Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!eagle!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!csin!cjh@CCA-UNIX 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.