensely.
allyriadayne's review against another edition
2.0
I liked the building-a-new-society thing, but there were many things that were very icky like saying women who ask for abortions have mental illnesses. I won't be reading the rest of the series because I really don't have time to read like thirty more books about space feudalism.
vreer's review against another edition
3.0
Good "origing" story on human inhabitation of the planet Darkover. The survival and population theories however strike me as rather "Darwinist" unfeminist and abled. OK, written by a white cis woman in the beginning of the 1970s, but still ..
abacon's review against another edition
1.0
Two thirds into this book and I'm setting it down for good. While it begins an interesting enough crash-landing and survival story, there is too much relentlessly sexist material here for me to sit by and endure. Perhaps I was expecting something different from a woman author who has at times flirted with feminism, but this is ridiculous. A woman is denied an abortion because apparently the colonists will need all the babies they can get. This is frustrating enough. But then a man explains to this woman that her unwillingness to bear a child is a mental illness! He explains,
... "this is biological. Even back in the 20th century, they did experiments on rats and ghetto populations and things, and found that one of the first results of crucial social overcrowding was the failure of maternal behavior. It's a pathology. Man is a rationalizing animal, so sociologists called it "Women's Liberation" and things like that, but what it amounted to was a pathological reaction to overpopulation and overcrowding. Women who couldn't be allowed to have children, had to be given some other work, for the sake of their mental health. But it wears off. ... most of them, once they're out of the crowding of Earth, recover their mental and emotional health, and the average Colony family is four children--which is about right, psychologically speaking. By the time the baby comes, you'll probably have normal hormones too, and make a good mother. If not, well, it will at least have your genes, and we'll give it to some sterile woman to bring up for you. Trust me.."
If you think you can stand this sort of tripe, be my guest. As for me, this one goes in the dustbin.
... "this is biological. Even back in the 20th century, they did experiments on rats and ghetto populations and things, and found that one of the first results of crucial social overcrowding was the failure of maternal behavior. It's a pathology. Man is a rationalizing animal, so sociologists called it "Women's Liberation" and things like that, but what it amounted to was a pathological reaction to overpopulation and overcrowding. Women who couldn't be allowed to have children, had to be given some other work, for the sake of their mental health. But it wears off. ... most of them, once they're out of the crowding of Earth, recover their mental and emotional health, and the average Colony family is four children--which is about right, psychologically speaking. By the time the baby comes, you'll probably have normal hormones too, and make a good mother. If not, well, it will at least have your genes, and we'll give it to some sterile woman to bring up for you. Trust me.."
If you think you can stand this sort of tripe, be my guest. As for me, this one goes in the dustbin.
kesnit's review against another edition
4.0
I wish I had read this book years ago. The writing is very good and the story compelling. It lost a star for 2 reasons. First, the gender roles are firm and (to a 21st century reader) outdated. Second, there are a lot of secondary characters who are difficult to keep track of. Overall, though, this is a very good. book.