simply wonderful
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I read this as a teenager and I return to it again and again. I well remember my first reading of this novel- sitting up to 3am and sobbing my heart out over the ending. Even now many, many (ahem - too many to note here!) years later, it can still make me cry.
Despite the wholly convincing futuristic sci-fi setting, this is first and foremost the most compelling and moving love story. Lee deliberately quotes from Romeo and Juliet and there is a Renaissance feel to this.
Jane, the poor little rich narrator, moves through her life in a sort of cocooned dream; vaguely aware of her unhappiness and the cruel, bored posturings of even those of her friends who might like her; but without the drive or the emotional maturity to do anything to change things. Then she meets Silver - vital, beautiful and a robot - and she falls in love so completely that nothing in her world will ever be the same again.
This is a simply wonderful book, uplifting, emotional and colourful. I haven't ever really got on with many of Lee's other titles but the simple beauty of her narrative here and the emotional pull of story is too strong to resist. I'm really glad to see it's available again because I hope other readers will get to experience the same bittersweet joy it still brings me.
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buy it!
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This is, quite simply, fabulous. It is a love story, but for once, this is a love story with a point, a story worth telling. Everyone has already described most of the plot, so I won't do that again, but I got this on their recommendations and they are not exaggerating. This is a wonderful book, the type you don't find very often. I've always liked Tanith Lee, but this outclasses everything else I've read by her. It feels as if it had to be written, something that made so much sense that you wonder why you hadn't read this book already. It doesn't feel formulaic, it doesn't feel forced at any point, the social observations which the book make are not crowbarred into the plot as they too often are, its, well, you can tell I like it, can't you?!
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A science fiction classic
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Jane, pampered, protected, and stifled by her controlling mother, leaves her home in the clouds to live a bohemian life with her lover in the slums of a city wrecked by frequent earthquakes. Her lover, Silver, is one of a new line of robots designed to do anything humans can do -- and to do it better. If the premise sounds frivolous, the novel is anything but. The characters are deftly drawn, complex creations, and the novel's denoument, as Jane realizes her own independence and strength, is genuinely moving. Most of Tanith Lee's brilliant early fantasy and science fiction (which precedes her recent move into writing primarily horror) has been out of print far too long. Hopefully the republication of Silver Metal Lover is a sign that her other early work is soon to follow.
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Wow
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There are three kinds of books out there in my opinion - those that make you laugh, those that make you cry, and those that leave you so stunned by their beauty that all you can say is "Wow." This is the rare book about which I would circle all of the above. You must read this book - it will change forever your view of life, of love, and of what it means to be human.
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Science fiction of the heart...
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Having just recently discovered Tanith Lee, I am avidly reading everything of hers that I can get my hands on. So far, "The Silver Metal Lover" ranks as one of my favorites. I have not yet read the Paradys tetralogy, which I have been told is superb, and a friend has promised me "Faces Under Water", so this book may be outclassed...but somehow, I think that would be hard. One of the things I love most about "The Silver Metal Lover," besides the compelling characterization and the fully realized and believable setting, is Lee's writing style. It changes with each section of the book, mirroring Jane's growing maturity, so that the style of the first part is completely different from the style of the last. I find this an extremely talented turn of writing; as well as being fun to read, it's impressive. I usually avoid love stories. If romance is a sub-plot to a larger story, fine, just don't give me a love story and nothing else. I have had to break my rule with "The Silver Metal Lover," and have done so with absolutely no regrets. The story feels real; you care about the characters and follow them as avidly as if they existed in our place, our time. Although I can't rate it as a love story, I can certainly say that it is one of the best science fiction books I have read: it focuses not on the future setting, not on the technology that can produce Silver and the Sophisticated Formats, but on the characters that populate the world. They are made very real, and for that reason I am now re-reading this book for what must be the third or fourth time in two weeks. What else can I say? I highly recommend it!
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