Bronwyn: Silk & Steel

by Ron Miller

Forced to flee Tamlaght, Bronwyn finds refuge with her uncle, King Felix of Londeac. She continues to scheme ways to undo the villians who have all but ruined her homeland. She is amazed at the level of scientific and technological progress in Londeac, compared to her own country, where intellectual advancement is systematically stifled. She makes a new ally in the person of the director of a scientific Professor Wittenoom. Treacherously betrayed, she flees Londeac in a hair-raising balloon/dirigible chase, only to fall into the hands of the faerie king, Spikenard. Later meeting a man she believes she is in love with, she is finally able to raise both an army and a navy, and leads an invasion of Tamlaght.

Genres: Fantasy

251 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Ron Miller is an illustrator and author living in South Boston, Virginia. Before becoming a freelance illustrator in 1977, Miller was art director for the National Air & Space Museum's Albert Einstein Planetarium. Prior to this he was a commercial advertising illustrator. His primary work today entails the writing and illustration of books specializing in astronomical, astronautical and science fiction subjects. His special interest is in exciting young people about science, and in recent years has focused on writing books for young adults. To date he has more than 50 titles to his credit. His work has also appeared on scores of book jackets, book interiors and in magazines such as National Geographic, Reader's Digest, Scientific American, Smithsonian, Air & Space, Sky & Telescope, Newsweek, Natural History, Discover, Geo, etc.

Miller's books include the Hugo-nominated The Grand Tour, Cycles of Fire, In the Stream of Stars, and The History of Earth. All of have been Book-of-the-Month Club Feature Selections (as well as selections of the Science, Quality Paperback and Astronomy book clubs) and have seen numerous translations.

Considered an authority on Jules Verne, Miller translated and illustrated new, definitive editions of Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth as well as a major companion/atlas to Verne's works. He has worked as a consultant on Verne for Disney Imagineering and for A&E's Biography series.

Miller is also considered an authority on the early history of spaceflight. The Dream Machines, a comprehensive 744-page history of manned spacecraft, was nominated for the prestigious IAF Manuscript Award and won the Booklist Editor's Choice Award.

As an artist, Miller has designed a set of ten commemorative stamps for the U.S. Postal Service and has been a production illustrator for motion pictures, notably Dune and Total Recall. He has also done preproduction concepts, consultation and matte art for David Lynch, George Miller, John Ellis, UFO Films and James Cameron. He designed and co-directed the computer-generated show ride film, Impact! and has taken part in numerous international space art workshops and exhibitions, including seminal sessions held in Iceland and the Soviet Union (where he was invited by the Soviet government to take part in the 30th anniversary celebration of the launch of Sputnik). His original paintings are in numerous private and public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Pushkin Museum (Moscow).

Reviews

[Kristi]

"Her ears were a puzzle carved in ivory. Her teeth were her only bracelet; she carried them within the red velvet purse of her lips. Her tongue was amber. Her tongue was a ferret, an anemone, a fox caught in the teeth of a tiger."

I have never read this book, but thanks to this fine person, I never need to: http://vandonovan.livejournal.com/108...

"Her face had the fragrance of a gibbous moon."
"Her neck was the foam that curls from the prow of a ship, it was a sheaf of alfalfa or barley, it was the lonely dance of the pearl-gray shark."
"Her buttocks were fresh-baked loaves; they were ivory eggs, they were the eggs of the lonely phoenix. They were fists."

Now that's some serious *ss. MY BUTTOCKS ARE FISTS!

[Rowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't as bad as people think. The part people love to excerpt is only one scene, in which the heroine is under a Faerie enchantment (basically it's the fantasy equivalent of a hallucinatory drug trip).

I've had Silk and Steel on my shelves for years and had absolutely no idea it had become some kind of...icon of bad writing...until recently. I think that's kind of undeserved...the rest of the book is a fun little adventure in a fantasy world that's reached the Age of Steam (kind of like A Midsummer Night's Dream meets H.M.S. Pinafore). The highlight is bit of swashbuckling near the end where the heroine turns the tables on an attacker, in a scene that is both satisfying and hilarious (in the good way).

It's not great literature or anything, but it's reasonably entertaining, and it's definitely not as bad as all the hype paints it.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

It gets four stars because it's HILARIOUSLY bad.