Fantasy Author Tanith Lee has died

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, I was thinking of Marion Zimmer Bradley. Just remembered the name. "The Mist of Avalon" and all that.

Ah, those. Good stuff

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've never read any of her books. Can anyone recommend a good one? Am I right in thinking she wrote what is generally called "high fantasy"?

My personal top recommends for her which lean more toward the fantasy side (she wrote a bunch of gothic-y and/or YA stuff that I tried which isn't really my sort of thing, and a bunch of 70s-era sf/fantasy which I picked up during the closing of the best-stocked local sf/fantasy-carrying used bookshop which I haven't gotten around to trying yet):

Tales from the Flat Earth series (ISFDB, Wikipedia), of which the 2nd novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1980. This is kind of like N. K. Jemisin's recent Hugo-nominated "Inheritance Trilogy", in which it sort of sets up this entire alternate universe and mythology which aren't based on the usual medieval-ish western tropes, and explores the latter by having the "gods" as characters at the time of the creation of their myths (and then follows up with a volume of stories involving the "ordinary" humans and how they perceive said gods).

My personal favourite out of the lot is the said story collection, Night's Sorceries (a World Fantasy Award nominee in its own right), which admittedly I might be giving higher points due to nostalgia for it being the only volume that was still lingering on the library shelves which I was able to read as a kid, which later led to my tracking down the rest via used bookstore. That said, IIRC there's a wide enough range of variety of plots and styles in the story collection that it'll probably be easier to gauge how much you like her writing and worldbuilding than at the novel length.

IIRC, these don't really need to be read in order, except perhaps you might want to read #4, Delirium's Mistress, after some of the others, as it deals with a descendant goddess character.

ETA: These are available in e-book format via Storm Constantine's Immanion Press imprint.

For somewhat more conventional stuff, she's also written a rather good collection of fairy-tale based stories in a more dark fantasy vein, Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer (ISFDB, Wikipedia), a Nebula and World Fantasy Award nominee, which is a collection of Exactly What It Says In The Title, and reads like a bit of a precursor to those Datlow & Windling-edited Snow White, Blood Red fairy tale anthologies that Avon used to publish (the latter now reprinted via Open Road Media, in case anyone's interested).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I was getting her mixed up with the woman whose name escapes me who wrote all the "Arthurian" stuff.

Marion Zimmer Bradley

[HarryT]

Thanks, Jon! I did remember the name later .

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Ah, those. Good stuff

Actually those aren't "Good Stuff".

Marion Zimmer Bradley was (in her private life) a pedophile.
She was married (her second marriage) to Walter Breen (another pedophile).
There are passive aggressive references in the Avalon books to nasty things done in real life...including conceiving her daughter for the purpose of having someone to abuse.

Here is a link to get you started: http://www.jimchines.com/2014/06/rape-abuse-and-mzb/

[HarryT]

Please don't let's get sidetracked. We're talking about Tanith Lee here.

Thanks.

[ATDrake]

For anyone wanting to try Tanith Lee's fiction before they buy, a few of her short stories are available legally as online free reads and podcasts from various magazines' websites such as Lightspeed and Weird Tales, listed here at her entry on the Free Speculative Fiction Online Website.

Looks like it's mainly the gothic horror-ish/dark fantasy stuff which seems to characterize her later work (she wrote in a very broad variety of subsubgenres over the decades), but it should be a good starter to see if you're interested in reading more.

[HarryT]

Thanks to everyone for the reading recommendations.

[tompe]

Don't Bite the Sun, and Drinking Sapphire Wine are SF classics and very good.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, I was thinking of Marion Zimmer Bradley. Just remembered the name. "The Mist of Avalon" and all that.

What's odd is that, apparently, Tanith Lee's newest book was co-written with Marion Zimmer Bradley.

http://www.amazon.com/Birthgrave-Tri...rds=tanith+lee

(Never mind. When I go to actual link -- instead of the search page -- it says that Marion Zimmer Bradley just wrote the Introduction. Still, a connection.)