Metallic Love (Silver Metal Lover)

Perhaps because I've never read Silver Metal Lover and so had no expectations when reading Metallic Love, I thought this second book was amazing. Aside from the love story, which I thought was well-developed (and hot!), the ideas it dealt with - humanity's creations turning on humans, the idea of humans creating gods, the fall from perfection- are elemental and fascinating. I have to say - I read the first chapter of TSML in the bookstore and didn't buy it because I thought Jane was annoying. I know she is supposed to be an adolescent and many are over-emotional, but still - I didn't think I could read a whole book with her sniveling about her mom and love, etc.

Contrary to the bad reviews for this sequel, I found it to be a great story which was not too heavy or too trivial. The references to the previous book "silver metal lover" added to it and did not make it a carbon copy. If you are after action/politics in science fiction, this book or its predecessor is not for you. Great human drama in science fiction.

It's been 12 years since Silver was dismantled - or killed - and the other robots destroyed. Jane's book, published by catchusifyoucan, has clandestinely passed from hand to hand. EC now META has brought the robots back and better than ever. A poor young girl has been chosen to see if she can re-waken Silver, now Verlis' soul. Will Silver Verlis love Loren or will he love Jane who enters his life a second time, this time older and more mature. What happens when Loren and Jane meet? The robots created to amuse and entertain the populace now have another mission. One that involves death. Will love blossom the second time or will there be a disaster? And get out your dictionary, that is unless you know what solipsistic is!

This book is the sequel to Silver Metal Lover. I read Silver Metal Lover a few years ago. It was a sweet, if predictable, love story with a sci fi twist. It raised interesting questions about what defines humanity and can robots develop souls. I liked it quite abit. So, when I saw that a sequal was available I was looking very forward to reading it. First off let me say this book may be a sequel to Silver Metal Lover-but it has a very different tone. No sweet love, no questing robot seeking a soul, no tragic female lover leaving everything she knows to follow her heart and then living with her true love on little more than love in an idyllic romantic setting. At the end of Silver Metal Lover, Silver is dismantled and Jane approaches her mother-rich influential cruel mother-to get her manuscript about Silver published. Metallic Love takes place 12 years or so later. META has revamped the Robot Lover program-with a few minor changes. Part of the controversey over the original Robot Lover program featuring Silver was that the robots were so complex as to be ale to pass as human. META has gotten rid of that feature, all robots are poreless, flawless, extremely beautiful but not designed to be able to pass as human. They are also more advanced, they can change physical shape, form clothing, jewelry and weapons out of their very flesh. Also, a fourth color has been added-the original silver, gold and copper are back-new to this line of pleasure robots is onyx-black onyx made from the black metal of the asteroid in orbit over earth. Loren-the main female characer and narrator of this book, is no Jane for sure. Loren's mother was a prositute and when Loren is just a baby she takes her to the orphanage she was raised in and leaves her there to be raised by religious fanatics. One day on kitchen duty Loren discovers a loose floor board in the kitchen area-hidden under the floor board is Jane's Book-the story of Jane and Silvers romance. Loren reads the book over and over until she has it memorized. At the age of 11 Loren runs away from the orphanage and happens into a man who hires her to work in his house cleaning business. Six years later Loren is successful enough to have her own crew working for her. One of the girls on her crew calls her to let her know that the client who's house they are cleaning is having a psychotic break. Loren hurries over to save the client and her employees. When she gets there she sees Silver on the screen and a newscast saying that META is releasing a new line of metallic pleasure robots. Loren leaves for META immediately to investigate. Through an odd series of events she ends up Verlis's (the new Silver) first lover-his test run before his model is fully launched. In fact, I liked Loren a whole lot more than I ever liked Jane. Loren was everything Jane was not-poor, outside of society, no parents, confident-very confident sexually, grounded, realistic-likable in a way Jane never was. Loren is telling this st

In the future, the asteroid is captured between the Earth and the moon and changes the geography of the planet as well as its social structure. There are two classes, the haves and the have-nots. Loren is one of the poor people taken in by a religious sect where at the age of twelve she found the book Jane's Story about a teenager who fell in love with the robot Silver and he with her. The models that would have passed for human have been dismantled. When Loren is seventeen, the Meta Corporation brings back humanoid robots only they could never pass for human having the color of gold, silver, and copper; they are used as pleasure slaves for the rich. Loren is given a chance to meet the robot that was once named Silver who has all his memories but none of his feelings. He goes by the name Verlis and becomes obsessed with Loren. The Meta Corporation believe they have complete control of their creations but the robots plan to throw off the shackles of their slavery; thanks to Verlis, Loren is part of the plan whether she wants to be or not. Like Jane and Silver (see THE SILVER METAL LOVER) Loren and Verlis can and do love each other. Loren believes that Verlis is sentient and dismantling him would be murder even if she doesn't agree with the plans her beloved is making to ensure the safety of his fellow robots and their companions. Tanith Lee surpasses her own genius with this sequel of a classic that has been read by millions of people in several countries. Like the prequel, this work will also be considered a classic. Harriet Klausner