Trillium is a series of five fantasy novels by

Marion Zimmer Bradley Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley (June 3, 1930 – September 25, 1999) was an American author of fantasy, historical fantasy, science fiction, and science fantasy novels, and is best known for the Arthurian fiction novel ''The Mists of Avalon'' an ...

Julian May Julian Clare May (July 10, 1931 – October 17, 2017) was an American science fiction, fantasy, horror, science and children's writer who also used several literary pseudonyms. She is best known for her ''Saga of Pliocene Exile'' (''Saga of the ...

, and

Andre Norton Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name ...

, each with the word "trillium" in the title. They take place in a post-holocaust world that is hinted to be a colony of earth on another planet where magic works. The German literature agent Uwe Luserke in 1989 devised the concept of three fantasy authors coming together to collaborate to produce a novel: this would describe three different life stories bound together by a single

A-Plot In a literary work, film, or other narrative, the plot is the sequence of events in which each event affects the next one through the principle of Causality, cause-and-effect. The causal events of a plot can be thought of as a series of events li ...

of a story of three

princess Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

es, who were robbed of their kingdom and try to survive in a hostile world. Norton, Bradley and May agreed to join in the project. May wrote her vision of the story, which

Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...

agreed to publish and bought the rights for it. The three collaborated on the first novel, ''Black Trillium'': Bradley wrote Haramis' chapters, May authored Anigel's, and Norton contributed Kadiya's. May wrote two sequels, ''Blood Trillium'' and ''Sky Trillium'', and Norton and Bradley wrote one each - ''Golden Trillium'' and ''Lady of the Trillium'', respectively. ''Lady of the Trillium'' takes place many years after the first three novels in the series, and tells of the efforts of the only living sister to find and train a successor to lead the world. A review of ''Black Trillium'' in ''

The Rotarian Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, profe ...

'' criticized, among other things, "the deadly dull characters, and a boring landscape"; ascribing the issues to the fact that there were "too many cooks". The series is described as having "shallow" characterization, but "intense imagery". Antonio Ballesteros González and Lucía Mora González wrote that while the main characters fell into typical archetypes in high fantasy, they applauded the fact that the main characters were women.

Novels

* Black Trillium (

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May, and Andre Norton) *

Blood Trillium Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the cir ...

(

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, by Julian May) * Golden Trillium (

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, by Andre Norton) * Lady of the Trillium (

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, by Marion Zimmer Bradley) *

Sky Trillium The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

(

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, by Julian May)

References

{{reflist Fantasy novel series