- BRADLEY, Marion Zimmer
- (1930-)US writer, initially of action sf with a good deal of swashbuckling, often nearing SWORD AND SORCERY, though always with a recognizably sf rationale; and of other routine work. But with the increasing substance of her Darkover series, which she began in 1958, and the great success of an Arthurian fantasy in 1983 (see below), she became a major figure in the genre. She began publishing short stories professionally in 1953 with"Women Only" and "Keyhole" for Vortex Science Fiction \#2; several are collected in The Dark Intruder and Other Stories (coll 1964 dos). Her first novel, The Door through Space (1957 Venture as "Bird of Prey"; exp 1961 dos), is SPACE OPERA, as is Seven From the Stars (1962 dos), an intriguingly told adventure involving seven interstellar castaways on Earth.This early work pales beside Darkover, a sequence of novels (and latterly stories by MZB and others) set on the fringes of an Earth-dominated GALACTIC EMPIRE and comprising perhaps the most significant PLANETARY-ROMANCE sequence in modern sf. Darkover's inhabitants - partially bred from human colonists of a previous age - successfully resist the Empire's various attempts to integrate them into a political and economic union. Darkovans have a complex though loosely described anti-technological culture dominated by sects of telepaths conjoined in potent "matrices" around which much of the action of the series is focused. Increasingly, questions of sexual politics began significantly to shape the sequence, and to cast an ambivalent light upon the gender distortions forced primarily upon women (and the androgyny required by all aspirants to a higher state) through the strange exigencies of the Darkovan culture. It may be that some of these distortions are embedded in the history of the series itself, which by 1995 had been developing for more than 35 years; certainly several early volumes are highly discordant, and have been excluded from later versions of the internal chronology of Darkover. In order to make some sense of a most complex situation, the individual volumes of the series are here listed first in order of publication and then according to the "official" internal chronology established in the 1980s.In publication order (to date): The Sword of Aldones (1962 dos) and The Planet Savers (1958 AMZ; 1962 dos; with "The Waterfall" added as coll 1976), both assembled as The Planet Savers; The Sword of Aldones (omni 1980); The Bloody Sun (1964; rev, with "To Keep the Oath" added, as coll 1979); Star of Danger (1965); The Winds of Darkover (1970); The World Wreckers (1971); Darkover Landfall (1972); The Spell Sword (1974); The Heritage of Hastur (1975); The Shattered Chain (1976); The Forbidden Tower (1977); Stormqueen! (1978); The Keeper's Price * (anth 1980); Two to Conquer (1980); Sharra's Exile (fixup 1981), which incorporates, very much modified, The Sword of Aldones plus other material; Sword of Chaos * (anth 1982); Hawkmistress! (1982); Thendara House (1983); City of Sorcery (1984); Free Amazons of Darkover * (anth 1985); The Other Side of the Mirror * (anth 1987); Red Sun of Darkover * (anth 1987); Four Moons of Darkover * (anth 1988); The Heirs of Hammerfell (1989), Domains of Darkover * (anth 1990), Renunciates of Darkover * (anth 1991), Leroni of Darkover (anth 1991),Rediscovery (1993) with Mercedes LACKEY, Towers of Darkover (anth 1993), Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover (coll 1993) and Snows of Darkover (anth 1994). MZB's first novel, The Door through Space (1961), and Falcons of Narabedla (1957 Other Worlds; 1964 dos) - a pastiche of The Dark World (1965) by Henry KUTTNER and C.L. MOORE - are also marginally linked to the series.The internal sequence is very different, beginning with Darkover Landfall (1972), which describes the initial landing of Terran colonists. The sequence then jumps an eon into the feudal turmoil of Stormqueen! (1978) and Hawkmistress! (1982); balkanization and the growth of order in Two to Conquer (1980) and The Heirs of Hammerfell (1989) finally evolve - after The Shattered Chain (1976) and Thendara House (1983), both assembled as Oath of the Renunciates (omni 1984), and City of Sorcery (1984) set up a dubiously feminist Amazon sisterhood - into a sophisticated conflict with the returning Terrans in The Spell Sword (1974), The Forbidden Tower (1977), The Heritage of Hastur (1975) and Shaara's Exile (1981), the last two of which are also assembled as Children of Hastur (omni 1982), and Rediscovery (1993) with Lackey The various group anthologies are deemed to infill.Shadowy, complex, confused, the world of Darkover is increasingly a house of many mansions; a few (either writers or readers) seem to feel unwelcome.Many other singletons and some series surround this central sequence; but The Mists of Avalon (1983) far outstripped any other title in its success in the marketplace and significance as a convincing revision of the Arthurian cycle. In this book the Matter of Britain revolves around a conflict between the sane but dying paganism of Morgan le Fay and the patriarchal ascetics of ascendant Christianity, whose victory in the war ensures eons of repression for women and the vital principles they espouse. It is a rousing assault, and less governed by genre demands than Darkover. There is, perhaps, something vulgar in MZB's edgy progress into an eccentric FEMINISM- a charge not softened by the insertion of the Great Goddess into first century CE Britain in The Forest House (1993 UK) - but her work has had an electrifying effect on a very large readership; and at her best she speaks with the rare transparency of the true storyteller.JCOther works: The Colors of Space (1963; text restored 1983), a juvenile; The Brass Dragon (1969); the Survivors sequence comprising Hunters of the Red Moon (1973) and The Survivors (1979), the latter with Paul Edwin ZIMMER; The Jewel of Arwen (1974 chap) and its partner, The Parting of Arwen (1974 chap); Endless Voyage (1975; rev vt Endless Universe 1979); Drums of Darkness: An Astrological Gothic Novel (1976); The Maenads (1978 chap), a poem on Greek myths; The Ruins of Isis (1978); The Catch Trap (1979), a circus novel about (male) homosexuals; The House Between the Worlds (1980; rev 1981); Survey Ship (1980); the Atlantis Chronicles, comprising Web of Light (1982) and Web of Darkness (1984), both assembled as Web of Darkness (omni 1985 UK; vt The Fall of Atlantis 1987 US); The Inheritor (1984) and its sequel, Witch Hill (1972 as by Valerie Graves; rev 1990); Night's Daughter (1985); Warrior Woman (1985); The Best of Marion Zimmer Bradley (coll 1985; rev 1988); rev vt Jamie and Other Stories: The Best of Marion Zimmer Bradley 1993) ed Martin H. GREENBERG; Lythande (coll 1986), with 1 story by Vonda N. MCINTYRE; The Firebrand (1987); Black Trillium (1990) with Julian MAY and Andre NORTON.Non-genre fiction: Many titles, including I am a Lesbian (1962) as by Lee Chapman; others as by John Dexter, Miriam Gardner, Valerie Graves, Morgan Ives; Bluebeard's Daughter (1968).Nonfiction: Men, Halflings and Hero-Worship (1973); The Necessity for Beauty: Robert W. Chambers and the Romantic Tradition (1974); Experiment Perilous: Three Essays on Science Fiction (anth 1976) with Norman SPINRAD nd Alfred BESTER.As Editor: Greyhaven (anth 1983); the Sword and Sorceress series, comprising Sword and Sorceress I (anth 1984), II (anth 1985), III (anth 1986), IV (anth 1987), V (anth 1988), VI (anth 1990), VII (anth 1990), VIII (anth 1991), IX (anth 1992) and XI (anth 1994) Spells of Wonder (anth 1989); The Best of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine (anth 1994).About the author: The Darkover Dilemma: Problems of the Darkover Series (1976) by S. Wise; The Darkover Concordance: A Reader's Guide (1979) by Walter Breen, MZB's husband; Leigh Brackett, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne McCaffrey: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1982) by Rosemarie Arbur; Marion Zimmer Bradley (1985) by Rosemarie Arbur; Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mistress of Magic: A Working Bibliography (1991 chap) by Gordon BENSON Jr and Phil STEPHENSEN-PAYNE.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Encyclopedia. Academic. 2011.
