Night is falling, and shadows are gathering in crowds across the city, bronze and sable, flickering, or still as stone. There is always an audience here, for anything – human, beast or object – that comes close to tell its story, or betray its deadly secret... What now? Heartless unkindness – lust for riches – suppressed hatred and rage honed to a razor–? Or some epic sorrow passed into a silver scream. Above everything, the drifting and unavoidable webs of the spinning City gods. So, will you listen in the shadows, or become yourself a story-teller in the bronze half-light? Or do you have another mission here, in Marcheval? A new triumphant trio of dark fantasy stories, in the same vein as Tanith Lee’s previous imaginary city novels of Paradys and Venus.
Author
Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7." Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress. Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971. Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing. Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror. Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s. Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.
