Darkover: First Contact: (Darkover Omnibus #6) Mass Market Paperback – September 7, 2004

I read this series many years ago and loved them. A recent reminder has me rereading from the beginning in the proper order (something I didn't do the first time). It's a bit dated but not enough to bother me. I still love this book.A group of Terran colonists crashlands on a new planet and are forced to develop a new civilization based partly on where Earth standards but mostly on what they want in this new world. A large group of them are Scots who bring their culture in music and Gaelic tongue to Darkover."They lament, he thought, but they know life goes on. The Scots have been exiles for centuries, for millennia. This is just another exile, a little further than most, but they will sing the olds songs under the new stars and find new mountains and new seas..."It's a great introduction to the series and I enjoyed it immensely. (I'll add to this review when I finish the next book in the omnibus).

These characters suck you into the story. I hate Bard. Yet he repents and is accepted/forgiven. There is hope for us all.

I have read MZB books before, but never a Darkover novel. Saw the omnibus and decided that the "historical" beginning of the series would be a good place to start since I had heard many good things about the series. If you've never read either of these two novels, keep in mind they are connected in only the loosest possible way; set on the same planet. It would be like reading a book set in ancient Greece and one set in modern times. Nothing wrong with that, but if you're not expecting such a difference, it can be a bit startling.The first book was a good enough standard introduction, and had some really interesting ideas like the Ghost Wind. Very space-pioneer feeling and there was a whole lot of potential to work it into something outstanding. But it just sort of fizzled and fell short of the mark. There was a lot going on in the book's society, but nothing really *happened,* if you get what I mean. When I finished the first book I found myself really hoping the second one would pick up where the other left off and run with it, but instead you're taken to a society so different there's basically no comparison. You'll see a few sir-names you recognize, mention of starstones, and nothing else. Nothing about the ghostwind that caused the first colonists so many problems (in fact, most of the first book dealt with Ghost Wind-induced issues), and a strange reliance on Spanish-ish words. Strange considering how prominent the Celtic heritage was in the first book and that more than half the characters spoke Irish or Scottish Gaelic.More happens in the second book, but there's not a whole lot of reason why. Kingdoms attack other kingdoms without provocation or reason, people are either put-upon saints of the blackest of sinners, and there's no real motives given for either of their actions (and many of their actions are so bizarre that they need motives to be understood by the common reader). The author spends so much time making the men out to be domineering, women-haters with mommy issues then with literally one sentence, changes them into mewling kittens. Again, potential for a great read, but it's like the author did everything she could to string the reader along without delivering.In both books I was left with the feeling that I was cheated and that the author did everything in her power to wrap the story up with a bow in two pages or less, regardless of whether it fit with the rest of the book, or even made sense.I have read worse books, but I have read better, including better by this very author. These left me saying "meh." I'm not going to rage and demand my money back, they were a good way to pass my lunch break, but I'm not going to read another Darkover novel unless I check it out from the library.

I first read these weeks decades ago & Found some of the series interesting to re-read recently. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten how excruciatingly Boring this one was.

This book is a reprint of two of MZB’s hardest to find, and best of, her Darkover novels. I can’t count the number of times I’ve reread the series, except for these two. These I’ve only read about four or five times each, only because I couldn’t find a copy of them. “Darkover Landing” was a good book, allowing for the centuries between the times of the Hundred Kingdoms and the coming of the Terranan. Granted there were a few inconsistencies, but overall it kept the timeline steady. I liked it a lot. However, I LOVE “Two to Conquer”! This was only the second time I finished a book and immediately opened it to the first page and reread it again. The explanation of how the matrix screens brought the Terranan to Darkover was intriguing to me as well as the explanation of how and why he was a physical duplicate of Bard diAsturian. I’m looking forward to rereading both of them again.

Our ship has crashed and out of a full complement of crew and colonist their are only two hundred left! We must try and survive and fix our ship, but a strange ghost wind brings madness and new abilities to those left.brad the Wolf has been brought up to control the armies of his family, but loses his place in the kingdom because of his bitterness..As he grows up and returns he finds he is now his younger brother's general and is under the regent his father.. This tale has lots of action but also soul searching that can destroy a man.I have put off submitting my review until I have read this three times. Each time I find something new to think about and I love Darkover tales with their ESP, and matrix tower and learonus and star stones and just people sort of like us.

[...]I'm astonished to be the first reviewer of this book. I would have expected every MZB fan to jump on it at once. It is essential for all readers of the extensive Darkover collection, as it fills in all the missing details of how humans first arrived on Darkover, in a crashed spaceship that was on its way to a Terraformed colony all ready for humans. Instead, they are on a halfway earth-type planet with unknown terrors and unexpected miracles. Who was Saint Valentine of the Snows? Find out. Why is a Ghost Wind called a Ghost Wind? Find out. Who was the first victim of the lethal scorpion-ant? Find out. Who was the first person of Earth birth to use a matrix crystal? Find out. Who was the first human-chieri mix? Find out.If you are a Darkover reader and you haven't read this book, why not? Wake up and smell the "jaco." But watch out for the flowers; they can do some pretty strange things to humans and animals as well. And stay away from scorpion-ants.

This concerns an omnibus version of two books by MZB, Darkover Landfall and Two to Conquer.The first book is very interesting background material for anyone who is following the chronicles of Darkover. Interesting in the sense that you get a peek into the forefathers of the families that play their parts during the ages of chaos, at the times of the 100 kingdoms, and, later, among the domains (whether "against the terrans" or not). However, the question remains of course how such a small traditional group of colonists combined with a more modernistic crew could eventually evolve into such a sophisticated society as the later Darkoven one (whether you like the kind of society or not, it certainly isn't simple!).However, some of the stories published within the many anthologies of Darkover do provide some insight into that. But not this book, the book provides only the basics: the ghost wind, the matrix jewels, and the chieri (but only for a few).The second book, two to conquer, is not just interesting but truly great writing. The manner in which MZB has described the way certain men can think about women is fabulous. It may not be so nice to read; in fact for quite a while you don't have any sympathy for the two most important characters at all. However, you do get to sympathize somewhat with their objectives and their main cause (especially Bard's, as Paul, Bard's double, doesn't enter into the action until quite late in the story and Paul has no cause of his own besides not getting back into the stasis box). The discription of the rape scene - twice -is the best of it. It is rather harrowing to have the experience described both by the perpetrator and the victim. I really wouldn't know which one was the most distressing, as it is difficult to follow the mental processes and thoughts of the perpetarator showing feelings you just cannot attune to, while even though you can sympathize with the victim - the experience in itself is horrid! But what a writer to be able to put it down like that! And once Bard gets to experience just exactly what it feels like to be helpless and a victim, he certainly does change his ways, although obviously certain parts of his character remain in place. This is the kind of therapy we could use in our world as well, be it so much more "civilized" than Darkover. The only weak part of the book is that Bard's double changes as well in his thinking, though he does not have such a harrowing experience. It is all thrown on the influence of the woman he is truly in love with. In my view, that is perhaps a little simplistic.However, though parts of the book were not really nice as you just can't sympathize with the kind of thinking Bard expresses, it was a whopping good read, and shows some welcome insights in human psychology, as well as some interesting political and sociological aspects of societies.Not classical Science Fiction or Fantasy, but something much better!

Entertaining

all good

Replacement for a couple of well worn copies.

good