Lee at her best

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	• The Secret Books of Paradys Tanith Lee Overlook Hardcover, 2007 - 720 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Lee at her best

I'm very glad the Paradys series has been reprinted in a single book, as newer Tanith Lee fans like myself can find it easier and brand new. All the books are set in the city of Paradys, an alternate, very dark version of Paris. This is one of the best series by Lee, I think it compiles all the qualities that made me like Lee in the first place. Much like the Flat Earth series, the combination of suspense, erotism, dark fantasy and horror, each administered in its right dose, makes the books very appealing. But let's go one by one:

The Book of the Damned: it presents 3 unlinked novellas depicting 3 very different characters. The first story, Stained with Crimson, is a gothic vampire story, but not your regular vampire story, presented with such beauty, decadence and wit that it is a winner. Malice in Saffron, the second story is, I think, the best of the lot, where we follow a young girl, Jehanine, going from victim to exeecutioner. This one has it all: it's gory, sensual, over the top and adventurous. Story #3, Empires of Azure I didn't like it much, it's set in a modern-day Paradys and it reads more like a detective story with fantasy tones, but I think it was too messy in the end.

The book of the Beast: This is the book I liked the least, but that doesn't mean it's not a good one. Divided in two books (the green book and the amethyst book), it tells the story of a centuries-old curse set upon a family. Told in reverse chronological order, the green book is set in a renaissance Paradys, while the amethyst book is set in a Roman-time Paradys. This is probably the darkest book of them all.

The book of the Dead: This book is a collection of short stories set in Paradys. Each story has an introduction which gives the feel of a tourist guide in Paradys' graveyard, hence the book's name. I believe this is the book fans think it's the weakest, but it's the one I read the quickest, as I always like more the short fiction by Lee than her books. But it's easy to see the reason of the fans' dislike. The stories are sometimes very loosely based in Paradys, and don't offer much in terms of the Paradys mythology. Still, there's some good stories in here, best of the lot must be The Moon is a Mask (vampire owls, deffinitely different), Beautiful Lady (presenting a Typhoid Mary-like sory), and Morcara's Room (very good, ironic story).

The book of the Mad: This presents 3 different stories set in different places (Paradis, Paradise and Paradys) and times, which, as the novel progresses, they become interlinked with each other. This was my favourite book of the four, as all 3 stories are very enthralling (although Smara and Felion's story is a bit uneven at times), and the linking is magistrally done.

In the end, this is a wonderful series which deserves to be rediscovered by old Tanith Lee fans and if someone is a neophyte on her work, this is one of the books I'd suggest reading first.

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Paradys--the city--was a place of decadence and decay, of luxury and lasciviousness, and, after the revolution, a graveyard peopled by the insane and the dead . . . and by those who preyed on both. The strange and the tormented dwell in Paradys--prowling its dark streets and twisted alleyways, passing the endless hours in the city's elegant mansions and smoke-tarnished inns, wandering in moldering graveyards and the stark surrounding countryside. For the land here is bound by a timeless, soul-chilling magic, and that power has cast its spell over all who have ever lived in this foreboding and dangerous place.

All who came to Paradys were forever touched by its dread magic. The City was not one place but three, bound together by a labyrinth of ice yet separated, perhaps by time, perhaps by some long-forgotten enchantment, into Paradise, Paradis and Paradys--each cursed in an entirely different way.

Witness the city of Paradys' life and history through the eyes of its provocative and perverse citizens--a darkly fascinating odyssey as only World Fantasy Award winner Tanith Lee could imagine it.

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