New Releases by Tanith Lee

The final novel in the alchemical thriller series set in an alternate Venice by the World Fantasy Award–winning author of A Bed of Earth. Centuries into the future, the sunken city of Venus has been salvaged from beneath the sea and rebuilt there under a dome, where it is supported by a vast network of computers that regulate weather, noise, and the most precious undersea commodity of all—air. It is here that a macabre experiment takes place. Conducted by geneticists at the university, the test consists of the resurrection of two lost souls, both murdered in their times: Jula, a first-century gladiatrix, and Cloudio del Nero, the eighteenth-century composer who met his fate in Lee’s acclaimed first volume of the Secret Books of Venus series. An unexplained catastrophe occurs, claiming several lives. Was it merely an accident, computer failure, or has the trial unleashed an airborne virus? Or is there an even more sinister danger afoot, a force from beyond that threatens the survival of Venus itself? To answer these questions, a traveler from the surface is forced to confront mysteries in his own past that have remained buried, and to reveal the connection that ties him to the unavenged spirits wreaking havoc on the doomed city. “The last of the four Secret Books of Venus is a tale of suspense and mystery.” —Booklist

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.

When Steven Grace vanishes, leaving only the evidence of his broken car in a ditch, ripples of suspicion spread across the Sussex town of Seatree. Is anything what it seems? Detective Chief Inspector Knox thinks not, and he and his unusual sidekick, D.I. Rawthorn, find plenty on their hands to keep them awake during this long sleepless night. Jula, Steven''s beautiful and oblique partner, appears to dislike Steven, as does her close companion, the tough Jack Hastings. Markessa though, the family friend, appears to have liked Steven far too much. Meanwhile the haunted, frightened Leigh, who has returned to Seatree on some mysterious quest of her own, provides other elements to complicate the case further. Why, for one, does the large house in historical Divers Lane - the house of white carpets and a ceiling painted like a sky - present such a sinister aspect? Here live the Alliats, timid Miranda who, in her youth, might have passed for an English Marilyn Monroe, and wealthy, busy George, with his big liver-spotted hands and white tombstone teeth. Lit up night-long, the Alliat residence, like a doomed lighthouse, seems to be sending rays of trouble and ancient menace in all directions, as something reaches towards the present from the far past. When a body is finally found - only the first of several - a domino effect begins that will topple many lives in ruins. Contained between sunfall and dawn of a single night, Death of the Day sets out to investigate not only a string of bizarre deaths, but the facades behind which men and women exist. It is very much a detective novel, darkly lighted and ominously rich.

In this “deliciously creepy” novel by the Bram Stoker Award winner, two feuding families face supernatural vengeance in a parallel 16th-century Venice (Publishers Weekly). In the City of Venus, two noble families—the della Scorpias and the Barbarons—have been locked in a bitter dispute over burial grounds on the overcrowded Isle of the Dead. But it is fourteen-year-old Meralda della Scorpia who pays the ultimate price for their rivalry. As years pass, parties complicit in her disappearance begin to suffer the consequences. Their shocking deaths can only mean one thing: A supernatural force has been unearthed from the city’s rotting understructure. As these bizarre events throw the city into a panic, a humble apprentice gravedigger is left to sort out the mysteries and subdue the ancient terror that threatens to destroy the entire republic.

Condemned to the underworld when she is born without feet, the infant daughter of the king of Akhemony begins her lifetime in darkness and is assisted by the Sun Consort to reclaim her place as heir to the throne.

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

Tanaquil has family problems. Her mother is a sorceress and her sister is an empress, engaged to Tanaquil''s own true love. Things get worse when a red unicorn lures her into another world, where she finds a mirror version of herself plotting her sister''s death. Can Tanaquil stop her double from becoming a murderer? Accelerated Reader: Reading Level 4.5, 5 Points.

“A fast start to what promises to be an exciting, innovative fantasy series” from the World Fantasy Award–winning author of Night’s Master (Publishers Weekly). In the hedonistic atmosphere of an eighteenth-century Venice Carnival, gaiety turns deadly when Furian Furiano happens upon a mask of Apollo floating in the murky waters of the canals. The mask hides a sinister art, and Furian finds himself trapped in a bizarre tangle of love, obsession, and evil, stumbling into a macabre society of murderers. The beautiful but elusive Eurydiche holds the key to these murders and leads him further into a labyrinth of black magic and ancient alchemy. Why do secrets from Furian’s past seem tied to the mysterious Eurydiche? In Tanith Lee’s brilliantly imagined world of violence and terror, Furian must find a way to survive and stem the obsession driving him toward his hidden destiny.

Once upon a time there was a mirror. . . . So begins this dark, unusual retelling of the story of Snow White by the writer reviewers have called "the Angela Carter of the fantasy field"—a whole novel based on a beloved story, turning it into a dark and sensual drama full of myth and magic. Arpazia is the aging queen who paces the halls of a warlord''s palace. Cold as winter, she has only one passion—for the mysterious hunter who courts the outlawed old gods of the woodland. Coira is the princess raised in the shadow of her mother''s hatred. Avoided by both her parents and half forgotten by her father''s court, she grows into womanhood alone . . . until the mirror speaks, and blood is spilled, and the forest claims her. The tragic myth of the goddess Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, stolen by the king of the underworld, is woven together with the tale of Snow White to create a powerful story of mothers and daughters and the blood that binds them together, for good or ill. Black queen. White maid. Royal huntsman. Seven little folk who live in the forest. Come inside, sit by the fire, and listen to this fairy tale as you''ve never heard it told before. Once upon a time there was a mirror, and a girl as white as snow. . . . At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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. . . .

Contains: Faces Under Water and Saint Fire.

In The Book of the Mad, a seductive nightmare unfolds in three parallel versions of the city—Paradis, Paradys and Paradise. Connected by a labyrinth of ice whose dangers are amplified by the will and emotion of its lunatic travelers, these cities provide the stage for a drama of mythical proportions, setting up a darkly dazzling finish to The Secret Books of Paradys.

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.

A haunted house and a ghostly woman are the instruments that release an ancient curse upon the forgotten city of Paradys. As a savage, unholy beast prowls the city’s streets, a young student seeks to uncover the secrets that will lead to his salvation. Lee infuses this dark tale, the second volume in the series, with a dreamlike quality that hovers, like the world in The Book of the Damned, on the border of reality.

Historical novel. Set in France in the summer of 1789 through years of political and social intrigue.

But one of their own is igniting a blaze of chaos through the streets of London.

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. . . .

The ambiance of fin de siecle France imbues these eight gothic tales in the third volume in Lee’s Secret Books of Paradys tetralogy, tracing the tortured lives once led by those buried in the crypts and cemeteries of the mythical (or forgotten) city of Paradys. “The Weasel Bride†? twists a folktale about a man who marries an enchanted weasel and dies of her bite into an account of a young husband who kills his beloved bride on their wedding night and takes her dreadful secret to the gallows. The artist in “The Glass Dagger,†? who normally saves her emotion for her art, is consumed by jealous rage and turns to supernatural revenge when a jaded aristocrat tries an old stratagem to win her love. In “The Moon Is a Mask†? a drudge who creates a world of beauty in her garret room steals to buy a mask that turns her into a vampire owl. The miasma of corruption and death, combined with vivid and at times elegiac writing will engross readers who fancy this dark shade of fantasy writing.

An epic fantasy of eroticism, sorcery, blood and vampires, by a prolific writer of fantasy and science fiction works, who has won the World Fantasy Award on several occasions. This limited edition is signed and numbered by the author, and produced on high-quality paper with special design features.

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

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.

This collection of tales, including the World Fantasy Award-winning title story, recounts extraordinary encounters between human beings and such mythic beasts as dragons, unicorns, and vampires

\"[Vazkor] is the story of a man learning about who he is and why he''s the way he is with powers that he cannot even begin to understand. He can heal fast and he can shoot white power from his eyes but he doesn''t know why. In fact, he attributes these powers to his father - whose origins he only learns after the third way mark. Vazkor is a middle book between the mother''s story [The birthgrave] and the story of the confrontation between mother and son [Quest for the white witch], but it stands well on its own\"--Amazon.

A king''s oversight causes near-bankruptcy of the kingdom and forces the prince to seek his fortune elsewhere.