Electric forest [Hardcover]

Tanith Lee (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Nelson Doubleday (January 1, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 129945741X
• ISBN-13: 978-1299457416
• ASIN: B00005VRRD
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,911,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A twisted variant on "Beauty and the beast"..., June 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Electric Forest (Paperback)

One thing can be said about Tanith Lee, she knows how to create sympathetic, interesting characters that you want to find out more about, and sustain your interest in the book. She also has a tendency to write twist endings (in this case, a double-twist ending)that are either contrived or downright infuriating (and this one is both). "Electric Forest" is a short novel telling the furturistic story of deformed Magdala Cled. She is offered by sadistic millionaire playboy scientist Claudio Loro to become beautiful. He does this via a process called "consciousness transfer": Magdala's body is kept alive in a "glazium" capsule, while her consciousness is transferred to a simulate body of a beautiful woman. When Magdala discovers that the body she is inhabiting is based on the genetic pattern of a real woman, she tries to discover who she is, and why Claudio would want her to impersonate this stranger. The balance of the story plays like a science-fiction espionage story, and is not bad, but the low rating is due to the infuriating epilogue (I would have been happier had it been dropped) and the lack of the overall quality I've come to expect from Tanith Lee.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Deformed Outcast Has A Chance At Normalcy, November 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Electric Forest (Paperback)

While spending her entire life on Indigo (a planet in the Earth Conclave) as a repulsive outcast because of her deformed appearance, Magdala Cled is startled, yet intrigued, when a rich, attractive scientist named Claudio Loro approaches her with the promise to transform her into someone beautiful by relocating her consciousness into a new body. Magdala agrees, but at the same time, she can't help but wonder what exactly his intentions are.

Although I love Tanith Lee's writing, "Electric Forest" isn't my favorite book by her. Granted, it is short (approximately 150 pages), but the technical jargon in the pre-screening and post-screening chapters baffled me. These two beginning and ending sections weren't really necessary to the story, in my opinion, and only seemed to muddle the plot. Still, I would recommend this book to sci fi fans, for a quick read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It shouldn't work, but it does, December 5, 2010

By 

podsofpower - See all my reviews

This review is from: Electric Forest (Paperback)

Magdala Cled, ostracized and shunned all her life for her physical ugliness, is one day approached by a stranger with an offer: does she want to become beautiful? Why, yes, yes she does. Of course she does. When you are born into a world where everyone looks perfect except you, wanting to be the same is hardly superficial. Magdala doesn't feel human, isn't even treated as one. And here comes the ticket to life as something better than sub-human. Even if this ticket comes from a domineering, insanely abusive madman.

Claudio Loro is the madman. Stunningly handsome, amazingly rich, a genius scientist--he's everything Magdala isn't, and in a position of complete control and power over her. He introduces her to an artificial body of surpassing beauty. This, he tells her, can be hers. If she does what he says. If she agrees to be his experiment. And so it goes: quickly it's revealed that she isn't going to become his Galatea. All there is is an illusion, of her consciousness being fooled into thinking that it now inhabits this construct. Though Claudio refuses to tell her much of anything, least of all the why. Why Magdala? Why Christophine del Jan, the woman who looks just like Magdala's new body? Why is Claudio so obsessed with her?

This is PYGMALION. From hell.

At first I was put off at how passive Magdala is, and it's a symptom common in an awful lot of Tanith Lee's protagonists, but let's be fair: Claudio holds the key to her survival. The capsule containing her original body must be maintained. If her body dies, there goes her consciousness. He holds this fact hostage, lords it over her, happily gloating over it at every opportunity. He subjects her to constant psychological torture, and sometimes throws in physical for good measure. He installs Magdala in Christophine's home and grooms her to despise the woman who is everything she can never be, who has everything she never had. Magdala's self-defense mechanism of emotionlessness thaws under this assault as Claudio forces her into one situation after another where she has to confront new and distressing experiences, to which she reacts with strong emotions. Partly herself, partly parroting "tri-V dramas," Magdala bends, almost breaks... and becomes her own person. Which is astonishing, considering. There are moments where she turns the tables on Claudio, striking back with mind games she learned from him. She becomes curious. She questions his motives. But even then she can't help the love-hate relationship she has with him, because after all this is the very first time in her entire life she's exposed an interpersonal relationship. Literally, he's the only human being who regards her as an individual and takes interest (albeit a scary, detrimental one) in what she does, how she thinks. Even though she recognizes that he's manipulating her, it's difficult for her not to act according to his script, and Christophine del Jan is easy for her to hate.

The confrontation between Magdala and the real Christophine marks the novel's turning point. It's a wonderful, well-wrought scene vibrating with tension and the irreal prospect of staring your perfect double in the face. Complex, charged. And here, Christophine reveals what's really going on. Why Claudio is doing all this. Why he's targeting Christophine. Everything.

To say anything more would be spoiling the best parts of the book, and considering that I usually have no scruples spoiling the everloving daylight out of books I review, you can take this as a verdict that ELECTRIC FOREST is really, really good.