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The Shadow Matrix (Darkover)
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - Bradleys greatest work is this TRILOGY
I was so terribly thilled to hear that Marion was starting a new Generation of Darkover charactors..It began with Exiles Song and ends with Traitor's Son... TRULY Great.. all of them and if you like DARKOVER I highly recommend all of the.. this is about the third time I have purchased them... WORE the others out......=0) I hightly recommend these books..
I really freaked when Bradley Passed when Traitors Sun was still In hardcover.. Deborah Ross is really good. and I can only pray that after the Clingfire trilogy ( Co-Written with Bradley ) she will continue to write Darkover Books.... Marion Zimmer Bradley was truly great in that she encouraged and helped others to write about her worlds and her characters... She was instremental in helping not only Mercedes Lackey but many others to get a good foothold on the Genre... I truly hope we can look forward to more- MANY more DARKOVER BOOKS
Rating: - A fascinating heroine
Margaret Alton is the child of the powerfully psychically gifted Lew Alton, who has been the Senator for Darkover for several years. After a traumatic early childhood, little Margaret lived with her father and stepmother in exile, struggling to overcome her own oppressive Gift without expert Darkovan help, as well as trying to endure what she cannot help sensing of her father, battling his own demons.
This book takes up the story of Margaret, who in Exile's Song returned to the planet of her birth as an ethnomusicologist, accompanied by her beloved professor Ivor Davidson, to collect folk song from the rural places still largely untouched by the Empire.
As this book begins, we find Margaret undergoing the compulsory training in a tower, while Mikhail investigates a suspicious situation in the Elhalyn household, which appears to be haunted, and dominated by a strange woman of unknown origins. Mikhail's handling of the troubled Elhalyn children is touchingly presented, as is his relationship to his sister Liriel.
After much political maneuvering (an annoying but necessary part of these Hastur-era stories) there is the expected midwinter crisis, this one larger than most.
As a bonus, we meet again characters we know well: Jeff Kerwin, Javanne Hastur, Lew Alton, Diotima Ridenow, Mrs Davidson (Ivor's wife), Rafaella the Renunciate, Michael Lanart-Hastur, Danilo Syrtis, and Uncle Rafe, and others. And, as always, the children are delightfully portrayed. Finally, there is travel through time to visit with Varzil the Good, towards the close of the ages of chaos, to learn what happened to the legendary ring in which he preserved the soul of his beloved, Felicia Hastur.
Margaret Alton is a very sympathetic character, especially to those who might relate to music. Her own development is only part of a larger set of events that culminate in the story related in Traitor's Sun. This book is indeed the middle section of a trilogy within the Darkover saga consisting of Exile's Song, Shadow Matrix, and Traitor's Sun, all worth reading.
Archimedes
Rating:  - M. Z. B.'s Shadow Matrix continues Darkoven Lore
While this novel cannot be enjoyably read without reading another, it continues the tradition of Darkover admirably in relation to the storyline. I agree with the other reviews on this page, and would like to point out that there was a common thread that I found disappointing in this novel- the fact that there are at least about four female characters that fit into the role of shrew. I found it repetitive-- First there was Mikhail's mother, the insane woman at the castle (& the one who was manipulating her), as well as, the telepath who "overshadowed" Margaret in her childhood who she must face once more. If you like the Darkover books, you will enjoy this one. The plot was solid and the protagonists were sympathetic.
Rating:  - A jumble and a disappointment
Fans of Marion Zimmer Bradley will be disappointed on this one.
It has all the feel of having been written hastily and carelessly. The narrative wanders aimlessly and spends excruciatingly long pages on dialogue that is either banal, does
nothing to advance the story, or both. After spending the first
third of the book on a disconnected plot about Mikhail in the hands of a "hedge-witch" in the House of Elyhain, the author
largely drops it, and in effect takes until page 320 or so to
really get started. The time travel into the past by Mikhail and Margaret orchestrated by Varzil the Good, -and their subsequent marriage officiated by same- is the only worthwhile part, but
it lasts only a short while. After marrying them, the author
suddenly veers again blindly, this time to have Mikhail and
Margaret destroy evil plans to use atomic power in the
distant past (I am not kidding!) This plot has nothing discernible to do with the reasons Varzil brought them into the past for in the first place; but none of this seems to bother
the author one bit.
In short, it sounds as if the author puts this book together
from disjointed notes in her drawer. Very unsatisfying fare coming from a writer that has brought us such great works in the
past.
Rating: - Not quite as good as Exiles song
This book had a few dragging plot points but overall it was still quite worth reading
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