Loving Silver

Tanith Lee's The Silver Metal Lover was one of my memorable reads from the 80's. I still have my old DAW copy - with the yellow spine with black lettering like all the old Conan the Barbarian books from back when DAW was kind of a pulp publisher. SML was a lovely, romantic, sad novel that I thought was a true "stand alone." I also have had mixed impressions of Tanith Lee's work - I loved some of her earlier books, like that one, and Don't Bite the Sun and its sequel, but bounced badly off some of her others. So it was with some trepidation that I discovered Metallic Love, which is a sequel to The Silver Metal Lover. But I needn't have worried. It doesn't pack quite the emotional punch of the original (maybe for someone less a hopeless romantic than I, that wouldn't be a bad thing), but is interesting and thoughtful and doesn't do anything to ruin the first novel. I can't really say much without rampaging spoilers, so I won't, but if you liked the first book you can read this one without fear, and if you haven't read either of them you have a treat in store.