Marion Zimmer Bradley

Subject: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: Kira
Date: 26 Sep 99 - 07:49 PM

>From her site - Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine

"Marion Zimmer Bradley suffered a major heart attack on Tuesday,September 21 and died Saturday, September 25, 1999. Funeral arrangements are pending and will be posted here when final. Memorial donations may be sent to her church: Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704. "

Marion was one of the founders of the Society for Creative Anachronism. She was a prolific writer of fantasy and science fiction. As such, she had a great deal of influence on filk music especially. Her life had a profound effect on the lives of millions. She certainly had a huge effect on who I am, and her passing leaves a empty space in my life that no one else can fill.

For additional information : www.mzbfm.com/

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: sophocleese
Date: 26 Sep 99 - 08:09 PM

I am sorry to hear of her death. She did a lot to promote fantasy literature.

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: bbc
Date: 26 Sep 99 - 08:33 PM

Thanks for the information, though I'm very sorry to hear it. My son & I have really enjoyed her books.

bbc

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: thosp
Date: 26 Sep 99 - 09:44 PM

i'm very sorry to hear of her passing---- i have throughly enjoyed reading many of her books.

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Sep 99 - 10:15 PM

Thank you, Kira. It profoundly saddens me to know her voice will be silent. I have a handsigned rejection note from her which I will cherish even more. Her books were some of the first of sci/fi/fantasy I ever read; her Mists of Avalon and, later, its prequel, are incomparable.

The land of Darkover will always be a part of me. I also felt a conneciton with her, too, because at one time, she was a member of a metaphysical org. which I belong to. Made me feel we were "sisters", if not at Thendara House, at least in spirit.

May she find Peace Profound,

kat

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: alison
Date: 27 Sep 99 - 02:52 AM

Sorry to hear that.... Mists of Avalon is one of my favourite books..

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: anahata
Date: 27 Sep 99 - 03:33 AM

I've just finished "Traitor's Sun" and was looking forward to reading the next book and now there never will be another one. Reading about Darkover has been one of my literary pleasures these last 8 years and, of course, Mists of Avalon is my all-time favourite. I am saddened that Marion is no longer with us in body, and I bless her spirit for sharing with us her wondrous imagination all these years.

Blessed be

anahata

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Sep 99 - 11:14 AM

*sigh*..I was reading the "Darkover" novels when they were just adventure stories..like "The Bloody Sun".(some in Ace double novels)...now Rita & I have a whole bookshelf full of them. She had a way of making even the later stuff that focused on women's perspective accessable to everyone...and I imagine that those who have 'helped' write in the last few years will keep the tradition alive...

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: Kira
Date: 27 Sep 99 - 02:59 PM

Worry not, Anahata! MZB thought of us long ago, and made arrangements for her legacy to live on. She established a "living trust" and willed her Darkover series to Mercedes Lackey! She may have made other arrangements to continue other series of hers also, but I know specifically about that one.

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: MMario
Date: 27 Sep 99 - 03:46 PM

If I remember correctly --and I may not, it's been a few years, the first MZB I read was "the Bloody Sun" in installments. In college I finally ran across a copy in paperback - which was a revised version - and remember being very upset because it felt like reading a fictionalized version of the life of someone I knew....

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: Lorraine
Date: 27 Sep 99 - 10:34 PM

Sorry to hear of her death. My husband and I long enjoyed her work. And if I could find them I might compeat with BillD for sheernumbers of her work. I haven't read much of her writings in recent years. I will miss her.-Lorraine

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: BK
Date: 28 Sep 99 - 12:00 AM

VERY sad to hear this; the darkover series (to my way of thinking) grew to be perhaps the best - and my personal all-time favorite - fictional universe. I almost felt as though I was coming home every time I started another of the series. As surely as part of my youthful heart will always be ridin' w/Roy Rogers & Trigger, an older, more (nearly) grown-up part of me will always long to return to the planet of the "bloody sun."

I could do w/out meeting Spock, Scotty & etc & not miss it much. Ah, but the Hellers.. to visit (breifly) a Tower, to listen to their musicians & balladeers; THAT would be an alternate universe I'd like to experience..

BK, feeling a significant loss here in the center of the heartland...

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: jaguar
Date: 28 Sep 99 - 10:47 AM

MZB's Darkover world seems to have crept into my life and speech; terms like 'kihar', 'bredu/bredhyu', 'vai dom'... etc. They just sorta seemed to fit. And her Mists of Avalon was one of my favorite books.. I wore out one copy and am working on my second. Sword and Sorceress, Darkover, the Arthurians... they will all be sorely missed by me and mine. It's nice to know her legacy will be carried on.

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: belter
Date: 28 Sep 99 - 10:56 AM

I think that Marion Zimmer Bradley the editor may have been an even greater loss. probobly about nine out of ten of the authors a habitualy read got their start in a MZB publication, and or came to my attention through a MZB publication. If she thought it was worth printing, I read it.

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: Cara
Date: 28 Sep 99 - 11:39 AM

I read The Mists of Avalon again and again. I've read all the books in that series (though none compare)and have been meaning to get going on the Darkover novels for some time. I guess now I will savor them more slowly...

I get nervous when a new author takes over an established series. The people who really love the books will mark the difference. As a little kid I read all of those V.C. Andrews novels and when she died and someone attempted to continue the series, they just lost a lot of their appeal. it wasn't the same.

RIP, MZB.

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: bbc
Date: 28 Sep 99 - 08:59 PM

Cara,

Have you read any Mercedes Lackey? David & I really love her Heralds of Valdemar series. We like her even better than Anne McCaffery. You're right, there may be some change in style, but I suspect it will still be good reading. Have you read any of the newer Jane Austin-esque books or the sequel to "Gone w/ the Wind"? I've enjoyed them.

best,

bbc

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: Cara
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 09:47 AM

Oooh, I forgot about Anne McCaffery. I used to love those books when I was in junior high school. I devoured them. I haven't read any Mercedes Lackey, but I'll check that out too. As much as I loved some of the other MZB novels that I've read, nothing ever grabbed me like Mists. I love that book.

Thanks, bbc. I'll check out some that you've mentioned and let you know what I think.

BTW, anybody, what's the FIRST Darkover novel, so I can start them in sequence?

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: MMario
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 09:57 AM

Do you want the chronologically by publication or by internal timeline?

I don't remember which came first in OUR world (though I THINK it was "The Bloody Sun")

But "Darkover Landfall" was the first in the timeline....

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: Barbara
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 10:01 AM

(snicker) Do you mean the first one in the time sequence, or the first one she wrote? And I don't believe she ever "fixed" all the conflicting information in the different plots, so you may have a slightly confusing read. I don't actually know what came first, but I'll bet Friends of Darkover has a webpage with that information on it.
I find I'm terrible at names, can't recall the titles.. but in the prequel to the Mists of Avalon, you could see her writing about a stroke she had, and I certainly got a sense that she wouldn't be with us too much longer. I am sorry to see her go.
If she had done nothing else, provided the lesbian community with a wonderful set of names...
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 10:02 AM

yep...she wrote "Darkover Landfall" years later in respons to many requests the 'tell how it all started'...and she has at times noted that in writing books that are out of sequence, it was inevitable that some events and characters would not always be totally consistent.

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 11:21 AM

There had been mention, too, I think in one of her anthologies, about a heart attack, years back.

Mercedes Lackey, if I remember right, was related to her by marriage, daughter-in-law or something. She was one of the ones who started out in MZB's anthologies. She and MZB wrote several novels together, including (I'm terrible about names, too) the Black Trillium series.

Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar and the rest in that series are excellent. In some ways I like them even better that the Darkover books. Never could get into Anne McCaffery.

When we moved back to Wyo. from the east coast, I went through my books three times, each time eliminating one or two more boxes. We were trying to cut down on moving costs. Wound up keeping most of the hardbacks, but only a few paperbacks because they could b easily replaced. What paperbacks I did keep included all of MZB, ML, and Elizabeth Scarborough, along with just a very few others.

kat

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: Susan-Marie
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 01:34 PM

I can't believe I didn't hear about this via the so-called news information services - I guess if it's not a disaster or a scandal, it's not news. It certainly changes my world.

Re-reading all of MZB's books is at the top of my "list of things to do when I retire". ANd although I love MZB's Darkover and Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar, I get the biggest kick out of Mercedes Lackey's urban fiction - Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, etc. It's great to read a book that makes you think elves are hanging out in places like Los Angeles (as the cover says: "elves in LA? Well, it would explain a lot...").

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: lamarca
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 02:02 PM

I'm a die-hard fantasy reader who read a lot of the Darkover books as "Ace" originals - MMario, you're right about "The Bloody Sun". MZB did what a lot of authors are tempted to do; when the book was re-released in later years, she changed parts of it to try to correct inconsistancies with later books, and also to tinker with her younger self's writing after acquiring years more experience.

My current favorites are from authors who aren't quite as prolific as MZB or Mercedes Lackey, but who other folks here may or may not enjoy:

Tanya Huff - Canadian writer, has two series: the "Blood" books, about a Toronto policewoman/PI who deals in cases involving vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc. and the "Quarter" series, about bards who can sing Earth, Air, Fire, Water and/or Spirit.

Kate Elliott - her older "Jaran" novels and her newer "King's Dragon" fantasies are well-written and involoving.

Terri Windling's "Borderlands" collections - wonderful short stories and interelated novels about the urban grunge area where a large Midwestern city borders on Faerie - writers include Emma Bull, Charles De Lint, Pamela Dean, Midori Snyder, and others.

Guy Gavriel Kay - his Fionavar Tapestry and later books; which are each set in a vaguely historical world just a few degrees "off" reality - "Tigana" is sort-of the city-states of Italy, "Lions of Al-Rassan" is sort-of Moorish Spain and the Sephardim, the newest, "Sailing to Sarantium", is sort-of Byzantium - but with magic and sorcery wrapped up in the political machinations.

Other random faves - Marta Randall, C.J. Cherryh, Neil Gaimen, Terry Pratchett, Steven Brust...

Basically, I like any fantasy (or SF) that involves intricate political situations; MZB's Darkover books delivered that mixed with "laran" in a magical blend. I'll miss her.

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: Kira
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 07:14 PM

To answer a few questions:

MZB admitted freely that her Darkover books are not consistant in their information and time lines. However, she did put together a timeline for those who want to read the books "in order". See www.mzbfm.com for details.

Mercedes Lackey is not related to MZB, but they are good friends. Another writer, Diana Paxson, was "discovered" by her and is her sister in law.

I can't tell you all how much it has pleased me to see your posts here about MZB. It is wonderful to see how many people loved her and her work as much as I do.

Subject: RE: Marion Zimmer Bradley
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Sep 16 - 12:29 PM

The keeper of the Darkover flame has turned out to be Deborah J. Ross. Which is not to belittle the earlier posts on this thread, most of them were accurate at the time if not now as well. Anyway, there are now two Darkover books that are sequels to Traitor's Sun: Alton Gift, and Children of Kings.

An anthology of Darkover short stories, which I have not seen, came out this year from DAW publishers, which works directly with Ms. Bradley's literary trust.