<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Marion Zimmer Bradley kicked off her popular Darkover Series with two sides of an Ace Double book in 1962, The Planet Savers and The Sword of Aldones, the latter completely revised and reissued years later as Sharra's Exile. Darkover is a planet with a human population, but while isolated from the rest of the universe, some of their number developed psi powers they called laran, which approach magic so closely that in some cases later books in the series feel more like fantasy than SF despite their setting. The inhabitants of Darkover are ruled by a council known as the Comyn although they are heavily influenced at times by offworld interests.

The series was not written chronologically. These first two novels take place after Darkover has been rediscovered, but some later volumes are set generations earlier. Most of the plots are driven by rivalries among the various aristocratic families on Darkover, or the tensions caused by their reintegration with the rest of humanity. Some of the stories involve humans who are visiting Darkover, or locals who have been off world and whose perspective has changed by the time they return. The attitude of the local populace is frequently ambivalent, particularly in The Heritage of Hastur, where it leads to violence.

Some of the novels feature crucial incidents in the history of Darkover. The original crash landing that resulted in the founding of the colony is described in Darkover Landfall and the resumption of contact with the outside universe takes place in Rediscovery. The planet must decide whether or not to officially rejoin the community of worlds in the last novel Bradley wrote in the series, Traitor's Sun. The author's growing feminist concerns were reflected by the ambiguous role of women on Darkover, which is emphasized in The Shattered Chain and other entries which deal with the Renunciates, women who have rejected the restrictions imposed upon them by their society. Other notable novels in the series include The Forbidden Tower, Stormqueen!, and The Heirs of Hammerfell.

Ace books at one point attempted to retroactively fit two early novels, The Door Through Space and The Falcons of Narabedla into the Darkover series, but they are entirely separate and unrelated. Bradley also edited a series of anthologies of original short stories set on Darkover. The ambiguity of Laran and the structure of the planet's aristocratic society made the books appealing to fantasy fans as well as SF readers.