Book Review: Night’s Master, by Tanith Lee

Night’s Master by Tanith Lee

Buy It Now: on Amazon.com

Description: Night’s Master is the first book of the stunning arabesque high fantasy series Tales from the Flat Earth, which, in the manner of The One Thousand and One Nights, portrays an ancient world in mythic grandeur via connected tales.

Long time ago when the Earth was Flat, beautiful indifferent Gods lived in the airy Upperearth realm above, curious passionate demons lived in the exotic Underearth realm below, and mortals were relegated to exist in the middle. Azhrarn, Lord of the Demons and the Darkness, was the one who ruled the Night, and many mortal lives were changed because of his cruel whimsy. And yet, Azhrarn held inside his demon heart a profound mystery which would change the very fabric of the Flat Earth forever…

Come within this ancient world of brilliant darkness and beauty, of glittering palaces and wondrous elegant beings, of cruel passions and undying love.

Rediscover the exotic wonder that is the Flat Earth.

This review is based on a free review copy received from the publisher.

The Bibliomaniac’s Review:

Review: Night’s Master was originally published in 1978 by DAW Books; the first in the Flat Earth series, it was followed by Death’s Master, Delusion’s Master, Delirium’s Mistress, and Night’s Sorceries.  Lee has been writing for over four decades now, and in her entire output, there are very few works that match, much less transcend, Night’s Master.  The original DAW edition of this story has been out of print for years, so it is a true joy to finally have a reissue of this masterpiece by Norilana Books (which has plans to reprint not only the rest of the Flat Earth series, but a number of other works by Lee, as well).

The cover and other artwork in this stunning volume, aside from one image depicting a page of the manuscript in Lee’s original handwriting, is by John Kaiine, Lee’s husband.  Although the review copy I have has only the cover illustration and none of the interior artwork, that image is a perfect match for Lee’s prose, lush and graceful—and actually depicting an event in the novel, which happens less often than you’d think, these days.

Let’s be clear about one thing: when it comes to style, there is no one like Tanith Lee.  Her lush, lyrical, sensual prose has often been copied by lesser writers, in whose hands it comes across as parody.  Nowhere is this more obvious than in the books of the Flat Earth series.  The connected tales of Night’s Master and its sequels call to mind the stories of 1001 Arabian Nights and Boccaccio’s Decameron.  The stories of Night’s Master and the other books in the Flat Earth series have influenced a number of other writers in the years since its first publication.  Shadowy mirrors of Azhrarn and the other Lords of Darkness—Uhlume, Death’s Master, Prince Chuz, who is Delusion’s Master, and Ahzriaz, daughter to Azhrarn and Delirum’s Mistress—can be seen in the Endless of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, while Terry Pratchett’s Discworld stories take place on another flat earth that is a much more humorous phantom of the erotic, exotic one in Lee’s writing.

Powerful beyond belief, and as cold and heartless as he is beautiful, Azhrarn the Lord of demons is a compelling and fascinating character, in the complex and many-faceted “bad boy” vein of J.K. Rowling’s Lucius Malfoy or Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  Although he is merciless to traitorous lovers or those mortals foolish enough to get in the way of what he wants, or who might ask him for favors he does not feel they deserve, the secret at the core of the novel is that Azhrarn is actually capable of love—a love so all-encompassing that even the most powerful hate cannot defeat it.

I originally read the DAW edition of Night’s Master back in 1979, a year after its first release.  I was ten at the time, and it instantly became my favorite book, at the top of the list of everything else I had read up to that time.  In the years since, it has not wandered far from that spot, and remains (along with several of Lee’s other works) on the list of the top ten best novels I have ever read.  There are not enough superlatives in the world, in my opinion, for her smooth, vividly descriptive, and gorgeous writing, and although her style may not appeal to those who like their stories short, terse, and brutally plain, those who love the appeal of fairy tales, dreams, and fables will find themselves drawn into the world of the Flat Earth from the moment they turn the first page.  Unreservedly recommended.