Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-1999) was an American science fiction and fantasy author whose work became widely known through the Darkover series, The Mists of Avalon, and numerous stories, novels, and editorial projects across speculative fiction. Her early science fiction appeared during the magazine era, when writers were expanding the field's treatment of alien cultures, interstellar travel, psychic powers, gender, identity, and social conflict. Bradley's fiction ranges from space adventure and planetary romance to fantasy, Arthurian retelling, and psychological speculative fiction. Her early stories remain of interest to readers studying classic science fiction, women writers in the genre, mid-century magazine SF, and the development of space opera and planetary fiction in the decades after the Golden Age.
