The Silver Metal Lover - An Inspiration from Tanith Lee

In 2015, my second book--well, actually the first was a short story--novel was released by The Wild Rose Press.  I was very pleased to be returning to the Garden with a sci-fi romance, Love for Sale.

March Morgan always set her standards for men high.   Divorced but still a dreamer, she readsLove for Sale, sentient androids indistinguishable from human, programmed for love.  She flies to London and meets the image of the man she has been searching for her entire life.  Christian loves March at first sight, without programming, but internal and external forces soon threaten their happiness, indeed their lives.

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Recently, I finished the sequel Life for Sale, which brought to mind the inspiration for both of these novels.  Has anyone ever read Tanith Lee’s The Silver Metal Lover?  I read this many years ago, and the book stayed with me all this time.  I recently re-read it and enjoyed it just as much the second time as the first time I read it when I was a teenager.  In those faraway years, it was a Book of the Month selection for some book club or the other to which I subscribed.  That was quite a feat because at the time the genre wasn’t as well known.  The Silver Metal Lover is a different coming of age story.  I love Ms. Lee’s lush writing and have read many of her books, but this one is my favorite.

Here is the Plot Summary from Wikipedia:

“Robots have replaced human labor on earth, causing massive unemployment in a world devastated by pollution and natural disasters. Then Electronic Metals releases a new line: performing artists and sexual companions designed to entertain human partners. Jane, a rich, lonely, and insecure 16-year-old, meets one, the minstrel Silver, and falls passionately in love, despite revulsion at the idea of preferring a mechanical man to a human. She gives up everything she has known for him, and discovers herself. Silver becomes more and more "human" in loving her—a clever illusion created by his programming. Or is it? This unstable society can't afford any evidence that some robots might be indistinguishable from humans. Tragedy is inevitable.”

In researching SML, I find that it is part of the S.I.L.V.E.R. series.  Metallic Love was published in 2005—immediately added to my TBR.  SML is currently out of print though in 1985, it was published as a graphic novel.   There is a rumor that Ms. Lee will write a third in this series.  I, for one, sincerely hope so.

Love for Sale isn’t a retelling of The Silver Metal Lover at all.  I simply got the idea of a sentient robot from Ms. Lee and ran with it in my own direction.  I hope it is as memorable as its inspiration!

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Linda Nightingale

http://www.lindanightingale.com