Looking for book about a red haired orphaned girl who is descovered to be the last of her family.

[Steff]

Looking for a book I read around 2003-2006ish? It was a soft cover, can't remember for sure but I think it was written around the 80s, the first of a series.

It takes place on a futuristic planet that wasn't earth and the main protagonist is a poor red haired young woman (or teen) who is somehow discovered to be the daughter of a man (now dead) who was the last remaining heir to some important family who was known for having red hair which is now a rare hair color. She gets thrust into life with the ruling class/rich elite, and has to navigate through that.

The only other things I remember is that there was a love interest, a priest, and that the native inhabitants of the planet they live on are thought to have no intellegence and so they are treated like servants/slaves, with one character questioning this idea with the priest, but after said character leaves (and this is the weird part) the priest has a scene where he thinks the idea over and then decides it's impossible and then be goes on to molest his female slave, and that's where I remember the book ending.

I'm sorry this isn't much to go on, I was much too young to have read this when I did so the details are fuzzy and hard to describe. Any help is appreciated!

 

[Danny McG]

The red hair and 'future planet that's not Earth' makes me think this is probably one of the Darkover books by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
I think I've only ever read like one and a half of them, that was a long time ago so I couldn't tell you a book title.

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Author Marion Zimmer Bradley's list of books and series in order, with the latest releases, covers, descriptions and availability.

www.fantasticfiction.com

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I think it’s almost certainly MZB with the theme of molestation of the young character. It vaguely rings a bell. *shudders*

It actually reminds me more of Mists of Avalon but it’s not sf.

 

[Danny McG]

I think it’s almost certainly MZB with the theme of molestation of the young character

Yeah, I agree

 

[nixie]

Best keeping to finding the book and not discuss authors life style. We don't want to open that can worms will lead to paths we don't go too.
.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

It doesn't sound like any of the Darkover books I've read, but though I did read most of them there are a few there near the end of her life that I did not read. However, the setting sounds nothing like Darkover. Could still be MZB, I suppose, but unlikely to be Darkover.

 

[Danny McG]

I also got some vague memories of a Jo Walton story that might fit the question, however they are too vague to recall

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

A memory came to me, naturally, hours after I posted above, that there is a slight chance that the book mentioned might be MZB's The Planet Savers, which I don't remember very well, but what little I remember could possibly fit the description, maybe, because of the trail men, who were sort of viewed as animals, I think. But that and the red hair being a sign of belonging to one of the great families are the only parts that seem to fit. The rest does not ring any bells.

 

[Danny McG]

Not really my thing, fantasy and science fantasy, I have read some, but I've done a massive amount more of sci fi.
I struggle with these kind of questions!

 

[Steff]

Thank you all for the help! Unfortunately none of the books suggested match what I remember.
Just to clarify something, the young protagonist is never molested, it's the alien inhabitant/native of the planet that is treated like a slave that gets molested by the priest- not sure if that clarification helps at all, but thank you again!