Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels were one of science fiction's best known and longest continued series. The character of Bradley's fiction changed as the series continued, from planetary romances to novels of character interaction and cultural tension to more didactic works on feminist and neopagan themes. Bradley's explicit intellectual concerns are fairly remote from libertarian ideas, but this one novel, from the middle period has things to say that will be of interest to libertarians.

The thing that makes Bradley's work especially interesting, and that is not often enough remarked, is her legalistic turn of mind. Her characters don't just have desires or intentions; they have binding commitments within which they have to negotiate their choices. One such commitment appears as an epigraph to this novel: the Oath of the Free Amazons which spells out the terms on which a woman in Darkover's feudal culture can live independently. Particularly interesting to libertarians will be the commitment to self-defense and to learning the skills required for self-defense. Bradley also explores the difference in cultural assumptions between the Terran Empire, for which an oath taken under duress is not binding, and Darkover, for which any commitment is binding—a seemingly anti-libertarian position, but one that may be needed to keep the peace in a stateless society.

One of Ayn Rand's essays asked "How does one lead a moral life in an immoral society?" The Shattered Chain asks a more specific variant on that question: How can a woman be free in a society where women are not free? Bradley shows one possible answer to this question—and doesn't evade the harsh implications of that answer: one of her Free Amazons responds to an appeal to sympathy for women who don't share her freedom by saying "There is always an alternative." One of the novel's subplots takes this a step further, suggesting that if there are women leading the lives of Free Amazons, then the women who chase not to do so are also free in that choice.

The details of Darkover's customs, and of Free Amazon conduct, often clash with libertarians ideas. But the core theme of choice is congruent with libertarianism—and Bradley's focus on her characters' choices makes this a dramatic and effective story. And exploring human choices in exotic or alien cultures is part of the special appeal of science fiction, which this book also offers.