From archive (archive) Subject: Tanith Lee's "Flat Earth" series From: throopw@dg_rtp.UUCP (Wayne Throop) To: matoh@sssab.se Date: 13 Mar 87 20:33:42 GMT > aterry@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Allan Terry) > Tanith Lee has a good series going, I have heard it referred to as the flat > earth series. First book is Night's Master. Short, loosely connected stories > but good background. Next is the best: Death's Master. I think Delusion's > Master was next but after that it is starting to go downhill. I'll give a contrasting viewpoint. I think that Delirium's Mistress (the one that follows Delusion's Master, and the latest one I've seen) is the best of the series so far (a close second to Night's Master). However the individual books are rated, the series as a whole is double-plus-good. The feel of the series is that Lee is sort of taking you on a guided tour of her "Flat Earth" world, pointing out places and events of interest to the reader, and providing a stream of commentary by turns funny, moving, tragic, but always interesting. It has a very strong interactive feel to it... Lee is manifested here as a GREAT storyteller. -- "Is the Earth still flat?" --- From "Delirium's Mistress" -- Wayne Throop !mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!throopw From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 12 14:06:55 1992 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic2!mcsun!uunet!wupost!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!usenet.coe.montana.edu!news.u.washington.edu!raven.alaska.edu!never-reply-to-path-lines From: bp494@cleveland.freenet.edu (Dana Goldblatt) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: The Secret Books of Paradys by Tanith Lee Message-ID: <1992May11.165929.28747@raven.alaska.edu> Date: 11 May 92 16:59:29 GMT Sender: wisner@raven.alaska.edu (Bill Wisner) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Organization: University of Alaska Computer Network Lines: 133 Approved: wisner@ims.alaska.edu I have tried to avoid spoilers but there may be some for at least the start of each story. It shouldn't actually spoil your enjoyment of the books, however. Review: This series, The Secret Books of Paradys, or at least its first three volumes, consists of (the first book) three novellas, (the second book) a novel, and (the third book) several short stories. The common thread of the series is Paradys, a sort of parallel universe Paris. Its name in Roman times was Par Dis. Book I: The Book of the Damned The three novellas in The Book of the Damned were based around colors--the first on red, the second on yellow, the third on blue. I found myself unable to read any of the three stories at a single sitting. All three are intriguing, dramatic, and symmetrical. All three are also very visually based. In the first story, there is the triumvirate of characters whose only recognizable trait is their hair color--red, black, and white. The second and third stories have similar visual traits-- especially the third, in which photographs and blue glass figure prominently. An Example: The first story was about a man who was captivated by a married woman. He had red hair; his friend, Philippe, had white hair; and the woman had black hair. This turned out to be significant to the story. The central item was a red scarab ring. As you can see, the story had a very visual symmetry... it was dramatic, but in some way the drama was cold. It was the arrangement (artistically) that was appealing. I enjoyed the symmetries of this book aesthetically, very much. If this sounds like something you would enjoy, I recommend this book. The Book of the Damned seems to have as its theme the crossing of gender boundaries. In story I, "Stained with Crimson", this is a primary theme, and the method of their crossing is rather unusual and dramatic. (To reveal it would be a spoiler for sure.) In the Yellow story, the second one, "Malice in Saffron", the main character is a young woman, living with nuns, and pretends to be a young man... and at one point, in her male persona, is dressed up as a girl but continues to play a male role. In the third story, Empires of Azure, one of the narrators is a female reporter who writes under a male byline; another is a man who creates and portrays feminine personas, as his occupation. In the first story, the gender change is of a supernatural nature; in the second, as a disguise, an artificial nature; and in the third story, it partakes of both. All three stories could be considered horror, although the first and third are more supernatural horror, and the second is more a horror story of human nature and natural disaster. An additional unifying factor of the three stories is that a piece of jewelry, of the color of the story, is a pivotal prop in each. Book II of The Secret Books of Paradys The Book of the Beast This is, of the first three books in this series, the only novel. Again, the story centers around colors--this time, green and purple. A student takes up residence in an old house, where only a couple of old servants live. He discovers that the family who used to occupy the house has a dark history. There is also a woman living in the house, whose eyes are of a bright emerald shade. Though she is elusive, he continues to try to discover her secret. After finally finding her, she tells him her story. The novel is in the form of nested histories of the characters and their family trouble. The woman with emerald eyes tells her story of the family who used to live there; she was married into this family. Then an interlude called The Book of Amethyst tells the story of the origin of the problem. The original narrative then resumes. This book is more engaging and readable than the first volume. Probably because it is a single plotline, even though it covers as far a range of story lines as the collection, The Book of the Beast is in my opinion more enjoyable reading, and still has the artistic appeal of the first volume, if not the visual-symmetric elements. Neither book has particularly original elements of horror, but the author's use of traditional themes of horror (such as were-creatures, vampiric feeding, possession by demons, and fanatical seeking of revenge,) is in the pursuit of rather atypical theses of human nature. This in itself makes the series interesting. The Book of the Dead, book 3. The third book in the series is The Book of the Dead. This book has several (seven I think) short stories in which some main character is either dead or gets killed. The stories set up the world of the series more firmly; one story is set in a parallel Haiti which is appropriately colonial. I read this book just a little longer ago than the other two, so I can't recall all the stories. One memorable story concerns the obsession of an artist with her lover's new girlfriend. This artist is indifferent to her lover until he takes up with this other woman, and commissions her to paint this woman's portrait. Again, the author puts forth some unusual theses about human (sexual, in many cases) nature. She certainly makes me think about things that would never have occured to me. Most of the stories in this book are, again, horror; some are closer to dark fantasy or parallel-universe sf. For the series as a whole, it doesn't much matter in what order you read the books. If you like the first two you read you will probably like the third, although I can imagine someone liking one of the three and not the others. %A Lee, Tanith. %T The book of the damned %C Woodstock, N.Y. %I Overlook Press %D 1990. %S The Secret Books of Paradys I ---------------- %A Lee, Tanith. %T The book of the beast %S the secret books of Paradys II %C Woodstock, N.Y. %I Overlook Press %D 1991. --------------------- %A Lee, Tanith %T The book of the dead %C Woodstock, N.Y. %I Overlook Press %D 1991 %S the secret books of Paradys III %P 215 p. Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.ecrc.net!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: "Aaron M. Renn" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: The Silver Metal Lover, Tanith Lee Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 25 Jun 1999 23:37:55 -0400 Organization: GNU's Not Unix! Lines: 43 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2382 The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee Review Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron M. Renn Conclusion: Recommended The last time I read a Tanith Lee novel I hurled it across the room in disgust when I finished and vowed never to be suckered again. But when browsing the new releases section at Amazon I could not resist picking up this handsome paperback reissue of The Silver Metal Lover. To my great surprise, I liked it a lot. Jane is the 16 year old daughter of an extremely wealthy woman. She spends her days in petty amusements with other rich kids in a life faintly reminiscent of Less Than Zero. Or perhaps the reverse is true since Less Than Zero came out in 1986 I believe. To Jane, everyone else seems far more sophisticated and clued in than she is, much to her dispair. She's particularly chagrined that she's never found a lover. Never fear, she stumbles across Silver, or make that S.I.L.V.E.R. - Silver Ionized Locomotive Verisimulated Electronic Robot - and the rest is history. But what a history it is. This is a beautifully written tragic love story, and also a coming of age story for a young woman searching for meaning in her life. There's no doubt in my mind that this book has brought more than a few people to tears though, being the heartless bastard that I am, I wasn't one of them. There is a downside. Like all of Lee's books I've sampled, this one reads like it was written for a fourteen year old girl, underage gay sex and assorted other adult themes excepted. She's written a number of juveniles and I'm never really sure if any particular book is supposed to be one or not. This is no exception. Regardless, I found it very enjoyable, enough so to maybe give me enough courage to try reading more of her books in the future. %A Lee, Tanith %T The Silver Metal Lover %I Bantam Spectra %D 1981 (original publication date) %G ISBN 0-553-58127-9 %P 291 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$6.99 C$8.99 Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/