Best Selling Books by Tanith Lee

What if Snow White were the real villain and the "wicked queen" just a sadly maligned innocent? What if awakening Sleeping Beauty would be the mistake of a lifetime -- of several lifetimes? What if the famous folk tales were retold with an eye to more horrific possibilities? Only Tanith Lee -- "Goddess-Empress of the Hot Read" (Village Voice) could retell the world-famous tales of the Brothers Grimm (and others) as they might have been told by the Sisters Grimmer! This special edition, put together for the 30th anniversary of the original edition, adds a new Grimmer fairy tale written especially for this volume!

Tanith Lee is one of the most thought-provoking and imaginative authors of our time. In this unforgettably poignant novel, Lee has created a classic tale—a beautiful, tragic, sensual, and ultimately triumphant love story of the future. Love is made of more than mere flesh and blood. . . . For sixteen-year-old Jane, life is a mystery she despairs of ever mastering. She and her friends are the idle, pampered children of the privileged class, living in luxury on an Earth remade by natural disaster. Until Jane''s life is changed forever by a chance encounter with a robot minstrel with auburn hair and silver skin, whose songs ignite in her a desperate and inexplicable passion. Jane is certain that Silver is more than just a machine built to please. And she will give up everything to prove it. So she escapes into the city''s violent, decaying slums to embrace a love bordering on madness. Or is it something more? Has Jane glimpsed in Silver something no one else has dared to see—not even the robot or his creators? A love so perfect it must be destroyed, for no human could ever compete?

World Fantasy Award winner Tanith Lee channels the allusive Esther Garber to tell these dark, erotic tales of lesbian ardor and obsession. The "fatal women" found within these pages lead exotic lives and adventures and have grim secrets. From fin de siècle Paris to Egypt of the 1930s and contemporary England, the Garber novellas create feverish dreams of danger, scandal, and sensuality. This new edition includes the novella "Femme Fatale," never before in print, as well as an essay by Mavis Haut, author of The Hidden Library of Tanith Lee, about the eminence of this collection within Lee''s body of work.

Disturbed By Her Song collects the work of Esther Garber and her half-brother Judas Garbah, the mysterious family of writers that Tanith Lee has been channeling for the past few years. Possibly autobiographical, frequently erotic and darkly surreal, their fiction takes place in a variety of eras and places, from Egypt in the 1940s, to England in the grip of the Pre-Raphaelites, to gaslit Paris and to the shadowy landscapes carved by the mind and memory. The themes of youth and age stream through these tales of homosexual love and desire. These stories recall, at times, the work of Lawrence Durrell, Colette, and Angela Carter.

In a world dedicated to pleasure, one young rebel sets out on a forbidden quest. Published for the first time in a single volume, Tanith Lee''s duet of novels set in a hedonistic Utopia are as riveting and revolutionary as they were when they first appeared two decades ago. It''s a perfect existence, a world in which no pleasure is off-limits, no risk is too dangerous, and no responsibilities can cramp your style. Not if you''re Jang: a caste of libertine teenagers in the city of Four BEE. But when you''re expected to make trouble—when you can kill yourself on a whim and return in another body, when you''re encouraged to change genders at will and experience whatever you desire—you''ve got no reason to rebel . . . until making love and raising hell, daring death and running wild just leave you cold and empty. Ravenous for true adventures of the mind and body, desperate to find some meaning, one restless spirit finally bucks the system—and by shattering the rules, strikes at the very heart of a soulless society. . . .

A recognized master fantasist, Tanith Lee has won numerous awards for her craft, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror. Rediscover her classic, most popular fantasy series, Tales from the Flat Earth, where demons and gods grant wonders and wreak havoc. Visit the Upperearth, where dwell the gods; the Underearth, the realm of nightmarish demons; the Innerearth, domain of the dead; and the Flat Earth itself, the home of mortals. Supreme amongst them all is the demon god Azhrarn, Night’s Master, whose deadly whims could change the lives of those in the Flat Earth. Azhrarn holds in his heart a mystery which could alter the very existence of the Flat Earth forever.

In her now-classic tale The Silver Metal Lover, award-winning author Tanith Lee told the spellbinding story of Jane and her forbidden love for a robot named Silver. In this stunning follow-up, the legend of their tragic romance lives on. But nothing is as it was—or as it seems. . . . As an orphan growing up in the slums, Loren read her clandestine copy of Jane’s Story over and over, relishing every word. But Loren is no Jane. Savvy and street-smart, Loren could never be stirred by a man of metal, her passion never ignited by an almost-human—even one designed for pleasure. Still, when the META corporation does the unthinkable and brings back updated versions of robots past—Loren knows she must see Silver. And just like Jane, it is love at first sight. But Silver is now Verlis. If he was perfection before, he is now like a god. Yet he is more human than his creators think—or fear. While Loren doesn’t quite trust him, she will follow her twice-born lover into a battle to control his own destiny—one that will reveal to her the most astonishing illusion of all.

Rediscover her classic, most popular fantasy series, Tales from the Flat Earth, where demons and gods grant wonders and wreak havoc. Visit the Upperearth, where dwell the gods; the Underearth, the realm of nightmarish demons; the Innerearth, the domain of the dead; and the Flat Earth itself, the home of mortals. Supreme amongst them all is the demon god Azhrarn, Night''s Master, whose deadly whims could change the lives of those in the Flat Earth. Azhrarn holds in his heart a mystery which could alter the very existence of the Flat Earth forever....

In this collection of fantasy, science fiction and horror stories, the witch, the vampiress, the femme fatale and the vengeful goddess spring to life.

In this first volume of The Secret Books of Paradys, Lee begins the search for a demonic creature seemingly impervious to sword, conjuring, or prayer. Readers won’t want to miss number two in the series, The Book of the Beast.

The enchanting, magical sequel to The Black Unicorn and The Gold Unicorn! After several years traveling, Tanaquil — a sorceress like her mother with the ability to mend — returns home only to discover that her true love has been betrothed to her sister, Empress Lizra. Broken-hearted and jealous of her sister’s happiness, Tanaquil is lured by a red unicorn into a mirror world where she encounters Tanakil, a diabolical version of herself. She discovers also several new powers. Powers she will need to foil Tanakil’s sinister plot of revenge.

Turek was raised as an orphan nomad, until one grim night when he learns of his heritage. He discovers he is the son of the last woman of a superior race long thought dead – a woman who once dishonored his warrior king father. Intent on revenge, Turek takes his father’s name, Vazkor, and embarks on a journey to find his mother – and murder her. Rediscover this realm of brilliant cruel beauty and seductive immortal ruins, of savage war and grand conquest, of falling stars and silver gods—with this 40th anniversary edition of legendary fantastist Tanith Lee''s Birthgrave Trilogy.

For the first time in e-book format, a gothic tale of werewolves in a remote French village from a master of dark fantasy. Tanith Lee''s classic gothic novel tells a tale of werewolves in a chateau in remote France.

The Lionwolf scrolls conclude in this epic fantasy adventure set in a snowbound world where redemption and revenge collide The powerful mage Thryfe gropes through the steel-white snows that have covered the huddles of ruins, abandoned villages, and casualties of the White Death. He is searching for the stunning witch Jemhara, but his magic mirror can only see her past, not her present, and the sorcerer fears that a mad force abroad on the ice-locked earth is keeping them apart. At last, he finds Jemhara in the rebuilt town of Kandexa. Their impassioned and bizarre love rekindles, resulting in the birth of a boy with red hair, blue eyes, and golden skin: He is Lionwolf reborn from the land of the dead. But the vicious dark lord Zzth has been burning under the sea, waiting for the moment of his inevitable return, planning for mutilation, destruction, and frigid ruin.

Following Faces Under Water, Tanith Lee’s alchemical thriller series continues with a Joan of Arc–inspired novel set in an alternate medieval Venice. In Saint Fire, the second volume in the Secret Books of Venus series, Volpa is a strangely beautiful servant girl who glows with an inhuman inner flame. When her master, an abusive wood seller, is mysteriously incinerated, Volpa discovers her power of fire. Her gift is noticed by the Church leaders, who see her as a mighty weapon in their holy wars. This gripping fantasy of a mysteriously gifted Joan of Arc is stunning from beginning to end. “Lee’s writing is as entrancing as ever, full of evocative imagery and memorable characters. The questions she raises about faith and hypocrisy, fear and justice, are deftly rendered and not easily answered.” —Publishers Weekly “The author of Faces Under Water continues her saga of a city at the mercy of powers beyond its control. Lee’s sensual and evocative storytelling imparts a dreamlike quality to this tale of transcendent faith and human passion.” —Library Journal “Evocative, and set forth in Lee’s eerily crystalline prose.” —Kirkus Reviews

Four-BEE was an Utopian city. If you didn''t mind being taken care of all your long long life, having a wild time as a “jang" teenager, able to do anything you wanted from killing yourself innumerable times, changing bodies, changing sex, and raising perpetual hell, it could be heaven. But for one inhabitant there was always something askew. He/she had tried everything and yet the taste always soured. And then he/she succeeded in committing the one illegal act—and was thrown out of heaven forever. But forever is not a term any native of that robotic utopia understood. And so he/she challenged the rules, declared independence, and set out to prove that a human was still smarter than the cleverest and most protective robot... You don’t need to have read Tanith Lee''s DON’T BITE THE SUN, which set the original scene, to find DRINKING SAPPHIRE WINE of the same high merit that distinguished this author’s THE BIRTHGRAVE.

A recognized master fantasist, Tanith Lee has won numerous awards for her craft, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror. Delusion’s Master is the third book of the stunning arabesque high fantasy series Tales from the Flat Earth, which, in the manner of The One Thousand and One Nights, portrays an ancient world in mythic grandeur via connected tales. A long time ago when the Earth was Flat, beautiful indifferent Gods lived in the airy Upperearth realm above, curious passionate demons lived in the Underearth realm below, and mortals were relegated to exist in the middle. Chuz, Prince of Madness, third of the Lords of Darkness—beauty on one side, foul corruption on the other—“takes pity” on the world. In his gentle, soft embrace, mortal minds repose in a tide of illusion and twisted desire. Yet no one is immune from the sweetest madness of all, and even immortals fall at the cast of the bone dice…. Come within this ancient world of brilliant darkness and beauty, of glittering palaces and wondrous elegant beings, of cruel passions and undying love. Discover the wonder that is the Flat Earth.

Originally published in 1983 by Doubleday.

The progeny of both god and mortal endures ceaseless war in a frozen hell in the second volume of the Lionwolf scrolls Lionwolf awakes on an unfamiliar shore under a cold blue sun, with no memories save the sensation of being in the deadly womb of the sea. Others join him, and they too cannot remember who they are or where they have been. Though Lionwolf can’t remember his name—and, in fact, calls himself Nameless—he feels like he was once a king. The twenty-three men on the shore are his army, and soon they are called to duty. Eyeless blue hounds and snake-haired figures riding eight-legged horses lead the men toward a towering city where a bestial mouth trumpets a horrible battle cry. It is Shabatu, a Place of War. There, Lionwolf sets eyes on the king’s lover, Chillel—the woman who was once Lionwolf’s wife. Are Lionwolf and his men dead? And is Shabatu perhaps their hell?

It is the season of the beast. Lured on by a brilliant diamond, the man-beast moves about the world in the sway of a pitiless, violent curse. In the frozen English countryside, a woman receives a rare diamond from her husband and unknowingly awaits the monster''s unquenchable bloodlust. . . .

"Electric Forest is a novel about a deformed woman who is given a new body as part of a government espionage effort. The world called Indigo turned upside down for Magdala Cled one morning. From being that world''s only genetic misfit, the outcast of an otherwise ideal society, she became the focus of attention for mighty forces. Installed in the midst of the Electric Forest, with its weird trees and its super-luxurious private home, Magdala awoke to the potentials which were opening up about her. And to realize also the peril that now seemed poised above Indigo. Only she, the hated one, could circumvent them."--Wikipedia.

With her talent for mending things, sixteen-year-old Tanaquil reconstructs a unicorn which, brought to life, lures her away from her desert fortress home and her sorceress mother to find a city by the sea and the way to a perfect world.

This repackaged edition of a classic sci-fi tale from a master storyteller explores a planet of great contrasts, one side in perpetual light, the other in darkness. Vel Thaidis is a figment of Vitra''s imagination. In a city with no sunlight, Vitra crafts dreams to entertain the masses. She enjoys a decadent life with the nobility while the lower class work and rot. Vitra''s dreams are a mirror image of her life. Vel has a brother like her, knows a man like the one Vitra desires. Even the machines that take care of them, that no one remembers how to fix, are the same. Except in Vitra''s dreams, no one can fix the machines when they slowly die, while they never break down in reality. Vitra will never fear being stuck in the dark with no machines to create light. Until she is. Vitra''s dreams and reality are merging. She feels pushed into a corner, with no solution but the one her dreams have given her. In the end, Vitra may not have as much free will as she believes—and her dreams may be more real than she knows.

Rachaela''s daughter is named Anna, to honour the dead. On her breast is a small blue mark. In two years, she grows to the maturity of a 16-year-old woman and is abducted by Cain, the outcaste of Scarabe. Meanwhile, he is stealing other children and taking them to a place at the end of the world.

A mysterious woman awakens in the heart of a dormant volcano. Shepherded into rebirth by a terrifying entity named Karrakaz, she has no memory of herself, but is offered a choice: remain in eternal darkness, or begin a cursed life above. Emerging into a culturally devastated and brutal world, she embarks on a journey of discovery, despite the ruthless fate foretold by Karrakaz and the dark heritage she may be forced to accept. Inexplicably compelled to seek out a strange objects she knows only as Jade, she could be anyone--mortal woman, demoness lover, fierce sorceress, last living heir to a long gone race, or a goddess of destruction. She chooses to be all.

A recognized master fantasist, Tanith Lee has won multiple awards for her craft, including the British Fantasy Award, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror. The White Serpent returns to the world of Vis nearly a century after the reign of Raldnor, the legendary Storm Lord who brought peace to Dorthar. Despite his efforts, the people are once again divided by conflict, and the goddess Anackire must choose new champions if the realm is to have any hope of preservation.... As a child, Rehger was sold into slavery, torn from his home and family. As a young man, he has proved his martial prowess as a lauded gladiator, fighting in the grand city of Saardsimney. But in the midst of his rise to fame, he meets Aztira, an intriguing woman who wields devastating power. With her magic and knowledge, she could be the person who transforms his life of subservience and leads him to his destiny. But before he can fully uncover the truth of their connection, a powerful earthquake strikes, devastating the city and forcing Rehger to flee. Haunted by visions of Aztira long after their first encounter, Rehger embarks on a quest to seek out her people, the legendary Amanackire, in a city shrouded in mystery and myth....

“An excellent collection” of vampire stories, from authors such as Harlan Ellison, Dan Simmons, Gahan Wilson, Tanith Lee, and Fritz Leiber (Publishers Weekly). Renowned editor Ellen Datlow has gathered seventeen variations on vampirism ranging from classically Gothic to postmodern satire, from horrific to erotic. These stories reflect the evolution of vampire literature from Bram Stoker to Anne Rice and beyond, resulting in a deeper exploration of their inner lives. Expanding the concept of vampirism to include the draining of a person’s will or life force, Datlow’s collection transcends the traditional “black capes and teeth marks on the neck” to reinvent an eternally fascinating subgenre of horror. In Harlan Ellison’s “Try a Dull Knife,” an empath stumbles bleeding into a nightclub, on the run from emotional vampires. A Broadway actress steals the emotions of her fellow performers in “. . . To Feel Another’s Woe” by Chet Williamson. And in “The Sea Was Wet as Wet Could Be,” Gahan Wilson offers his own surreal twist on Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” as two strangers on a beach lure intoxicated picnickers to a different kind of picnic . . . Blood Is Not Enough includes contributions by Dan Simmons, Gahan Wilson, Garry Kilworth, Harlan Ellison, Scott Baker, Leonid Andreyev, Harvey Jacobs, S. N. Dyer, Edward Bryant, Fritz Leiber, Tanith Lee, Susan Casper, Steve Rasnic Tem, Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann, Chet Williamson, Joe Haldeman, and Pat Cadigan.

A sequel to BLACK UNICORN, in which Tanaquil and her talking ''familiar'' journey across different lands and learn of the Empress Veriam and her insatiable desire to expand her domain by conquest. Tanaquil is shocked to discover that this woman is also in fact her half-sister Lizra. From the author of VIVIA and DARKNESS, I.

This wondrous tale of love, war, and one woman''s goddess-chosen destiny is frought with danger as Ara becomes a pawn and player in the power games of princes and warlords.

»My dear cousin and lover, I sport here three in a bed, with two wolves – who have recently devoured the flesh of a young girl...« To a distant corner of France comes Christian Dorse to claim his inheritance where, his beauty enhanced by his consumptive pallor, Christian prepares himself to surrender to premature death. But Christian is close to the forest where the de Lagenays live, a mother and son that both servants and village people mysteriously avoid mentioning. Are they, as he comes to suspect, the children of the wolf? And are they the ones who, when darkness falls, throw out exquisite seductions which he cannot resist? Award-winning author Tanith Lee''s spellbinding novel mixes eroticism and fear in a fantasy laced with surprise, enchantment and the evil of spoilt beauty...

For the first time in e-book, an omnibus of novels about two different but equally unlikely heroes, juxtaposing a somber tone with the absurdist comedy. 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!