September 19th would have been Tanith Lee’s seventy-sixth birthday. Between her first sale in 19681 and her death in 2015, Lee published over ninety books and 200 short stories. As Roz Kaveney’s obituary for Lee detailed, Lee’s work was astonishingly wide-ranging:
(Lee) produced adult and young adult novels, science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, spy fiction, erotica, a historical novel (The Gods Are Thirsty, in 1996, about the French Revolution, one of her many obsessions), radio plays, and two episodes of the television space opera Blake’s 7.
Until about 1990, Lee’s lushly decadent fiction enjoyed considerable popularity. After 1990, she experienced difficulty in selling her work to publishers, particularly North American publishers, who once favored her books and stories. However, we live in a golden age of reprints, and much of her backlist is available once more.
Given ninety books to choose from, where should one start? Readers could consider these five exemplary Lee works, drawn from across her career.2
Night’s Master (1978)
In the days when the Earth was flat, the gods turned their backs on their mortal creations. Only demons took an active interest in the Flat Earth. Demons love to break their toys. It’s a bad era in which to be mortal.
Night’s Master is a cycle of tales focused on the great and powerful demon prince Azhrarn. Proud, vindictive, and cruel, Azhrarn’s one virtue—his love of beauty—is no asset when coupled with his faults. The result? A trail of calamity as the demon by turns amuses himself and punishes those who have disappointed him.
One might compare Azhrarn to Satan, except for one detail: Satan fell but Azhrarn was bad from his beginning. Readers may be assured that Azhrarn eventually experiences a suitable fate.
Sung in Shadow (1983)
Like Verona, Sana Verensa is divided between powerful families whose love of violence is second only to their enthusiasm for vendetta. The Montargos hate the Chentis. The Chentis loathe the Montargos. Surely romance between a Montargo and a Chenti is as unthinkable as romance between a Montague and a Capulet.
Handsome, debauched Romulan Montargo and beautiful, naive Iuletta Chenti’s romance is as foreordained as it is doomed. To meet is to fall in love; to fall in love invites calamity. The only question appears to be how misfortune will manifest and which lover will die first.
Lee finds a new spin on a familiar tale by understanding that secondary fantasy universes offer solutions not available to Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers. This would be the novel that inspired a friend of mine to observe that you cannot spell necromancer without “romance.”
Louisa the Poisoner (1995)
Raised by a mad, witchy aunt, Louisa possesses detailed knowledge about poisons, a clear grasp of her own best interests, and a comprehensive absence of morals. Her aunt having tragically died after Louisa poisoned her, Louisa sets out to find her fortune. Consequently, the world will become a less crowded place.
Kindly Lord Maskullance is as generous as he is oblivious to other people’s manifest flaws. Maskullance makes Louisa his ward. As such, she can expect to inherit some of his wealth. Louisa would prefer to inherit all of Lord Maskullance’s wealth. Bad news for the other heirs, none of whom have cultivated the immunity to toxins required by those sharing an inadvertent tontine with Louisa. Excellent news for Louisa, who is very good at what she does.
Readers of a certain age might be reminded of Kind Hearts and Coronets, save for one very important difference. Whereas films of a certain vintage were compelled to ensure that homicidal heirs eventually faced justice, no such forces are at work in this inspiring Horatio Alger-esque tale of ambitious homicide.
Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl’s Adventure Upon the High Seas (2006)
In seventeen-twelvety, sixteen-year-old amnesic orphan Artemesia “Art” Fitz-Willoughby Weatherhouse suddenly remembers that her late mother Molly Faith was the dread Piratica. Art flees the Angels Academy for Young Maidens, reinventing herself as Art Blastside. She need only acquire a crew and a ship, and Art Blastside will become a pirate as legendary as Piratica.
Art’s recovered memories are slightly flawed: Molly was not a pirate but an actress. Piratica was a role Molly played. Piratica’s “crew” were likewise actors. However, the cast unwittingly possesses a treasure that the very genuine pirate Little Golden Girl would literally kill to own. Can acting skills prevail against someone experienced in the art of applied murder?
As the year indicates, this is a secondary universe in which plausibility is not necessarily job one. That said, death is final in this setting, pirates are surprisingly dangerous, and if Little Golden Girl doesn’t murder would-be pirate Art, the English Republic may well hang the delusional sixteen-year-old. Still, it’s all in good fun.
Zircons May Be Mistaken (2014)
The world became an empty, quiet place after the Terror of 2020, when corpses rose and ate the living. The inhabitants of one stately mansion avoided becoming victims through a simple method: all are intangible ghosts who perished before the Terror. Not only are they too dead to die, the five ghosts are too intangible for zombies to affect.
Centuries of post-apocalyptic spectral boredom find a cure when the shades realize that while ghosts are immune to zombies, the reverse is not true at all. The shades can possess the walking corpses, and enjoy, at least for a time, the pleasures of corporeal existence. As the ghosts discover, there is a cost. Physical brains restore memories long forgotten, disquieting memories with which the dead will somehow have to come to terms.
This may be the most life-affirming zombie apocalypse novel I have read. In fact, until I read this novel, I don’t know that I’d ever had cause to use the phrase “life-affirming zombie apocalypse novel.” Yes, Stephanie Mabey’s Zombie Song is as upbeat, but it’s a song, not a novel.
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Those of you unfamiliar with Lee may find the website Daughter of the Night: An Annotated Tanith Lee Bibliography of great use when assembling lists of Lee books for which to search. Others, already familiar with Lee, may be vexed that I overlooked some of their favorites: with over ninety books to choose from, that was inevitable. Feel free to make the case for your favorites in comments below.
In the words of fanfiction author Musty181, four-time Hugo finalist, prolific book reviewer, and perennial Darwin Award nominee James Davis Nicoll “looks like a default mii with glasses.” His work has appeared in Interzone, Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times as well as on his own websites, James Nicoll Reviews (where he is assisted by editor Karen Lofstrom and web person Adrienne L. Travis) and the 2021, 2022, and 2023 Aurora Award finalist Young People Read Old SFF (where he is assisted by web person Adrienne L. Travis). His Patreon can be found here.
[1]“Eustace,” a ninety-word vignette. Her first novel was 1971’s “The Dragon Hoard,” which I’ve never seen, let alone read, and her first novel for adults was 1975’s “The Birthgrave.”
[2]My picks aren’t drawn from the 1960s, because as previously mentioned, “Eustace” is only ninety words. While “The Betrothed” is a majestic 5500 words, Lee estimated that only about six copies were ever printed. A version of “The Betrothed” was incorporated into “A Bed of Earth: Book III of The Secret Books of Venus.”
I quite like the novel “Kill the Dead”, because there are aspects that are upbeat.
Kill the Dead is also the only secondary universe fantasy of which I am aware whose protagonist is clearly inspired by an actor on Blake’s Seven.
@2: While not fantasy, Technical Difficulties’ “Jaq’s Song” is about how one of the trio’s members encountered Jacqueline Pearce and the two immediately became lifelong friends.
Let it be noted that Tor published a YA fantasy trilogy by her back in the 1990s: BLACK UNICORN, GOLD UNICORN, and RED UNICORN.
(Full disclosure: I acquired those books for Tor, back in the day. Always loved Lee’s work and was thrilled to be able to publish her.)
“Maskullance?” I’d guess that character was named for Maskull, from A Voyage to Arcturus.
I have read The Dragon Hoard. It’s OK but not great; it is whimsical fantasy which is not a mode that seemed to play to Lee’s strengths, at least at the time. (I haven’t read the Unicorn trilogy so I don’t know if they are in a similar mode.)
One of my first Tanith Lee reads was Volkhavaar, which sounded like a paranormal romance and has the best piece of deconstructive magic that I have ever read. A bit like a post-modern Dunsany tale of Pegana.
She was so prolific! Of all those mentioned I have only read Nights Master. I heard her speak once, to our university SFF society. She had the grace to appear genuinely pleased to be in a dingy basement bar with a crowd of nerdy and almost entirely male students. She by contrast was cool and glamorous and we loved her! She had just published the Silver Metal Lover I think. My personal favourites are Companions on the Road and the Book of the Beast. The first is a creepy YA novella following a band of thieves as they attempt to flee with their cursed treasure. Always on the horizon behind them are three riders. The second is both erotic and terrifying. Few writers can manage that. Not everything she wrote has lasted that well. She wasn’t consistently good. But I’m glad to find her remembered here.
I have been wondering for some time where to start with Tanith Lee, so thank you.
It turns out that you can get a copy of The Dragon Hoard from ABEBooks.com for less than ten (US) dollars. Which is not cheating; ABE may be owned by Amazorch, but they confederate info from independent booksellers, who reap the benefits, such as they may be.
Personally, I started with “Thieves World”.
My favorite Tanith Lee books are Don’t Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine. They are funny, thought-provoking, and moving.
I’ll add, as my personal favorite, “Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sister Grimmer,” an anthology of weird and wonderful tales, the title story of which took a different look at Sleeping Beauty long before Mr. Gaiman’s “Snow, Glass, Apple.”
Okay, now I need Louisa the Poisoner
Don’t forget The Birthgrave!
The birthgrave and Red as blood are the two I own (in old paperbacks.) I found I liked her short stories better than her novels, which is unusual for me. Haven’t read her for awhile, and I doubt my library has a lot on their shelves by her at this point. Anyone have a favorite story collection?
Red as Blood is good. So is Forests of the Night.
You’ve managed to mention three books I haven’t read and one I hadn’t even heard of, so kudos. The simple answer to “where to start” is “almost anywhere, really”: it would be hard to go very wrong with any of her books.
@6: Prince on a White Horse (the second half of Dark Castle, White Horse) is a rather good whimsical fantasy.
@15: The Gorgon and Other Beastly Tales. Includes the title story and “Draco, Draco”, which is an unusual take on the usual dragon-slaying story.
All her collections are worthwhile investments.
Novelwise I’m very fond of Cyrion for featuring one of the rare fantasy characters who uses deduction on magical problems. And A Heroine of the World, especially for the wonderful bit at the end when said heroine finally loses her temper with her guardian goddess…
I hit upon two short stories in separate anthologies–“Bite-Me-Not, or Fleur de Fur” (vampires!) and “When the Clock Strikes” (evil Cinderella!) as a teenager and actively sought her out. Loved the Unicorn trilogy, loved Biting the Sun, loved Piratica. Her Scarabae novels are vampire stories for those who think Anne Rice didn’t go dark enough.
The Four-BEE duology, two short novels which together would be about long enough for one book today, are solid SF with an impressive amount of world-building, character, and plot. Check out Don’t Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine.
And really, are those awesome titles or what? Can we give her some award for “best titles”? Dandelion Wine is a good title, but not nearly as good as Drinking Sapphire Wine. And The Silver Metal Lover? Wow.