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| The Book Of The Damned |
Short story collection.
The first volume of The Secret Books Of Paradys.
Collected in The Secret Books Of Paradys 1 & 2.
Collected in The Secret Books Of Paradys: The Complete Paradys Cycle.
Contents: Stained With Crimson; Malice In Saffron; Empires Of
Azure.
Nominated as no. 15 in the Best Collection category in the 1989 Locus Poll.
| Welcome to the nightmare world of
Paradys! 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... Tales of macabre fantasy from Tanith Lee, as disturbing and spine-chilling as the stories of Poe and Lovecraft! (cover copy - trade issue) |
Italian Translations:
| The Book Of The Dead |
Short story collection.
The third volume of The Secret Books Of Paradys.
Collected in The Secret Books Of Paradys 3 & 4.
Collected in The Secret Books Of Paradys: The Complete Paradys Cycle.
Contents: The Weasel Bride; The
Nightmare's Tale; Beautiful Lady; Morcara's Room; The Marble Web;
Lost In The World; The Glass
Dagger; The Moon Is A Mask.
Note: each story in this book is preceded by a brief, untitled piece of linking material
of up to two pages in length.
Nominated as no. 7 in the Best Collection category in the 1992 Locus Poll.
| "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. (dustwrapper copy) |
| The Book Of The Mad |
Novel. 70,000 words.
The fourth volume of The Secret Books Of Paradys.
Collected in The Secret Books Of Paradys 3 & 4.
Collected in The Secret Books Of Paradys: The Complete Paradys Cycle.
| In her darkly dazzling finish to The
Secret Books of Paradys, Tanith Lee tempts the reader with a tale of horror, lust and
madness that leaves no perversity untouched, no taboo unbroken. This time, the seductive nightmare unfolds in three parallel versions of the City-Paradis, Paradys and Paradise. Connected by a labyrinth of ice whose dangers are amplified by the will and emotion of its lunatic travelers, these cities and their mad and near-mad denizens provide the stage for a drama of mythical proportions that none of the players can fully comprehend. Among the mad and the doomed are the murderous, remorseless siblings Felion and Smara; the violated woman-child Hilde; and Leocadia, the artist and visionary. Combining horror and hedonism, art and eroticism, Lee offers an aesthete's amoral view of beauty, pleasure and pain in her inimitable high style. This fourth book in the Paradys series is linked brilliantly to the previous three - The Book of the Damned, The Book of the Beast, and The Book of the Dead - not by plot but by its shared venue: the fantastic, Gothic, atmospheric and changeable city of Paradys. (dustwrapper copy) |
| The Castle Of Dark |
Young adult novel. 55,000 words.
Collected in Dark Castle, White Horse.
| Lir knew that something was calling
him. Not a voice, and yet a voice. Almost as unheard yet as insistent as a pulse-beat. He
had dreams, too, and they were no more reassuring than the villagers'; assurances in that
remote and unexpected place. Was there a castle beyond? Or just a ruin? Who, or what, was
it that called? If he turned back now, he would never know. Shouldering his harp,
Lir set his face towards the dark castle. In the Castle of Dark, Lilune awoke, wondering what her calling would bring. The old hags who attended her had no idea she knew the spell. She walked sedately with them, under a moonshade, by the borders of the glassy lake, wishing that something would happen. She had no idea of the world outside. She was to learn, in danger and dread, when Lir answered the calling and freed her from the dark. (dustwrapper copy) |
German Translations"
| Cast A Bright Shadow |
Novel. 81,000 words.
The first volume of The Lionwolf Trilogy.
| LIONWOLF. Son to both god and mortal, his destiny must be death or power everlasting. The setting is a world of eternal winter, where once thrived hot climates and exquisite luxury. Saphay, neglected daughter of a sub-king in the civilized west, is sent off to marry a leader of the barbaric Jafn ... not realizing that her own father has arranged for her to be betrayed and abducted on this perilous journey. Escaping her pursuers, then dragged into the depths of an arctic sea, Saphay is miraculously discovered by her Jafn betrothed. She is still alive, though entombed in an ice pyramid, and their marriage proceeds as intended. However, when it becomes evident that Saphay is not only carrying a child already but is also the focus of a sorcerous and preternatural force, dark suspicions are aroused about the infant's true origin ... Driven out into the icy wilderness to face certain death, Saphay somehow manages to reach unwelcoming shelter. There her son can grow up safely in exile, while displaying all the astounding skills of a future hero .. and a future god. Populated by the strange and magnificent beasts and exotic landscapes, this spellbinding and disturbing epic adventure is the first in a long-awaited trilogy from one of the foremost writers of our time. (back cover copy) |
| The Claidi Journals |
Omnibus.
Contents: Wolf Tower;
Wolf Star;
Wolf Queen.
| Raised a servant in a great House at the heart of a miles wide
Garden, sixteen-year old Claidi has little to call her own, until, in a small act of rebellion, she steals a journal.
Writing in its pages, she finds solace, confiding the petty cruelties of her spoiled mistress and the countless empty
rules and rituals of the House. She can't imagine another existence—until a hot air balloon comes out of the sky
carrying a golden haired stranger. To the House, Nemian represents the hellish Waste beyond the Garden, an enemy invader to be locked away and killed. But to Claidi he offers precious hope of a life beyond the House walls. After she is told of her royal parentage, she risks all to free the charming prisoner and accompany him across the Waste toward his faraway home. It is a marvelous, bewildering and dangerous journey, full of strange peoples and monsters and weird machines, at the side of a man she could come to love. That is, until they reach his city and the Wolf Tower where he was born. For there, Claidi will discover that, in her yearning for love and freedom, she has been lured into a web of conspiracy and lies. At the mercy of these alien surroundings, she finds the only thing she can trust is the love of a bandit king. And her adventures have just begun… (dustwrapper copy) |
| Companions On The Road |
Novella. 31,000 words.
Collected in Companions On The Road And The Winter Players:
Two Novellas.
Shortlisted in the Best Collection/Anthology category for the 1980 Coveted Balrog Award.
| The siege was over. The citadel of
Avillis had burned, burned through the night, with its terrible Lord and his monstrous
children in it. Nothing remained now but broken walls, charred stumps where trees had,
grown, tattered lattices open to the sky. But at the heart of the palace the great Cup of
Avillis stood untouched: pure gold, crusted with jewels each worth an emperor's ransom.
Small wonder that Kachil, common thief, should covet it. Or Feluce, dapper arrogant
climber; riches would mean much to him. But why did Havor of Taon, the hawk, join them to
carry the cursed Cup away? For it was Havor who found that the Chalice once stolen could
not be lightly cast aside, even in horror and despair. While always, inexorably,
half-seen, slipping through shadows, shapes in the mind's eye, three phantom riders
followed after it across the winter-blasted plain. This chilling tale of flight and inescapable pursuit rises to a confrontation of ghostly powers. Havor thought his story could have only one ending, but the spirit world can summon Forces of Light as well as Dark. (dustwrapper copy) |
German Translations:
Hungarian Translations:
| Companions On The Road And The Winter Players: Two Novellas |
Omnibus.
Contents: Companions On The Road; The Winter Players.
| COMPANIONS ON THE ROAD and THE WINTER
PLAYERS are two thrilling tales of adventure and quest by that rising star of fantasy
literature, Tanith Lee. COMPANIONS ON THE ROAD is a chilling story of flight and inexorable pursuit, which culminates in an inevitable confrontation between Light and Darkness. The siege was over. The citadel of Avillis had burned through the night with its terrible Lord and his monstrous children in it. Nothing remained now but broken walls, charred stumps where trees had grown, tattered lattices open to the sky. But at the heart of the palace the great Cup of Avillis stood untouched: pure gold, crusted with jewels each worth an emperor's ransom. There was small wonder that Kachil, the common thief should covet it. Or Feluce, the dapper, arrogant rogue, for riches would mean much to him. But why did Havor of Taon, the hawk, join them to carry the cursed cup away? For it was Havor who found that the Chalice once stolen could not be lightly cast aside, even in horror and despair. For all the while, half-unseen, mere apparitions in his mind's eye, the three phantom riders followed after him across the desolate plain. But what is Havor's fate? What will be the outcome of the unavoidable clash of ghostly powers? Havor thought his story could have only one ending, but can the spirit world summon Forces of Light as well as Dark? Oaive, the young priestess of the fisherpeople, finds herself thrust into a desperate journey to recover an ancient and magical relic stolen from her shrine in THE WINTER PLAYERS. She distrusted him at once. She knew his words were lies. 'Call me Grey,' he said, but that was not his name, Fear gripped her like a hand. No one but the priestess could look upon the relics: the Ring, the Jewel and the Bone. It was for the Bone that this grey stranger had come. He was a thief, but she realized with a sinking heart that he was armed with as much magic as herself, and maybe more. The relics were secret, sacred. The people would never know that the Bone was gone. But Oaive knew that she must follow Grey, find and destroy him, even though it meant leaving her people with no one to say the Ritual, no one to read the Book of Lore. Beyond the mist, they called the shrine the House of the Bone; if the Bone was not there, the Ritual was meaningless. She could not know that there were three players in the game, and that the most dangerous was the last. (dustwrapper copy) |
| Cyrion |
Short story collection.
Contents: Prologue: The Honey Garden; Cyrion In Wax; 1st Interlogue; A
Hero At The Gates; 2nd Interlogue; One Night Of The Year;
3rd Interlogue; Cyrion In Bronze; 4th Interlogue; The Murderous Dove; 5th Interlogue; Perfidious Amber; 6th Interlogue; A
Lynx With Lions; 7th Interlogue; Second Prologue: The
Olive Tree; Cyrion In Stone; Epilogue.
| He came to the Honey Garden
looking for Cyrion. He was a man in grave danger, convinced only one man alive could help
him. A man he had heard about in song and story. A man practically everyone knew something
about. A man he had never met. CYRION Some said he was the stolen son of a western king, raised by nomads in the desert. A freelance swordsman, a sorcerer, a master of disguise, some said he attracted bizarre, uncanny events as some persons attract misfortune. He with hair like the sky of earnest sunrise, his fair complexion, his whiplash reactions and quicksilver elegance was like a being from another world. A legend. A myth. But was he real? And was he for hire? (back cover copy) |
French Translations:
German Translations:
Italian Translations:
| Dark Castle, White Horse |
Omnibus.
Contents: The Castle Of Dark; Prince
On A White Horse.
| IN DARKNESS SHE WAKES - a beautiful young woman, forever imprisoned in the Castle of Dark. Guarded and bespelled by two old hags, can she master the secret magic to summon the champion who will set her free? INTO DARKNESS HE RIDES - a handsome prince in an unknown realm. Who has conjured him here, and for what desperate deeds? Hailed as the Looked-for-Deliverer, with a changeling horse for companion, only he can challenge all magic's perils - from the Dragon of Brass to the Mad Witch of the kingdom-destroying horror, the evil, enigmatic Nulgrave! (back cover copy) |
| Dark Dance |
Novel. 110,000 words.
The first volume in the Blood Opera Sequence.
Nominated as no. 6 in the Best Horror/Dark Fantasy Novel category in the 1993 Locus Poll.
| Rachaela Day leads a grey, uneventful
life in the London suburbs. She works in a bookshop for a pittance which barely pays the
bills. But all that begins to change from the day she receives a mysterious letter from
the Scarabae family. All she knows about them is that Adamus Scarabae deserted her mother
before Rachaela's birth. Recalling her mother's warnings, she wants nothing to do with
them, and finds their persistence ever more intrusive. What do they want? But on losing both her ill-paid job and her flat Rachaela finally agrees to their offer and goes to live with them in The House - a mysterious cliff-top mansion miles from anywhere. The apparently ageless Scarabae are both intriguing and insidiously frightening. Gathered from all over the world, they spend their leisurely days hiding behind sinister stained-glass windows that transform the sun into rich pools of colour. Through this rambling mansion stalks an enormous cat, and everywhere Rachaela senses silently closing doors and watching eyes. Then, on a night of storm, there appears the tall, dark man of Rachaela's smothered dreams and nightmares. He is young - the first young man she has seen in The House - although he claims to be older. What is he to her? A bond to chain her to the Scarabae, or the ultimate demon she must escape? Can Rachaela - and the daughter she will come to bear - ever contrive to fight against the overwhelming influence of The House? (dustwrapper copy) |
Czech Translations:
Finnish Translations:
French Translations:
German Translations:
Italian Translations:
Polish Translations:
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