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Rating: 
Summary: It's original
Review: "Gothic at her best" is an interesting description indeed. This book, made up of three (relatively) short novellas, is only for those who like sudden, unexplained and disorienting events that are chained together for no apparent reason. Like David Lynch? Like cross-dressing? Read this...!
Rating: 
Summary: I liked this book, but...
Review: I agree with everyone that says Malice in Saffron is what makes this book worth reading. The third story, the empires of Azure, is also interesting and well written. It takes you back to roaring twenties Paris, and although the time frame is more modern, it is just as well written. The first story was what tried my patience, it was a vampire story featuring Andre Saint Jean, meant to be the vampire Lestat, I think of this series, but who was also a whiny, self absorbed fool. This story drones on through page after page of prose, until it finally comes to it's meandering, sniveling end.
I understand, it wasn't Tanith Lee's fault though, it was Andre St. Jean's. He just had to have his say.
I still didn't like this series as much as I liked some of her other books, such as The Silver Metal Lover, and my favorite of all time (so far) Biting the Sun. I highly recommend them, not only as some of her best work, but as some of the best fantasy that I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: "Malice in Saffron" excellent
Review: The Book of the Damned is perhaps the best of Tanith Lee's Books of Paradyse series, if only for the presence of the second novella, "Malice in Saffron". The first novella, "Stained with Crimson" begins with an interesting encounter, but becomes so mired in atmosphere and more atmosphere that the plot becomes indecipherable. Still, it evokes such a sense of hopelessness (in me at least!) that it's worth a read just to feel one's emotions tugged so. The third novella, "Empires of Azure", is less compelling. The characters feel caricatured despite Lee's typically stylish prose. It should be for "Malice in Saffron" that you buy this book. Jehanine, a peasant girl who's raped by her (step?)father, undergoes a personality split when she flees to Paradyse. Her nighttime persona of a carousing, murderous young man is a gripping portrayal of repressed rage finally unleashed. Late in the story, Lee introduces a plague to the city, and her subsequent descriptions rank with Camus, in my opinion, for depicting mass reaction to that particular fear of death (obviously, I like Lee very much). Finally, the twist of the "miracle" meal caps the story in a very satisfying manner. I think readers of various genres, fantasy, horror, even history, will get a kick out of this story.
Rating:
Summary: "Malice in Saffron" excellent
Review: The Book of the Damned is perhaps the best of Tanith Lee's Books of Paradyse series, if only for the presence of the second novella, "Malice in Saffron". The first novella, "Stained with Crimson" begins with an interesting encounter, but becomes so mired in atmosphere and more atmosphere that the plot becomes indecipherable. Still, it evokes such a sense of hopelessness (in me at least!) that it's worth a read just to feel one's emotions tugged so. The third novella, "Empires of Azure", is less compelling. The characters feel caricatured despite Lee's typically stylish prose. It should be for "Malice in Saffron" that you buy this book. Jehanine, a peasant girl who's raped by her (step?)father, undergoes a personality split when she flees to Paradyse. Her nighttime persona of a carousing, murderous young man is a gripping portrayal of repressed rage finally unleashed. Late in the story, Lee introduces a plague to the city, and her subsequent descriptions rank with Camus, in my opinion, for depicting mass reaction to that particular fear of death (obviously, I like Lee very much). Finally, the twist of the "miracle" meal caps the story in a very satisfying manner. I think readers of various genres, fantasy, horror, even history, will get a kick out of this story.
Rating:
Summary: Too much of a good(?) thing
Review: The first novella ("Stained with Crimson") rambled along deliriously until it had long overstayed its welcome. The second ("Malice in Saffron") was relentlessly, unapologetically violent. After slogging through those two, I dragged my feet at reading the third ("Empires of Azure"), but it was best, evoking the spine-tingling suspense of a Gothic horror tale. Throughout, there was too much emphasis on gender-bending in all its permutations. It would have been a nice touch, if it hadn't been so liberally applied. You had your men with women, men with men, women with women, men with women dressed as men, men with men dressed as women, men turning into women, women turning into men, people of the either/or variety turning into... well I guess they were pretty contented as-is. As for myself, I was more than ready to simply call everyone "a person" and never mind who they slept with, but that would have eliminated two thirds of the book. There you have it. It was fantasy, it was horror, and it was a blatant call for publicly-funded sex change surgery.
Rating:
Summary: Too much of a good(?) thing
Review: The first novella ("Stained with Crimson") rambled along deliriously until it had long overstayed its welcome. The second ("Malice in Saffron") was relentlessly, unapologetically violent. After slogging through those two, I dragged my feet at reading the third ("Empires of Azure"), but it was best, evoking the spine-tingling suspense of a Gothic horror tale. Throughout, there was too much emphasis on gender-bending in all its permutations. It would have been a nice touch, if it hadn't been so liberally applied. You had your men with women, men with men, women with women, men with women dressed as men, men with men dressed as women, men turning into women, women turning into men, people of the either/or variety turning into... well I guess they were pretty contented as-is. As for myself, I was more than ready to simply call everyone "a person" and never mind who they slept with, but that would have eliminated two thirds of the book. There you have it. It was fantasy, it was horror, and it was a blatant call for publicly-funded sex change surgery.
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