title: The Shadow Matrix (Darkover)
author:  Marion Zimmer Bradley 
description: This direct successor to <i>Exile's Song</i> really ought to be read in conjunction with that book, but in any event, it is a high-class addition to Bradley's Darkover saga. Margaret Alton is trying to master her gifts and the Shadow Matrix; Mikhail Lanart-Hastur, her lover, is on a wild-goose chase, courtesy of his uncle, Lord Regis Hastur; Mikhail's mother is fussing; and the lovers are trying to overcome political and family objections to their marriage. Just as they are up to their hindquarters in alligators, they are flung back to the Age of Chaos, in which Varzil the Good acts as a sort of deus ex machina to tie up several loose ends and generate others. The whole plot has a certain melodramatic, even operatic, quality, but the pacing is brisk, the setting is well handled, and the book succeeds at the most basic level of keeping the reader--particularly the hard-core Darkover reader--turning the pages. The characters sometimes indulge in illogical angst, and the Terran Empire, showing its invincible stupidity in handling Darkover, remains something of a straw villain. Bradley's saga is clearly showing some signs of age, but Darkover remains a monumental achievement, one that seems likely to spur more than a few additional good tales from its creator. <i>Roland Green</i>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  THE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  SHADOW MATRIX
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  A Novel of Darkover
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Marion Zimmer Bradley
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  DAW BOOKS, INC.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  DONALD A. WOLLHEIM, FOUNDER
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ELIZABETH R. WOLLHEIM
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  SHEILA E. GILBERT
  
  
  PUBLISHERS
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 1997 by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Adrienne Marline-Barnes.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  All Rights Reserved. Cover art by Romas Kukalis. DAW Book Collectors No. 1065.
  DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Putnam, Inc.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Book designed by Stanley S. Drate/Folio Graphics Co. Inc.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  All characters and events in this book are fictitious.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly
  
  
  coincidental.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  First Paperback Printing, January 1999 56789
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED U.S. PAT. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES —MARCA
  REGISTRADA HECHO EN U.S.A.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To Susan Rich who read all the drafts and asked for more
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## PROLOGUE
  
  
  Tell me aga