Stormqueen!
core novel 1978 Darkover
Record
| First published | 1978 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.88 (4,652 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 364 |
| First-edition ISBN | 0879973811 |
Synopsis
This science fantasy novel, set generations before Darkover's Compact bans psychic weapons, follows Dorilys, a young noblewoman born with a rare and dangerous laran gift for controlling storms and lightning, and Allart Hastur, a kinsman cursed with the ability to glimpse multiple possible futures at once. Their lives intersect amid a centuries-long breeding program engineered by the Comyn to concentrate and strengthen psychic gifts across generations, a project reaching a volatile peak just as political intrigue, arranged marriages, and a rival lord's military ambitions converge on Castle Aldaran. As Dorilys's uncontrolled power grows more destructive and Allart's foresight warns of catastrophe, the two are drawn toward a confrontation that exposes the human cost of Darkover's breeding programs during its chaotic early history.
Where it sits
- Universe: Darkover
- Series: Darkover core; position 12 of 22 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Notes
- From the series record (Darkover): Core Canon = the 22 novels published under Bradley's own credited authorship during her lifetime (1958-1999; some jointly credited with a co-author -- Mercedes Lackey on Rediscovery, Adrienne Martine-Barnes on Exile's Song/The Shadow Matrix/Traitor's Sun -- but always alongside Bradley herself). Per Bradley's own stated preference, publication order is used rather than the internal Darkovan chronology (Founding/Ages of Chaos/Hundred Kingdoms/Rediscovery/Modern eras), consistent with this project's deliberately-unrecorded-chronology pattern used elsewhere. Expanded Canon (the post-2000 continuation novels written entirely by Deborah J. Ross after Bradley's 1999 death -- the Clingfire Trilogy, The Alton Gift, Hastur Lord, The Children of Kings, Thunderlord!, The Laran Gambit, Arilinn) is deliberately deferred out of scope per the credited-authorship bright line (same approach as Pern's generational handoff), same treatment as InCryptid's and Solomon Kane's deferred Expanded backlogs; not populated as book records yet. The Door Through Space (1961) shares worldbuilding details but is explicitly not part of the Darkover setting per its own cover copy and is excluded. The Sword and Sorceress anthology series (which Bradley edited but did not herself write) is out of scope for the same reason Songs of the Dying Earth was excluded from Cugel's Saga.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Darkover: position 12 of 22: previous The Forbidden Tower (1977) · next Two to Conquer (1980)
Sources
← Darkover dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.