Product Description

The Forest House tells of an era of upheaval and change. The Roman grip on their empire was slackening; the Druidic Order - far stronger that the tiny Christian sect - was itself in turmoil. Caught in the centre of the conflict is a young British girl of druidic family, chosen to be a priestess, and a roman tribune, ambitious for power but - as the son of a British mother - torn between two cultures. This is a dramatic, illuminating tale of rebellion and religion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53072 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

About the Author
Marion Zimmer was born in Albany, NY, on June 3, 1930, and married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949. Mrs. Bradley received her B.A. in 1964 from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, then did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-67. She was a science fiction/fantasy fan from her middle teens, and made her first sale as an adjunct to an amateur fiction contest in Fantastic/Amazing Stories in 1949. She had written as long as she could remember, but wrote only for school magazines and fanzines until 1952, when she sold her first professional short story to Vortex Science Fiction. She wrote everything from science fiction to Gothics, but is probably best known for her Darkover novels. In addition to her novels, Mrs. Bradley edited many magazines, amateur and professional, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, which she started in 1988. She also edited an annual anthology called Sword and Sorceress for DAW Books. Over the years she turned more to fantasy; The House Between the Worlds, although a selection of the Science Fiction Book Club, was "fantasy undiluted". She wrote a novel of the women in the Arthurian legends -- Morgan Le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and others - entitled Mists of Avalon, which made the NY Times best seller list both in hardcover and trade paperback, and she also wrote The Firebrand, a novel about the women of the Trojan War. Her historical fantasy novels, The Forest House, Lady of Avalon, Mists of Avalon are prequels to Priestess of Avalon. She died in Berkeley, California on September 25, 1999, four days after suffering a major heart attack. She was survived by her brother, Leslie Zimmer; her sons, David Bradley and Patrick Breen; her daughter, Moira Stern; and her grandchildren.

Customer Reviews

The Forests of Avalon
The Forests of Avalon is the prequel to Marion Zimmer Bradleys very famous Mists of Avalon.

The Forests of Avalon was originally called The Forest House and this is the home to Druidic priestesses. This is the story of Eilan she being the daughter of a Druidic Warrior and is destined to serve the Goddess in the priestesses house as a healer. However one day an injured Briton is discovered and Eilan tends to him to heal him, not only that she ends up falling in love with him and they want to marry. But, it is frowned upon because he is half-Roman and half-Briton and broken hearted Eilan reverts to her original wish to serve the Goddess.

This novel, as Mists of Avalon is very much from the female perspective especially when concerning menstrual blood rites and spellcasting.

The characters in this book are so likeable and though this is said to be much inferior to Mists of Avalon I really loved this book. You don't have to read this to read Mists but, I would recommend it, so well written.

the piece needed to finish the puzzle
This book is the most criticised generally of the series. If you take it by itself, it would deserve only 4 stars, as it is a very entertaining book and well written, but no masterpiece. But if you take into account the next book in the series, Lady of Avalon, then it is very good. A must read for fans of Arthurian legends as you can see how it was some years before.

great introduction to the mists of avalon, loved it!
I had read the mists of avalon not knowing that two other books preceded it. Later a friend of mine started to read lady of avalon and, stupid me, I thought it was the same book. When I found out it wasn't I immediately bought the other two (the forest house/forests of avalon and lady of avalon) and commenced reading them the moment I got home. The ending was a little disappointing though, but lady of avalon totally made up for it, because it continues where the forests of avalon left off. I loved the book and I'm now reading mists of avalon again, because I now understand the story better. I can recommend it to anyone who wants to read about king arthur and all that went before him from a different point of view.