The series, which is not chronological, covers several centuries and is set on a distant planet that has been colonized by humans, who have interbred with a native species on the planet. Her longest-running contribution to the genre was her 'Darkover' series, which began in 1958 with the publication of The Planet Savers. Though declining health interfered with her output, she was working on manuscripts and editing magazines, including another sci-fi/fantasy publication of her own making.

Given this history of productivity, it is perhaps no surprise that Bradley was working right up until her death in 1999. She started her own magazine -devoted to science fiction and fantasy, of course-as a teenager, and she wrote her first novel when she was in high school.

As a young girl, before she learned to take pen in hand, she was dictating stories to her mother. Marion Zimmer Bradley was writing before she could write.

Awards-Locus Award for best fantasy novel, 1984Ī prolific storyteller from the time she was old enough to talk, Marion Zimmer Bradley had an enormous impact on the science fiction and fantasy genres, imagining centuries of technological and culture clashes in the colonization of a distant planet in her Darkover series and recasting the Arthurian legends from the perspective of the women in his life in her 1983 masterpiece, The Mists of Avalon.

Education-B.A., Hardin-Simmons College University of.

The book was adapted into a 2001 film for TV, starring Angelica Houston and Julianna Margulies, Joan Allen, and Sam Neill. A spellbinding novel, an extraordinary literary achievement, The Mists of Avalon will stay with you for a long time to come.

Here is the magical legend of King Arthur, vividly retold through the eyes and lives of the women who wielded power from behind the throne.

The mists of avalon series books