Secret Books of Paradys

Series · 4 books · 1988-1993

By Tanith Lee

Books in series

Gli imperi azzurri

1988

Le Cronache di Paradys raccontano di un mondo lontano e stregato in cui la magia decideva la sorte degli uomini, e creature diaboliche si riversavano dall'abisso sulle contrade della terra. Un mondo crepuscolare, fatato, fatto di sensualità e terrore, di avventure epiche e terribili apparizioni, ma soprattutto di uomini e donne decisi a scoprire il mistero che si nasconde dietro ognuno di questi portenti. Le Cronache di Paradys sono una specie di Libro dei dannati in cui la volontà di pochi coraggiosi si misura contro le più sinistre manifestazioni dei Male, per tentare di ristabilire un equilibrio che una volta esisteva su tutta la terra e che è stato definitivamente lacerato in questo volume Tanith Lee Ci guida nei labirinti dei suo regno dell'incantesimo mostrandoci le sue leggende sacrileghe e i suoi riti misericordiosi, in una mirabile fusione di fantasy e orrore ma soprattutto di sensualità e avventura Copertina: Tim Hildebrandt

The Book of the Beast

1988

Traces, through diverse, horrifying encounters through the centuries, the trail of It, the beast created on the Fifth Day, which preys on the unwitting

The Book of the Dead

1991

The ambience of fin de siecle France imbues these eight gothic tales in the third volume in Lee's Secret Books of Paradys tetralogy, tracing the tortured lives once led by those buried in the crypts and cemeteries of the mythical (or forgotten) city of Paradys. "The Weasel Bride" twists a folktale about a man who marries an enchanted weasel and dies of her bite into an account of a young husband who kills his beloved bride on their wedding night and takes her dreadful secret to the gallows. The artist in "The Glass Dagger," who normally saves her emotion for her art, is consumed by jealous rage and turns to supernatural revenge when a jaded aristocrat tries an old stratagem to win her love. In "The Moon Is a Mask" a drudge who creates a world of beauty in her garret room steals to buy a mask that turns her into a vampire owl. The miasma of corruption and death, combined with vivid and at times elegiac writing will engross readers who fancy this dark shade of fantasy writing.

The Book of the Mad

1993

In this concluding volume, a seductive nightmare unfolds in three parallel versions of the city that are connected by a labyrinth of ice whose dangers are amplified by the will and emotion of its lunatic travelers

Author

Tanith Lee

Author · 131 books

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.