Sword of Aldones (1962) 184 pages by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Sword of Aldones is a Darkover novel. In this universe the galaxy has been colonized mainly by humans. The Terran empire is trying to expand its influence to all planets, not necessarily by force, but by economic pressure, etc. Darkover is holding out, although there is a Terran presence on the planet. The Darkover culture is unique, largely in part to having telepaths. There are several clans, Hastur, Alton, etc., each with different abilities.

Lew Alton, after six years away from Darkover has been summoned to return. The storyline takes off from there. He reunites with people he hasn't seen in years, there is intrigue. One of the Aldarans wants to marry Callina Aillard and regain a seat on the Comyn council. The Aldarans were kicked out generations ago for giving the Terrans a foothold on Darkover. Now the council is almost forcing Callina to accept.

I found the telepathy at times hard to conceptualize. I don't know if there were some ground rules, or if they were being made up as the story went along. A bit of that I can accept. What was a little harder was the relationships between the characters. At times I thought I was missing some of the conversation. Why did Lew slap her, I [the reader] wanted to know the rest of what she was going to say.

The book still flowed, there is some reading between the lines. Maybe with a couple more darkover novels it'll make more sense.