Book Review: "The Planet Savers" by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Planet Savers by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Ace, 1962)

After reading Moira Greyland’s memoir, The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon, I also read the first of Bradley’s Darkover novels, The Planet Savers, from 1962. I read a 1976 Ace Books edition that also includes the short story “The Waterfall,” and it was an even better read than Dark Satanic. Even though people have said that some of Bradley and Breen’s interests occasionally showed up in her writing in uncomfortable ways only recognized later, there was nothing untoward in The Planet Savers, which I found to be an interesting take on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

What if you could sublimate aspects of your personality and self that you didn’t like or find useful? What if you could compartmentalize different selves functionally, to be invoked at will when the need arises? What if you could entertain both your best self and worst self? Interesting questions, given Bradley’s history.

The slim novel was interesting and entertaining enough that I would read another Darkover book in a heartbeat. The later short story included in the paperback, “The Waterfall” is a coming-of-age and sexual-awakening tale that definitely gives women the upper hand—albeit through a near vampirism of male desire. It’s still slightly uncomfortable reading Bradley given her daughter’s revelations. (This review was previously published in slightly different form in the APA-L apazine Telegraphs & Tar Pits #4.)

Book Review: "The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon" by Moira Greyland

The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon by Moira Greyland (Castalia House, 2017)

I wasn’t overly active in fandom when Moira Greyland went public about the abuse suffered by her and others at the hands of her mother and father, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Walter Breen. (I was a member of the N3F, but I somehow missed the broader repercussions across fandom.) I was unaware of the 2014 uprising and fallout in terms of Bradley’s waning favor. And I wasn’t even alive during the Breendoggle that rocked Bay Area fandom in the early ’60s. So, while preparing for a medical procedure earlier this year, I turned to Greyland’s 2017 memoir, The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon.

The memoir mostly focuses on the abuse Greyland experienced from Bradley and Breen, and Bradley’s covering up of Breen’s sexual activities and preferences over the years. About half the book is made up of depositions taken as part of related court cases. If you don’t know much about the Breendoggle that happened in the Bay Area in the early ’60s, or Greyland’s subsequent going public, it’s a horrific read, and not one that I’d recommend even for the most rabid rubberneckers. 

It makes absolute sense that Bradley has fallen out of favor—and that many of her books are now available only through print-on-demand editions issued by her trust. Yet after reading Greyland’s expose, I wondered whether Bradley’s work was worth returning to. Naif that I am, I haven’t even read The Mists of Avalon, which I understand to be the work that gave Bradley her unexpected wealth and prestige—though her abuse far predated her fame. (This review was previously published in slightly different form in the APA-L apazine Telegraphs & Tar Pits #4.)

Book Review: "Dark Satanic" by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Dark Satanic by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Berkley, 1972)

After reading Moira Greyland’s memoir, The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon, I read Dark Satanic, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s 1972 occult novel now self-published by her trust. I chose to read it because it was one of the titles named in a court deposition. 

The novel tells the tale of ​​an editor and publisher of the occult who obtains a controversial manuscript just before its author dies under mysterious circumstances. The text in question reportedly reveals too much about hidden occult secrets, as well as practitioners in New York City, and the editor/publisher becomes embroiled in a battle of good and evil involving two different occult groups. After encountering representatives of both camps, it’s not entirely clear which side is a force for good, and our hero risks his life trying to learn more—and to decide whether to publish the book.

Dark Satanic mentions the Sexual Freedom League, a real-world organization active in the ’60s, and shows a rudimentary working knowledge of cultic groups, which came up in Bradley and Breen’s court cases. It’s also an interesting commentary on the publishing industry, as well as the relationships between authors, editors, and publishers.

Were it not for the controversy surrounding Bradley and Breen, the book was a relatively good read and could easily be adapted for film along the lines of The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby. It will most likely not be. That said, Bradley wrote a couple of other books in the series, including The Inheritor and Witch Hill, both of which are also available from her trust. (This review was previously published in slightly different form in the APA-L apazine Telegraphs & Tar Pits #4.)