Review: The Planet Savers and The Waterfall by Marion Zimmer Bradley

So, given the numbers in my recent poll, I should start reading the third Kushiel story. However, I wanted something shorter, and–some of you should probably prepare to get offended–I find Carey’s books to be easily put-downable in the beginning.

Anyway, both Shantih and Atalanta Pendrag said I should read the Darkover books, and, because they are wise women, I figured I would, and according to something I found on the Internet, this particular book is the best place to start chronologically.

The book consists of a novella, “The Planet Savers”, and a short story, “The Waterfall.”

“The Planet Savers” introduces us to Jay Allison, a Terran doctor who is generally an asshole who kicks puppies for a living. Unfortunately, he’s a great surgeon, and he also grew up among the Trailmen, a race of tree-dwelling residents of the planet Darkover. The Trailmen are somehow immune to the sickness that’s sweeping the planet, and Jay’s the planet’s only hope. He’s supposed to get the trailmen to agree to be tested by Terran medical experts. Unfortunately, because Jay’s an asshole, the other terrans decide to hypnotize him and bring forth his subsidiary personality, who narrates this story. Jason is a much nicer guy, although he lacks Jay’s rational, disciplined nature. The rest of the story is a rolicking adventure, in which Jason struggles to figure out who he is.

“The Waterfall” confused me on first reading. It seems to be about a noblewoman of Darkover who discovers she has empathic powers, and, because she is not a romance author, she uses those powers for evil.

My verdicts: I really should have paid attention to Shantih and Atalanta Pendrag’s recommendations on which Darkover book to start with, because this one was very meh. “Planet Savers” was definitely the more engaging of the short stories, for me, but it suffered from the fact that (1) I called every single plot point ahead of time, and (2) I would think that if people were going to start reaching for subsidiary personalities, that’d be the sort of thing that would require consent. Also, I really hated the way Bradley ended her book. Basically, one character walked up, announced, “I am a deus ex machina,” and fixed everything.

“The Waterfall” was much shorter, but I felt like I was missing something crucial, like, I don’t know, a knowledge of Darkovan culture that would have made sense. It is definitely not something that’d make much sense to a newbie to the series.

Summary: Just a big fat meh all around. C for this one.