Just saw this in your introductory recs while reading emails to wake myself up, and have to get going (already made myself late!) but a list of psrsonal Tanith Lee favorites for future readers (or you if you care!) in case i forget to come back here later or for weeks:
Drinking Sapphire Wine
Delusion's Master
Sunglasses in Shadow
The not-that-story I remember liking most- Il Est Trois, La Mort
First story I ever read by her: Red as Blood
First novel: Night's Master
A truly great stylist, albeit often brutal and ofren kinda problematic even by then-standards, much less now, but as Elizabeth Bear once said about HP Lovecraft, when it cimes to art, "nobody remembers you for what you didn't do wrong," and Lee did so very much brilliantly right.
Yes, Sung ifavorites. Apologies for not proofing. Autocorrect does weird things.
& yeah we did kinda sorta overlap with the flat earth series, I just wanted to single out my personal favorite!
Likewise DSW & DBTS, I read the original Daw paperback without having read it's predecessor and remains an all time favorite. Probably shoukd read the 1st novel in sequence at some point.
Beautiful post! Do you have a recommended way in for folks who haven't read any Tanith Lee? Do you think it's better to start with a novel or a story collection?
Good question! I should have given a list in the OP. :)
Up front I'll say that I love Lee, but not everyone does, and some of her books are not great. (She was a professional writer almost her whole life, so sometimes she probably had to write sub-standard material to hit deadlines.) But if you become a Lee superfan then it's worth checking out all her books, because there's always something interesting. I've read a very large number of Lee books, but I had to use Interlibrary Loan and stuff, because some are hard to find. There is a bibliography of all her work at DaughterOfTheNight.com.
Here are my specific favorites and recommendations:
- "Biting The Sun" is a great, fun, and easy read. One of my all-time favorite novels. The book fits in the science fiction sub-genre I sometimes call "utopia/dystopia." (Note: This book was originally published as two books, "Don't Bite The Sun" and "Drinking Sapphire Wine." But right now it's much cheaper and easier to find as "Biting The Sun.")
- "The Silver Metal Lover" is a science fiction romance novel about a girl and a robot. It's easy and lovely to read, with deep moments.
- "The Glass Dagger" is my favorite short story by Lee. I linked a PDF in the OP.
- "Cyrion" is an incredible set of short stories about one character, a sword-and-sorcery hero named Cyrion. It makes great use of the tropes for a sword-and-sorcery hero.
- "Tanith Lee A-Z" is a wide-ranging collection of shorts, published by Lee's husband after she died. He had great taste in the stories he picked out. Many of my favorites are in here, including "The Devil's Rose" and "Zelle's Thursday," which I mentioned in the OP, as well as "Rherlotte," which I didn't.
- "Dreams of Dark and Light" is another short story collection. I like this one because it covers her range of styles. She was a highly versatile writer, and this collection shows her versatility. This book is way out of print, though. It looks to me like the minimum you'd have to pay for a copy is $52 (found via Bookfinder.com).
- The Flat Earth series contains five beautifully written mythic fantasy novels. The series is really original, but also draws clearly from many different myths. There's a nice hardcover edition that isn't too expensive that takes the form of two collections published by Reader's Digest, one of which is called "The Lords of Darkness" and the other "Night's Daughter." I like the Reader's Digest edition, but it's a commitment to buy all those books at once, so you might want to start with one. If you buy the five books separately, then the first book is "Night's Master," and you can see if you like it enough to continue the series.
A lot of people on social media are saying that Gaiman stole from Flat Earth, but I don't think that's likely, because the Flat Earth series is so strikingly written and well-known. However, I do think it's likely that Gaiman stole material from Lee, because she told multiple people before she died that he had done so. I would love to know which Lee titles were involved.
Fun fact: One of my first writing jobs (almost twenty years ago!) was with White Wolf Games. I got to work on the second edition of their Exalted line, which was a real honor because I'd fallen in love with the first edition of the game during college. The first edition of Exalted listed Flat Earth among its inspirations. I had already read Flat Earth before I played Exalted, and I'd already played other White Wolf games too. But when Exalted was originally published, I initially thought it sounded ludicrous. Then my friends insisted that I look at the rulebook and I was so impressed by the taste demonstrated by its authors in their "Influences" section that I gave the game a chance. The rest is history!
Just saw this in your introductory recs while reading emails to wake myself up, and have to get going (already made myself late!) but a list of psrsonal Tanith Lee favorites for future readers (or you if you care!) in case i forget to come back here later or for weeks:
Drinking Sapphire Wine
Delusion's Master
Sunglasses in Shadow
The not-that-story I remember liking most- Il Est Trois, La Mort
First story I ever read by her: Red as Blood
First novel: Night's Master
A truly great stylist, albeit often brutal and ofren kinda problematic even by then-standards, much less now, but as Elizabeth Bear once said about HP Lovecraft, when it cimes to art, "nobody remembers you for what you didn't do wrong," and Lee did so very much brilliantly right.
Yes! I’ve read all of these, and many are in my recommendations too :)
I think you meant “Sung in Shadow,” though? (Your comment says “Sunglasses in Shadow”)
Yes, Sung ifavorites. Apologies for not proofing. Autocorrect does weird things.
& yeah we did kinda sorta overlap with the flat earth series, I just wanted to single out my personal favorite!
Likewise DSW & DBTS, I read the original Daw paperback without having read it's predecessor and remains an all time favorite. Probably shoukd read the 1st novel in sequence at some point.
Tanith Lee is awesome.
Great to see the force of the Gaiman scandal turned towards celebration of Lee. She's deserved more!
Beautiful post! Do you have a recommended way in for folks who haven't read any Tanith Lee? Do you think it's better to start with a novel or a story collection?
Good question! I should have given a list in the OP. :)
Up front I'll say that I love Lee, but not everyone does, and some of her books are not great. (She was a professional writer almost her whole life, so sometimes she probably had to write sub-standard material to hit deadlines.) But if you become a Lee superfan then it's worth checking out all her books, because there's always something interesting. I've read a very large number of Lee books, but I had to use Interlibrary Loan and stuff, because some are hard to find. There is a bibliography of all her work at DaughterOfTheNight.com.
Here are my specific favorites and recommendations:
- "Biting The Sun" is a great, fun, and easy read. One of my all-time favorite novels. The book fits in the science fiction sub-genre I sometimes call "utopia/dystopia." (Note: This book was originally published as two books, "Don't Bite The Sun" and "Drinking Sapphire Wine." But right now it's much cheaper and easier to find as "Biting The Sun.")
- "The Silver Metal Lover" is a science fiction romance novel about a girl and a robot. It's easy and lovely to read, with deep moments.
- "The Glass Dagger" is my favorite short story by Lee. I linked a PDF in the OP.
- "Cyrion" is an incredible set of short stories about one character, a sword-and-sorcery hero named Cyrion. It makes great use of the tropes for a sword-and-sorcery hero.
- "Tanith Lee A-Z" is a wide-ranging collection of shorts, published by Lee's husband after she died. He had great taste in the stories he picked out. Many of my favorites are in here, including "The Devil's Rose" and "Zelle's Thursday," which I mentioned in the OP, as well as "Rherlotte," which I didn't.
- "Dreams of Dark and Light" is another short story collection. I like this one because it covers her range of styles. She was a highly versatile writer, and this collection shows her versatility. This book is way out of print, though. It looks to me like the minimum you'd have to pay for a copy is $52 (found via Bookfinder.com).
- The Flat Earth series contains five beautifully written mythic fantasy novels. The series is really original, but also draws clearly from many different myths. There's a nice hardcover edition that isn't too expensive that takes the form of two collections published by Reader's Digest, one of which is called "The Lords of Darkness" and the other "Night's Daughter." I like the Reader's Digest edition, but it's a commitment to buy all those books at once, so you might want to start with one. If you buy the five books separately, then the first book is "Night's Master," and you can see if you like it enough to continue the series.
A lot of people on social media are saying that Gaiman stole from Flat Earth, but I don't think that's likely, because the Flat Earth series is so strikingly written and well-known. However, I do think it's likely that Gaiman stole material from Lee, because she told multiple people before she died that he had done so. I would love to know which Lee titles were involved.
Fun fact: One of my first writing jobs (almost twenty years ago!) was with White Wolf Games. I got to work on the second edition of their Exalted line, which was a real honor because I'd fallen in love with the first edition of the game during college. The first edition of Exalted listed Flat Earth among its inspirations. I had already read Flat Earth before I played Exalted, and I'd already played other White Wolf games too. But when Exalted was originally published, I initially thought it sounded ludicrous. Then my friends insisted that I look at the rulebook and I was so impressed by the taste demonstrated by its authors in their "Influences" section that I gave the game a chance. The rest is history!
(Comment edited for clarity)
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