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The Saga of the Renunciates (Darkover Book 3) Kindle Edition
Marion Zimmer Bradley (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
In the three novels which comprise THE SAGA OF THE RENUNCIATES, Marion Zimmer Bradley tells the masterful tale of two valiant women who face and try to break the invisible chains of custom, convention, habit and expectation with which society binds women, and women bind themselves.
Magdalen Lorne is a Terran woman born and reared on Darkover. She thinks herself the perfect Terran undercover Intelligence agent, and disguises herself as a Free Amazon to enable her to fulfill a mission to free a Terran man from kidnappers. But when she herself is captured by a band of real Renunciates, she discovers they have a harsh punishment for any pretenders: she must swear the Oath of the Free Amazons, relinquish her former life, and become a Renunciate in reality.
Jaelle has been raised in the harsh patriarchal environment of the Dry Towns. Her mother Mellora is a Comyn woman who has been kidnapped in order to breed laran-gifted offspring for her barbarian "husband." But when a desperate, pregnant Mellora dies in childbirth following a daring escape aided by a band of Renunciates, the still young Jaelle is adopted into the Guild, and becomes the Free Amazon Jaelle n'ha Mellora, a woman who has never known kindness from a man.
Together Magda, now known as Margali n'ha Tsabet, and her Guild-sister Jaelle will follow a twisting course neither could have predicted. A course which will lead them to question every aspect of themselves and of their two so-different societies. And one which will eventually set them on a life-threatening journey not only to the frozen ends of the physical world, but to the perilous limits of the spiritual overworld as well.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDAW
- Publication dateAugust 1, 2002
- Reading age18 years and up
- File size1985 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Suspenseful, powerfully written, and deeply moving.” —Library Journal
“A warm, shrewd portrait of women from different background working together under adverse conditions.” —Publishers Weekly
“For sheer skill in storytelling and worldbuilding, for wit, for strikingly intelligent development of the concept of telepathy, above all, for continuous concern for people, Bradley has put some more famous sagas in the shade.” —Chicago Sun-Times
“A rich and highly colored tale of politics and magic, courage and pressure.... Topflight adventure in every way!” —Analog Magazine, Lester Del Rey
“Delightful...a fascinating world and a great read.” —Locus
“Literate and exciting.” —New York Times Book Review
“May well be [Bradley’s] masterpiece.” —New York Newsday
About the Author
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.
--This text refers to the mass_market edition.Product details
- ASIN : B00J8V5ZP2
- Publisher : DAW (August 1, 2002)
- Publication date : August 1, 2002
- Language : English
- File size : 1985 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 1116 pages
- Lending : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #583,446 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,267 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Kindle Store)
- #1,622 in Fantasy Anthologies & Short Stories (Kindle Store)
- #1,886 in Fantasy Anthologies
- Customer Reviews:
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, 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 was "fantasy undiluted." She wrote a best-selling novel of the women in the Arthurian legends--Morgan Le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and others--entitled MISTS OF AVALON, and she also wrote THE FIREBRAND, a novel about the women of the Trojan War. Her historical fantasy novels, THE FOREST HOUSE and LADY OF AVALON are prequels to MISTS 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 Mark Greyland; her daughter, Moira Greyland; and her grandchildren.
Customer reviews
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Although having read Marion's work on early Britain, Troy and Atlantis, Darkover was a nice original surprise. And this book especially. Well, actually, it's three books, but once you start off with the first you just won't stop reading until you've also finished the third! The two central characters, two renunciates from very different origins, develop a great deal during the course of the books, but remain interesting all the time.
The Dry Towners are a bit simplistic, although to be honest, I just couldn't help thinking about the Taliban and their view of women when I was reading that particular part. And, as I have very strong negative feelings about the stupidity in being afraid women might sometimes be more intelligent than certain men are, and then just forbidding schooling altogether, I quite liked reading this part anyway even if it was simplistic.
But the reading about the very different cultures (Darkovan and Terran), as well as the clash between them, were terribly interesting. You must have a high developed imagination just to put the strorylines together.
I also liked two side characters very much, Rohana in the first two books, and of course Camilla in all three of them.
Finally, I enjoyed meeting up with some of the characters from the two earlier books. But, if I had not read those, I am sure it would not have a problem whatsoever. You truly can read every Darkovan novel in itself. But, if you do read more, it's just nice to meet up with old friends!

As the other reviewers have stated, this is a highly entertaining read. There was suspense, humor and sadness throughout. Magdalena, Peter and Jaella's characters are enjoyable to get to know. The fact that I got to follow them through a long period of time in these three books (though Peter had a tiny role in the last book) made it even more pleasing to read Bradley's work. This is a book that I have read before and will come back to later.


