Ages Of Chaos Hawkmistress: Amazon.ca: Marion Bradley: Books

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11 Reviews

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4.7 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars another excellent Darkover novel, Oct 3 2003

By	Joe Sherry (Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This book is set in one of the earlier time periods of Darkover: The Ages of Chaos. The heroine of this novel is a girl named Romilly. Romilly MacAran is the daughter of an important family. She has her family's gift of laran: the ability to intuitively feel what animals are feeling, thus making it easier to work with them. In particular, this laran is used with hawks and horses (her family is known for the MacAran gift with hawks). Because of the strained family dynamic, more pressure is put in Romilly than otherwise might have been. The eldest son left home to train his laran in a Tower, and this enraged Mikhail MacAran (so much so that mention of laran or the eldest son's name was forbidden). The heir was a disappointment to Mikhail and he wished that Romilly was a man. Mikhail tried to push Romilly into a marriage with someone that she found disgusting and unacceptable. Instead of accepting the marriage, she ran away from home.

Romilly disguises herself as a man. This era of Darkover is extremely patriarchal and women have few rights in society. Romilly meets up with Dom Carlo and his exile band who are joining the army of the exiled King Carolin. Though her travels she is learning who she is and who she wants to be. Romilly also gets to experience some of the prejudice Darkover society presents women. For a brief while, she also joins the Sisterhood of the Sword, a female/warrior society. Even while we learn about Romilly we also see more of Darkover and what the society is like.

This is a feminist novel in the characterization of Romilly and how she reacts to the men (and world) of Darkover. It is also a very good novel. It goes in a different direction from Stormqueen (another novel set in the Ages of Chaos), but is just as rich and just as good. Darkover is one of the better fanstay worlds and Marion Zimmer Bradley is an excellent writer. Most, if not all, of the Darkover novels are self-contained, so it is not necessary to read them in any particular order. Just pick one up and give it a try. I haven't been disappointed by this series yet.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, May 16 2002

By A Customer

This was a great book to read, and i enjoyed every moment of it. Romily is a person I can admire. I would reccomend this book to anyone.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Best of Darkover novels, Aug 9 2001

By	Beverly Adams "warhound" (New Baden, IL USA) - See all my reviews

I have recently gotten reaquainted with the Darokover novels and found myself very taken with this book. It has a lot of elements that make it a good read: a heroine who has a great power and is able to work with what she has and in various situations; the idea of working within an animal's mind and being one with it; the fact that using weapons which hurt innocents is immoral; trying to stay neutral in a war but how you may need to choose sides eventually. With a lot of adventure in between, to me, this book is great for Darkover fans.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite Darkover book
One of Marion Zimmer Bradley's best books.

Published on Jan 27 2001 by Keri

5.0 out of 5 stars Full of imagination!!!
I loved reading this book!!! The heroine doesn't like being a "lady". She loves working with the animals and helping with outside things rather than being inside. Read more

Published on Aug 9 2000 by valai

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, but Stormqueen! was better.
Hawkmistress! is valuable to Darkover fans as part of the history of the Swordswomen/Renunciates and as a tale of one of the more unusual forms of laran to be mentioned... Read more

Published on Aug 1 2000 by A.J. Chodan

3.0 out of 5 stars Sweeping tale for teen girls
This is a real page turner, aimed at a teen girl readership, full of easy enthousiasms. A great pity about the last chapter which seemingly was tacked on as an afterthought, and... Read more

Published on Jun 16 2000