Customer Reviews

Birth Grave

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In this tale of blood, love, violence, beauty, magic, dreams, brutal murder, swords'n'sorcery, rape, battle and deadly races, we follow a woman on a journey of self-discovery. First a Goddess, then a slave, later a pawn in the game of an emperor who shows her her true nature and leads her to understand what she is looking for. And then the end of this story.. a twist of the plot and atmosphere so totally unexpected I couldn't believe it at first. Terrific.

This was the first book I read of Tanith Lee and she has since become my favorite author. This is a story of a grown woman who wakes inside a volcano. She finds she is the last of a unknown race and this is her story of her search to find herself. Traveling through lands full of vast ancient cities and strange religions you will find yourself engulfed with the beauty and loneliness of her quest.

When I first read this book (more years ago than I care to recall) it ignited my interest in so-called sword and sorcery epics. Tanith Lee's lost child-woman draws you into her story from the opening chapter and I would definitely rate this as a read-at-one-sitting book because it is absolutely impossible to put down. It is one of the most broad ranging and breath-taking adventures as the heroine-of-many-names struggles to find her lost race, her identity and her destiny. From healer to warrior to enslaved goddess and reluctant birthgiver, she enchants, saddens and delights. She and her world are beautifully detailed, as are its occupants. The only thing that makes up for reading the last page is the knowledge that the two sequels ("Shadowfire:Vazkor, Son of Vazkor" and "Quest for the White Witch") are just as brilliant and provide a most satisfying, if unexpected, conclusion. Get this if you can - then hunt for the sequels. You will not regret it!

Even more than a breathtaking adventure through a world of violence and magic, The Birthgrave is a psychological exploration of the inner life of a born outsider, an unattached person. The author's direct style and use of the first person places the reader close to the core of the heroine on a violent and troubled quest to find herself. The negative self-image and wandering, restless disposition, powerlessness against subconscious convictions of a person with attachment disorder are beautifully rendered. The description is hands-on, direct, without undue psychologizing. The book has unusual psychological depth in the genre, maybe to be compared with Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane, although the issues described are very different.

This book, more than any other, renewed my interest in reading. It concerns a woman who awakens in a temple within a volcano with no memory of who she is. The rest of the book concerns her travels attempting to discover her identity and the nature of the strange, goddess-like powers awakening within her. One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is the way Lee does not allow the reader to know any more than the nameless heroine herself knows. It also makes this book one of the most addictive reads you're ever likely to come across! Easily the best book Lee has ever written, too bad it isn't more readily available.

This is the fantasy book I've waited to read all my life, knew it had to be out there. A romantic, sword & sorcery adventure with barbarian tribes, cruel demigods, ruins of a dead civilization, war and conquest, driven by a nameless heroine, a mysterious woman with shades of Rider H. Haggard's She (Oxford World's Classics) and Joan D. Vinge's Arienrhod in The Snow Queen.

The woman wakes up undearneath a volcano without any memory or knowledge of who she is, except an ominous warning and threat: she is the last of a race of magicians, and carries within herself a curse of evil and ugliness. She covers her face with a mask, and her adventures begin... Occasionally, it seems she had magical powers - to heal others and herself, but she is haunted by the curse and the secret of her heritage.

This is a beautiful fantasy tale, and a must-read for female fans. Here is the classical pulp hero on a quest, yet she is a woman in a way that detracts neither from her hero-ness nor her womanhood. The only detraction was the ending - everything was wrapped up too neatly. Sequels to the book are "Vazkor, Son of Vazkor" and "Quest for the White Witch," although they no longer feature the same protagonist.

This book, more than any other, renewed my interest in reading. It concerns a woman who awakens in a temple within a volcano with no memory of who she is. The rest of the book concerns her travels attempting to discover her identity and the nature of the strange, goddess-like powers awakening within her. One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is the way Lee does not allow the reader to know any more than the nameless heroine herself knows. It also makes this book one of the most addictive reads you're ever likely to come across! Easily the best book Lee has ever written, too bad it isn't more readily available.

Tanith Lee's first adult novel, the Birthgrave, is quite well-written, but feels very long, like a trilogy of shorter novels. In a lot of ways it reminded me of some of Gene Wolfe's novels; it is the tale of a first person narrator of dubious morality and identity who has great power but doesn't really know what is going on, and its tone is mysterious, ambiguous, and sad. A lot of typical fantasy adventure stuff goes on, like bandits attacking merchant caravans, a chariot race, walled cities and castles besieged, priests, lords, wizards and barbarians waging war and engaging in court intrigues, but Lee's protagonist is a woman, and Lee addresses a lot of topics related to women's relationships with men, with each other, and women's larger role in society. These political and social observations are woven seamlessly in the narrative, and Lee is never dogmatic and her characters are never single-faceted archetypes, so you don't feel like you are reading a feminist screed or a grad student lecture, but rather a nuanced piece of literature. There are strong sexual themes in the Birthgrave, and they are all odd and/or disturbing, ranging from unrequited desire and a mother's hostility to her own unborn child to bestiality and incest.

The Birthgrave is a successful and intriguing fantasy/SF novel, but it is no fable of good vs evil or picaresque romp; readers are more likely to describe it as challenging than fun.

I read the 1975 DAW paperback, UE1776, with a cover by Ken Kelly (narrator as archer on a chariot) and an interior illustration by George Barr (topless man and woman entwined with a huge snake.) This edition has the two page intro by Marion Zimmer Bradley that I am told earlier editions advertised but lacked. Bradley informs us that she read the Birthgrave's 185,000 words in less than five hours; feel free to post your own speed records here at Amazon.

I read this book in high school. I was enthralled by the prose and beauty of the world Ms. Lee created. That is, until the end. The end of the book has stuck with me more than anything else about this book, and completely overshadows my enjoyment of the other content. The final chapters of this book create such an abrupt, disjointed conclusion that it left me wondering "what was she thinking?". It was as though she met her word count and decided she needed a quick way to tie it all together. It was a complete cop out and had nothing to do with the rest of the story. And now I see it's the first in a trilogy? No thanks. The illusion of wonder Tannith Lee wove was massacred by the lack of a thoughtful, believable (in context) wrap-up. Incredibly disappointing.

I'm of two minds about this book. It is very well written, but dated (I kept seeing the old Conan type movies of the 1970s in my head), however, it was the ending that made me hurl the book across the room into the library donation box.

On the one hand it is the 70s pulp fantasy you expect from the lurid cover; desert wastelands, nomads, sword fights, chariot races, rape, murder, erotic scenes, occasional big lizards. On the other hand, the main character wanders around for a very (very) long time without any plot resolution (today this would be published as 3 separate novels), the rape/sex scenes are downright insulting to modern women, and the plot makes a very abrupt, unsatisfying twist a mere 30 pages from the end.

If you like The Complete Chronicles of Conan, you will probably love this.