The Laran Gambit

The Laran Gambit - Hardcover

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The Laran Gambit

The Laran Gambit - Hardcover

by Marion Zimmer Bradley , Deborah J. Ross
$29.99
Sale price  $29.99 Regular price 

Book Overview

by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Author), Deborah J. Ross (Author)

Terran child psychologist Bryn Haslund has her hands full, treating youngsters from war-torn planets. Arthur Nagy, the brutal dictator of the interplanetary Star Alliance, ruthlessly suppresses dissent, launching increasingly devastating military campaigns. Once idyllic worlds are embargoed or bombed into ashes, and Nagy's StarOps secret police lurk everywhere. Bryn has tried to stay out of politics, leaving that to her charismatic statesman father, Ernst, the only one with the stature to stand up to Nagy.


Despite her efforts to remain neutral, Bryn gets caught in the crackdown of a protest-turned-riot and only her status as her father's daughter keeps her out of jail. Ernst makes a speech in which he is expected to condemn the violence but instead, he issues his whole-hearted support for Nagy's policies and then goes missing under mysterious circumstances.


With the Alliance's secret police hot on her heels, Bryn locates her father in the research labs of Alpha. Here she discovers that Nagy's scientists have implanted a mechanical mind-control device in Ernst's brain. In her search to disable the device, she finds the records of a remote, almost-forgotten planet where psychic powers have been developed to an extraordinary degree...Cottman IV, known as Darkover. In the desperate hope that Darkover's powerful natural telepaths can free her father's mind, Bryn and her father arrange transport on a smuggler's ship. Powerful winds knock their shuttle off course when they try to land on Darkover, and send it spinning out of control. Bryn cries out for help...


...and someone answers her telepathic plea.


The shuttle crashes in the rugged, glaciated Hellers mountain range. Here Bryn and her father must contend with new dangers, from ice avalanches to blood-thirsty bandits to gigantic carnivorous birds. Moreover, this new world 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. Using their extraordinary psychic abilities called laran, they forced the Terrans to honor Darkover's independence. The vicious interstellar wars waged by Star Alliance eventually forced the Terrans to withdraw. So far, Darkover's leaders have managed to avoid becoming a battleground for a larger conflict but now Bryn's quest threatens 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 might turn out to be lethal.


Can Bryn convince Darkover's telepaths to help, when they are already deeply suspicious of Terrans and would rather remain hidden? What are these strange new psychic powers she's developing? And can she restore her father's free will and bring down Nagy's despotic rule before the Alliance enforcers catch up with them?


The Laran Gambit is the new, long-awaited adventure in the beloved Darkover series. It's perfect for both devoted fans and those new to the world of the Bloody Sun.


Number of Pages: 328
Dimensions: 0.75 x 9.21 x 6.14 IN
Publication Date: November 08, 2022
ISBN9781938185724
Author Marion Zimmer Bradley , Deborah J. Ross
PublisherMarion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust
GenreLiterature
FormatHardcover
PublishedNovember 2022
LanguageENG- English
Pages328
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

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About Marion Zimmer Bradley

Marion Zimmer Bradley is probably best known for her Darkover novels and her best-selling Arthurian novel THE MISTS OF AVALON. In addition to her novels, Mrs. Bradley edited many magazines, amateur and professional, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine, which she started in 1988, and an annual anthology, SWORD AND SORCERESS. For more information, see her website: www.mzbworks.com.

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