Two to Conquer

The setting is the brutal planet of Darkover, where it snows in high summer. The time is long before the Terrans have rediscovered this lost colony. The land is divided into a hundred tiny kingdoms, each locked with its neighbors in unlimited warfare. Armies accompanied by wizards sweep through the countryside. Life is complete chaos. Bard di Asturien is the bastard son of a nobleman. His father chose to acknowledge him, educated him in arms and Bard is fostered at the court of the local king where his stunning military prowess and talent for tactics brings first promotion and then the promise of the king's youngest daughter's hand in marriage. Carlina would rather become a priestess of Avarra on the Isle of Silence, but Bard is her trusted playmate from childhood so she obediently submits to the hand-fasting, asking only a year of grace before marriage. But in that year, things go wrong mainly due to Bard's violent temper, impulsive behavior and lack of respect for women. His crimes are graphic, compelling and the king would be fully justified in executing Bard but he sends the young man away for seven years of exile. Before this sentence is fully over, the king dies and his one remaining son is a child too young to rule. Bard's father revolts and concocts a scheme to find Bard's doppelganger and magically convey him to Darkover. This is the convicted Terran rapist Paul Harrell. Freed from the statis box where his crimes have landed him, Paul takes to the barbaric world of Darkover with relish. But the twist in this tale of dark twins is one of redemption. When Paul and Bard look at one another, it is like looking in the mirror and neither totally likes what they see. Bradley has produced a thought-provoking fantasy. Her portrayal of the crimes pulls no punches, but she makes us see value and humanity in her criminal heroes nonetheless. She gives us this story against an awesome backdrop of adventure and battle. Few fantasy novelists dare to take on the subjects that Bradley tackles. In that respect, this novel published in 1980 is a true trailblazer for some of the gritty, hard-boiled fantasies that follow. I discovered Marion Zimmer Bradley as an undergraduate in college and fell in love with her Darkover series. I'm in the process of re-reading and re-evaluating some of the works of fantasy that have become "classic" while sitting on my shelves. This book is unusual in that I give it a higher rating in maturity than I did when I first read it. Maybe I should say: recommended for mature audiences only.

This Darkover novel is set near the end of the Ages of Chaos, in the time of the Hundred Kingdoms. Chronologically, this is one of the early novels in Darkover's history. There is less civilization and the Hundred Kingdoms are in a near perpetual state of war (someone is always fighting). Despite the back of the book suggesting that Varzil the Good is a major player in this book, the real story here is that of Bard Di Asturian and Paul Harrell.The book opens with a fascinating scene. A criminal named Paul Harrell wakes up. The last thing he knew was that he was convicted for rape and because Terra (Earth) no longer has the death penalty, he was locked in a stasis box. He wakes up in a room and as he looks around he realizes that there is no way that he can possibly be on Terra anymore. A man enters the room and he appears to be the identical twin to Paul, so much a twin that "twin" is the wrong word. The man seems to be the same person as Paul. The prologue ends and the novel truly begins. We now start the main story seven years before Paul is somehow freed from the stasis box. The protagonist of the story is Bard Di Asturian. Bard is the illegitimate nephew of King Ardrin of the Asturias. Rather than being raised in obscurity like most illegitimate children, Bard was raised as part of the family (the wife of Bard's father King Rafael never cared for Bard and forced him to live elsewhere). We learn early on that Bard is to be handfasted (betrothed, more than an engagement less than a marriage) to the King's daughter, Carlina. Carlina does not want to be married to anyone, and convinces her father to put off the actual marriage for a year until she turns 15. This angers Bard, because he feels that he should be able to bed his wife any time he wants and that this is all just a trick to string him along until Carlina is taken away from him. Bard has a misogynist view of women. He feels that he should be able to have his way with any woman because they truly want it and that they are always asking for "it" and that women are only pretending that they didn't want it and lie, claiming that they were forced. This is the same warped view that Paul has of women. Time passes, and the year until the marriage is half over when Bard finally tries to force Carlina (this is after we have already seen him force another woman). He is caught by Carlina's brother Beltran and their friend Geremy Hastur. The King exiles Bard for seven years, in which he may not return to the realm on pain of death. During this time Bard becomes a leader in several different armies and grows up a bit. He still carries his hatred of women, but also an obsession for Carlina, whom he continues to view as his legal wife. When Bard's time of exile ends, he is called back by his father to help lead an army against the Asturias. Bard's father uses the laran (a magical/esp type power) to summon Bard's double (everyone has a true double somewhere). Bard's double is