Across genres, we
accept the importance of bonds between brothers; I would argue that in
speculative fiction, at least, we give less weight to the loyalty and emotional
intimacy between sisters. This may be due to the domestic setting for sisterly
concerns. Brothers march off to war together, but sisters hold hands when one
is giving birth. If one or both is unmarried, sisters set up housekeeping
together, often living their entire lives under the same roof. Yet the
relationship between sisters opens many fascinating and challenging story
possibilities.
I’ve found that once
I step away from the models of male-bonding or male-female romantic love as the
only possibilities for central relationships, my stories get a lot more
interesting and also emotionally powerful. They don’t necessarily have to be
the sole or pivotal bonds in a story. Just as in real life, they form a
critical foundation for any social setting.
Thunderlord’s emotional heart is the relationship between
the two Rockraven sisters, Kyria and Alayna. This being Darkover, I also
included plenty of action and adventures — banshees and laran and bandits, oh my. Through all this — and a love story or
two — the sisters are so integral to the tale that at times I felt as if I were
channeling Elizabeth and Jane from Pride
and Prejudice (or Marianne and Elinor from Sense and Sensibility). Sisters are not always close, but when they
are, the relationships are complex, rich, and enduring. Lovers may come and go,
the saying goes, but sisterhood is forever.
I didn’t set out to
write “The Bennett Sisters on Darkover.” I began with a few pages of Marion’s
notes on a sequel to Stormqueen,
almost all of it backstory, and the title of the proposed book. I didn’t want
to repeat the general plot of Stormqueen
or its tragic ending, and I also wanted to experience whatever adventure the
story took me on through the eyes of fresh, new characters.
Although the
Rockraven family isn’t anything like the Bennetts, I kept finding similarities:
a noble but impoverished family, the pressure for one or both girls to secure
the family’s financial future by their marriages, their wistful longing to
marry for love, how the sisters are different but devoted to each other, and so
forth. There are no balls in the neighborhood, no mother with imaginary
illnesses scheming to “make a good marriage” for her daughters, no problem
about the inheritance of the estate, and certainly no Mr. Darcy to be
unpleasant to everyone. Practical Kyria deals with her family’s poverty by
donning her brother’s clothes and trapping animals for food. Romantic Alayna
dreams of love stories while understanding that such a happy ending means they
must be parted, most likely forever. Distances on Darkover are much greater
than in Regency England!
