Tag: Tanith Lee
L’Amber by Tanith Lee (book review).
What is truth? Fiction, by its nature, is a series of untruths perpetrated by the author since none of the events in a novel will have happened exactly like that even if they include features based on real events. Autobiographies may be largely true but are one person’s recollection of happenings that another may remember […]
Blood 20: Tales Of Vampire Horror by Tanith Lee (book review).
‘Blood 20: Tales Of Vampire Horror’ is a collection of vampire stories written by Tanith Lee. Having heard of her but never read her work, I looked forward to getting a good sample here. The first story, ‘On Reflection’, is set in a desert outpost of the diminishing Roman Empire and starts with battalion commander […]
Anackire (The Wars Of Vis Trilogy book 2) by Tanith Lee (book review).
When the term ‘prolific’ is used to describe a writer, the implication often is that the resulting work will be the kind of enjoyable romp, characteristic of the old pulps. Often this assumption is true and there are many readers who appreciate this kind of book. Rarer is to find a prolific writer whose works […]
Electric Forest by Tanith Lee (book review).
One of the problems with choosing from the plethora of books on offer is which one. Should it be something a friend with similar tastes has recommended, a new author you’ve not yet sampled or one of the ‘classics’. The term ‘classic’ is itself a minefield. Younger readers tend to think of them as on […]
Ghosteria Volume Two: The Novel Zircons May Be Mistaken by Tanith Lee (book review).
Ghost stories have been around since humans sat around fires in the winter and were haunted by the shadows cast by the flickering flames. There is a fine tradition for these stories, especially in the Victorian era when exponents such as M.R. James and his contemporaries made the popular press. As shadows have been chased […]
Tanith Lee (1947-2015) : remembered by Pauline Morgan.
Over the past few years we have lost a lot of genre writers such as Iain Banks, Graham Joyce and Joel Lane. Now we have to add Tanith Lee to the list of those who will be missed. Tanith was born on the 19th September 1947 and died from breast cancer on 24th May 2015. […]
To Indigo by Tanith Lee (book review).
There can be few authors who have published well over ninety books and still be able to come up with fresh ideas. Many who are that prolific often write series that develop a formulised similarity: think of Mills & Boon or Piers Anthony. The problem with Anthony is that he starts a series with something […]
Cruel Pink by Tanith Lee (book review).
Buildings have frequently had a distinctive part to play in fiction. The way a house is positioned, designed or furnished can greatly influence the human characters associated with it and how the reader perceives them. One of the best known buildings in fantasy literature is the sprawling confection of Mervin Peake’s ‘Gormenghast’. The gothic edifice […]
Killing Violets (Gods Dogs) by Tanith Lee (book review).
Some periods in history have style. Admittedly, beneath the veneer of any civilisation there is an underbelly of depravity. Tanith Lee is a stylish writer but her subject matter often depicts the seedier side of apparent respectability. The time is 1934, a period when the turmoil underneath the sophisticated Europe was only just beginning to […]
Greyglass by Tanith Lee (book review).
There are some novels where the human characters seem less important than the place in which the story is set. This can be a landscape, a planet or a house. In Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’ it is very much the planet that is the hero. Without the broad sweep of desert and the creatures that live […]
