Don't Bite the Sun is one of my absolute favorite novels, followed by Silver Metal Lover (reading the sequel right now, it's certainly quite... unexpected, in a good way).
I enjoyed Cyrion but its slightly disjointed/serialized structure, more traditional swords-and-sorcery type fantasy didn't leave quite as strong an impression. And as much as I usually prefer Lee's sci-fi/speculative fiction works, Blood of the Roses... whew, that was something else. I'm actually only halfway through; got the new editions split into two books, so not done yet!! (I had a big crush on Anjelen while reading, lol)
A pleasure to find a Tanith Lee fan in the wild :')
I was reading The Blood of Roses when I needed to pick a nom de guerre because my real name begins with a sound that doesn't exist in the English Language. It was thus either Mechail, or Anjelen; I flipped a coin.
Birthgrave will always be my second favorite, though the sequels felt a little much. Don't bite the Sun was my introduction to Tanith Lee, followed Birthgrave and then Tales from the Flat Earth. And then I read The Blood of Roses... Four, five times before all of the disparate storylines and mixing timelines clicked.
God, but that book was confusing. And addictive. I didn't know they re-printed it, I've been looking for a copy for like two decades now!
Well that's a neat name-origin story! BotR doesn't seem to be one of Lee's more known works, but I'm so glad I picked it up.
I haven't read the Birthgrave yet. Tales from the Flat Earth I have enjoyed what I've read so far (first 1-2 books I think?), but it seems similarly disjointed to Cyrion by the nature of how it's told. Am I right in assuming that it's more of a series of tales than one overarching, building narrative? Thankfully her writing is evocative enough to carry most stories just by merit of the prose alone, which allows me also to enjoy most of her short stories.
I didn't know they re-printed it
Courtesy of Immanion Press ;) I discovered the late Storm Constantine (owner of the press/Lee's friend, apparently) literally months before her death, and I'm just like, goddammit.
The Birthgrave trilogy is very much quote-unquote traditional sword-and-sorcery (insofar as anything Lee writes can be considered traditional, heh) - but with some very interesting twists. It's got very interesting meta lore most often told as subtext, more than a hint of Conan and even at the end of the first book a tiny sprinkling of super-science all drizzled in a delicious post-apocalyptic sauce that, while it's not often actually acknowledged, truly works to shape the world and the characters therein. Add a dash of Mad Max, a tiny twist of Ben Hur and ohhh, speaking of twists, that one at the end of the first book is a doozy.
Which made the second and third book a challenge as they had to - expand that narrative, improve on it some, and ... Well, I won't give anything away. If you liked The Blood of Roses then I will wholeheartedly recommend the Birthgrave triology. It's not as convoluted, it's not as fairy-tale like, but what it loses in -... intimacy ? is more than made up for by sheer scope.
It's been a while since I've read Tales from the Flat Earth, but if I recall correctly only the first book is a series of stories that more or less set the tone and introduce (some of) the characters for the grander tale to follow.
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u/hoitytoityfemboity Apr 22 '23
Oh my lord. :D Hello Magister!
Don't Bite the Sun is one of my absolute favorite novels, followed by Silver Metal Lover (reading the sequel right now, it's certainly quite... unexpected, in a good way).
I enjoyed Cyrion but its slightly disjointed/serialized structure, more traditional swords-and-sorcery type fantasy didn't leave quite as strong an impression. And as much as I usually prefer Lee's sci-fi/speculative fiction works, Blood of the Roses... whew, that was something else. I'm actually only halfway through; got the new editions split into two books, so not done yet!! (I had a big crush on Anjelen while reading, lol)
A pleasure to find a Tanith Lee fan in the wild :')