Marion Zimmer Bradley

When Marion Zimmer Bradley passed on to her next incarnation in the Fall of 1999, we all lost a major talent.

She didn't write "literary" fiction. No Pulitizers. No National Book Awards. But maybe those committees should take a closer look at her works.

At her best, MZB laid out the human drama as well as anyone, casting it in the freeform realities of science fiction and fantasy.

She came up the hard way - a woman writing in a male domain - the remnants of the pulp fiction sci-fi magazines in the early sixties. Her early works competent, but undistinguished examples of genre fiction.

MZB found her her muse, and her voice, on the fictional planet of Darkover, in an enchanting semi-feudal people blessed, and cursed, with amazing psychic powers. Having "the power" is not all it's cracked up to be!

Bradley hit the bestseller lists with "The Mists of Avalon," a potent re-casting of the Arthurian legends from a decidedly female point of view. And more recently began to integrate magical realms with the everyday, with works such as "Ghostlight" and the Glenraven series co-written with Holly Lisle.

An important voice is now silent. We will miss it, even while we continue to savor what it spoke.