Tanith Lee is my favorite author. Nothing sounds quite as right to me as her writing voice does: with its blend of elegance, intelligence, gentle irony, and Sheer Deliciousness. She seduces and educates and entertains, and sometimes, she does it all in one scene. She's at her best with Tales from the Flat Earth, and I think this particular installment may be my favorite.It isn't absolutely essential to read the first two books that came before Delusion's Master (which would be Night's Master and Death's Master, respectively), but it would be fun to come into the world already recognizing the characters. Especially the wickedly fabulous Azhrarn, as there's a lot of Azhrarn here.Following the format of the other Tales from the Flat Earth, this is a series of short stories themed around a certain Lord of Darkness. This book introduces us to Chuz and his particular portfolio would be Madness. He's split right up in the middle: half of him is a male hag, while the other half is a good-looking young gent. He carries about some dice and the jawbone of an ass (which, like certain kid's toys, would make sounds when you swing it about) (but before you ask, no, it doesn't light up). For a Lord of Darkness, he's kind of nice, especially to his worshippers. And I guess that goes with the fact that in certain cases, going crazy is really much nicer than facing things that have been done to you, or worse, things that you've done.In chronological order, we see him comforting a woman who has inadvertently killed her own child, hurrying along the insanity of a king who wants to build the Tower of Babel, convincing a bunch of philosophers that stones are gods, getting a lovesick girl to become a incendiary prophetess, and eventually, indirectly, whipping up a crowd into a frenzy of murderous stone-throwing (which upsets the philosophers a lot). But as fun and interesting as Chuz is, he's rather eclipsed in his own book by Azhrarn the Beautiful, who is just so naturally stunning that experiencing him sends your brain into same the kind of overload you get when you look at a clear night sky. See, there's thousands of visible stars out there, but your brain could take only so many hundreds of shiny things at once -- so that's all you ever manage to take in. And the same thing goes with Azhrarn's beauty. I know it sounds kind of silly when I say it like this, but Tanith Lee has got such a convincing and hypnotic voice, she could get an ice cube to burn down a forest.Anyway, this is the book where Azhrarn falls in love, like really falls into it -- in fact, goes mad with it. He still maintains the cold, haughty, emotionless facade. But anyone could tell that he's as fevered and passionate as one of those bare-chested, long-haired fellows you see kissing girls in the covers of romance novels. Well, deep down inside, he is. Very deep down. The object of his passion is a wise and otherworldly girl named Dunizel who was born in the light of a comet, and led by her people to serve the gods (or whatever wrong-headed notions of gods that they have down here in the Flat Earth). If you don't know this already, Azhrarn is a demon and his domain is Wickedness. I think anyone would comprehend at this point that It Doesn't End Well.But they do fall in love, with Dunizel being by far the more reasonable of them both. And they have a romance that is romance distilled and concentrated, without sex, but so undeniably sexual it could scald. It's like seeing adolescent passion from inside, with all the glory and absolute extremity of it. The charm is the way that Tanith Lee executes: with child-like wonder as if this is a story that has never been told before, and with crone-like clear-sightedness, compassion and, on occasion, tenderly sarcastic commentary.And all around this emotionally-fraught love story, the world is happening, and people keep on making up gods, and living their own lives, and being crazy and human. And there's Chuz too, who's increasingly hostile to Azhrarn. And in the end, it all comes together with an enormous crash, which leaves the reader sick with anticipation for the next book. One day I'm going to write something thoughtful and unbiased and actually helpful about this book, but right now I'm just going to leave you with this excerpt from Delusion's Master. It's not directly connected to the main story, but it's a beautiful sample of Tanith Lee's writing. I'm actually half-convinced now that cats and snakes really are related.
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.In Delusion’s Master, the third of Tanith Lee’s FLAT EARTH novels, we’re introduced to another Prince of Darkness: Chuz, the Prince of Madness, who is handsome when seen from one side and hideous when seen from the other. Chuz watches humans and uses the opportunities they give him to practice his craft: There were several doors by which Madness might enter any house; one was rage, one jealousy, one fear.We first meet Chuz when a jealous queen tries to get rid of the baby she believes has caused the king to stop loving her. When she accidentally kills the child and her husband puts her aside, Chuz shows up to comfort her by helping her descend into madness. When he offers to grant her a wish, she asks that Chuz make her husband, the king, as mad as she is. That’s why the king decides to build a tower to heaven where he will wage war on the gods. Everyone knows that pride comes before the fall so, sure enough, disaster strikes the land. This sets off a string of strange events that have the demons, once again, meddling in the affairs of men.The beautiful demon Azhrarn, from the first two FLAT EARTH books, continues to be a main character. When he becomes involved in Chuz’s doings on earth, we see Azhrarn get his feelings hurt, seek revenge, fall in love, and have a child. The demons are not like the uncaring gods above — they are passionate creatures. Occasionally they can be tender and compassionate with favored mortals, but their fickle emotions can suddenly turn to vanity, petty jealousy, and hate. And then the humans suffer.Delusion’s Master is quite a bit shorter than Night’s Master and Death’s Master and Chuz, the title character, isn’t nearly as interesting as Azhrarn, but fortunately we get plenty of Azhrarn here. All of the FLAT EARTH tales have been dark, but Delusion’s Master actually gets uncomfortable because it includes baby killing, rape, and the torture of a mentally disabled girl. The imagery is vivid and I admit that I squirmed. Still, Tanith Lee continues to enchant us with the exotic setting and peerlessly gorgeous writing.There are several biblical allusions in this installment: the Tower of Babel, the Flood, redemption of humanity through death, and man’s natural hatred of snakes. The most beautiful moment in the book is when Azhrarn goes up to the Earth to find out why men hate snakes and then, as a favor to snakes, sets out to make them more palatable to humans.I’m still enjoying this series on audio. Susan Duerden’s narration gets even better with each book. Each also has an interesting introduction by Tanith Lee. In this one she talks about how her mother influenced her writing.
What do You think about Delusion's Master (1984)?
There is something exotically old world about Tanith Lee's story-telling that makes my battered paperback feel like a huge leather bound illustrated tome faintly scented with spices and dust.My copy of this always falls open along its abused spine to pg 156/157 - so frequently have I returned to the story of the creation of The Cat. The image it spawned when I read it many (many) years ago of the most beautiful of all of literature's Dark Lords passing his hand down the creature's back and bringing it to life, the image of a cat's body holding untold secrets if we could only open our eyes and *see*... when I show these words to other people they finally understand why I never treated as babies the grown felines who have chosen to eat my food and shed on my pillows. I need to revisit this book. Soon. Perhaps after my next One Star rating so that my love of the written word stays afloat. Wait, what do you mean I can't mark it as "to Read" just because its already on my book shelf?
—PointyEars42
Returning to Tales from the Flat Earth series by Tanith Lee feels like returning to the house of my youth. I am deeply in love with the landscapes, characters and mythology of this arabesque world. Here we are presented to the intriging Chuz, Prince Madness, although Azhrarn is the real protagonist (and of course, you can't have a more charming and charismatic character). And in these pages we finally find someone who can challenge the Prince of Demons.This, the third book of the series, may be my least favorite; but the ending was beautiful, I'm going to quote the last paragraph for the rest of my life. Also, it leaves with the most cruel cliffhanger ever! I must find the fourth book of this series, Delirium's Mistress, no matter what.
—Aldo Ojeda
