Thunderlord by Marion Zimmer BradleyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
In many ways I feel that this is more Deborah J Ross's book set in Marion Zimmer Bradley's fictional world rather than a true posthumous collaboration. Maybe that's why I feel less uneasy about reading it, if it doesn't have so much of a shadow cast over it by the very serious questions about MZB's personal life.
Also, it's much lighter than the novel to which it is a nominal sequel. All the time I've been reading it, I've been wrestling with just what I mean when I say that. Most obviously, it has a happy ending, whereas STORMQUEEN is fundamentally a tragedy, the story of spoiled young Dorylis whose Gift came upon her too young, who never learned wisdom or control as a child and thus could not learn it when she needed it.
By contrast, this story starts with adventures of derring-do as the two sisters Kyria and Alayna, travel from Rockraven to Scathfell, where Kyria is betrothed to its lord. But Kyria is kidnapped by bandits and taken to their stronghold, setting off a chain of events and misunderstandings that are only possible in a world where travel and communications are painfully slow. At times the turns of events take on an almost soap opera character, but everything is clearly moving toward a happy ending at the end, when the characters come to their senses and sort out an amicable solution to a longstanding feud. In fact, I could anticipate several major plot twists as soon as the critical elements were introduced.
Its a popcorn book, but not a bad book. Sometimes you want or even need something lightweight and nicely predictable, that you can read without being braced for horrible surprises thrown at you by the author.
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