Book Review

'Our fates spin their web, and our actions bear the fruits they have sown. Those who have met and loved cannot be parted; if they meet not in this life, they meet in another.

From 'The Fall of Atlantis" 

The other day when I visited a  dear friend's blog, My Grama's Soul she happened to mention one of her favorite books, "The Mists of Avalon", and I decided it was time for a re-read of the entire series.  It's been a few years now so I dug out my old notebook to look over my notes. Yes, I actually take notes on these novels.  Last time I became so obsessed with making the reincarnation connections of the characters in the series that I actually took notes and drew up a chart.  This time, though, I will not really need my notebook since I discovered that Diana Paxon has posted an official chart. It is still fun, however, to go over my notes.

  

The book I am reading now, is 'The Fall of Atlantis'. This was originally two separate books--'Web of Light' and 'Web of Darkness'--which have been combined now into a single volume. This is the book that started it all and goes a long way toward explaining some of the major themes that run through the other books in the series, especially "The Mists of Avalon, " for it is in this that we first meet the characters who incarnate through all of the other books of the series culminating in those characters we have grown to love. If you choose to read this book, see if you can guess who, generations down the road, will be Viviane, Morgaine, Arthur, and Lancelot.

'The Fall of Atlantis' centers around the doleful story of two young sisters --Domaris and Deoris--who were born on one of the many islands that make up the sea kingdom of Atlantis and the part they play in the ceaselessl battle between the 'Path of Light' and the 'Path of Darkness'.   Domaris  is an acolyte of the 'Temple of Light' and   the rebellious Deoris chooses instead to follow the forces of darkness when she begins following a priest who has been engaging in the darker areas of magic.  

As the story begins, a dying priest of the Light, Micon, has arrived at the Temple seeking refuge after he and his younger half-brother, Reio-ta, had been captured and tortured by the Black Robes. Deoris becomes the scribe of the blind priest, but it is Domaris with whom he falls in love.  His arrival will forever change the lives of the two sisters and will take many lifetimes to resolve. 

'A child will be born, one that will sire a line to check this evil forever.'

The Fall of Atlantis 

From the book description...

' A wounded Atlantean prince...a deadly battle between Dark and Light...and the sisters Deoris and Domaris, whose lives are changed utterly by the magic involving them. These are the elements of The Fall of Atlantis, Marion Zimmer Bradley's epic fantasy about that ancient and legendary realm.

On one side stand the Priests of the White Robe, guardians of powerful natural forces which could threaten the world if misused. Ranged against them are the Black Robes, sorcerers who secretly practice their arts in the labyrinthine caves beneath the very Temple of Light. Caught between are Domaris and Deoris, daughters of the arch-priest Talkannon, trapped in a web of deadly sorcery--the same forbidden sorcery that could bring about the fall of Atlantis.'

The story  immediately picks up again in its sequal "Ancestors of Avalon."