New Releases by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Door Through Space is a 1961 science fiction novel by American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley. An expansion of Bradley''s story "Bird of Prey", which first appeared in the May, 1957 issue of the magazine Venture, it is her first novel, and was published by Ace Books, bound tête-bêche with Rendezvous on a Lost World by A. Bertram Chandler.

Excerpt: "-SUDDEN PANIC- It was a week before the Lhari ship went into warp-drive, and all that time young Bart Steele had stayed in his cabin. He was so bored with his own company that the Mentorian medic was a welcome sight when he came to prepare him for cold-sleep. The Mentorian paused, needle in hand. "Do you wish to be wakened for the time we shall spend in each of the three star systems, sir? You can, of course, be given enough drug to keep you in cold-sleep until we reach your destination." Bart felt tempted -- he wanted very much to see the other star systems. But he couldn''t risk meeting other passengers. The needle went into his arm. In sudden panic, he realized he was helpless. The ship would touch down on three worlds, and on any of them the Lhari might have his description, or his alias! He could be taken off, unconscious, and might never wake up! He tried to move, to protest, but he couldn''t. There was a freezing moment of intense cold and then nothing. . . ."

Nobody alive knew how the feud between Storn and Hammefell had begun, but that didn''t stop the fighting. When Storn''s men burned Hammerfell''s castle, his infant twin sons were separated, and each grew up thinking himself the rightful Duke of Hammerfell. Conn, raised in the mountains by his father''s paxman, continued to fight the Storns. Alastair grew up with his mother in Thendara and planned to marry his cousin Floria. But when Conn came to Thendara to seek King Aiden''s help and the twins encountered each other, it changed all their lives.

This is a classic science fiction novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley. This work tells the story of the Terran Empire and their quest to maintain a peaceful rule. However, on the planet Wolf something is afoot. They enlist the services of Race Cargill of the Terran Secret Service, and he goes undercover on Wolf to find the source of the problem. His mission doesn''t go as planned and he becomes involved in a blood feud, but this leads him to the secret of THE DOOR THROUGH SPACE. This work is part of our Vintage Sci-Fi Classics Series, a series in which we are republishing some of the best stories in the genre by some of its most acclaimed authors, such as Isaac Asimov, Harry Harrison, and Robert Sheckley. Each publication is complete with a short introduction to the history of science fiction.

...an incredible blending of fantasy and science fiction.Eventually the Terrans rediscover their long-lost -- and now alien -- colony: Darkover.Things are different there.While adolescent male homosexuality is generally tolerated on Darkover, men are expected to outgrow it. When Dyan Ardais takes lovers young enough to be his sons, he risks not just his reputation, but his life.Life in a Tower as a Keeper, the chaste virgin who holds a circle together, is grueling. Few succeed in the long, painful years of training. The ones who do have power greater than any queen, but what happens to the ones who don''t?Darkovan technology is based on matrix stones that amplify psychic gifts, and people with those gifts work in the Tower circles. But duty to family outweighs everything else, and anyone can be called home from the Tower to marry as her family dictates. A Comyn lady can have lands, wealth, family...everything but freedom.Women can become Free Amazons, but that life has its own set of challenges. Before a candidate''s trial period ends, she must decide if she is truly meant to cope with everything being a Free Amazon entails.

Sometimes she had walked for days at a time in that dream; she would wake to find food that she could not remember gathering. Somehow, pervasive, the dream voices had taken over; the whispering winds had been full of voices and even hands. She had fallen ill and lain for days sick and delirious, and had heard a voice which hardly seemed to be her own, saying that if she died the wind voices would care for Robin.

Marion Zimmer Bradley is best known for her science fantasy series set in the Darkover universe and as the author of ''The Mists of Avalon.'' A World Fantasy Award winner, her fiction is both memorable and powerful. This collection includes four novels and eleven short stories that helped make Bradley''s reputation as one of the best writers the science fiction and fantasy field ever produced. 200,000 words and more than 500 pages of top notch science fiction and fantasy. Included are: ''Falcons of Narabedla,'' ''Death Between the Stars,'' ''The Dark Intruder,'' ''The Door Through Space,'' ''Black & White,'' ''Treason of the Blood,'' ''Jackie Sees a Star,'' ''The Planet Savers,'' ''The Stars Are Waiting,'' ''Exiles of Tomorrow,'' ''The Colors of Space,'' ''The Crime Therapist,'' ''Year of the Big Thaw,'' ''The Wild One,'' ''The Wind People.''

They asked me about it, of course, before I boarded the starship. All through the Western sector of the Galaxy, few rules are stricter than the one dividing human from nonhuman, and the little Captain of the Vesta-he was Terran, too, and proud in the black leather of the Empire''s merchant-man forces-hemmed and hawed about it, as much as was consistent with a spaceman''s dignity. "You see, Miss Vargas," he explained, not once but as often as I would listen to him, "this is not, strictly speaking, a passenger ship at all. Our charter is only to carry cargo. But, under the terms of our franchise, we are required to transport an occasional passenger, from the more isolated planets where there is no regular passenger service. Our rules simply don''t permit us to discriminate, and the Theradin reserved a place on this ship for our last voyage." He paused, and re-emphasized, "We have only the one passenger cabin, you see. We''re a cargo ship and we are not allowed to make any discrimination between our passengers." He looked angry about it. Unfortunately, I''d run up against that attitude before. Some Terrans won''t travel on the same ship with nonhumans even when they''re isolated in separate ends of the ship. I understood his predicament, better than he thought. The Theradin seldom travel in space. No one could have foreseen that Haalvordhen, the Theradin from Samarra, who had lived on the forsaken planet of Deneb for eighteen of its cycles, would have chosen this particular flight to go back to its own world.

Three fan-favorite authors present "a classic fantasy quest involving mysterious wizards, rites of passage, and the salvation of a kingdom" ( Library Journal ). Peace has long reigned in Ruwenda thanks to the magical protection of the Archimage Binah. The realm''s devoted guardian is aging, however, and her magic is weakening. When the kingdom''s triplet princesses were still infants, Binah gave each of them the mystical power of the Black Trillium. But the unthinkable occurs too soon, and Ruwenda is overrun by the ravaging armies of neighboring Labornok before the sisters, Haramis, Kadiya, and Anigel, have time to learn how to use their great gift. Forced to flee, the young princesses must follow their separate destinies through a dangerous and unfamiliar world of Oddlings and enemies—for only the combined power of three magical talismans can help them defeat the malevolent sorcerer who has brought chaos and death to their once-idyllic home. But it will take new kinds of strength and wisdom to confront the great evil that has descended on the World of the Three Moons. Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May, and Andre Norton, three of the most honored names in fantasy fiction, have joined forces to create an extraordinary world and culture in the first book of the remarkable Saga of the Trillium, a breathtaking tale of duty, peril, love, and magic.

Of all the worlds of the Galaxy, only the Matriarchy of Isis/Cinderella has returned to an ancient social order. It is on Isis that women rule, their control total and unbending. On Isis men are regarded as dangerous animals or, at best, as sexual playthings. And on Isis the great enigma of the known universe, the Builder Ruins - last remnant of an unknown, ancient culture. Within those strange Ruins, something survives - something which speaks to the women of Isis and to no one else.

An exciting fantasy adventure set in Marion Zimmer Bradley''s popular world of Darkover Court life for Prince Gareth Elhalyn, grandson of the legendary Regis Hastur, has become unbearable. In a desperate attempt to escape, Gareth appeals to his powerful grandmother, Linnea, and with her blessing, disguises himself and travels to the barbarous, warlike Dry Towns where no one will recognize a prince. In the Dry Towns, Gareth overhears rumors of deadly, illegal Terran blasters and stumbles upon a terrible reality no one could have suspected. Meanwhile, Linnea has never ceased to search for her lost daughter, Kierestelli, whom she and Regis were forced to send into hiding with the native chieri. Almost by chance, Linnea reconnects along the telepathic relays with Kierestelli, now called Silvana of Nevarsin Tower. Silvana, convinced that her parents abandoned her, rejects her mother’s overture and returns to her hidden home among the chieri. But the chieri once roamed the stars themselves, and they have no forgotten the terror of warfare in space—lessons that they pass on to Silvana. Unknown to the ruling Comyn, danger now fills the skies above Darkover, and Silvana holds half the key to protecting their world. Gareth holds the other half, if he can only stay alive long enough to discover where that key is....

The tenth anthology of all-original stories returns readers to Darkover to explore some of its most fascinating places: the Towers, where those gifted with "laran" join together to work, theoretically for the common good. Sometimes, however, politics takes over, resulting in the creation of the horrific weapons used in power struggles of the Comyn. This anthology contains stories by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Deborah J. Ross, Elisabeth Waters, Dorothy J. Heydt, Diana L. Paxson, Emily Alward, Lynne Armstrong-Jones, Aletha Biedermann-Wiens, Nina Boal, Margaret L. Carter, Patricia B. Cirone, Mary Ellen Fletcher, David R. Heydt, Judith Kobylecky, Lynn Michals, Patricia Duffy Novak, Diann Partridge, Charley Pearson, Alexandra Sarris, Glenn R. Sixbury, and Joan Marie Verba.

Leonie Hastur has a high degree of laran, the telepathic power of the Comyn caste, and wants to be Keeper of Arilinn Tower, which will give her as much power as her twin brother Lorill, Heir to Hastur. But she has a premonition that something strange and disturbing will come from the sky and change their world forever. She is correct. Ysaye Barnett loves life on shipboard and would happily stay right there, with her beloved computers, forever. Her best friend Elizabeth Mackintosh, a musician and anthropologist, and her fiance, linguist David Lorne, want to marry and have children, which means they need a planet they can settle on and make their lives'' work. They are very excited about the new planet, especially when they realize that it''s a lost Terran colony. As five young lives and their very different cultures meet, all of them will be changed by the encounter.

A classic novel in the bestselling Darkover series. For three quarters of a century, Darkover has resisted the Terran Empire''s efforts in colonization and industrialization. But the leader of Planetary Investments Unlimited (known as Worldwreckers, Inc.) has decided to take on this assignment herself . . . for long ago, she had called Darkover home.

The full sweep of the rich history of Avalon – from the fall of Atlantis to the founding of a new temple on the mist-shrouded isle of Britain – is finally revealed in this magnificent tale.

The authors of The Alton Gift continue the sweeping Darkover fantasy saga with more gripping action involving the Hastur family.

Bradley''s follow-up to her popular "Ghostlight" is now in available in mass market paperback for the first time.

This second volume of The Best of Marion Zimmer Bradley''s Fantasy Magazine serves up a smorgasbord of magic and adventure. Encompassing a range of fantasy from classical to modern settings, this collection begins with an introduction by Bradley herself, in addition to her introductions to each individual story.

Blending archaeological fact and legend, the myths of the gods and the feats of heroes, Marion Zimmer Bradley breathes new life into the classic tale of the Trojan War-reinventing larger-than-life figures as living people engaged in a desperate struggle that dooms both the victors and the vanquished, their fate seen through the eyes of Kassandra-priestess, princess, and passionate woman with the spirit of a warrior.

The continuing saga of the inhabitants of Avalon sees a young boy raised in secret after his parents are killed by traitors returning home to prove his worth and lead his followers to victory while wielding the newly forged sword Excalibur. Original.

Retells the legend of Arthur as perceived by Viviane, the Lady of the Lake and high priestess of Avalon, Arthur''s mother Igraine, his Christian wife Guinevere, and the sorceress Morgaine.

Known to the Romans as Helena on the holy isle of Avalon, British princess Eilan fulfills her destiny to bridge the pagan world of the goddess and the new Christian empire founded by her own son, Constantine, and when she travels to the Holy Land she discovers a truth that transcends all religion. Reprint.

SUDDEN PANIC It was a week before the Lhari ship went into warp-drive, and all that time young Bart Steele had stayed in his cabin. He was so bored with his own company that the Mentorian medic was a welcome sight when he came to prepare him for cold-sleep, The Mentorian paused, needle in hand. Do you wish to be wakened for the time we shall spend in each of the three star systems, sir? You can, of course, be given enough drug to keep you in cold-sleep until we reach your destination. Bart felt tempted -- he wanted very much to see the other star systems. But he couldn''t risk meeting other passengers. The needle went into his arm. In sudden panic, he realized he was helpless. The ship would touch down on three worlds, and on any of them the Lhari might have his description, or his alias He could be taken off, unconscious, and might never wake up He tried to move, to protest, but he couldn''t. There was a freezing moment of intense cold and then nothing. . . . * Marion Zimmer Bradley was born in Albany, New York and before she started her writing career she was a file clerk, music teacher, and a carnival performer. Her hobbies are reading science fiction novels, going to the opera and listening to folk music. In addition to having written a number of other books, she has written more than thirty magazine stories and articles and has been writing professionally for the past ten years.

A tale of the origins and history of Avalon and the prophecy of the birth of the great King Arthur is revealed through the successive lives of three powerful priestesses--Caillean, Dierna, and Viviane, the Lady of the Lake.

The novel that truly begins the bestselling Avalon saga...

In a battle between Light and Dark, one man stands as the only hope for mankind''s future. Heartlight is the story of Colin MacLaren, Bradley''s greatest champion of good, as he carries the banner of Light through the second half of the twentieth century. As a ghostbuster, exorcist, and student of the mystic arts, Colin''s destiny is forever changed when he rescues Claire Moffat from a cult bent on human sacrifice. Claire becomes his dearest friend, but the cult''s leader, Toller Hasloch, emerges as one of Colin''s greatest enemies. For the next thirty years, Hasloch manipulates politics and the economy from the shadows, seeking to turn America away from the Light. Colin, consumed with saving lives and mentoring the next generation of psychic warriors, realizes almost too late the scope of Hasloch''s influence. Now, only Colin MacLaren can face Hasloch and the hellhounds he has unleashed. With the fate of America and all mankind hanging in the balance, Colin must fight on, drawing upon his mastery of the mystic arts and the aid of his closest allies. Heartlight is a thrilling contemporary fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Marion Zimmer Bradley, weaving authentic occultism and magic into a battle for America''s very soul. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A wounded Atlantean prince...a deadly battle between Dark and Light...and the sisters Deoris and Domaris, whose lives are changed utterly by the magic involving them. These are the elements of The Fall of Atlantis, Marion Zimmer Bradley''s epic fantasy about that ancient and legendary realm. On one side stand the Priests of the White Robe, guardians of powerful natural forces which could threaten the world if misused. Ranged against them are the Black Robes, sorcerers who secretly practice their dark arts in the labyrinthine caves beneath the very Temple of Light. Caught between are Domaris and Deoris, daughters of the Archpriest Talkannon, trapped in a web of deadly sorcery¾the same forbidden sorcery that could bring about The Fall of Atlantis Previously published separately as Web of Light and Web of Darkness. At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Traitor''s Sun continues the epic saga of Darkover, the award-winning series by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Her most brilliant and popular creation, the Darkover books take readers to a planet torn by rebellion--and struggling for freedom...

The planet of Darkover bathed in its blood red sun served as a convenient space port for the Terran Empire. Beyond that the Terrans knew little of the planet''s strange landscape, its vast mountain ranges, its deadly winds and its hostile inhabitants. Dan Barron, a simple space port despatcher, found himself alone and helpless in this alien world.