Customer Reviews

Night's Master

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...and you have the strange feeling that you are reading something that is a dream, and yet it is so magical and fairytalish, but in a dark and twisted way.

In this book we meet the Prince of Demons, Azhrarn, who plots and schemes to his own dark ends. He is an evil, selfish antagonist, and yet Sivesh, his adopted son is the 'good guy', falls prey to his evilness and in the end...

The book is written like a myth, with strange and wonderful things like silver collars woven of tears, and demon horses that ride the night...

Enjoy it!

Fantasy, ultimately, depends on description to carry it. The more alien the landscapes and psychologies an author wishes to describe, the more she must rely on her style and vocabulary to carry it off.

-Night's Master- kicks off the Flat Earth series, about a richly imagined, glittering, world of cruel and proud daemons. What ultimately carries off the story of Azhrarn is Tanith Lee's strong prose style. You can tell that she must have been the victim of a classical education.

Tanith Lee weaves tales of demons and mortals in ways that are familiar, yet with such singular and unexpected twists that even the most well-read fan of this genre will find her work refreshing. The entire Flat Earth series is at once terrible and wonderful. What is it like to be the Prince of Demons? What would happen if a mortal suddenly was given immortality? What would the Prince of Darkness do if suddenly he had no humans to torment, much as he might despise them? All these are questions that Lee is not afraid to pose through her characters from commoners to kings; from demons to gods so strange we can scarce comprehend them. With powers of description that are as evocative as Joseph Conrad's, and with the ability to paint characters in the style of a Charles Dickens, she spins a tapestry of events that binds these series of self-standing tales into a marvelous whole. Is it any wonder I highly recommend her work? Get all five of the Flat Earth series. If you are like me, you will find yourself reading them time and again.

Night's Master was my first introduction to Tanith Lee nearly ten years ago and ever since I have been addicted to her work. Her writing is beautiful and seductive filled with lush imagery and descriptions that will have you longing to enter the pages of her novels. This is not your typical "fantasy" novel. It is powerful and moving and unlike anything else I have ever read. Of all of Tanith Lee's books, I would recommend the Flat Earth series and The Silver Metal Lover as the best. They never fail to transport me to another world, and really isn't that the great joy of reading novels?

GOD, This Book Was GREAT!!!! This was the first book I had ever read by Tanith Lee, now I am a devoted fan. I never knew fantasy could be so good. I had always been a fan of horror but after reading this book I got addicted to fantasy, horror and fantasy horror. This story (you have to excuse me because I have 4 children and evrything I read them is a story and I read alot) made me feel differently about reading fantasy. I read alot, and since "Nights Master" I've read alot more. I loved this book. It made me envious of the character that was the participant in this story. I was glad that I had ordered the whole set of "Tales From The Flat Earth " at once. I don't think I could have waited the 4 to 6 weeks in between for delivery. If you are a true fantasy nut, like I am now read "Night's Master" you won't regret it.

"Night's Master" is the first of Tanith Lee's "Flat Earth" series, but it is a complete novel in itself. Told in the form of a series of short stories that intertwine, it tells the tale of the demon Azhrarn, who loves to torment mankind, but when they are threatened, submits to at least a temporary death to save them. The prose in this tale is so rich it may be fattening. It is a sensuous pleasure to read aloud.

Tanith Lee is one of the great masters of fantasy fiction, and the "Flat Earth" cycle is arguably her finest work (though the "Paradys" and "Venus" cycles are right up there, too). The new Norilana/TaLeKa editions are lush reprints of this cycle, with Night's Master the first out (they are also issuing her other works as well in uniform editions). The best news is that down the line will be two wholly new Flat Earth titles, the novel Earth's Master and the story collection The Earth is Flat.

Lee's fantasies tend to be rich in mood, usually somber and exotic mood, but she's no one-trick pony: her characters are deep and full-fleshed, and her plots Byzantine (sometimes more or less literally) amd her prose suitably rich without ever being purple.

Finally, none of her work is cookie-cutter: you will not have been to the lands of the Flat Earth before, or anything like them, in anyone else's fat fantasy. Read: enjoy.

I am currently barrowing a hardcover that contains all three books in this series (what a treasure). At the moment I'm reading the second book and it's atleast as good as the first. I've never read anything this free and flowing. It most closely resembles a fairy tale in style but the interconnection of stories is amazing. Tanith Lee feeds "realistic fantasy" to the many-toothed monster of her imagination and it regurgitates a masterpiece of dreamlike imagery. From sapphire towers to diamond-lined streets to orchards of golden fruit she spins a tale of man's failure and hope. The darkness of her tales makes the Brothers Grimm look like choir boys in comparison. Read this book, there is nothing else like it.

Night's master is a ripping good story...but it's more than that. it's the mythology of a time when the earth was flat... and Azhrarn the Beutiful the most involved Lord of Darkness messing withthe world of mortals. If you love reading mythology, you have to search the Tales of the flat earth out.

This title have now been out of stock for at least two years running. That is too long.

The flat earth books are Tanith Lee's best. Spiritual and physical, romantic and thought provoking.

My copies are falling apart from all the times they have been borrowed and all the times I have re-read them myself.

So REPRINT!

Please.