mythsofmetal

Man, Batlord if you really wanted to leave Trollheart catatonic you should've went with this album.


Demilich - Nespithe - YouTube

Plankton

Awesome month.

^^^generic response^^^

Fucking rock on Trollheart!

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The Batlord

I'd already given him Cryptopsy, and I didn't just want to give him a bunch of death metal albums. Would've been boring. If I were going for that I wouldn't have change Pig Destroyer to Limp Bizkit.

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Trollheart

I'm quite serious guys. I was as surprised as anyone to find that I didn't hate this. I kept waiting, waiting for the thing that was gonna reach out and rip my throat out and, you know, it never came. I was just awestruck, so much so that I wondered was I listening to the right album, but yeah, it seems to have been. This is the link I used by the way...


I'm sort of thinking maybe I've progressed to the point where I'm able to listen to, or at least endure, anything. Some stuff bores me of course, some stuff makes me laugh and some stuff grates on me, but I'm unsure that I've yet come across anything that can actually repulse me. That's NOT a challenge by the way: I'm sure there's plenty of death-jazz-punk-grindcore-hiphop albums out there that would send me screaming. But I listened to Marduk and thought that was ok, so whether I'm just getting more accepting in my old old age, or learning to appreciate different music (disclaimer: this does not include grindcore) I don't know. If it truly was supposed to blow me apart then I'm proud to say it didn't. I honestly thought you were all just making it seem more horrible than it was, just to scare me.

Anyway Batty, now that I've withstood the worst you can throw at me, how about YOU try a spell in MY dungeon huh? I can think of some prog albums that would have you crying for your momma!

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The Batlord

Prog makes me cry for nothing, it just puts me in a catatonic stupor of boredom. Do your worst.

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Pet_Sounds

If you can survive that, I don't think the Beach Boys will be much of a challenge.

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Trollheart

After the rigours of Metal Month II, I need a rest. I need to sit back and take it easy, and what better place to do that than in

Perhaps ironic that this was also the last section posted in this journal before Metal Month II opened, so basically I guess it’s a month of hard-hitting, loud and angry heavy metal bookended by music for old farts. But, you know, sometimes you just need to kick back with a nice warm cup of tea and just drift off. Having established, i hope, my metal credentials over the previous month, I am now free to turn down the volume and loosen my leather studded belt, open the windows and play some music that won’t have the neighbours dialling for the Guards.

By the time I get to Phoenix --- Glen Campbell --- “By the time I get to Phoenix” ---1967

The first time I heard this song it was sung incorrectly, giving me a totally false impression of what the song is meant to convey.My boss of twenty-some years had a tendency to learn only the first two lines or so of a song, and often misinterpret it totally. He would sing “Give me the moonlight”, but instead of the correct lines to follow being “Give me the girl, and leave the rest to me” he would fill in “Give me the starshine, give me your love, I'll give you mine.” It was a sometimes annoying and sometimes endearing trait of his personality, and it led to as I say my complete misunderstanding of the song in question above, for he would sing, convinced he was right: “By the time I get to Phoenix she'll be waiting.” This of course completely changes the thrust of the song, as I'll explain below.

Anyway, the first time I encountered the song proper was as an instrumental, on one of those “Mantovani plays classics” albums, or maybe a love songs album that was played by an orchestra. It was a long, long time before I got to hear the song actually sung, and what I heard took me a little by surprise. Rather than being, as Gerry had convinced me it was, a song about a man driving to see his lover in Phoenix Arizona, it's something quite bleaker and sadder in its way. At its heart, the song is about a man who has, after years of trying to make it work, left his girlfriend, or possibly wife, and as he drives, eager to be as far away from her as possible, he thinks about what she'll be doing as he passes through various states and the day winds on.

It's written by Jimmy Webb, he of “MacArthur Park” and “Wichita lineman” fame, and though it's been covered many times, the definitive version is pretty much seen as that by Glen Campbell, a song which gave him a hit on the Billboard Charts, a number two single in the Country Charts, and which earned him two Grammy Awards. Webb has said that it's written as a fantasy; the man never actually leaves his woman, but dreams about what would happen if he did. Nevertheless, like many song lyrics, it's a little open to interpretation, and I see it in two ways.

First, you have the guy leaving his girl and exulting as he passes through cities and states that he is getting further and further away from her. He sings of what the unnamed woman will be doing as he disappears across America, how she will feel and how much she will disbelieve it, thinking he will just return soon. So in that version there's both a sense of freedom and relief, but also a certain tinge of dark satisfaction, the idea of twisting the knife: I've gone and she thinks I'll be back --- ”She'll laugh when she reads the part/ That says I'm leavin'/ 'Cause I've left that girl so many times before” --- but I really won't.

Then there's the other way you can look at it, that the guy has left but he has to admit to himself that he loves the girl, as she's still on his mind as he passes out of her life. Each state he gets to he imagines what she'll be doing --- ”By the time I make Albuquerque she'll be working” --- and you can almost hear the wish in his voice that he could just turn around and drive back before it's too late, but it is: he's come this far and there's really no going back at this point.

It's interesting too that though it's a song of either abandonment or freedom, whichever way you choose to look at it, it's not a “Hit the road Jack” or “50 ways to leave your lover” or even “Ruby's Arms” (if you know Waits) sort of song. There's a sadness about it, an inevitability and a definite sense of breaking the chains, also a feeling that the man has been pushed too far and has finally taken the initiative. Of course, there's also a somewhat immature idea of “Hah! You never thought I'd do it, did you? Well look at me now, leaving you!”

There's time for a little sympathy for the deserted girl though, in the final verse as he sings ”By the time I make Oklahoma she'll be sleepin'/ She'll turn softly and call my name out loud/ And she'll cry just to think I'd really leave her.” But reality has asserted itself; in actuality the man is lying in bed with the woman, thinking about his flight but never really having the guts to leave her, or too in love despite himself to abandon her. But in his dreams, he's already headed for Oklahoma...

”By the time I get to Phoenix she'll be rising:
She'll find the note I left hangin' on her door.
She'll laugh when she reads the part that says I'm leavin'
'Cause I've left that girl so many times before.

By the time I make Albuquerque she'll be working:
She'll prob'ly stop at lunch and give me a call
But she'll just hear that phone keep on ringin';
Off the wall that's all.

By the time I make Oklahoma she'll be sleepin'.
She'll turn softly and call my name out low.
And she'll cry just to think I'd really leave her
Though time and time I tried to tell her so:
She just didn't know I would really go.“

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Plankton

Loves me some Glen, and although I've never heard that particular song, it does hit close to home for me right now.

One of my favorites:

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Trollheart

Another great way to relax is of course to lose yourself in the pages of a good book. I don't get to do this as often as I used to these days, but I've found recently that reading for my sister has reawakened my love for the printed word. So let's draw the curtains against the night's chill, build up the fire in the hearth and curl up in our favourite easy chair as the shadows jump and dart and cavort on the walls like crazy dark dancers, and select another volume from

The last time I did this --- and I don't do it enough, but there is a lot of work involved --- we looked at a very famous author, one whose name has gone down in history and become synonymous with the horror story and dark gothic fiction. The writer I want to feature this time is nowhere as famous as Poe, but well respected in her field and certainly a favourite of mine.

Tanith Lee (1947 - )
Born in London just after World War II ended, the fact that both of Tanith Lee's parents were ballroom dancers comes through in many of her books, where dance and the fluid and graceful movements of characters both suffuse her characters and drift among the titles of her novels, such as “Dark dance”. Another writer snubbed by her homeland, her first novel, “The Birthgrave”, was rejected by many English publishers and looked unlikely to ever see the light of day till she turned to an American concern, DAW Publishing, who released it and who then went on to publish almost thirty of her books over a fourteen-year period.

Lee writes mostly what could be described as “adult fantasy”, though she has also written many children's stories, and dipped her toe into historical novel writing. Her fantasy novels range from light-hearted, Fritz Leiber-style magical tales with demons, princesses and dragons to darker, more gothic works. She strikes the kind of balance well that few other writers in her genre manage, having some of her stories set in totally fantasy, imagined worlds while others are deeply rooted in the mundane and the normal, to which she brings a strong sense of the old world intruding on the new, magic lurking and working in the background, the old ways still extant.

Although she is a favourite author of mine, I have not read a tenth of what she has written, and my experience of the wide variety of her work is quite minimal really. But almost everything of hers I have read I have enjoyed, and in the list below I'll annotate anything that impressed or disappointed me about the books. At the moment I've just finished reading “Dark dance” for my sister. I remember thinking when I bought it originally that it was very dark, depressing and bleak, and I don't believe I finished it at the time, passing it on to my sister. Now, re-reading it for the first time, and for someone else --- a situation which precludes throwing in the towel halfway --- I think I appreciate it much more, and indeed the ending was quite satisfactory if a little perhaps predictable. We're now waiting for the second and third books to arrive so we can continue the story.

Selected list of works:

The Dragon Hoard (1971)

Her first ever novel, published for children and with a suitably childish story featuring a spurned sorceress, a cursed king and of course a quest, it nevertheless must have given Lee great confidence to have had one of her works published, and would lead to greater things as the years wound on and her writing style developed.

Animal Castle (1972)

The unlikely story of a kingdom without animals, and how, with the arrival of a shaggy dog one day to his kingdom, the king suddenly decided he must have animals. And of course the story of what then happened. Another children's book, her second publication, this time a picture book.

The Birthgrave (1975)
First in the Birthgrave Trilogy

Her first proper fantasy novel for adults, this was the book that so many British publishers passed on, and that she eventually had to look to America to achieve its publication. It's part of a trilogy, as above, and though certainly not one of her best novels in my opinion, would go to solidify her place as one of the most exciting new emerging feminist writers in the genre.

It's a long time since I read any of her books, so rather than try to describe them from memory --- apart from one or two which really impressed me ---I'll leave it to reviewers who can talk about them better than I can. Here's what one has to say about this, her first real novel.

“The main character is a woman of the old race- humanlike creatures with apparent immortality and powers above and beyond that which we possess. She awakens in a volcano, and is told by the spirit in the fire that she is the last of her kind and will spreada curse of unhappiness*across the land, unless she can unlock the secrets to the power and knowledge hidden within herself. Thus she leaves the mountain on a series of adventures, trying to discover the lost truth of her own past.”

Marion Zimmer Bradley, already a big name in the fantasy genre and one of the doyennes of British fantasy fiction, wrote an introduction to the book --- so impressed was she by the newcomer --- that says it all really: "It's filled with adventure and beauty, rich alien names, half-sketched barbarian societies, ruined cities, decadence and wonder. “ Indeed.

Don't bite the sun (1976)
First of the Four-BEE sequence
Lee's first step away from fantasy and into the world of science-fiction, “Don't bite the sun” tells the tale of indolent humans who live on a doomed world, where they are required to do nothing but have endless sex, use drugs and even kill themselves, whereupon they are reborn into a body of their choosing. Suicide, in fact, becomes less a last desperate act and more a way of ending a boring existence and starting a new life. The main character tires of life in the city though and ends up joining an expedition to explore the blasted, desolate wilderness outside the city domes, realising that perhaps she belongs here rather than in the sterile cities.

The Storm Lord (1976)
First in the Wars of Vis trilogy

Only a year after her first major novel was published, Lee was already hard at work on a second trilogy, this one concerning, according to the book's jacket: “an unknown planet and of the conflict of empires and peoples on that world. It is the story of a priestess raped and slain, of a baby born of a king and hidden among strangers, and of how that child, grown to manhood, sought his true heritage. It is a novel of alien gods and lost goddesses, of warriors and wanderers, and of vengeance long delayed. It is an epic in every sense of the word.”

To go further, in the words of one reviewer: “The Storm Lord follows the path of a young man, Raldnor, son of Ashne'e, a priestess of Anackire the Snake Goddess, and Rehdon, King of Vis. The Lowland people are nearly albinos, pale skinned, blond to white haired, golden eyed; the Vis are dark. Raldnor is born too early, as Rehdon's Queen, Val Mala, sends poisons to Ashne'e to make her abort the child and keep her standing, as well as her son's. She insists her woman, Lomandra, provide her with the dead child's finger. Ashne'e, in turn, cuts of Raldnor's pinky finger to send back to Val Mala, and the poisons take her. Lomandra, in turn, carries Raldnor out of the city, only to die in the Lowlands herself, trying to keep him safe. He is adopted into a Lowlands family, but when his adopted mother dies, he leaves to seek his way in the world.

As this is a Tanith Lee novel, nothing is ever easy, and Raldnor must go through a great many trials and tribulations to reach his goal - which turns out to be raising up the Lowlanders to shake off the yokes Vis put on them. His half brother, Amreck, the Storm Lord, threatens at every turn, as well as pirates and other dangers, including war. And above everything, Anackire watches, the great Snake Goddess of the Lowlanders, and Her presence is felt throughout the story.”


Drinking sapphire wine (1977)
Second in the Four-BEE sequence
The continuation, and conclusion of the story begun in “Don't bite the sun”, as the main character is exiled from the city and must learn to survive in the harsh, inhospitable wilderness that makes up most of the doomed planet.

Volkhavaar (1977)

As far as I can see, apart from her early children's stories, the first novel Tanith Lee wrote that was not part of a trilogy or sequence, and to my mind suffers for it. The first of her novels I read that I remember being desperately disappointed in, having already read later books and loved them. Though it is over thirty years since I read it, and perhaps I might appreciate it more through the lens of age and experience, as they say, life's too short to listen to bad music or read bad novels.

Here's what the jacket has to say about it. “A novel of witchcraft and wonders on a world far removed from those we know. Here the gods contend for power - the Dark forces against the Light - and here an entire city and its land is plunged into the shadow of an evil beyond anything conceivable. It is the story of Shaina the slave girl and of Volk the outcast who enslaved himself to cosmic forces to gain total power - and of how they were finally to meet and clash - with an entire world as their prize. “Volkhavaar” is high fantasy comparable only to the best of Andre Norton and Michael Moorcock.”

High praise indeed, given that Moorcock was and is one of my alltime favourite fantasy writers (I'll certainly feature him at some point later), but the recommendation loses some of its impact when you realise it is not attributable to anyone, except the publisher, who would of course have wanted to put the most positive spin on the book that they could.

Night's Master (1978)
First in the Tales from the Flat Earth sequence

Now we're cookin'! The first ever Tanith Lee novel I read and it just floored me with its tales of capricious but somehow lovable demons, enchanted gardens, doomed youths and weird creatures, and above all striding taller and more dangerous than any demon, the indomitable greed and folly of mankind. Or as the jacket would have it: “In those days the Earth was not a sphere and the demons dwelled in vast magical caverns beneath its surface. Wondrous cities dotted the land and strange peoples and fabulous beasts prowled the deserts and jungles of the world.

Supreme among those mighty demons was Azhrarn, Night's Master. He it was whose pranks made nightmares on Earth, who brought desire and danger to those it amused him to visit, and who could grant wonders and create horrors unspeakable.”

I can't praise this novel enough. It fed right into the kind of fantasy I had become entranced with via the likes of Michael Moorcock, Craig Shaw Gardner, Jack L. Chalker and Alan Dean Foster. Much less portentous and poe-faced than Tolkien, but taking itself more seriously than Pratchett, this was the apex, for me, of Tanith Lee's writing, when she got it spot on. The demon Azrhrarn likes to use humanity as his amusement, his plaything, but comes to realise that he needs them as much as they need him. Just superb, and led into a series of books that varied in quality but generally held up to, but never eclipsed, this opening volume.


Shadowfire (1978)
Second in the Birthgrave trilogy

For some reason retitled “Vazkor, son of Vazkor” for the American market (surely a more confusing title than “Shadowfire”?) this “tells the story of Tuvek, a warrior in a barbarian tribe, his alienation from his people, and is discovery of his family history and the Power that he has inherited. Alienated from his tribe and following a raid by survivors from the fallen cities, Tuvek is captured and taken to the city of Eshkorek, where he comes into his own Power Tanith Lee did a great job of sketching out the history of the tribes and the ruins of the fallen civilisation close by them. She also deftly described the world through Tuvek's eyes, exploring his own growth and the cultures and people he discovers.” Artwork on this looks very Boris Vallejo or Frank Frazetta, I must say!

Quest for the White Witch (1978)
Third in the Birthgrave trilogy

The final book of three, this concentrates on Vazkor, eponymous (in the American version anyway) hero of the previous one, as “he retraces her (his mother) steps, like her tells the story in his own voice, and if the fascination of the first book lies in the mystery of her identity, the fascination of this middle lies a great deal in his so very different perspective. Vazkor is very hard to like in that book--a raping sword-swinging barbarian. But there is more to him here, as in his quest--for revenge against his mother--he increasingly comes into his powers and sees the value in others. Lee's style and her world could both be described as lush. Though along with Tanith Lee's poetic prose you're going to get a psychological complexity you're not going to find in Conan the Barbarian.”

Electric Forest (1978)
Another excursion into pure science-fiction, as Lee tells the story of an outcast who becomes the only one who can save her planet. “The world called Indigo turned upside down for Magdala Cled one unexpected morning. From being that world's only genetic misfit, the shunned outcast of an otherwise ideal society, she became the focus of attention for mighty forces. Once they had installed her in the midst of the Electric Forest, with its weird trees and its super-luxurious private home, Magdala awoke to the potentials which were opening up all about her. And to realize also the peril that now seemed poised above Indigo ... which only she, the hated one, could possibly circumvent.”

Death's Master (1979)
Second in the Tales from the Flat Earth sequence

Again I remember this carrying on the grand fantasy tradition of “Night's Master”, and it was a series I really could not get enough of. Concentrating this time on Uhlume rather than Azhrarn, as the jacket explains: “In those days the world was flat and demons dwelled beneath who walked among the cities and kingdoms of the surface with powers and mischiefs to please themselves.
Among those demons there were two who were mighty above all others. One was Azhrarn, Night's Master, and the other was the lord of darkness whose name was Uhlume, Death's Master.

This is Tanith Lee's epic fantasy novel of the strangest exploit of these two demon-lords among the men and women of Earth. It is a novel of odd erotic desires, of twisted ambitions, and superhuman feats. It is the story of two boys who became men under the stresses of witcheries and wonders that surpass even the fabled lore of the Arabian Nights ... and the story also of queens and witches, of kings and commoners - and of the two terrible lords of darkness.”

The book was nominated for the 1980 Balrog Award and actually won the August Derleth Award that year, two very highly coveted recognitions of a writer's talent in, and contribution to the genre.

Delusion's Master (1980)
Third in the Tales from the Flat Earth sequence

Once again Lee takes us to the realm of one of the dread lords of the Underearth, this time it is Chuz, lord of madness. “When the world was flat and the gods had not yet restructured the universe, the cities and hopes of mankind hung upon the whims of the immortal lords of all diabolical powers.
For these, such as Azhrarn, Night's Master, and Uhlume, Death's Master, the world was a flesh-and-blood playground for all their strangest desires. But among those demonic lords, the strangest was the master of madness, Chuz.
The game that Chuz played with a beautiful woman, with an ambitious king, with an ancient imperial city, was a webwork of good and evil, of hope and horror. But there was always Azhrarn to interfere - to bend delusion to a different outcome - and it was a century-long conflict between two vain immortals with women and men as their terrified pawns.”

Delirium's Mistress (1981)
Fourth in the Tales from the Flat Earth sequence

The point at where I recall the quality beginning to slide just a little. I remember being slightly disappointed with “Delerium's mistress”, feeling that it somehow didn't hold up to the high standard of the last three novels. But then, that bar had been set very high by the author, so I suppose you can't expect perfection every time. But given that it was the last full novel in the series, you can't help but wonder was she growing bored of it, or running out of ideas? I seem to remember some of the ideas from the previous books being rehashed, changed slightly, though again as I say it was thirty-some years ago. But the memory of disappointment definitely remains to this day.

“In the age of demons, when the Earth was still flat, a daughter was born to a mortal beauty and Azhrarn, Demon Lord of Night. This Daughter of the Night was called Azhriaz, and she was hidden away on a mist-shrouded isle, spirit-guarded, to spend her life in dreams. But Azhriaz was destined for more than dark dreaming. For if her father was the Lord of Night, her mother was descended from the Sun itself.

And her beauty and power soon called to another mighty demon lord, Azhrarn's enemy, Prince Chuz, Delusion's Master, who worked a magnificent illusion to free Azhriaz from her prison and transform her into Delirium's Mistress.
As Mistress of Madness and Delirium would she become known in realms of both demon and humankind. And her destiny would make her goddess, queen, fugitive, champion, seeress - and her to whom even the very Lord of Darkness would one day bow down....”

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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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