I love follow up stories on interesting and engaging characters. This one had a really neat twist and the problem was not allowed to linger too long. So many others whose lives I wanted to follow. ( )

This is...Okay. And I say that as a fan of the Darkover series. Indeed, it's Darkover, and not Mists of Avalon, that made me a fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley. But what you have to know about the Darkover series is that they're very uneven in quality--and written out of sequence. What tends to tip off the quality of the book is when it was published. MZB in my opinion really didn't hit her stride and hone her craft until the mid-seventies. There's a nod to this in her feeling a need to rewrite earlier Darkover novels such as expanding and revising The Bloody Sun and a rewrite of Sword of Aldones (which became Sharra's Exile). At the other end of her career, well, this is a collaboration with Adrienne Martine-Barnes and was published in 1996, and there's controversy over how much of a hand MZB had in works published under her name after her stroke in 1989. So for me this has the flavor of fan fiction--is fan fiction. Margaret Alton, the focus of this book is the daughter of one of MZB's signature characters, Lew Alton, and often came across as a Mary Sue.

Did I enjoy this? Somewhat. I like well-written fan fiction, and I love Darkover and if you fall in love with it too, I wouldn't say you might not find this enjoyable. But I certainly wouldn't start here, and I don't think this represents the series at its best. ( )

Après l'exil de la déesse Sharra, Lew Alton a quitté Ténébreuse en compagnie de Margaret, la fille que lui a donnée Thyra. Une fille qui ne l'aime guère, et qui d'ailleurs se tient à l'écart de tous.
A quinze ans, Margaret arrive sur Ténébreuse pour participer à un enquête ethnomusicologique. Elle est très surprise d'être traitée en fille noble (elle porte un nom), de percevoir des bribes de pensées, d'avoir des vertiges : double choc physiologique et culturel, dont elle ne se déprendra qu'au prix d'un voyage dans le surmonde.
Mais les Ténébrans, eux , comment vont-ils réagir ? Au château Ardais, la maîtresse de maison aimerait bien qu'elle épouse son fils. A Armida, Gabriel Lanart, qui gère le domaine de Lew Alton depuis l'exil de celui-ci, envisage au contraire le mariage de Margaret avec son fils aîné, qui ferait définitivement rentrer dans le giron familial le domaine dont la jeune fille est l'héritière.
Et Margaret, pour sa part, qu'est-ce qu'elle en pense ?

Dans l'univers labyrinthique de Ténébreuse où, depuis quarante ans, elle s'est investie tout entière, Marion Zimmer Bradley a mis un soin spécial à élaborer la trilogie des Alton : « L'héritage d'Hastur », « L'exil de Sharra », « Le chant de l'exil ». Histoire d'un révolté, Lew Alton, qui se retoruve contre son gré en lutte contre d'autres révoltés. Histoire de sa fille Margaret, révoltée contre son père à son tour, mais nullement prête à se plier pour autant aux traditions ténébranes qu'il a rejetées naguère.

While I do tend to like the books that come chronologically prior to "Rediscovery," this is a really great part of the series as well. ( )

This was the first Darkover book I read, so I remember it with some fondness. It's easy to empathize with Margaret Alton's frustration with her Darkoveran relatives, and the budding romance between her and Mikhail is sweet. There are flaws in the book, such as being told several times in almost the exact same words of Margaret's dislike of mirrors, and the characterization is often flat. Overall though, it's an enjoyable book, as well as a good introduction to the Darkover series. ( )