The Shattered Chain
core novel 1976 Darkover
Record
| First published | 1976 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.95 (3,029 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 287 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780886773083 |
Synopsis
The first Darkover novel to explore the Renunciates in depth, the story follows three very different women whose paths converge with this separatist sisterhood: Kindra, a veteran Renunciate; Jaelle, a young member raised within the Guild; and Magda Lorne, a Terran intelligence officer who disguises herself as a Renunciate to rescue a kidnapped noblewoman and finds herself drawn ever deeper into the sisterhood's world. As the rescue mission unfolds across Darkover's mountains and cities, each woman confronts what it means to reject the rigid, patriarchal roles Darkovan and Terran society alike expect of her, and the choices open to a woman who lives outside a clan or marriage.
Where it sits
- Universe: Darkover
- Series: Darkover core; position 10 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 10 of 22: previous The Heritage of Hastur (1975) · next The Forbidden Tower (1977)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Darkover series
- sfadb: Marion Zimmer Bradley
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shattered_Chain
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