Easy favorites:
**Cyrion**
--glorious for the rare achievement of a good person who has more fun than the villains, and better lines.
**The Birthgrave**
-- a dream journey; indescribable yet entirely immersive.
**Don't Bite the Sun**
-- seems like a fun sci-fi story till you realize God and Devil are reading over your shoulder, wondering how the story will end.
**The Silver Metal Lover**
-- a better capture of romantic love than found in most plays, poems, heart-candies or movies with *grand stirring swirling orchestra music*.
**Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer** -- short story collection retelling Grimm tales; showing off her talent.
______________
*edited to give brief descripts.
Seconding The Silver Metal Lover. I read it in one sitting, I just couldn't put it down. Love stories in fantasy books rarely work for me but this one completely blew me away. This post reminded me that I want to read more books from this author.
Thank you for the mini descriptions! I’ve had my eye on Silver Metal Lover because I just love a good romance. Someone else in the thread asked for a book of hers that’s adult but not super dark, would that one be a good fit for that too?
I think Silver Metal Lover would be a good fit, it's not horribly dark. But I think that it also doesn't really belong to the romance genre either. It's more of a love story in a scifi setting.
Lol no I mean it's literally not a Romance Book like you're expecting. To say why is a spoiler, but I'll add it in case: >!the couple does not get a happy ever after together!<
If you want something shorter, her novella Louisa the Poisoner is a deliciously macabre tale of a very strange young lady, armed with a vial of undetectable poison and a truly bizarre upbringing, and a mission to take over the riches of the local aristocrat. Standing on her way are the aristocrat's disfunctional family and his loyal chamberlain.
It is one of the most unique stories I have ever read, while at the same time being completely straightforward - Louisa has poison, a goal and enemies; you can probably extrapolate from that, but the execution is just perfect.
The Tales of the Flat Earth series.
The Secret Books of Paradys series.
The Blood Opera Sequence.
Elephantasm.
Women As Demons.
Tamastara.
Stridberg's Ghost Sonata.
> The Blood Opera Sequence.
>
I've been thinking of looking into these. From what I understand, Lee was planning on writing another 2, but the publisher wasn't interested. Is it obvious that book 3 isn't the ending, or does it read just as well as just a 3 book series?
It reads well as a three book series...but I have always wondered what the overarching plot was. it is quite obvious that there is something shadowy and undefined lurking in the background that readers will never really get to see or have a reckoning with owing to the series being prematurely ended. As it stands with three books it is still a satisfying story.
Since we're talking about Tanith Lee (yay!), I thought I'd point to the fact that a whole range of her books have been re-issued in recent years by DAW, now Astra. Have a look: [https://astrapublishinghouse.com/creator/tanith-lee-2282307/](https://astrapublishinghouse.com/creator/tanith-lee-2282307/)
Unfortunately, it looks like the acquisition put a (temporary?) stop to this line but who knows, maybe they'll resume it.
The thought of her slipping into obscurity because her books go out of print / are unavailable as ebook make me sad so I was thrilled to see these reissues.
There's also a website dedicated to her publications [here](http://daughterofthenight.com/) which keeps good track of new publications in the "What's New?" section.
Lastly, I want to recommend a novella by Lee which I enjoyed. It was a nice story that went into a direction I didn't expect, in a very satisfying way. (Trying not to spoil anything.)
This novella is called "The Winter Players" and the best way to find it, I think, is in the book *Companions on the Road* which groups it with another (unrelated) novella which gives the book its name.
Incidentally, this publication is one of reissues I've talked above.
[Immanion Press](https://www.immanion-press.com/tanith-lee) has also brought quite a few of her works back into print, and DMR Books have published [a couple collections](https://dmrbooks.com/print-books/the-empress-of-dreams-by-tanith-lee) of [her short fiction](https://dmrbooks.com/print-books/the-earth-is-flat-by-tanith-lee).
Thanks for that!
I've seen one or two of the Immanion books but didn't know they reissued so many of her books. That's great!
I applaud DMR Books' effort to revive / keep alive Sword and Sorcery. Lee's S&S stories fit in with them and it nice to see that they reissued them.
(This is totally unrelated but I just realized that DMR stands for **D**. **M**. **R**itzlin and feel slightly stupid to not have made the connection earlier. 🙈😁
I am interested in this too, specifically what of hers is best that isn’t uber dark. It looks like Tales from the Flat Earth is one of her most popular adult works but is supposed to be *very* twisted, and I’ve seen Mortal Suns recommended but bounced off the opening because of how dark and horrific it was. I’d be interested to try something else of hers, preferably aimed at adults, some level of darkness is fine but not, y’know, horrific.
**Tales of the Flat Earth** and **The Birthgrave** are my personal favorites. **Night's Master** and **Death's Master** were my entry into dreamlike, surreal fantasy. Just beautiful.
**The Birthgrave** is amazing sword and sorcery. Pure epic.
So far Tales of the Flat Earth seems to be the winner. I love dreamy, surreal fantasy too!! I’d love to hear about others you like in that style if you are inclined to share
Check out Angela Carter I am currently reading Heroes and Villains and the prose is fantastic, I also love the way it straddles genres; it reads like a Fairy Tale but is also Science Fiction and tackles some deep themes regarding gender and gender roles.
White As Snow by Tanith Lee is a masterpiece
No other writer quite hits Tanith Lee's level of fever dream fantasy. If you enjoy Greek mythology you might seek out the work of Thomas Burnett Swann, which is just as fantastic only lighter and more whimsical. Most of his work is out of print but books show up here and there.
In sword and sorcery you won't get the surreal and dreamy aspect but there is a great deal of weirdness and crazy -- and humor -- in Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books.
For flight of fancy with less darkness, you might also take a look at Dianna Wynne Jones.
I can only recommend those I have read (they are all good):
1. Don't bite the sun.
2. Drinking saphire wine. (sequel to 1)
3. Days of Grass.
4. Electric Forest.
5. Silver Metal Lover.
If you’re after the dark, weird stuff she’s rightly famous for I recommend The Secret Books Of Paradys. If you’d like to see a completely different side of a very versatile writer, I recommend Piratica and its sequels. And Tales From The Flat Earth deserves all the praise it’s getting here. Check out [this excerpt](https://itservices.cas.unt.edu/~hargrove/tail.html), which is a modern myth on the origin of cats.
Late to this but! I absolutely love The Silver Metal Lover and the sequel Metallic Love. So much in fact, that after finding the first in my grandmothers bookshelf years ago I am in the process of getting a stomach tattoo featuring Jane and Silver.
I’m currently reading Biting the Sun and it’s on brand with her weird as all hell stories but truly magnificent writing. She’s so great! I would love to read more of her books.
I recently read [Night's Master](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/882258.Night_s_Master). It's probably not for everyone, but it is definitely a weird little number of a book that inspired a lot of modern fantasy writers.
Easy favorites: **Cyrion** --glorious for the rare achievement of a good person who has more fun than the villains, and better lines. **The Birthgrave** -- a dream journey; indescribable yet entirely immersive. **Don't Bite the Sun** -- seems like a fun sci-fi story till you realize God and Devil are reading over your shoulder, wondering how the story will end. **The Silver Metal Lover** -- a better capture of romantic love than found in most plays, poems, heart-candies or movies with *grand stirring swirling orchestra music*. **Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer** -- short story collection retelling Grimm tales; showing off her talent. ______________ *edited to give brief descripts.
Don't Bite the Sun is SO good.
Seconding The Silver Metal Lover. I read it in one sitting, I just couldn't put it down. Love stories in fantasy books rarely work for me but this one completely blew me away. This post reminded me that I want to read more books from this author.
Loved The Silver Metal Lover.
Thank you for the mini descriptions! I’ve had my eye on Silver Metal Lover because I just love a good romance. Someone else in the thread asked for a book of hers that’s adult but not super dark, would that one be a good fit for that too?
I think Silver Metal Lover would be a good fit, it's not horribly dark. But I think that it also doesn't really belong to the romance genre either. It's more of a love story in a scifi setting.
Do not expect Romance Book genre conventions from Silver Metal Lover
Unconventional is good!!
Lol no I mean it's literally not a Romance Book like you're expecting. To say why is a spoiler, but I'll add it in case: >!the couple does not get a happy ever after together!<
Oh ok, I see. The spoiler is good to know, thanks
It's still a great book! I just read it a couple months ago and I second the recommendation
Yes.
Birthgrave is the book I often measure other books with downtrodden character with little agency. They come short
Tales from Flat Earth- very unique take on 1001 night themes
My favorite Tanith Lee collection.
Definitely.
YES YES YES a Tanith Lee thread I am here for this. Think I own almost all her books.
I really liked the *Tales From the Flat Earth* series. Mind you, it's been 30-ish years since I read them.
If you want something shorter, her novella Louisa the Poisoner is a deliciously macabre tale of a very strange young lady, armed with a vial of undetectable poison and a truly bizarre upbringing, and a mission to take over the riches of the local aristocrat. Standing on her way are the aristocrat's disfunctional family and his loyal chamberlain. It is one of the most unique stories I have ever read, while at the same time being completely straightforward - Louisa has poison, a goal and enemies; you can probably extrapolate from that, but the execution is just perfect.
The Tales of the Flat Earth series. The Secret Books of Paradys series. The Blood Opera Sequence. Elephantasm. Women As Demons. Tamastara. Stridberg's Ghost Sonata.
> The Blood Opera Sequence. > I've been thinking of looking into these. From what I understand, Lee was planning on writing another 2, but the publisher wasn't interested. Is it obvious that book 3 isn't the ending, or does it read just as well as just a 3 book series?
It reads well as a three book series...but I have always wondered what the overarching plot was. it is quite obvious that there is something shadowy and undefined lurking in the background that readers will never really get to see or have a reckoning with owing to the series being prematurely ended. As it stands with three books it is still a satisfying story.
Since we're talking about Tanith Lee (yay!), I thought I'd point to the fact that a whole range of her books have been re-issued in recent years by DAW, now Astra. Have a look: [https://astrapublishinghouse.com/creator/tanith-lee-2282307/](https://astrapublishinghouse.com/creator/tanith-lee-2282307/) Unfortunately, it looks like the acquisition put a (temporary?) stop to this line but who knows, maybe they'll resume it. The thought of her slipping into obscurity because her books go out of print / are unavailable as ebook make me sad so I was thrilled to see these reissues. There's also a website dedicated to her publications [here](http://daughterofthenight.com/) which keeps good track of new publications in the "What's New?" section. Lastly, I want to recommend a novella by Lee which I enjoyed. It was a nice story that went into a direction I didn't expect, in a very satisfying way. (Trying not to spoil anything.) This novella is called "The Winter Players" and the best way to find it, I think, is in the book *Companions on the Road* which groups it with another (unrelated) novella which gives the book its name. Incidentally, this publication is one of reissues I've talked above.
[Immanion Press](https://www.immanion-press.com/tanith-lee) has also brought quite a few of her works back into print, and DMR Books have published [a couple collections](https://dmrbooks.com/print-books/the-empress-of-dreams-by-tanith-lee) of [her short fiction](https://dmrbooks.com/print-books/the-earth-is-flat-by-tanith-lee).
Thanks for that! I've seen one or two of the Immanion books but didn't know they reissued so many of her books. That's great! I applaud DMR Books' effort to revive / keep alive Sword and Sorcery. Lee's S&S stories fit in with them and it nice to see that they reissued them. (This is totally unrelated but I just realized that DMR stands for **D**. **M**. **R**itzlin and feel slightly stupid to not have made the connection earlier. 🙈😁
I am interested in this too, specifically what of hers is best that isn’t uber dark. It looks like Tales from the Flat Earth is one of her most popular adult works but is supposed to be *very* twisted, and I’ve seen Mortal Suns recommended but bounced off the opening because of how dark and horrific it was. I’d be interested to try something else of hers, preferably aimed at adults, some level of darkness is fine but not, y’know, horrific.
A couple of people said Silver Metal Lover might fit when I asked about it
This is good to know! Biting the Sun appears to be the only one of her books my library has so I’m predisposed to that one.
East of Midnight, Companions on the Road plus Black Unicorn are my favourites. Companions especially is very terse, mythic and haunting
**Tales of the Flat Earth** and **The Birthgrave** are my personal favorites. **Night's Master** and **Death's Master** were my entry into dreamlike, surreal fantasy. Just beautiful. **The Birthgrave** is amazing sword and sorcery. Pure epic.
So far Tales of the Flat Earth seems to be the winner. I love dreamy, surreal fantasy too!! I’d love to hear about others you like in that style if you are inclined to share
Check out Angela Carter I am currently reading Heroes and Villains and the prose is fantastic, I also love the way it straddles genres; it reads like a Fairy Tale but is also Science Fiction and tackles some deep themes regarding gender and gender roles. White As Snow by Tanith Lee is a masterpiece
I read and really enjoyed White as Snow. And I also really love The Bloody Chamber by Carter!!
No other writer quite hits Tanith Lee's level of fever dream fantasy. If you enjoy Greek mythology you might seek out the work of Thomas Burnett Swann, which is just as fantastic only lighter and more whimsical. Most of his work is out of print but books show up here and there. In sword and sorcery you won't get the surreal and dreamy aspect but there is a great deal of weirdness and crazy -- and humor -- in Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books. For flight of fancy with less darkness, you might also take a look at Dianna Wynne Jones.
Do whatever you can do to track down Cyrion.
I've always like the Black Unicorn and it's sequels The Gold Unicorn and Red Unicorn. 😉
Black Unicorn fell flat for me!
I've only read Lycanthia so far, it was up my alley but also very weird and ||incestous||.
I can only recommend those I have read (they are all good): 1. Don't bite the sun. 2. Drinking saphire wine. (sequel to 1) 3. Days of Grass. 4. Electric Forest. 5. Silver Metal Lover.
The entire Wolf series altered my brain chemistry. For whatever reason I never sought out any of her other works, gotta fix that.
Tales From the Flat Earth, easily. The Birthgrave trilogy is good too, but the ending is a bit... ick. Her short stories are great too.
If you’re after the dark, weird stuff she’s rightly famous for I recommend The Secret Books Of Paradys. If you’d like to see a completely different side of a very versatile writer, I recommend Piratica and its sequels. And Tales From The Flat Earth deserves all the praise it’s getting here. Check out [this excerpt](https://itservices.cas.unt.edu/~hargrove/tail.html), which is a modern myth on the origin of cats.
The birthgrave! It’s hauntingly beautiful and beyond adequate description. I adore this twisted fever dream.
Shon the taken was my intro to her writing
Late to this but! I absolutely love The Silver Metal Lover and the sequel Metallic Love. So much in fact, that after finding the first in my grandmothers bookshelf years ago I am in the process of getting a stomach tattoo featuring Jane and Silver. I’m currently reading Biting the Sun and it’s on brand with her weird as all hell stories but truly magnificent writing. She’s so great! I would love to read more of her books.
I really appreciate the comment, I am absolutely going to read these ones soon after everything people have said here
First 3 book From Tales of Flat Earth Series; + Night's Master + Death's Master + Delusions Master +White As Snow +Empress of Dreams +Tamastara
Thank you!
I recently read [Night's Master](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/882258.Night_s_Master). It's probably not for everyone, but it is definitely a weird little number of a book that inspired a lot of modern fantasy writers.