LEE, Tanith

(1947-)

   UK writer, first of fantasies for children, beginning with The Dragon Hoard (1971), and then, after The Birthgrave (1975 US), primarily of fantasies for adults. Both these areas of concentration lie outside our proper remit, but it can be said that she is an inventive and fertile writer, that she has encompassed her primary theme - the ethical and sexual initiation of an adolescent character into a volatile world s/he herself will shape, often through renunciation - in a wide variety of modes, and that, although her work differs vastly in tone and subject matter from that of C.J. CHERRYH, both writers share a daunting comprehensiveness. TL, however, has not (yet) assembled her various singletons and series into one shared universe.The Birthgrave and its sequels, Vazkor, Son of Vazkor (1978 US; vt Shadowfire 1978 UK) and Quest for the White Witch (1978 US), are sf by virtue of the ending of the first volume, in which Earthmen arrive in a spaceship to tell the albino heroine the true, non-supernatural explanation for the compulsions she feels and the voices she hears inside her head - and, having awoken with amnesia in the heart of a volcano and wreaked considerable damage upon the world with her untutored powers, she is by this time sorely in need of some reassurance. The second and third volumes deal primarily with her son, who must deal with his own powers and learn that his mother is not evil. At trilogy's end, immortal and forgiving, they commit incest. Don't Bite the Sun (1976 US) and Drinking Sapphire Wine (1977 US), both assembled asDrinking Sapphire Wine (omni 1979), form a genuine sf sequence set in a FAR-FUTURE world somewhat resembling that in Michael MOORCOCK's Dancers at the End of Time series, treated in this case as a DYSTOPIA whose citizens, superficially free to shape-change and cavort, are in fact prisoners of the protectiveness of their artificial environment. Electric Forest (1979 US) depicts the rite of passage of an ugly child on a planet where herappearance is shocking. Day by Night (1980 US) is set on non-rotating mirror-worlds unconscious of each other's existence. Sabella, or The Blood Stone (1980 US) and its sequel, Kill the Dead (1980 US) - both assembledas Sometimes, After Sunset (omni 1980 US) - associate vampirism with Mars. The Silver Metal Lover (1981 US) concerns a love affair between a womanand a ROBOT or ANDROID. Days of Grass (1985 US) is set a century or so after an ALIEN invasion. TL's sf, though she is clearly conversant with its instruments, makes such individual use of the normal displacements of the genre that nothing - from robots to cosmogony - fails to serve her primary impulses as a storyteller. For TL, sf is a kind of metaphysical pathos: it illustrates her children.Of her several volumes of stories, some of which are exceptional, the most far-ranging are probably Dreams of Dark and Light: The Great Short Fiction (coll 1986 US), Forests of theNight (coll 1989) and Women as Demons: The Male Perception of Women through Space and Time (coll 1989).

   JC

   Other works: Juvenile fantasies: Princess Hynchatti and Some Other Surprises (coll 1972); Animal Castle (1972); Companions on the Road (1975) and The Winter Players (1976), both assembled as Companions on the Road and The Winter Players: Two Novellas (omni 1977 US); East of Midnight (1977); The Castle of Dark (1978); Shonthe Taken (1979); Prince on a White Horse (1982), assembled with The Castle of Dark as Dark Castle, White Horse (omni 1986 US).Adult fantasies:The Betrothed (1968 chap); Volkhavaar (1977 US); the Tales from the Flat Earth sequence, comprising Night's Master (1978 US), Death's Master (1979 US) and Delusion's Master (1981 US), all assembled as Tales from the Flat Earth: The Lords of Darkness (omni 1987 US), plus Delirium's Mistress: A Novel of the Flat Earth (1986 US) and Night's Sorceries (coll 1987 US), both assembled as Tales from the Flat Earth: Night's Daughter (omni 1987 US); the Wars of Vis sequence, comprising The Storm Lord (1976 US) andAnackire (1983 US), both assembled as The Wars of Vis (omni 1984 US), plus The White Serpent (1988 US); Lycanthia, or The Children of Wolves 1981 US); Unsilent Night (coll 1981 chap US); Cyrion (coll of linked stories 1982 US); Sung in Shadow (1983 US); Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer (coll 1983 US); The Beautiful Biting Machine (1984 chap); USTamastara, or The Indian Nights (coll 1984 US); The Gorgon and Other Beastly Tales (coll 1985 US); Madame Two Swords (1988 US); A Heroine of the World (1989 US); the Secret Book of Paradys sequence, comprising The Book of the Damned (coll of linked stories 1988) and The Book of the Beast(1988), both assembled as The Secret Book of Paradys (omni 1991 US), plus The Book of the Dead (coll 1991 US) and The Book of the Made (coll 1993 US), both assembled as The Secret Books of Paradys III \& IV (omni 1993); The Blood of Roses (1990); Black Unicorn (1991 US) and its sequel, Gold Unicorn (1994); Into Gold (1986 IASFM; 1991 chap); the Blood Opera sequence, comprisingDark Dance (1992)Personal Darkness (1993) and Darkness, I (1994), with further volumes projected; Heart-Beast (1992), awerewolf novel; Elephantasm (1993); Nightshades: Thirteen Journeys into Shadow (coll 1993); Eva Fairdeath (1994).

   See also: CHILDREN'S SF; DAW BOOKS; FEMINISM; RADIO; SUPERNATURAL CREATURES.