Any fans of Tanith Lee, here?

[Moontravler]

Ooooh! Glad to see I'm not the only Tanith lover around..

She became a guilty pleasure of mine in my teens already, when I started off with the Flat-earth series and had a huge thrill at the very elegantly done semi-erotic content I found there; I have a whole closetful of her books, but I never tell anybody, because back when I started reading her, it was the kind of book that you'd hide from your parents, and I don't think I've ever managed to quite shake off that feeling.

I'd rate the Secret Books of Paradys amongst her more sophisticated works, dark fantasy more geared towards adults perhaps. I would also recommend the Blood Opera books as a more subtle urban vampire-type YA fiction.

Tanith wrote many many books and she spans from horror/dark fantasy to urban fantasy, to SF to almost (but not quite?) high fantasy.

Oh, another one I really enjoyed was Companions on the Road - I think it had an interesting take on the Tarot, IIRC.

Of the female protagonist books I really enjoyed, I'd say "A Heroine of the World" and "Birthgrave" were nice, and Sabella is a nice YA urban fantasy.

Of the older books, I seem to also remember enjoying Volkhavaar and Cyrion.

Tanith is still at it, and I stopped reading her a while ago, but I see there are a few interesting ones I haven't read yet.
There have been other more recent ones that I've read, but they all started blending in my mind at some point...

 

[Ian Whates]

Tanith is still at it, and I stopped reading her a while ago, but I see there are a few interesting ones I haven't read yet.
There have been other more recent ones that I've read, but they all started blending in my mind at some point...

Yes, Tanith's very much 'still at it'!

She wrote a wonderfully quirky vampire story revolving around a writer unappreciated by his patrons for my vampire anthology The Bitten Word earlier this year and a great story about a community of wreckers having the tables turned on them by dark and sinister forces for my anthology Subterfuge in 2008.

Long may she write!

 

[Moontravler]

Yes, Tanith does Vampire fiction beautifully, doesn't she? She looks like a fun person too, I sometimes peek in on her blog, and she always has interesting photographs and events going.

 

[Ian Whates]

Yes, Tanith does Vampire fiction beautifully, doesn't she? She looks like a fun person too, I sometimes peek in on her blog, and she always has interesting photographs and events going.

Yes, Tanith is lovely, as is John, her husband (and I say the latter in a purely blokey, platonic way!)

My better half Helen and I spent a few days down in Hastings with them tail-end of last year and had a wonderful time. We were due to go back again for the Jack-in-the-Green celebrations this May but it clashed with a family birthday party.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

A number of her books never see publication in this country, and I have to order them from amazon.co.uk and pay the shipping, which makes the price skyrocket. It's a measure of my devotion to her writing that I have done this many times. She really is one of my favorite writers. Although I do not love everything she has written, she has probably written more books that I read again and again than any other author. (Although, since she has written more books than any two or three of my other favorite SFF writers combined, that is perhaps not surprising.)

 

[Daezarkian]

I used to be quite obsessed with Tanith Lee.

The first two books of the Blood Opera Sequence, "Dark Dance" and "Personal Darkness", were superb. "Heart-Beast", a werewolf tale, is also quite good.

Of her fantasy works, the afore-mentioned "Dark Castle, White Horse", "Vivia" and "A Heroine of the World" all stand out in my memory.

Lee's prose is hypnotic. I've seen few writers as talented as she capable of conveying so much vivid imagery in so few words.

 

[Starman]

I'm planning to read "Sabella" or "The Black Unicorn" next. I've already tried read TBU but couldn't really get into it. However, the sequels sound intriguing for me to try again.

Which one do you guys think I should go for next?

Or would you recommend anything else for Tanith Lee n00bs?

 

[Moontravler]

To me Sabella had more of an "urban fantasy" feel - more low-key and a bit more subtle than her more "glittery" stuff like the unicorn books and the, er.. almost pulpy but exciting passion of the Flat Earth series.

It all depends upon your personal taste wether you would like it or not.
If you enjoy sohphisticated, decadent stuff, I'd say go for one of the Secret Books of Paradys, (they have a vaguely "Parisian" flavour), or for a really decadent dark erotic (yet nice, somehow) read - try Lycanthia. (I have to warn you it contains incest, though, yet as nicely done as incest can possibly be, if that makes any sense at all...)

The Unicorn stories are more innocent, IMO, and nice if you prefer your fiction more on the "clean" and fairy-tale like side.

 

[Connavar]

Very nice to see activity in Tanith Lee thread.

Anyone of you guys who like Cyrion stories ? I have a weak spot for those stories, big fan of S&S.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Anyone of you guys who like Cyrion stories ? I have a weak spot for those stories, big fan of S&S.

Yes. I have the collection, and I've read through it at least twice.

There are few writers whose short fiction consistently pleases me, but she is probably at the top of my list. Of course there are some of her short stories and novelettes that I don't like as much others, but I can only think of one or two that actually disappointed me, and many, many that I love.

 

[Connavar]

Yes. I have the collection, and I've read through it at least twice.

There are few writers whose short fiction consistently pleases me, but she is probably at the top of my list. Of course there are some of her short stories and novelettes that I don't like as much others, but I can only think of one or two that actually disappointed me, and many, many that I love.

I enjoyed her writing in Cyrion and have been watching the realeses of her short story collections. Is there a certain collection of hers that is most rated ? Her fantasy ? Which one did you enjoy most ?

I saw she became Grand master of Horror and they realesed a new horror collection of hers.

I enjoy short story writing and would have got a collection of hers but she has written so many short stories that i dont want the wrong collection.

 

[Starman]

What do you guys think of "East of Midnight"? I heard it described as a "weird pseudo-feminist" story.

Another TL story in my future reading list.

 

[Starman]

bump for more

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

What do you guys think of "East of Midnight"? I heard it described as a "weird pseudo-feminist" story..

Not a favorite of mine. I found it disappointing.

 

[J-Sun]

I don't understand myself and Tanith Lee. I've only read some stories here and there, Don't Bite the Sun, Drinking Sapphire Wine, The Silver Metal Lover, and the first two Secret Books of Paradys. The first two novels are slight but very enjoyable SF stories; the third is an awfully titled and surprisingly good SF-like book. The last two books are more horror/fantasy and are the ones that really blew me away. So, in the years since then, I haven't really felt like reading fantasy/horror, yet keep finding and buying Tanith Lee books. I have about 20 of them now. I'll read 'em someday and I hope they're at least as good as what I have read so far.

Oh, and I have read The Birthgrave. Despite the appreciation others have expressed, I hated that one. Most of what I have are stories and Flat Earth/Paradys/Venus stuff, so hopefully not too much Birthgravey stuff.

So I don't know if I'm a fan or not.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Birthgrave disappointed me, perhaps for the same reason that East of Midnight did: I had read so much of her later work, and these early works (not surprisingly) don't measure up.

If you didn't like Birthgrave you're unlikely to be enthusiastic about the two sequels. At least, I wasn't.

But when it comes to comparing the books in one series to another, it is difficult, because each is so different. And then with her stand alone books it is even harder.

 

[Connavar]

Birthgrave disappointed me too because it was better written than other stories of hers i read but the female character,what was happening to her felt not very interesting. I like the world,the weirdness but she lost me when half tru the book.

 

[Connavar]

Have you guys read Electric Forest from 1979 and Personal Darkness (Blood Opera Sequence, Book 2) ?

Im too broke to buy a book her right now but those two books i can get for free in Bookmooch.

So i need help if someone have read those books. I miss her writing.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I remember reading Electric Fortress a long time ago and that I liked it. Other than that, I remember practically nothing about it. Sometimes I think about rereading it, to find out if it holds up well.

Since you can get it for free, why not?

 

[Fried Egg]

"Birthgrave" didn't disappoint me; I was very impressed but it was about ten years ago that I read it and I had no expectations whatsoever. It was back in the days when I used to receive crate loads of books from my Dad that featuring loads of authors I had never heard of.