A review by morgandhu
Music of Darkover by Raul S. Reyes, Mercedes Lackey, Elisabeth Waters, Vera Nazarian, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Rosemary Edghill, Margaret Davis, Cynthia McQuillin, India Edghill, Leslie Fish, Michael Spence
3.0
The Music of Darkover, edited by Elisabeth Waters and Leslie Fish, is a rather special anthology - in addition to the stories - some new, but with three reprinted from earlier volumes in the series because of the role that music plays in them - it collects the songs that Bradley herself wrote for the Darkovan series, the original (mostly Scottish Gaelic) songs Bradley based them on, "traditional" Darkovan songs written by others, and various filksongs with a Darkovan theme. Elisabeth Waters says in her Introduction:
... this anthology started with a song: “The Horsetamer’s Daughter,” written by Leslie Fish in 1983. It was hardly her first filk song; I owned a copy of her record (and I’m talking about an LP here) Folk Songs For Folk Who Ain’t Even Been Yet, which was released in 1976.
Leslie, in addition to being a gifted songwriter, also writes fiction, so eventually she wrote the story behind the song. When Deborah J. Ross and I started working on STARS OF DARKOVER, the new Darkover anthology scheduled for June 2014, Leslie sent us “Tower of Horses.” The problem is that it is over 30,000 words long and would take up more than a third of the anthology, so I came up with the idea of slipping an extra anthology into the schedule a year early.
Fish's novella, "Tower of Horses" comes first in the anthology, and it is a good one. Set a generation after the destruction of the Tower of Hali, it is the tale of a young woman with the Hastur gift born into a family of horse-trainers. Fish presents the Ages of Chaos as a time when the ordinary working classes suffered greatly from the arrogance and excesses of the Comyn and the deadly laran weapons used in their endless wars. Free of overlordship for years after the fall of Hali, when the Comyn and their laranzus and leronis return, the people resist, and even though she has no matrix and no training, Cath is able to form a Keeper's circle with horses rather than humans, in order to protect her people, her land, and her beloved wild horses.
India Edghill's story "Right to Choose" is a variation on the story of Melora Aillard from The Shattered Chain - in this tale, the Renunciates hired to free a kidnapped Comyn woman from a Dry-Towner discover that the young woman is no victim, but a willing bride, who eloped with her lover and freely chose his chains. The story is complemented by the lyrics of a song written by Edghill's sister Rosemary Edghill, which has as its refrain
But all who breathe are chained
For power, love, or wealth
By laran, breeding, family
By others or by self.
Vera Nazarian's "Danila's Song" is a reprint from the eighth Darkover anthology, Renunciates of Darkover (1991). It is the story of psychological healing following trauma, triggered by a song. While some things bothered me - reference to a male Keeper in a time when the Terrans have just arrived on Darkover, and a debate over whether a person can inherit two donas, or laran abilities - I enjoyed the story, although I found that I wanted to know much more about the eponymous Danila than the few bits of information Nazarian gives us.
Raul S. Reyes' "The Starstone and the Mirror Ball" begins with a whimsical premise - after unknown centuries, Terrans still love disco. When a young Ridenow explores the Thendara disco scene, the lights and music trigger threshold sickness, and the development of an unusual and feared form of laran.
In Michael Spence's "Music of the Spheres, set - at least in the beginning - in the era of the Hundred Kingdoms, a quartet of retired Tower technicians take to writing and performing music, with unexpectedly transcendent results.
"Poetic Licence" by Mercedes Lackey is another reprint, having first been published in the twelfth Darkover anthology, Snows of Darkover (1994). Set in the time of Varzil the Good, it is a light, almost comic account of a young noble with a predilection for plagarising the work of his fellow music students and the ultimate consequences of his folly.
Elisabeth Waters' "A Capella," another reprint from Snows of Darkover, features Gavin Dellaray, a minor character from The Heirs of Hammerfell, caught in the difficult position of trying to teach Capella Ridenow, the tone-deaf nedestra cousin of the King, the soprano part in his next cantata.
The final story of the anthology, also by Waters, is a comic sequel to her reprint, "A Song for Capella," in which Gavin Dellaray is hard put to produce a suitable musical program to celebrate the marriage of Capella to Lord Alton.
As for the music of Darkover, Margaret Davis, one of several musicians in Bradley's circle of companions, presents a brief account of the role Bradley and other played in the creation of several published works, including a suite of songs taken from Tolkien's work with music written by Bradley, and a record of songs from the Darkover books, written or adapted by Bradley or other musicians, and arranged by Davis and her husband Kristof Klover. Following this account are the lyrics of the songs themselves - including all twenty-odd verses of the ballad of Callista and Hastur. An anthology with a difference, and a most enjoyable one, especially for those who have always been interested in the songs of Darkover.
*Of the eight pieces of short fiction in this anthology, six are identifiable as being written by women.
... this anthology started with a song: “The Horsetamer’s Daughter,” written by Leslie Fish in 1983. It was hardly her first filk song; I owned a copy of her record (and I’m talking about an LP here) Folk Songs For Folk Who Ain’t Even Been Yet, which was released in 1976.
Leslie, in addition to being a gifted songwriter, also writes fiction, so eventually she wrote the story behind the song. When Deborah J. Ross and I started working on STARS OF DARKOVER, the new Darkover anthology scheduled for June 2014, Leslie sent us “Tower of Horses.” The problem is that it is over 30,000 words long and would take up more than a third of the anthology, so I came up with the idea of slipping an extra anthology into the schedule a year early.
Fish's novella, "Tower of Horses" comes first in the anthology, and it is a good one. Set a generation after the destruction of the Tower of Hali, it is the tale of a young woman with the Hastur gift born into a family of horse-trainers. Fish presents the Ages of Chaos as a time when the ordinary working classes suffered greatly from the arrogance and excesses of the Comyn and the deadly laran weapons used in their endless wars. Free of overlordship for years after the fall of Hali, when the Comyn and their laranzus and leronis return, the people resist, and even though she has no matrix and no training, Cath is able to form a Keeper's circle with horses rather than humans, in order to protect her people, her land, and her beloved wild horses.
India Edghill's story "Right to Choose" is a variation on the story of Melora Aillard from The Shattered Chain - in this tale, the Renunciates hired to free a kidnapped Comyn woman from a Dry-Towner discover that the young woman is no victim, but a willing bride, who eloped with her lover and freely chose his chains. The story is complemented by the lyrics of a song written by Edghill's sister Rosemary Edghill, which has as its refrain
But all who breathe are chained
For power, love, or wealth
By laran, breeding, family
By others or by self.
Vera Nazarian's "Danila's Song" is a reprint from the eighth Darkover anthology, Renunciates of Darkover (1991). It is the story of psychological healing following trauma, triggered by a song. While some things bothered me - reference to a male Keeper in a time when the Terrans have just arrived on Darkover, and a debate over whether a person can inherit two donas, or laran abilities - I enjoyed the story, although I found that I wanted to know much more about the eponymous Danila than the few bits of information Nazarian gives us.
Raul S. Reyes' "The Starstone and the Mirror Ball" begins with a whimsical premise - after unknown centuries, Terrans still love disco. When a young Ridenow explores the Thendara disco scene, the lights and music trigger threshold sickness, and the development of an unusual and feared form of laran.
In Michael Spence's "Music of the Spheres, set - at least in the beginning - in the era of the Hundred Kingdoms, a quartet of retired Tower technicians take to writing and performing music, with unexpectedly transcendent results.
"Poetic Licence" by Mercedes Lackey is another reprint, having first been published in the twelfth Darkover anthology, Snows of Darkover (1994). Set in the time of Varzil the Good, it is a light, almost comic account of a young noble with a predilection for plagarising the work of his fellow music students and the ultimate consequences of his folly.
Elisabeth Waters' "A Capella," another reprint from Snows of Darkover, features Gavin Dellaray, a minor character from The Heirs of Hammerfell, caught in the difficult position of trying to teach Capella Ridenow, the tone-deaf nedestra cousin of the King, the soprano part in his next cantata.
The final story of the anthology, also by Waters, is a comic sequel to her reprint, "A Song for Capella," in which Gavin Dellaray is hard put to produce a suitable musical program to celebrate the marriage of Capella to Lord Alton.
As for the music of Darkover, Margaret Davis, one of several musicians in Bradley's circle of companions, presents a brief account of the role Bradley and other played in the creation of several published works, including a suite of songs taken from Tolkien's work with music written by Bradley, and a record of songs from the Darkover books, written or adapted by Bradley or other musicians, and arranged by Davis and her husband Kristof Klover. Following this account are the lyrics of the songs themselves - including all twenty-odd verses of the ballad of Callista and Hastur. An anthology with a difference, and a most enjoyable one, especially for those who have always been interested in the songs of Darkover.
*Of the eight pieces of short fiction in this anthology, six are identifiable as being written by women.