Best Selling Books by Marion Zimmer Bradley

And it will be sated by no less than the souls of all men, the Heart of a Goddess ... and the blood of a Princess.

It''s a long wait until the Last Battle of Law and Chaos, when the forces of Good and Evil will clash for the final time. So what''s a body to do in the meantime? Lythande has to earn a living, after all. Music and magic are saleable skills--sometimes both together. There''s a magic lute.... Mermaids, dragons, small children--Lythande''s life is full of challenges, of which the biggest is never allowing the Secret to be revealed, on pain of total loss of magic... oh, and death.

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

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.

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.

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.

When a Terran ship crashed on Darkover, many of the colonists and crew wished to stay and build an Earthlike society on the alien planet. They might be the most intelligent species on that world and could make themselves its lords and masters. They didn''t realize the dangers that lurked until the Ghost Wind began to blow and the powers of Darkover worked to claim them completely...

A volume in the Darkover saga presents four challengers to the planet''s sacred traditions--ruling cast member Damon; his betrothed; Earthman Andrew; and Andrew''s betrothed, a Keeper of the Sacred Tower

Originally published in Amazing Stories in December 1958, The Planet Savers was the very first Darkover novel to see print. It was here that readers first encountered the now legendary world of Cottman IV, at a time when the Terrans were desperately seeking a cure for a disease of epidemic proportions that threatened the lives of Darkovans and Terrans alike.The Planet Savers introduced many readers to the wondrous world of the red sun, and it remains today a powerful evocation of the magic and mystery of Darkover.

...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.