The Heritage of Hastur

References

First publication:

Daw in 1975

Reference edition (in this Web site)

Daw Books, ISBN 0-88677-413-6

Foreign editions:

• in french: "L'héritage d'Hastur" published by Pocket in 1991
• in german: "Hasturs Erbe" published by Moewig bei Ullstein in 1995
• in italian: "L'erede di Hastur" (The heir of Hastur) published by Casa Editrice NORD in 1978
• in japanese: "Hastur-no Koukeisha" published by TOKYO SOGENSHA Co., Ltd. in 1987
• in portuguese: "A Herança de Hastur" published by Editora Imago (Brazil) in 1994
• in spanish: "La herencia de los Hastur" published by Ediciones B in 1989

Situation

	Darkover time
		The Bloody Sun	The Planet Savers
	Publication time
		The Spell Sword	The Shattered Chain

This novel is the fifteenth in the Darkover time. It is the eighth in the publication time.

Reading guide

Darkover history period:

Against the Terrans-The Second Age (After the Comyn)

What to read before and after:

This novel is a the first part of a two novels story, which ends with Sharra's Exile. In order to obtain information about important characters, you can read The Bloody Sun and Star of Danger. It might be also a good idea to read before The Winds of Darkover in order to learn about Sharra matrix.

Notes:

One of the most interesting novel. The only trouble is that it is one of the longest and that you must read its sequel, Sharra's Exile. Is this really a problem?

"Official" presentation (from Daw Books)

Described as "Bradley's best novel" by Locus, The Heritage of Hastur, longest and most intricate Darkover books, is a brilliant epic of the pivotal event in the strange love-hate relationship between the Terran worlds and the semi-alien offspring of the forgotten peoples.

This is the novel of the Hastur tradition and the showdown between those who would bargain away their world for the glories of the star-borne science and those who would preserve the special "matrix" power that was at once the prize and the burden of ruddy-sunned Darkover.

"A rich and highly colored tale of politics and magic, courage and pressure... Topflight adventure in every way !"-Lester Del Rey, Analog.

My personal opinion

Great ! I find this novel really excellent and surely the best one of the Darkover books. The sequel to this novel can be found in Sharra's exile which is also to my mind one of the best Darkover novels. Therefore, the pair gives really good time to the reader. I think that the most important aspects of this novel are its tragical plot and the very precise way the author describes the psychology of the main characters, Regis Hastur and Lew Alton. The main quality of Marion Zimmer Bradley's novels is that they involve human beings facing their fates in spite of stereotyped heros. This is well illustrated by the Heritage of Hastur.

More about the novel

• a summary of the novel (this summary contains the complete story !).
• a list of involved characters
• a time line of events evocated in the novel

copyright 96-99 Fabrice Rossi (rossi@fr.darkover.org)

source file (Last modification: Wed Apr 21 17:21:45 1999)