In volumes written early, Darkover's inhabitants – partially bred from human colonists who had settled on Darkover long before – successfully resist the Empire's various attempts to integrate them into a political and economic union in volumes written later, this plotline fades into the background as the fantasy implications of the sequence – through an increasing emphasis on Psi Powers – begin to dominate. The sequence is set on the fringes of an Earth-dominated Galactic Empire, an sf arena which became decreasingly important over the years as the series intensified its sometimes romanticized focus on the families and groups and dynasties occupying the planet Darkover over its long history. The Darkover sequence, which was developed for almost half a century, is a complex sequence of novels and stories, perhaps the most significant Planetary-Romance sequence in modern sf up to the early 1990s, Bradley seems to have been solely responsible for new titles in the series but see below for the picture after about 1995. The latter dominated her later career, during which she also edited Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine (50 issues, 1988-2000). But only with the increasing substance of her Darkover series of Planetary Romances, which she began in 1958, and the great success of her Arthurian fantasy, The Mists of Avalon ( 1982), did she become a major figure in sf and more importantly fantasy. Her first novel, The Door Through Space (May 1957 Venture as 'Bird of Prey' exp 1961 dos), is Space Opera, as is Seven From the Stars (March 1960 Amazing exp 1962 dos original text 2017 dos), an intriguingly told adventure involving seven interstellar castaways on Earth. She began publishing short stories professionally in 1953 with 'Women Only' and 'Keyhole', both for Vortex Science Fiction #2 some of this early work appears in The Dark Intruder and Other Stories (coll 1964 dos). (1930-1999) US author, initially of adventure sf with an emphasis on swashbuckling routines, often verging on Sword and Sorcery, though always with a recognizably sf rationale and of other fairly unremarkable work, some of it (not usually fantastic) under names like Lee Chapman, John Dexter, Miriam Gardner, Valerie Graves and Morgan Ives.

Dark Satanic by Marion Zimmer Bradley