The Empress of Dreams Paperback – January 31, 2021

I had seen the author’s name a long time ago but never read any of her works before. Bought this kindle version randomly. From the first story, each was enchanting and reminiscent of Jack Vance, and the last story confirms the reason. Beautiful prose and similes, and plots presented without embellishment or forced primness. Delighted to see that there are many more books by her to read!

Tanith Lee infuses her fantasies with such a dreamlike quality that the colours become sharper, the clash of steel becomes more violent, beauties and words become even more sublime, and yet...Yet the works become more ethereal— as if they are waiting to vanish once we have read them.The present collection contains some of her finest fantasies.Sixteen long and short works are present here. Several were too ornate and acted as soporifics. But several were taut, suspenseful, or humorous works that left an indelible impression upon me.My favourites were~1. Odds Against the Gods;2. In the Balance;3. Northern Chess;4. Southern Lights;5. The Three Brides of Hamad-Dar;6. Two Lions, a Witch, and the War-Robe.Above all, the book has been endowed with a truly spectacular cover, by Lauren Gornik.Recommended.

Almost impossible to describe the experience of reading this book. It is visual and beautiful. Her language is astounding. I Must read more!

I have read Tanith Lee since my teen years, and lamented her death a few years back. Consequently, when DMR Books announced a new anthology of Ms. Lee's short stories of which I had read one, I was eager to dive in.This collection does not disappoint. Lee had the ability to write in a wide variety of voices and styles, but one of her strongest was a slightly-detached, third person, almost like an updated tale-teller or fable-maker, punctuated with dry observations, sly wit but also sometimes incredible beauty or terror, mentioned almost off-hand. (For example of the latter, no one could make a one-sentence *inference* of a rape seem so horrific, while also necessary to a plot in one story, and then with only a slight bit of rephrasing talk about a main character's impotence in a humorous voice in another. Most writers would just bungle this, badly. Not Lee.)There are 16 tales -- some overlap in setting, one returns to Lee's "Flat Earth", the rest are standalone.Odds Against the GodsTruth, the foundling, chaffs at life cloistered in service to a god of personal depravation and contrives to seduce a new acolyte, with decidedly unexpected consequences. This story could have ended at the midpoint and read one way, and quite satisfactorily. Taken to its conclusion it takes on a slightly different tone, equally fine.Sleeping TigerAn Asian fantasy that was a bit too trod and predictable.The DemonessOne of two tales set in an Arthurian-esque setting. A curse lies on the seven greatest heroes in the realm. One has gone missing, another seeks him and the trail leads to a cursed tower, where lives a Vampiress who does not even fully comprehend what she is. The knight escapes her clutches, only making her desire him more, in a tireless pursuit across the realm. A sad, poetic and haunting story.The Sombrus TowerSet in same world as The Demoness, and taking up the tale of another of the cursed knights. The journey to the Sombrus Tower reads like the retelling of the Questing Beast told by a feverish Michael Moorcock writing an Eternal Champion episode. The end is visually powerful and decidedly disturbing.Sadly, I don't think Lee wrote any more tales in this setting, so the fates of the other four knights remain unknown.Winter WhiteA new take on those who live by the sword...a brutal northern warlord takes what he wants and destroys what opposes him...and then fate balances the scales.In the BalanceA short, first person tale about two apprentices in a school of wizardry taking their final exam -- one ends in life, the other death. Harry Potter this isn't. A nice little story, but a bit short.Northern ChessOne of two linked stories about the heroine Jaisel, who was Brienne of Tarth, long before Brienne was. Underestimated by the male knights she meets, she encounters an army laying siege to a castle defended by a sorcerer's curse.Southern LightsFleeing the cold, Jaisel stumbles across a secluded town and meets a beautiful young girl who offers to bring her home where she may lodge with she and her father. The old man is blind, and seems to think Jaisel is a man, the daughter...well, something is wrong, with her, the house...everything.The Jaisel and Sombrous Tower tales are by far the best in the volume, and I again lament there is no more to be had.Mirage and MagiaA town is plagued by a beautiful enchantress who appears in town to summon men to their doom -- for after a night in her company, they emerge mindless. There is no rhyme or reason to whom she chooses or when, only that she shall. Then an equally strange man arrives to end her predations. This also reads like a strange twist on Turandot.The Three Brides of Hamid-DarA tale so in keeping with the sorts of tales in the 1001 Nights you could have convinced me it was. Clever and whitty, but not a favorite.The Pain of GlassA tale of the Flat Earth, told in four scenes, each of which are the actions that came before, concluded with a short epilogue that brings us back to the present. The tale is well-done and the conceit works in Lee's gifted hands, but the final payoff requires a certain amount of empathy for the framing character, and there is no reason to have such, either during the tale or at its end.Two Lions a Witch, and a War RobeThis one I just didn't like.These BeastsAn Egyptian-esque tale about someone who tries to rob the tomb of Anubis (Anubar) himself, and pays a terrible, if unexpected price. This was a straight-up Weird Tales-style pulp-horror tale and great fun.A Tower of ArkrondurlThe Sorcerer Arkondurl built nine towers, each to house a fragment of himself, so that he might never be fully slain, but his psyche is fractured thereby. How do you kill such a thing? The answer may surprise!The Woman in ScarletA warrior caste who are bonded to their sentient swords, which appear to them in their dreams in female form. Companion, counselor and lover, the swords demand everything from the warrior and in return are faithful companions. But if one were...fickle?Evillo the UncunningTanith's tribue to Jack Vance's Dying Earth about a young tyro obsessed with Cugel the Clever. A good story, though I was never a huge Dying Earth fan.There is only one truly disappointing story, and maybe two or three that are so-so, and of the remaining dozen, at least half are *excellent* making this collection well worth your time and money.