The Winds of Darkover
core novel 1970 Darkover
Record
| First published | 1970 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.75 (2,050 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 197 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780441892532 |
Synopsis
A Terran technician stationed on Darkover begins experiencing mysterious, intrusive visions that interfere with his work at the spaceport, unsettling his superiors and himself alike. Unable to explain the episodes through ordinary means, he is reassigned away from routine duties to a diplomatic mission bound for the mountains, hoping the change will settle matters. Instead the posting entangles him directly in the source of his visions: a conflict involving a telepathic Darkovan nobleman, the nobleman's sister, and an ancient magical artifact whose influence has been reaching across the barrier between Terran and Darkovan minds. As the mission unfolds, the Terran finds himself forced to confront powers his training never prepared him to understand.
Where it sits
- Universe: Darkover
- Series: Darkover core; position 5 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 5 of 22: previous Star of Danger (1965) · next The World Wreckers (1971)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Darkover series
- sfadb: Marion Zimmer Bradley
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winds_of_Darkover
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