The Laran Gambit, Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Laran Gambit, Marion Zimmer Bradley
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The Laran Gambit

Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley

Series: Darkover

Narrator: Alyssa Bresnahan

Unabridged: 15 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 11/08/2022

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction


Synopsis

Terran child psychologist Bryn Haslund has her hands full, treating the traumatized young victims of the interplanetary Star Alliance. She’s tried to stay out of politics, leaving that to her charismatic statesman father, Ernst. Despite her best efforts to remain neutral, she gets caught in the crackdown
of a protest-turned-riot. Then Ernst delivers a robotic speech in support of the Alliance’s tyrannical leader and goes missing.

With the Alliance’s secret police hot on her heels, Bryn finally locates her father in the research labs on Alpha, only to find that a mind-control device has been implanted in his brain. Searching for a way to disable the device, she discovers the records of a remote, almost-forgotten planet where telepathic
powers have been developed to an extraordinary degree … Darkover, a Lost Colony world circling a dim red star far out on the galactic rim. In the desperate hope that natural telepathy can disable the mechanical device and free her father’s mind, she hustles him onboard a smuggler’s ship. When they
try to land on Darkover, however, powerful winds knock their shuttle off-course, and it crashes in a rugged, glaciated mountain range. As the shuttle spins out of control, Bryn cries out for help … … and someone answers her telepathic plea.

Darkover poses its own dangers, from ice avalanches to bandits to gigantic carnivorous birds.

Moreover, the planet has a complicated, often contentious history with Terra. When the Terrans rediscovered Darkover after millennia of isolation, the aristocratic Comyn struggled to maintain their unique culture, often at a terrible price. Using their extraordinary psychic abilities called laran, they
forced the Terrans to honor Darkover’s independence. The vicious interstellar wars waged by the Star Alliance eventually forced the Terrans to withdraw. Two generations later, smugglers, pirates, and rebels still use Darkover as a hidden base, threatening to drag the Comyn into their own battles. So far,
Darkover’s leaders have managed to avoid becoming a battleground for a larger conflict. Now Bryn and her father threaten to break that precarious isolation.

To make matters worse, the mind-control device seems to be tightening its hold over Ernst, the Darkovans have their own agenda, and Bryn’s newly awakened psychic powers just might turn out to be lethal.

Can Bryn convince Darkover’s telepaths to help when they are deeply suspicious of Terrans and would rather remain forgotten? What are these strange new powers she’s developing? And can she restore Ernst’s mind before the Alliance enforcers track them down?

About Marion Zimmer Bradley

Bestselling author Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-1999) wrote The Mists of Avalon, The Forest House, Lady of Avalon, and The Firebrand, as well as the immensely popular Darkover series and numerous other science fiction and fantasy works. In 2000, she was posthumously awarded the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Karen’s Library on January 01, 2023

It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a new Darkover novel to sink my teeth into. I’ve spent many many days in my past reading and re-reading all of my Darkover books, again and again! I hadn’t realized how much I missed Darkover until I started reading The Laran Gambit. It did take a bit to get to......more

Goodreads review by Warren on February 27, 2023

I haven’t journeyed to Darkover and its universe for some time. I have been looking forward to a return trip ever since I placed my order for The Laran Gambit, by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah Ross. I was sure I was in for a grand adventure. I was right. The journey begins in a somewhat deceptive......more

Goodreads review by Evan Ladouceur on November 16, 2022

I read the first couple of Darkover books years ago as Ace Doubles. The series wore on, the books got longer, and moved more squarely to fantasy, so my interest waned. I thought I would pick this up. There is clearly history that would help a reader, perhaps by reading the books written by Deborah R......more

Goodreads review by Johanna on November 02, 2022

For long-time readers of the Darkover Books, this is the one that brings it all together and does so beautifully. It is also the most realistic and terrifying book in the series. Bryn Haslund is a child psychologist dedicated to working with the most innocent victims of was––children whose lives and......more

Goodreads review by Ariadne on November 01, 2022

Another captivating Darkovana story, with characters that makes us cheer for them (or against them) from start to finish, a writing that captures our attention with each paragraph and moments of making us arrest our breath. I confess that I suffered from losses, celebrated the victories, was annoyed......more