Tanith Lee

In a rich, complex epic set in a grim fantasy world, Tanith Lee explores in her distinctive style the excesses of religion as well as the dark pagan roots of earlier times. There are disturbing similarities between the rites of apparently conflicting beliefs - the blood and body of Christ and the divine blood of the World Tree. While the Christerium might believe it wields the greater power and keeps the people under control through brutality and oppression, the older cunning ways lie hidden in every forest glade and in the hearts of those who worship the Great Tree, nourished by the blood of willing sacrifice. But then the Tree is destroyed, in the midst of a sacred rite, unleashing a potent and vengeful magic. From the ruin of this atrocity, the enigmatic dark priest Anjelen arises. He deftly works his way into the heart of the Christerium, bewitching its most powerful administrators. He is like an angel, beautiful and charismatic - yet to be feared. People are drawn to follow him into any darkness he claims to be the Light of God. The rites he introduces to the inner cabal of the Christerium change all who take part in them, not least invoking a thirst for blood. Characters with mysterious origins, damaged in body and mind, assemble to enact a world-changing drama. Anillia wakes within an old abbey, knowing she is 15 years old, but with no idea who she is or how she got there. She feels safe with the ageing nuns until sons of a local forest clan arrive at her sanctuary, claiming she is their sister, lost long ago in the woods. She is married off to a local clan leader, thereby becoming part of Anjelen's plan. Mechail, the crippled son of a powerful forest lord is murdered yet rises from death to follow an unknown destiny. It seems he was never quite human to begin with. Jasha, a wild woods girl, more animal than human is drawn into Anjelen's entourage, witness to strange and terrifying events, knowing she too has a part to play in the savage rites of blind belief and raw desire. This vivid, macabre epic was only ever published in the UK in a hardback edition - to most readers it will be a completely new title, which Immanion Press is proud to present in two paperback volumes, with illustrations by Danielle Lainton and cover art by John Kaiine.

What if Snow White were the real villain and the "wicked queen" just a sadly maligned innocent? What if awakening Sleeping Beauty would be the mistake of a lifetime -- of several lifetimes? What if the famous folk tales were retold with an eye to more horrific possibilities? Only Tanith Lee -- "Goddess-Empress of the Hot Read" (Village Voice) could retell the world-famous tales of the Brothers Grimm (and others) as they might have been told by the Sisters Grimmer This special edition, put together for the 30th anniversary of the original edition, adds a new Grimmer fairy tale written especially for this volume

"The Isle is supernatural and may produce anything. It is a place half in this world and half elsewhere. In spots, they say, it opens on the country of the moon itself. Therefore, anticipate magic, and great danger. Sacrifice is common on the Isle. So is death." Clirando, a celebrated warrior, believes herself to be cursed. Betrayed by people she trusted, she unleashes a vicious retaliation upon them and then lives in fear of fateful retribution for her act of cold-blooded vengeance. Once every seventeen years, the full moon of midsummer shines for seven nights, and celebrations take place upon the mysterious Moon Isle. When Clirando is ordered by the priestess of the temple of Parna to travel with seven companions to the festival on the Isle, she sees this as her punishment at last - if not her doom. But the Isle is mysterious and disorientating. The senses cannot be trusted. Strange visions haunt the shadows. Perhaps the dead walk there. During the nights of the full moon, anything might happen. Set in a land resembling Ancient Greece, in this novella Tanith Lee explores the dark corners of the heart and soul within a vivid mythical adventure. The book also includes 'The Dry Season' another of her tales set in an imaginary ancient world of the Classical era.

Now available in a redesigned edition, Tanith Lee's sci-fi classic of a woman's quest for acceptance through the transfer of her consciousness to an artificial body. In the futuristic world of Indigo, reproduction is controlled by the government, guaranteeing that every baby is happy, healthy, and beautiful. But mistakes happen, and a rare few babies are accidentally born biologically, like Magdala Cled. Because of her natural-born features, Magdala is an outcast in society--abandoned at birth, abused in the orphanage she grew up in, and branded with the cruel name "Ugly." But Magdala's world turns upside down when she's approached by Claudio Loro, a wealthy scientist who has created a beautiful artificial body. When he offers to transfer Magdala's consciousness into the body, she cannot refuse the priceless opportunity for a new, beautiful life. However, unbeknownst to her, Claudio has crafted her new body to resemble Christophine del Jan, his rival scientist and former lover. Now Magdala must impersonate Christophine to infiltrate high society, court Claudio's advances, and decide whose side she is truly on--all while maintaining her real body lest it die...and she die with it.

Tenebrae sum. I am the darkness. Darkness, I... Rachaela's daughter Ruth is dead - and now she has a new child with her Scarabae lover Althene. Anna is no ordinary girl. She matures with preternatural speed and Rachaela can't dispel the feeling that her daughter is Ruth reborn. But if Ruth wasn't evil, she was certainly dangerously unstable - a threat to all. It's difficult for a mother to connect with a child she feels isn't quite what she seems - or is far worse than she seems. But perhaps Anna doesn't have that streak of insanity, and it's only Rachaela's fevered imagination. Perhaps she's nothing more than a bright, new member of the mysterious Scarabae family, (themselves something greater than mere human), who is an asset not a potential disaster. Anna's parents and the other Scarabae aren't aware that another member of the family has become aware of the girl - the father of them all, the almost mythical Cain, who lives apart from the world in a frozen wasteland, where's he's constructed a bizarre reproduction of Ancient Egypt within a pyramid of ice He wants not only Anna, but other children he believes are reincarnations of people from the past - the earliest times of the family. But what does he want them for? Soon, the kidnappings begin... Meanwhile, Miranda Scarabae continues to grow younger, into a beautiful woman, bewitching the grizzled biker Connor. Uncle Camillo, himself no longer an aged man, has a new set of friends who live upon the streets of London. It's inevitable his eccentric presence will change them. And Malach, alone in the Netherlands, grieving the death of Ruth - despite her amoral wickedness - becomes aware his love might be reborn, and is pulled from his melancholy to find her: to save her. As lives and stories twist and intertwine, the tale of the Scarabae draws to a vivid and powerful climax in the final volume of The Blood Opera Sequence.

"Tanith's work is lush and rich with beauty, darkness, and sensuality. More than almost anyone else whom I have ever read, Tanith's work sounds like it was meant to be read aloud, perhaps while huddled around a fire in the dark forest or in the quiet and still air within an ancient temple." Jeremy Brett, (Cushing Memorial Library & Archives, Texas A&M University) Tanith Lee wrote fifteen stories for the acclaimed US genre magazine 'Realms of Fantasy', which ran from 1994 to 2009 and was founded and edited by her close friend, Shawna McCarthy. Venus Burning: Realms collects all these stories in one volume for the first time, some of which only ever appeared in the magazine and will therefore be new to some of Tanith's fans. The stories in this collection are among her best work, in which Tanith takes myth and fairy tale tropes and turns them on their heads. You might find fantasy swordsmen (Woman in Scarlet), vampires (Israbel), werewolves (Moonblind), dragons (The Children of his Old Age), ghostly dolls (Doll Skulls) and tales reminiscent of the Arabian Nights (I Bring You Forever), but these are nothing like stories of those genres you've read before. Lush and lyrical, deep and literary, Tanith Lee created fresh poignant tales from familiar archetypes. This book also includes three previously uncollected stories from her Flat Earth mythos." We published fifteen of Tanith Lee's brilliant works. All of those wonderful, mystical, gorgeous, glorious stories are in this volume, and I'm so glad that Immanion Press is sharing them with new (and old) readers." Shawna McCarthy - founder and editor of 'Realms of Fantasy'

Rachaela has never known her father - he was a taboo subject as far as her mother was concerned. All Rachaela's mother had ever said was 'Keep away from the Scarabae', her father's tribe. Were they bad people, or simply disapproving of the woman who'd born his child? After her mother's death, Rachaela realises she is being stalked by agents of the mysterious Scarabae family. They want to meet her. Despite her instincts to keep away from the Scarabae, she ultimately relents and is taken to the rambling, isolated house near the sea, where the Scarabae live in baroque seclusion. The inhabitants of the house are very old, and most are extremely eccentric, if not demented. And how many of them are there, exactly? The fading splendour of the house closes around Rachaela like a stifling womb, and she's given no explanation for this mEnage of bizarre oldsters, who are like creatures from an earlier age, and certainly not normal. Is there something supernatural to the Scarabae, or are they merely lost in delusion? When Rachaela finally meets Adamus, a beautiful and apparently young man who claims to be her father, events take a darker turn. The Scarabae have a purpose for Rachaela - but this is nothing like she'd imagined. The family has been hounded across centuries and continents, until finally, the last of them, mostly weak and old, have ended up in this hidden corner of England, with only a reluctant, fearful ally to aid them. Rachaela must decide what to do - comply, or run while she still can. Her greatest fear is that she does not have a choice. First published in 1992, and long out of print, Immanion Press is proud to release this new edition, which includes seven illustrations and an introductory essay by Storm Constantine.

Aged fourteen, the narrator, in an unnamed French city, finds an old book in a second-hand shop. It's a slender volume, but remarkably well persevered; the narrator wonders who could have allowed such an exquisite artefact to end up amid piles of unwanted, unremarkable books. Surely it must be valuable? The book, she finds, contains writings of the revolutionary, Lucien de Ceppays, who lived and died in the city two centuries before. As she examines the book, she finds a small watercolour slipped between the flyleaf and the cover - a painting of Lucien himself. She feels a strange bond to the life and thoughts of this long-dead man - which blooms into what is almost an obsession. Some years later, impoverished after the death of her mother, the narrator - in a state of desperation - find herself inexorably guided to meet the peculiar and unnerving Madame Two Swords, an old woman with a history, and her own enduring bonds to Lucien - as well as the book. For the narrator, reality seems to unravel, as she begins to penetrate just how intimately she is connected with Madame Two Swords and Lucien. What is the mysterious truth behind her obsession? Perhaps she did not find the book at all - perhaps it found her. Previously published in 1988, only in a limited edition, this new edition includes illustrations by Jarod Mills.

A vampiric Snow White whose pious stepmother is her only salvation.... A supernatural Cinderella who strikes at midnight, leaving behind a prince mad with desire.... A sleeping beauty never meant to be woken... In her World Fantasy Award-nominated short story collection, Red as Blood, Tanith Lee deconstructed familiar fairy tales, recapturing their original darkness and horror in haunting new interpretations. Behind gilded words and poised princesses, she exposed a sinister world of violence, madness, and dangerous enchantments. With Redder than Blood, Lee resumes the tradition of twisting tales. Among its nineteen tales, this volume explores unnerving variations of Beauty and the Beast, The Frog Prince, Snow White, and other classics, including three never-before-published stories. A recognized master fantasist, Tanith Lee has won multiple awards for her craft, including the British Fantasy Award, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror.

A recognized master fantasist, Tanith Lee has won numerous awards for her craft, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror. Rediscover her classic, most popular fantasy series, Tales from the Flat Earth, where demons and gods grant wonders and wreak havoc. Visit the Upperearth, where dwell the gods; the Underearth, the realm of nightmarish demons; the Innerearth, domain of the dead; and the Flat Earth itself, the home of mortals. Supreme amongst them all is the demon god Azhrarn, Night's Master, whose deadly whims could change the lives of those in the Flat Earth. Azhrarn holds in his heart a mystery which could alter the very existence of the Flat Earth forever.