Hello. This will be the new home for over 800 book reviews that I have written between 1997 and the end of 2010. They used to be found at http://www.deadtreesreview.com/, but that site will be discontinued.

My newer reviews will be found at http://www.deadtreesreview.blogspot.com/.








Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Web of Darkness

Web of Darkness, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Baen Books, 1983

Domaris and Deoris are sisters and priestesses of the Temple of Light. Deoris, the younger, doesn't just fall in love with the sorcerer Riveda, she abandons everything to follow him. He is well-known and esteemed in the Temple, but, in secret, he is a practitioner of the dark areas of sorcery. Deoris gives herself to him, body and soul. When the Temple finds out just how far she and Riveda have gone to the dark side, he is convicted of blasphemy and killed. Deoris almost joins him, along with her unborn baby, which may or may not be Riveda's, if not for the intervention of Domaris.

Domaris loses her unborn child, and her spirit. Deoris almost dies in childbirth, and is told her child didn't survive (not true). The two have gone so far beyond just "breaking the rules" of the Temple that the only choice is permanent exile for Domaris. Deoris joins her years later, with Domaris' two children, in a place called Atlantis.

This strong, well-done tale of two sisters is another very reliable novel from Bradley. She knows how to make the story just strange enough for anyone, and to keep the reader involved to the end.

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