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33rd out of 463 books
—
622 voters
The Silver Metal Lover (Silver Metal Lover #1)
by
Tanith Lee
Love is made of more than mere flesh and blood....
Tanith Lee is one of the most thought-provoking and imaginative authors of our time. In this unforgettably poignant novel, Lee has created a classic tale--a beautiful, tragic, erotic, and ultimately triumphant love story of the future.
For sixteen-year-old Jane, life is a mystery she despairs of ever mastering. She and her f...more
Tanith Lee is one of the most thought-provoking and imaginative authors of our time. In this unforgettably poignant novel, Lee has created a classic tale--a beautiful, tragic, erotic, and ultimately triumphant love story of the future.
For sixteen-year-old Jane, life is a mystery she despairs of ever mastering. She and her f...more
Paperback, 291 pages
Published
May 4th 1999
by Spectra
(first published 1981)
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BOOOO to me for not having read this young adult page turner during my teens.
Well, falling in love with a robot isn't that odd. Considering..*ahem*.. that I had a serious crush on big eyed, wasp waisted comic character Cutter from Elfquest when I was eleven or so years old.. Considering that we fall in love over the Internet en masse, without having ever seen, smelled and touched the other. So lusting after a robot - especially when you're a sweet sixteen and the robot in question is Silver, a h...more
Well, falling in love with a robot isn't that odd. Considering..*ahem*.. that I had a serious crush on big eyed, wasp waisted comic character Cutter from Elfquest when I was eleven or so years old.. Considering that we fall in love over the Internet en masse, without having ever seen, smelled and touched the other. So lusting after a robot - especially when you're a sweet sixteen and the robot in question is Silver, a h...more
I loved it. It's not a hard core sex book or anything...sure it mentions sex, but that's about it. There's the romantic quality of a "good woman" being able to give a man/robot (Silver) a soul, but it's also a story about what he does for her too. Jane basically is a young girl who doesn't understand her own feelings & for the man (robot) she loves she strips herself down to the bare basics. She gives up everything she thought defined her as a person. Her friends suck & bring to mind the...more
Since I used to go by the name “Tanith” on the interwebs, I guess it’s good I finally read a Tanith Lee book. (As nice as it was to get complimented a couple of times on emulating Lee’s style in pieces of my writing, as far as I was concerned I was referencing an obscure Star Wars thing. Oh well, it’s geeky either way.) This was pretty cool. Jane, the protagonist and narrator, bugged me at first, but that made her development as a character even more compelling—Lee does a good job showing her ch...more
This is the first book I read by Tanith Lee. I found a used book-club copy in the Strand bookstore in NYC sometime about 1985, when I was 16 or so. Seeing as Jane/Jain was also 16, I remember being floored by the strong feeling of identification with the character.
I have always found Ms. Lee's writing to be lyrically descriptive. I remember wanting a peacock jacket just like Jain's. (Someday maybe I'll make one.) The characters are well developed, especially Jain, her mother and Clovis. I especi...more
I have always found Ms. Lee's writing to be lyrically descriptive. I remember wanting a peacock jacket just like Jain's. (Someday maybe I'll make one.) The characters are well developed, especially Jain, her mother and Clovis. I especi...more
The book, was very nice. Lee writes beautiful descriptions, and as the story went on I found myself falling more and more in love with the characters.
This one is a futuristic science fiction novel in which the main character, Jane, falls in love with a very lifelike robot by the name of Silver. In the beginning Jane annoyed me immensely because she just kept crying. I'd be hard pressed to find a character trait more annoying than constant weeping (and that's probably part of why I disliked the...more
This one is a futuristic science fiction novel in which the main character, Jane, falls in love with a very lifelike robot by the name of Silver. In the beginning Jane annoyed me immensely because she just kept crying. I'd be hard pressed to find a character trait more annoying than constant weeping (and that's probably part of why I disliked the...more
Review from my blog, http://rosesandvellum.blogspot.com/
The Silver Metal Lover is a book which questions the nature of humanity. This is a love story, where a girl falls for a humanoid robot, who also loves her back. It is never determined what gives him the power to love, except that he might have been made wrongly.
In this story, the robot is more human than most of the other characters, he cares for the girl, both emotionally and physically, and he can sing and paint, things we generally see...more
The Silver Metal Lover is a book which questions the nature of humanity. This is a love story, where a girl falls for a humanoid robot, who also loves her back. It is never determined what gives him the power to love, except that he might have been made wrongly.
In this story, the robot is more human than most of the other characters, he cares for the girl, both emotionally and physically, and he can sing and paint, things we generally see...more
May 01, 2009
April
added it
"Perhaps there are others like me, who missed reading this lovely classic, first published a quarter century ago. Then this review is for them.[return][return]The heroine, sixteen-year-old Jane, comes of age in the book, so I suppose it would be classified as a teen or young adult novel in the Science Fiction genre. It is also a funny and moving romance, a commentary on what it means to be human, and a satire on political expediency.[return][return]In some future world, where the rich have escap...more
This book is so beautiful and heartbreaking. I've never read anything like it. It chronicles the life of Jane, a vapid rich girl who lives in the future and doesn't really know what it is to feel anything, or how to experiance life. All that changes when she meets and falls in love with Silver, a robot programed to sing and play music. Eventually she leaves her rich lifestyle to run away with Silver to the slums to try and carve a new life for themselves. I loved this story for so many reasons....more
A few days ago, my parents were dropping by for a visit and in the car ride we started talking about technology, electromagnetic signals and sentient life, and this gradually led up to Turing tests and the question of whether it would be possible for a robot to think and feel -- to be "alive." My dad said, "If we managed to create a computer that really could emote and think for itself, would it be wrong to kill it?" There was a pause as we all considered the answer, and then my mother and I bot...more
The premise of this book is very simple: Jane is a sixteen year-old whose life is so completely controlled by her mother that she's an emotional wreck. When Jane falls in love with a robot from a new line designed to look and act remarkably human, she takes her first steps toward independence as she defies expectations in order to be with him. The story of their relationship is fundamentally about the humanizing influence of love, not just upon Silver, her robot lover, but also upon Jane herself...more
I picked up The Silver Metal Lover at my local used bookstore on a whim. It looked like mildly fun old-school scifi with a hilariously dated cover, and it was super cheap.
Oh my god am I glad I picked this book up.
The Silver Metal Lover is hands down amazing. Dated it is, yes, though I still think the incredible visuals would make for a great movie adaptation. But the characterization just shines. This book lives and breathes through its characters.
At the center there is Jane. She's selfish, i...more
Oh my god am I glad I picked this book up.
The Silver Metal Lover is hands down amazing. Dated it is, yes, though I still think the incredible visuals would make for a great movie adaptation. But the characterization just shines. This book lives and breathes through its characters.
At the center there is Jane. She's selfish, i...more
5+++ STARS.
Basically, this is the story about a young woman named Jane who falls in love with a sort of futuristic lifelike robotic minstrel/entertainer who is also a sex toy for women/men created by a company called Electronic Metals Ltd.
Jane lives in a futuristic, sophisticated, but emotionally/spiritually bleak society that is eerily like our own. Half of the population is rich and spoiled, and most of that part of society is banal, superficial, and arrogant; the other half lives in the slum...more
Basically, this is the story about a young woman named Jane who falls in love with a sort of futuristic lifelike robotic minstrel/entertainer who is also a sex toy for women/men created by a company called Electronic Metals Ltd.
Jane lives in a futuristic, sophisticated, but emotionally/spiritually bleak society that is eerily like our own. Half of the population is rich and spoiled, and most of that part of society is banal, superficial, and arrogant; the other half lives in the slum...more
I picked this book up from one of those stalls outside the bookshop full of chunky sci-fi and fantasy books with horrible covers (5 for $20!!! Get in fast!). This was a grand total of $2, and the cover illustration was so intriguing (and slightly funny) that I thought I'd give it a go for a laugh. Such a talented artist must have seen something in the commission. I read it so long ago now that I barely remember it (although new to goodreads.com, have decided to jump on the reviewing bandwagon),...more
My first foray into science fiction, and I think I'll be choosing another route after this. The narrator, 16 year old Jane, is more lachyrmose than a heroine of a gothic novel, which is more annoying in that it can't be explained away by literary devices of the time. The "love story" is essentially a proto-Twilight, with Jane the not-beautiful, boring, blank everywoman Bella character, and Silver the unattainable godlike Adonis fantasy-who exists-only-to-please-Jane Edward character. The vision...more
A book like this only comes around once.
Tanith Lee has never written so well before or after. Good but never as evocative, as real, as poignantly heart touching, as piercingly tearful.
To render a character like Silver that will be, nay, shall be loved unanimously by all readers is no mean feat for an author. I shan't give away the plot for reading this, is believing.
However, be prepared to read in one full seating for it was darn near impossible to put the book down.
The dialogue is so real, so l...more
It looked like a ridiculous 80's robot-romance when I picked the battered old paperback off the bookstore shelf (I had been looking for H.P. Lovecraft—thwarted). He (Silver, the robot) looked preposterous on the cover of this old edition, hunched over and holding a rose, creepy and chrome. But far from unknown and laughable, Tanith Lee was a name I knew and trusted. I bought the book, and I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed this. For me, the secondary characters and the language made it worth it as...more
If some authors can make me laugh, Tanith lee and make me weep. Out heroine, Jane, begins as an emotionally fragile mess, weeping, alienated and twitchy, suppressed by her mother and bored or disturbed by her wealthy friends. Then she meets a perfect man made out of Silver and her sudden attraction leads her to finally break away from her oppressive but pampered life and risk everything to have her lover.
Silver, is among many things, a perfect male sub. By this I don't mean a masochist, I mean t...more
Silver, is among many things, a perfect male sub. By this I don't mean a masochist, I mean t...more
This is one of those books that I read and enjoy as an adult but wish I had discovered as a teen. This would have had a tremendous impact on my teenaged self.
Almost as much as a romance, this is a story about Jane crafting an identity for herself. As a heroine, Jane is almost ridiculously passive in the beginning of the story. Her mother is overbearing and domineering. "She has a lot of opinions, which is restful, as that way I don't have to have many of my own." Her friends are all implied to...more
Almost as much as a romance, this is a story about Jane crafting an identity for herself. As a heroine, Jane is almost ridiculously passive in the beginning of the story. Her mother is overbearing and domineering. "She has a lot of opinions, which is restful, as that way I don't have to have many of my own." Her friends are all implied to...more
One of the things I love about TSML is how Tanith explores the hard problems of consciousness without intruding on the story. It was only during times ‘away from the book,’ that I pondered her insights—how the erotic nature of love can grow souls.
When I say erotic, I don’t me pornographic. I’m referring to Eros, the god of love—the original meaning is something that brings two people together in such a way that it creates a lasting transformation. In this sense, sex is rarely erotic, but it can...more
When I say erotic, I don’t me pornographic. I’m referring to Eros, the god of love—the original meaning is something that brings two people together in such a way that it creates a lasting transformation. In this sense, sex is rarely erotic, but it can...more
I remember loving this as a teen.. I still love this book--a lot of books I loved back as a young reader don't hold up but this did on reread. And despite being 30 years old, it doesn't feel dated--itself unusual for a work of science fiction.
I love Tanith Lee's style, which manages to feel sensuous and lush without ever sounding purple. This work is reminiscent in some ways of her other science fiction works, Bite the Sun and Sapphire Wine. Those are set in the far future and dealt with teens...more
I love Tanith Lee's style, which manages to feel sensuous and lush without ever sounding purple. This work is reminiscent in some ways of her other science fiction works, Bite the Sun and Sapphire Wine. Those are set in the far future and dealt with teens...more
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This is one of my favorite books. Really it is.
And this in spite of the fact that the premise seems so trivial and absurd at first: a priveleged teenage girl falls in love with a life-like robot, runs away to be with him, and finds that she is now poor, ostracised and hounded, but she's happy. It's so silly in fact, that I probably wouldn't have read the book, if not for the fact that it's a Tanith Lee novel, and one that is much loved by her fans.
The novel is Jane's own first-person account of...more
And this in spite of the fact that the premise seems so trivial and absurd at first: a priveleged teenage girl falls in love with a life-like robot, runs away to be with him, and finds that she is now poor, ostracised and hounded, but she's happy. It's so silly in fact, that I probably wouldn't have read the book, if not for the fact that it's a Tanith Lee novel, and one that is much loved by her fans.
The novel is Jane's own first-person account of...more
Girl in love with robot. Sound weird? Yes, I thought so too. But I had so enjoyed Tanith Lee's Claidi Journals that I read this anyway, and it surprised me how much I liked it. The start was... strange, as the main character, Jane, was just so blah and watery, and the future world took some getting used to (a lot of it made me smirk, actually, as this book was written in the 80's, before CDs, DVDs, iPods and mobile phones, so even though the world can produce robots so sophisticated they're mist...more
Tanith Lee is gifted at crafting detailed worlds and rich characters, and “The Silver Metal Lover” does not disappoint. On the surface, this is a book about a teenage girl falling in love for the first time and gaining a sense of self she could never develop while standing in her mother’s shadow - and it’s riveting. But beneath this, the book offers some incredible insights into a world that has become so technologically advanced there’s little need for a working class... even though that workin...more
I love this book and probably have read it about 3 times now. The title makes me feel silly though. The characters and the world are very well written. Its the type of book where you learn just enough about the world to know you are scratching the surface and that there is so much more to it. Like a real place. Anyway, this is the story of Jane. Plain Jane, a rich girl in a futuristic society, who is overshadowed by her famous and pushy mother. She lives literally in a castle in the clouds. Like...more
I've been hearing good things about this one for years, but it's taken me a while to read it. Now I know why.
It started off similarly enough to Tanith Lee's later novel, Biting the Sun (which I never really connected with until the very end)- dystopic future, spoiled rich kids with no personality living in luxury and playing nasty tricks on one another, innocent/jaded protagonist with no idea who she really is. But this book quickly evolves in unique directions that are impossible to predict and...more
It started off similarly enough to Tanith Lee's later novel, Biting the Sun (which I never really connected with until the very end)- dystopic future, spoiled rich kids with no personality living in luxury and playing nasty tricks on one another, innocent/jaded protagonist with no idea who she really is. But this book quickly evolves in unique directions that are impossible to predict and...more
I bawled my eyes out when I read this. It's a love story that will hit you hard - I found myself thinking about it for days after I'd read it. The writing style is typical Tanith Lee (that's a good thing, by the way) but it's more adult than her other books. Essentially it's a story about a girl finding herself through the help of her lover (a robot). Jane (the main character) is shy and insecure, and yet she has the strength to run away from her privileged upper-middle class existence so that s...more
Ok. Let me preface this by saying that romance books are definitely not my thing. However, Lee is a very talented writer and this book involved many aspects of fantasy that I loved to read when I was a kid, like the insecure nature of the main character, the line between robot and human, the general Romeo and Juliet nature of the story. You could probably call this a futaristic medieval setting... I doubt I would re-read this book, but I can understand why I liked it when I was younger.
I am more of a fan of Tanith Lee's darker fiction, however this is a beautifully written story and I enjoyed it for what it is; young adult fiction. Although the heroine can be annoying at times, this is a superb coming of age tale with compelling characterisation.
Jane, a pampered, poor little rich girl, is stifled by her over-controlling mother and left unfulfilled by a frivolous, meaningless lifestyle. When she meets and fall in love with Silver, a new line of robot designed to be as human-li...more
Jane, a pampered, poor little rich girl, is stifled by her over-controlling mother and left unfulfilled by a frivolous, meaningless lifestyle. When she meets and fall in love with Silver, a new line of robot designed to be as human-li...more
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Tanith Lee is a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She is the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She has also written four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7."
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a...more
More about Tanith Lee...
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a...more
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8 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
“A rose by any other name
Would get the blame
For being what it is--
The colour of a kiss,
The shadow of a flame.
A rose may earn another name,
So call it love;
So call it love I will,
And love is like the sea,
Which changes constantly,
And yet is still
The same.”
—
67 people liked it
More quotes…
Would get the blame
For being what it is--
The colour of a kiss,
The shadow of a flame.
A rose may earn another name,
So call it love;
So call it love I will,
And love is like the sea,
Which changes constantly,
And yet is still
The same.”
Apr 24, 2013 07:23am
Ahahaah!
May 07, 2013 12:40am