This novel is a direct sequence to The Spell Sword although very different in nature. Instead of action adventure, it is more a family saga about the sexual awakening of a woman, Callista, who has been trained for years not just to suppress her sexuality, but has had changes made to her nervous system which make it impossible for her to safely experience desire while continuing to use her psychic abilities (laran). This puts a severe strain not only on her marriage with the Terran, Andrew Carr, with whom she formed a close psychic bond in the previous novel, but also on her twin sister Ellemir and brother-in-law Damon Ridenow because of the telepathic bonding of the group. At one point, the conflict threatens her very life and also Andrew’s.

A key thread in this novel is the conceptual journey made by Damon. His insight in the previous book, that the harsh methods used to teach people how to use laran in the Towers are harmful and unnecessary, as well as denying the help of talented psychics to ordinary people in need, leads him to use laran in ways of which the Tower authorities would not approve. It is clear that, because of the strict discipline instituted after long ago wars in which laran was greatly misused, the pendulum has swung too far. Callista is not the only one to suffer, and Damon starts to realise that he, too, was a victim of the mentality which those in the Towers, who control the teaching of the laran-gifted, have imposed for generations.

As Damon and the others heal frost-bitten villagers and perform other laran activities, they start to create their own Tower in the overworld, the strange mental landscape which the trained can access. This bring them into conflict with the Tower authorities who reserve to themselves the working and teaching of laran. Meanwhile, the mental and spiritual bond of the two couples is tested as they begin to become a gestalt, with Andrew’s Terran upbringing often bringing painful clashes as he cannot help reacting with shock or even revulsion to the idea of four in a bed and a complete lack of privacy or mental separation.

A more minor element of the novel is the theme of who will control the Domain now that the sisters’ father is an invalid following a spinal injury in the previous story. This subplot involves the treachery of a relation with murderous intent, eventually acted upon. This results in Damon and the others having to fight for the right to have their own Tower outside Arilinn's rules, with the stakes being their lives and/or sanity and certainly their self determination.

The problem I found with this book is that it was overlong and repeatedly went over the same ground. We are told constantly, for example, that Callista is Arilinn trained – there were even two references in the space of about three paragraphs on the same page. The characters have emotional outbursts at frequent intervals; apart from Andrew, they spend quite a lot of time crying, especially when he inadvertently hurts their feelings. It reminded me of the ‘wallow’ genre of some kinds of (non Darkovan) fan fiction. Also, there is a concentration on pregnancy, menstruation and miscarriage which may put off some readers who were expecting another action adventure given the nature of The Spell Sword. And a slight irritation is that all the women, apart from bit parts such as the midwife, are breathtaking beautiful; even the old Keeper of Arilinn has frequently described traces of her former devastating beauty, and there is a lot of harping on that as if physical appearance is a woman's main attribute. ( )

I'm pretty sure I read this one before, but it came up again in my quest to read all the Darkover books in chronological order. It's not one of my favorite books in the series. It's a continuation of The Spell Sword. Andrew Carr, a Terran, marries Callista, while Damon marries her twin, Ellemir. The book tells the story of their growing bonds as they struggle to repair the damage inflicted on Callista from her training as a Keeper. I loved this part of the book, but there's also a side plot with Desi, the unacknowledged illegitimate son of the women, that bogs down the book, in my opinion.
This book does explain a lot of the work of the Tower as well as the relationships between those attuned to each other in a matrix. On to the next book. ( )

So far this is my favorite in the series. Dense, detailed, engaging characters, great story line. Many touch points to other stories and the historical time line, groundwork laid for future stories. I hated to come to the end. I got no work done as I could not put the book down. ( )

I'm a fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley, but my affection for her rests not on the Avalon books, which I didn't care for, but her Darkover series. Darkover is a "lost colony" of Earth that falls back into a medieval society. Ruled by a psychically gifted aristocracy, after centuries it's rediscovered by a star-spanning high-tech human federation, giving the series a feel of both science fiction and fantasy. Most books in the series examine this culture clash and this book is no exception. This is a sequel to The Spell Sword, which focused on a Terran, Andrew Carr, who at the end of that book married Callista, a member of the Comyn aristocracy. The Darkover series as a whole features strong female characters, but it has enough swashbuckling adventure to draw the male of the species, and indeed this series was recommended to me by a guy (when we were in high school!)

Although some books are loosely connected, having characters in common, they were written to be read independently and were written out of sequence. This makes it difficult without a guide to know what story to start with. The Spell Sword should probably be read before this book, but that short novel was written just as MZB was coming into her own as a writer, and The Forbidden Tower, which received a Hugo nomination for best novel, is a much stronger and complex book. Andrew, Callista, Ellemir, and especially Damon, are my favorite characters in the entire series. This also is the most credible book involving polyamory I've read in science fiction, dealing with many of the problems I'd see in such a relationship fairly realistically--more so to my mind than say, Robert Heinlein who also explored the subject. And this is one of the few books in the Darkover series, along with The Shattered Chain and Stormqueen!, where I can still really recall specific scenes and conversations in the book to mind even decades after my read. So this stands as one of the best books in the series. ( )

Ellemir et Callista, les soeurs jurnelles, épousent les deux vainqueurs des hommes-chats : Damon et le Terrien Andrew. C'est l'heureuse conclusion d'une aventure et le début d'une double malédiction : l'union consanguine d'Ellemir et de Damon est menacée de stérilité ; Callista, destinée à devenir Gardienne de la Tour d'Arilinn, a été si bien conditionnée qu'Andrew ne peut pas l'approcher. Damon voudrait secourir Callista ; Andrew ne refuserait pas de rendre service à Ellemir. Tous quatre sont télépathes, ce qui devrait faciliter leur entraide. Mais la règle est très stricte : on n'utilise pas les pouvoirs psi pour changer le destin, sauf dans les Tours. Cette prudence s'explique par les abus commis pendant les Ages du Chaos. S'impose-t-elle en cas de péril ou de trahison ? Damon, Ellemir, Andrew et Callista défient la coutume, lancent dans le Surmonde une croisade pour la liberté et, unissant leurs esprits, bâtissent leur propre Tour, où l'antique tradition n'a plus cours. Qu'en dira Dame Leonie, la Gardienne d'Arilinn ?