Trillium series
Encyclopedia
The Trillium series is a series of five fantasy novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley
, Julian May
, and Andre Norton
set in the World of the Three Moons
. The series title is unofficial and is used solely because every novel of the series had the word "trillium" in its title. The concept of "trillium" or trinity
(also a plant with a threefold flower: Trillium
) plays an important role in the novels, probably because there were three lead characters and three authors working on the series. However, only the first book of the series, Black Trillium, was created by all three of them, while the other four were written by individual authors.
es, who were robbed of their kingdom and try to survive in a hostile world, originally belonged to a German literature agent Uwe Luserke in 1989. His vision was for three of the most notable fantasy authors of the time to come together and collaborate to produce a novel describing three different life stories bound together by a single A-Plot
. However, his plan was very difficult to realize, given popular authors seldom agree to work on large-scale collaborations.
Never the less, Luserke managed to get Andre Norton
, famous for her Witch World
series, on his side and together they found the second collaborator - Marion Zimmer Bradley
(The Mists of Avalon
), who was a friend of Norton. As for the third, Luserke's attempt to stir Anne McCaffrey
's (Dragonriders of Pern
series) interest in his project was a failure, so he tried Julian May
(Saga of Pliocene Exile
). At first, May considered his letter a joke, but after some negotiations, she agreed to think about it.
May wrote her own vision of the story, called Black Trillium, and to her astonishment, Norton, Bradley and even Luserke himself agreed to it. Moreover, Bantam Books
immediately agreed to publish the novel and to buy the rights for it. Uwe Luserke was so happy that his plan might come into reality that he did not mind that May slightly changed nearly all details of his story. After the initial meeting, where primary cast of characters and many small details of the setting
were decided upon, all three authors worked separately, sharing the material via post and Internet.
According to the plan, each one of the three authors was to write a story of one princess: Bradley chose the intellectual eldest sister, Haramis, Norton - the Amazon
-like warrior
princess Kadiya, and May was entrusted with the youngest sister, Anigel. However, the collaboration became frustrating for all of them, for various reasons, therefore after the novel was finished in 1990, it was decided that eventual sequel
s should better be written completely separately.
In the end, Julian May wrote two sequels, Blood Trillium and Sky Trillium, and Norton and Bradley wrote one each - Golden Trillium and Lady of the Trillium, respectively.
ical part of the series is the first one, Black Trillium, written by all three authors together. The other four were created by them separately and often contradict one another. Blood Trillium, Golden Trillium and Lady of the Trillium are all direct sequels to Black Trillium, while Sky Trillium is a sequel to Blood Trillium. Zimmer's Lady of the Trillium is set 900 years after the first novel and contains very few contradictions to Golden Trillium by Norton, however, both novels go against the continuity
of May's Blood and Sky Trilliums.
One approach is to consider Norton's (BT - GT), Zimmer's (BT - LotT), and May's (BT - BT - ST) series completely separate sets of novels. Alternatively, Lady of the Trillium and Golden Trillium can be considered parts of one continuity.
Norton and Zimmer only wrote about their respective heroines (Kadiya and Haramis) in their sequel novels, whereas May continued the stories of all three princesses in hers.
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series. Many critics have noted a feminist perspective in her writing. Her first child, David R...
, Julian May
Julian May
Julian May is an American science fiction, fantasy, horror, science and children's writer who also uses several literary pseudonyms, best known for her Saga of Pliocene Exile and Galactic Milieu Series books.- Background and early career :Julian May grew up in Elmwood Park, Illinois, a suburb of...
, and Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...
set in the World of the Three Moons
World of the Three Moons
The World of the Three Moons is a fantasy realm that serves as a setting for the Trillium series of fantasy novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May, and Andre Norton.- Description :...
. The series title is unofficial and is used solely because every novel of the series had the word "trillium" in its title. The concept of "trillium" or trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
(also a plant with a threefold flower: Trillium
Trillium
Trillium is a genus of about 40–50 species of spring ephemeral perennials, native to temperate regions of North America and Asia....
) plays an important role in the novels, probably because there were three lead characters and three authors working on the series. However, only the first book of the series, Black Trillium, was created by all three of them, while the other four were written by individual authors.
Novels
- Black Trillium (19901990 in literatureThe year 1990 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*J. K. Rowling gets the idea for Harry Potter while on a train ride from Manchester to London. She says "I was staring out the window, and the idea for Harry just came. He appeared in my mind's eye, very fully formed...
, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May, and Andre Norton) - Blood Trillium (19921992 in literatureThe year 1992 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Ben Aaronovitch - Transit*Julia Álvarez - How the García Girls Lost Their Accents*Paul Auster - Leviathan*Iain Banks - The Crow Road...
, by Julian May) - Golden Trillium (19931993 in literatureThe year 1993 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Professor Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time, becomes the longest running book on the bestseller list of The Sunday Times....
, by Andre Norton) - Lady of the Trillium (19951995 in literatureThe year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter....
, by Marion Zimmer Bradley) - Sky Trillium (19971997 in literatureThe year 1997 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Clancy signs a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. , giving him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . A second agreement gives him another US$25 million for a...
, by Julian May)
Authors
The idea of a story of three princessPrincess
Princess is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or his daughters....
es, who were robbed of their kingdom and try to survive in a hostile world, originally belonged to a German literature agent Uwe Luserke in 1989. His vision was for three of the most notable fantasy authors of the time to come together and collaborate to produce a novel describing three different life stories bound together by a single A-Plot
A-Plot
A-Plot is a cinema and television term referring to the plotline that drives the story. This does not necessarily mean it is the most important, but rather the one that forces most of the action....
. However, his plan was very difficult to realize, given popular authors seldom agree to work on large-scale collaborations.
Never the less, Luserke managed to get Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...
, famous for her Witch World
Witch World
The Witch World by Andre Norton is a long series of fantasy novels set in a parallel universe where magic works and, at the beginning of the series, is exclusively performed by women. The series combines many traits of high fantasy and sword and sorcery. It begins with what is now called the...
series, on his side and together they found the second collaborator - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series. Many critics have noted a feminist perspective in her writing. Her first child, David R...
(The Mists of Avalon
The Mists of Avalon
The Mists of Avalon is a 1983 novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley, in which she relates the Arthurian legends from the perspective of the female characters.-Plot introduction:...
), who was a friend of Norton. As for the third, Luserke's attempt to stir Anne McCaffrey
Anne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-born Irish writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award...
's (Dragonriders of Pern
Dragonriders of Pern
Dragonriders of Pern is a science fiction series written primarily by the late American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. The series comprises 22 novels and several short...
series) interest in his project was a failure, so he tried Julian May
Julian May
Julian May is an American science fiction, fantasy, horror, science and children's writer who also uses several literary pseudonyms, best known for her Saga of Pliocene Exile and Galactic Milieu Series books.- Background and early career :Julian May grew up in Elmwood Park, Illinois, a suburb of...
(Saga of Pliocene Exile
Saga of Pliocene Exile
The Saga of Pliocene Exile is a series of science / speculative fiction books by Julian May, first published in the early 1980s...
). At first, May considered his letter a joke, but after some negotiations, she agreed to think about it.
May wrote her own vision of the story, called Black Trillium, and to her astonishment, Norton, Bradley and even Luserke himself agreed to it. Moreover, Bantam Books
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
immediately agreed to publish the novel and to buy the rights for it. Uwe Luserke was so happy that his plan might come into reality that he did not mind that May slightly changed nearly all details of his story. After the initial meeting, where primary cast of characters and many small details of the setting
Setting (fiction)
In fiction, setting includes the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place, and initiates the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may...
were decided upon, all three authors worked separately, sharing the material via post and Internet.
According to the plan, each one of the three authors was to write a story of one princess: Bradley chose the intellectual eldest sister, Haramis, Norton - the Amazon
Amazons
The Amazons are a nation of all-female warriors in Greek mythology and Classical antiquity. Herodotus placed them in a region bordering Scythia in Sarmatia...
-like warrior
Woman warrior
The portrayal of women warriors in literature and popular culture is a subject of study in history, literary studies, film studies, folklore and mythology, gender studies, and cultural studies.-Archaeology:...
princess Kadiya, and May was entrusted with the youngest sister, Anigel. However, the collaboration became frustrating for all of them, for various reasons, therefore after the novel was finished in 1990, it was decided that eventual sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
s should better be written completely separately.
In the end, Julian May wrote two sequels, Blood Trillium and Sky Trillium, and Norton and Bradley wrote one each - Golden Trillium and Lady of the Trillium, respectively.
Continuity issues
The only truly canonCanon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
ical part of the series is the first one, Black Trillium, written by all three authors together. The other four were created by them separately and often contradict one another. Blood Trillium, Golden Trillium and Lady of the Trillium are all direct sequels to Black Trillium, while Sky Trillium is a sequel to Blood Trillium. Zimmer's Lady of the Trillium is set 900 years after the first novel and contains very few contradictions to Golden Trillium by Norton, however, both novels go against the continuity
Continuity (fiction)
In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
of May's Blood and Sky Trilliums.
One approach is to consider Norton's (BT - GT), Zimmer's (BT - LotT), and May's (BT - BT - ST) series completely separate sets of novels. Alternatively, Lady of the Trillium and Golden Trillium can be considered parts of one continuity.
Norton and Zimmer only wrote about their respective heroines (Kadiya and Haramis) in their sequel novels, whereas May continued the stories of all three princesses in hers.