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From: cjh%CCA-UNIX@csin.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: THENDARA HOUSE
Message-ID: <17319@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Mar-84 16:28:13 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.17319
Posted: Thu Mar  8 16:28:13 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Mar-84 00:34:27 EST
Lines: 25

Steven Maurer says:

		In Thendara House, not a man from either
    culture is presented as a loving, caring person; in NONE of [MZB]'s
    books, does any "good" male protagonist like the society he are
    living in.

I didn't bother arguing his flat statement on FTL because that's an area
approaching personal belief. This statement, however, can be tested
objectively: both parts are horseshit, pure and simple. Perhaps SM didn't
bother finishing the book; Damon Ridenow[-Alton?] and Andrew Carr appear rather
late, but both of them certainly qualify as "loving, caring person[s]"; the
fact that Damon is turns out to be one of the key elements in the book.  The
second part requires a little more knowledge of the Darkover books, but I would
definitely point to Danilo [Syrtis? S-Ardais? in HERITAGE OF HASTUR, and
SHARRA'S EXILE], and add Lew Alton after his father's death, several of the
characters in HAWKMISTRESS, all but one of the men in the reworking of THE
BLOODY SUN, and even Regis Hastur himself (RH dislikes the constraints on him
of being the heir-designate but is no revolutionary, not even on the quiet
level of Damon in THE FORBIDDEN TOWER)---and this is a list from the top of my
head. I deliberately omit all of the early works since they are primarily
adventure stories rather than people stories.
   There are a number of reasons for disliking one or more of the Darkover
books, but they either are matters of taste (a friend discards them, as he
does all ESP, as fantasy) or require more careful reading to substantiate.