Trollheart

The Silver Metal Lover (1981)
First in the S.I.L.V.E.R series

1981, and Lee returns with another stunning novel of romance in the far future, a science-fiction love story between a woman and a robot. SILVER stands for Silver Ionised Locomotive Verisimulated Electronic Robot, and Lee’s heroine falls in love with one.

“It is a world of the future, where beauty is available to all, given the sophistication of technology and medicine. Yet Jane is - well, surely pleasant-enough-looking, with her soft brown hair and slightly plump body. Years back, when Jane was tiny, her beautiful, wealthy mother had her analyzed for perfect body type, and now cosmetic medications keep her true to form. And she questions little. After all, her mother has so much authority, so many opinions, that there's nothing for Jane to say.
And Jane's lovers are largely in her mind - men from films she's seen, from books she's read. The thought of confronting a flesh-and-blood lover makes Jane grow cold. What would she say to him? What would he think of plain Jane?
Until she meets Silver, a singer and guitarist. And a robot - with all the adoration and compassion that in-the-flesh lovers lack.
But, unlike human lovers, Silver is for sale, and Jane - desperate for his love - risks estrangement from her mother and friends to possess him. With Silver as her partner, she tastes the first happiness and independence she has ever known. She even grows pretty, as she stops taking the pills and treatments her mother had ordered for her.
Yet - what would you do if the manufacturer decided to recall the particular model of lover you'd bought?”

Lycanthia, or Children of Wolves (1981)

And that same year, not happy with producing one of the most innovative and clever science-fiction stories of the year, she tries her hand at folklore, with the tale of werewolves who come to claim a castle which has been taken by a lord as his inheritance.

“Even in today's world there are corners where past evils still cast their terror-haunted shadows. When the young man, Christian, came to his inheritance - a once grand mansion in just such a remote corner of France, he knew only that there was some sort of alternate claim to that ancient building and it lands. Even as the villagers acknowledged him as lord of the manor, there came two from the forest to stake out their interest. And with them came fear and desire, terror and love ... a combination which could be irresistible-and also fatal. “

Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer (1983)

And here, in a collection of short stories and reimagined tales, Lee takes on the fairytales of our childhood, seeking deeper truth under the rainbows and unicorns and rewriting the old stories with a view to a much more adult way of looking at these fables. Or, to quote the jacket:

“How would it be if Snow White were the real villain and the "wicked queen" just a sadly maligned innocent? What if awakening the Sleeping Beauty should be the mistake of a lifetime - of several lifetimes? What if the famous folk tales were retold with an eye to more horrific possibilities?
Only Tanith Lee could do justice to it, and in “Red as Blood”, she displays her soaring imagination at its most fantastically mischievous. Not for nothing was the title story named as a Nebula nominee. Not for nothing was the author of “The Birthgrave and “The Storm Lord” called by New York's Village Voice, "Goddess-Empress of the Hot Read."
Here are the world-famous tales of such as the Brothers Grimm as they might have been retold by the Sisters Grimmer! Fairy tales for children? Not on your life!"

Sung in shadow (1983)

Here, she reinterprets the story of Romeo and Juliet, in the first of what would become several varied novels set in alternate versions of cities around the world. In this, obviously, we're in another Venice.

Anickire (1983)
Second volume in The Wars of Vis series

“The lowland girl seemed to contain fire. Her hair stirred, flickered, gushed upward, blowing flame in a wind that did not blow.
A tower of light shot up the sky, beginning where the girl stood. For half a second there was only light, then it took form.
The form it took was*Anackire.
She towered, she soared. Her flesh was a white mountain. Her snake's tail a river of fire in spate. Her golden head touched the apex of the sky, and there the serpents of her hair snapped like lightnings. Her eyes were twin suns. The eight arms, outheld as the two arms of the girl had been, rested weightlessly on the air, the long fingers subtly moving
The girl standing before the well, unblasted by the entity she had released, seemed only quiescent. At last one could see that her face, as it had always been, was the face of Anackire.”

Tamastra, or The Indian Nights (1984)

And here, she tackles the mythology and culture of India. “All the magic and mystery of fabled India is woven into these marvel tales of seven strange nights. For that vast land which many have conquered and none have subdued is the home of ten thousand gods and a hundred thousand demons - and the teeming races that dwell on its shrouded plains and marbled cities have kept their mystic secrets.
Only the vivid imagination of Tanith Lee, who has been rightly called "Princess Royal of Heroic Fantasy," could penetrate the nighted veils of India's lore. In*Tamastara*she does so to delight the mind and season with scented curry the imagination of the West.
Here are hidden gods and demonic possession, here are were-beasts and subterranean terrors, here are beings transformed and souls reborn, here is Terror and Wonder. Winner of the World Fantasy Award and the August Derleth Award, Tanith Lee is at her best in this new book.”

Night's sorceries (1986)
Fifth and final volume in the Tales of the Flat Earth sequence

Five years after what I took to be the final book in the series, Lee came up with a collection of stories based on the events in the last four books. Although I had been, as I said, somewhat disappointed in “Delirium’s Mistress”, I still hungered for more Flat Earth tales, and these did not disappoint. From the tale of the girl said to be the daughter of night itself to the priest who rides to the sun, and from the updated story of the prodigal son to the return of Azhrarn himself, this collection of novelettes, novellas and short stories reaffirmed my faith in Lee and her Flat Earth tales. Sadly, it remains the final volume.

“In the age of demons, when the Earth was still flat, Prince Chuz, Delusion's Master, stole Azhriaz, daughter of the Demon Lord of Night, from the underworld citadel meant to be her eternal prison. Pursued by the vengeful Lord of Night, Chuz and Azhriaz fled to the world above, to the lands of mortal men, seeking a haven for their love.
Yet when demons dwelt in the realm of men, terror and wonders were bound to result. And so it was for all who came in contact with Chuz, Azhriaz, and their dread pursuer. As all three worked their powerful sorceries, men and women, from the highest lords to the lowest peasants, were led into new kingdoms of enchantment where a man could learn to commune with beasts, where magicians found their spells recast, where a woman's kindness could turn back time, and where a mortal might fulfill a prophecy that would place the very sun and moon within his grasp …”


The Book of the Damned (1988)
First in the Secret Books of Paradys series

This time we're in an alternate version of Paris, where strange people carry out stranger deeds of vengeance, reprisal and betrayal. “Jehanine: demon or saint? Her days she spent at the Nunnery of the Angel; her nights in the vicious back-streets of Paradys, wreaking revenge on men for the wrongs she had suffered at their hands.
'How fast does a man run when the Devil is after him?' Andre St Jean is about to find out, as a young man collapses at his feet and presses into his hand a strange scarab ring, containing the secret of life...
The stranger pushed a note across the table:*'In a week or less I shall be dead.'*In a week, he was, and most unnaturally. She found herself drawn to the house where he died, to unravel the web of mystery and horror that had been spun about him...”

The Book of the Beast (1988)
Second in the Secret Books of Paradys series
“It*was created on the fifth day of the Earth; scaled not feathered- the Beast.
From the most ancient of days, passed through the seed of generations, still it preys on the unlucky, the unwary and the unchaste. Its appetite is ravenous and eternal.
Tanith Lee weaves a chilling tale of horror through the streets of Paradys: from the times when the Legions ruled the Empire, and Centurion Retullus Vusca hoped to change his luck... to the wedding of an innocent maid who hoped to win the affection of a cold, but handsome lord, unaware of the consequences of her seduction... to a scholar, wise in the ways of magic, who was determined to end the terror... And all the while there were cries in the night, and blood on the stones in the morning.”

The White Serpent (1988)
Third in the Wars of Vis series
“THE WHITE WITCH -
She is Aztira, one of the magical Amanackire race, a pure white albino with powers both mysterious and terrifying. She can grant life and defy death, enchant men - or destroy them!
AND THE WARRIOR -
He is Rehger. Sold into slavery at the age of four, he will become one of the finest warriors and charioteers in the land. Yet all his prowess with arms will not save him from the spell of the White Witch, a dangerous bewitchment that will lead him to challenge the mightiest of mortals and immortals ... and to embark on a fearsome quest in search of the legendary city that is home to the Amanackire.”

The blood of roses (1990)

One of the first books I read that dared to equate Christianity with vamipirism, but if you look closely and with unblinkered eyes, the similarities are there: people who dress in black, profess to drink blood, and who can only be killed by ramming a stake through ... nah, just kidding about that last part. But this amazing novel really set me to thinking about the links between the two, and it makes for some disturbing and at the same time illuminating reading.

“LOVE, HISTORY OR BLOOD: WHICH IS THE STRONGEST?
Mechail Korhlen, deformed son of a forest lord and a woman rumoured to be a witch, is an enigma. In his childhood something black settled on him and drank from his throat. Perhaps it marked him out as forever belonging to the dark...
At twenty-one Mechail, a victim of intrigue, is murdered. But astonishingly, he rises from the dead and takes a terrible revenge before fleeing his home. And the fulfilment of his destiny begins.
The fate of all who live in this magically forested world is subject to the seductive will of Anjelen, a priest possessed of enormous powers. He is a terrifying and dynamic force- but for good, or for evil?
And what is the mystery at the heart of the seemingly Christian monastery Anjelen rules?
Is it that he - and his followers - drink blood?”


The Book of the Dead (1991)
Third in the Secret Books of Paradys series
“Paradys too has its cemeteries...."; The search for dark secrets deepens in Book III of the Paradys tetralogy, a powerful collection of short stories peopled with the tortured souls that lie buried here as in a fragile prison.
A handsome youth shocks his family by marrying a white weasel. On their bridal bed a beautiful maiden emerges from the weasel’s discarded pelt, but it's not just her previous form that holds the bride captive. For her to be released she must be loved, but her beloved must die at her hands as he bestows the kiss that releases her.
Two childhood lovers wed. Their union seems to be blessed. Little does Roland know that Marie-Mai's pure body is host to the pointed fangs of Evil. Finding this on their wedding night, he kills her and chooses to take the truth to the gallows with him-not for him the responsibility of unmasking the naked face of the Devil.
Children and weak things wither after coming in contact with Julie d'Is. What ancient curse was bestowed upon this infant poisoner in the womb of her foolish mother? Only her death will reveal the truth, for no one can approach her in life.
With her finely crafted and masterful prose, Tanith Lee brings to life these agonized souls and twisted half-creatures, wreaking havoc in their twilight world, where death is only the beginning.”

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