Well, the book is worth five stars, but since you can't find it anywhere, there's almost no point in reviewing it. The book is so good, however, that I suggest going to a good library and searching for it there.

Personal Darness is the sequel to Dark Dance, where the reader first meets Rachaela, a beautiful young woman with clouds of black hair and blue eyes. Rachaela is completely alone, a little silent insland in the middle of bustling London, but her life changes drastically when she goes to the countryside to live with her father's family, one of the most bizarre and unusual groups of people in literature.

In Personal Darkness, the story takes right up where Dark Dance left off, and winds its way through several different plots. The twists and turns are unexpected and truly... different, gothic and mad, with the original cast of characters still in top form, and a slew of new ones who are equally compelling.

This is a lush, strong, strange, gothic, extremely unusual novel. I don't really know how to explain it. For a while there it seems to be Tanith Lee's answer to Anne Rice's vampire series, but turns completely upside down and mutates into an altogether different story. Like all of Lee's work, the story hides under the guise of formula, but remains its strange, original, different self.

If you ever come across this book or its predecessor, I strongly suggest you pick it up. The wonderful characters of Rachaela, Althene, and even Ruth are worth it, and the character Malach, a white-haired warrior-priest who debutes in this novel, is absolutely gorgeous. I highly recommend it.

This review concerns a few stories by Sara Paretsky, "A Taste of Life" being the first one of them.

Sara Paretsky writes short stories like other people drink tea. Each story gets its real meaning with the last page, the last sentence, the last line. The punch-line that turns the whole story upside down.

In A Taste of Life, she shows how a daughter can be the victim of a cannibal mother who steals all she wants from her daughter out of plain fear of competition or out of spite. She steals her slimness and beauty for forcefeeding her. And she even steals her love. But the punch line makes the conflict pathetic by turning it inside out. The mother meets with her righteous retribution.

In Dealer's Choice the turning upside down of the situation is quite striking but less meaningful. It is after all nothing but a small very traditional detective story.

But in The Man Who Loved Life the punchline takes a very general meaning. The big pundit of pro-life activists, of religious biggots about the family-centered society and the father-centered family, is destroyed when, during a big commemoration of the role of the hero in the fight for life and the protection of the unborn, it is revealed that he did not know his own wife followed the other track. He looks like a fool and the pro-life movement is revealed to be nothing but a male chauvinistic sham. Brilliant.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Until I read this, I was not terribly impressed with Tanith Lee's standalone novels (Electric Forest, Days of Grass, Day By Night). This, however, is probably one of her most imaginative and lush fantasy novels. The tale of lupine sorcerer Kernik/Volk and his dark god, and of innocent slave girl Shaina and her hopeless love for a cursed travelling actor, and how they interact, is engrossing and fantastic. Lee's writing is at its richest and most vibrant here, and the book is magical and totally enjoyable. And while "poetic justice" may be served, it's not done predictably so. If you're interested in checking out Tanith Lee, but don't want to get caught up in a series, this is an excellent place to start.

About 20 years or so ago, I first sat down on a bookstore floor to begin the book, and hunted it down for myself years later. Some of the tales so haunted me that I had to find them and reread them to see if I recalled them rightly, or had confused them. Tanith Lee's style makes for a perfectly warped yet new angle to see fairy tales from. Was Snow White's stepmother Queen so wicked? Was Cinderella so abused? Did the Brothers Grimm ever make you ponder such things? If not, the Sisters Grimmer will!

Please be warned, if the macabre and morbid are not your cup of tea, you won't like this. But if you can stretch your mind, allow other images and/or interpretations to be possible, lush and frighening that they might be - then I highly recommend the Princess-Royal of Fantasy. :> And if you've tried her Paradys books, that will prepare somewhat for this - not always as colorful, but as starkly mad.

Enjoy!

I took a cutting of the title story, "Red As Blood," to the State Speech Tournament in Prose Reading. Tanith Lee's beautiful prose is at its height in this collection; even the stories that weren't my favorites were so wonderfully descriptive I couldn't help but read them through. I think the best stories in this are "Red As Blood" (Snow White), "When the Clock Strikes" (Cinderella), and "The Golden Rope" (Rapunzel). The only reason I don't give this book a 10 is that one or two of the other stories weren't as interesting as the rest, which was a bit of a letdown. However, this is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.

This is the book that really stuck me on Tanith Lee. The stories in this are fantastic especially "Red as Blood" The only other Tanith Lee Short Story collection that I have enjoyed better was The Gorgon. This is a great jumping off point for anyone that wants to get into her works.

Once again, great writing. Kept me entertained and guessing what was gonna happen next!!

Paradys: a twilight city where a young girl of Victorian times fell in love with an actor, suffered a brutal rape and rejection, and in her grief was consigned to a madhouse where the caretakers were her tormentors and only the mad knew compassion. Paradis: a city of the present day, where a brilliant, eccentric artist was accused of murder but instead entered a sanitorium and there descended into insanity. Paradise: a bizarre landscape of the future, crazed and polluted, where two twins travel through a mysterious labyrinth of ice to fulfil their murderous urges. Three stories happening in the City at different times: and yet they all occur at the same time. At first reading, much of "The Book of the Mad" seems disjointed-the Victorian madhouse is a shadow over the modern hospital, the future maze leads into different periods in the City's history-but nothing makes sense. Only at the very end of the book does the plot come together entirely, an ending which provokes the reader (well, me at least) to immediately re-read the book to see how well all the different times and characters interlock. Though not my favorite of the Secret Books of Paradys, "The Book of the Mad" is possibly the best of the four in concept and execution: blurring the lines between dream and reality, sanity and madness, it's a weird wonderful ride and a book to read and re-read over and over again.

The final book of Paradys is undoubtedly the best, drawing the reader into three alternate, related worlds. Parallels abound, as well as subtle suggestions that say the three worlds are more closely related then one might think. Smara and Felione, two sociopathic murderers, are in the book. Interestingly, I actually felt empathy for them by the end of the book... Very well written, with excellent charecterization.

"Don't Bite the Sun" is the first book in this series. It pretty much illustrates life in Four Bee, the domed city where the nameless protagonist and her circle of Jang (teenage) friends live. (She might have a name, but I don't recall ever seeing it.) Here you can assume any gender or body just by "suiciding". Nothing's taboo in Four Bee--well, almost nothing. Murder, for one, is against the rules--and if it's forbidden, then this daring Jang will certainly find a way of committing it (...).

There are a few other no-no's besides murder in Four Bee. For starters, you can only kill yourself so many times before you're put on "probation". (Poor Hergal.) Just like in our own society today, teenage pregnancy, casual sex, and even May/December romances are frowned upon. After awhile, Four Bee doesn't seem like such a hedonistic place; it feels more like a prison or a bubbled cage.

If you like Tanith Lee's writing style (and especially her sci fi novels), then I would recommend this book. But I wouldn't recommend the sequel, "Drinking Sapphire Wine"; it's not as good as this one.

You can find these two novellas ("Don't Bite the Sun" and "Drinking Sapphire Wine") in one complete edition: "Biting the Sun".

I liked both of the books Don't bite the sun and drinking Sapphire wine, but I have to admit that I liked Don't bite the sun a little more. It dealed more with her struggle for identity and survival, and it brought across easier how someone who actually lived in that culture would think and feel. Every little detail was amazing, and Tanith Lee carries the story across like she actually vacationed in Four Bee , 4 boo, 4 Baa. At the end of the book, I felt like I had went there. This book is expertly planned out, not to mention incredibly witty. It had a very strong voice and I felt like I could hear the narrator speaking. Read this book, you have no idea how good it is.

Together with it's sequel, Drinking Sapphire Wine, this is one of the best books I've ever read. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where all work is performed by robots and androids, citizens are expected to spend their entire existance (which will last however long they want it to) sampling meaningless experiences and having fun. The predominiately female heroine (you can change your sex, body, appearance, etc. anytime you choose to) finds herself bored and searches for something that will give her life meaning. In the process, her discontent manages to alienate her from society, with its extremely rigid unwritten rules of behavior underlying an "anything goes" appearance. The robots (who are programmed to serve humanity's needs) are at first confused by her desire to do something important and ultimately threatened by her antisocial behavior. In the end, our heroine (we never learn her name) succeeds in escaping the sterile environment of the mega-city and recreates a new world for herself in the process. Tanith Lee (my all-time favorite author) offers a scathing satire of today's emphasis on fun and games, while writing a startlingly sensitive account of one woman's attempt to give her life meaning. You will be amazed by the simplistic beauty of Lee's writing, with prose that often reads like poetry. With just a few, well chosen words, she paints a vivid picture that you will never forget. Lee's style in these books is light and gay, fitting the world her heroine is expected to conform to. The ultimate message of the books lurks palpably just below the surface of the words, waiting for the reader to discover it.

If one thing can be said of Tanith Lee, it's that she's versatile! From tales of darkness and vampires, to the most beautiful fantasies, she writes with flair. In the BLACK UNICORN, she focuses on Tanaquil, Daughter of a mighty sorceress. With no apparent magic of her own, the monotony of Tanaquil's life is only relieved by her interest and talent for mending things. Until, one day she finds mysterious fragments of beautiful bone in the desert, and puts them together to form a Unicorn, and her life changes forever.

This book probably contains one of the most delightful and enchanting charecters ever. The Peeve. A furry sand creature with the ability to talk in the vocabulary of a 2-year child, it's antics fill the book with gentle humour. A wonderful book, to be read again and again.

Tanaquil, the 15-year-old protagonist in "Black Unicorn," lives in a desert fortress with her inept sorceress mother, Jaive. Here Tanaquil collects fossils that she finds in the sand. Then one day she discovers the skeleton of a unicorn, and by putting the pieces together, the unicorn somehow comes back to life, leading her and her pet peeve (yes, it's actually called a peeve--a small, catlike creature that's somewhat akin to the beasts in "Biting the Sun") on one adventure after another, ultimately reuniting her with her unknown father and sister in a faraway city.

The title is somewhat misleading, in that "Black Unicorn" isn't predominantly about unicorns, but more of a young woman's quest. I really loved Tanaquil's little "sidekick," the peeve, who creates a lighthearted touch to the story, almost stealing every scene with its high-strung antics and broken English. This is an appropriate book for all ages, though ideal for young girls interested in fantasies/adventures. Plus it's short (188 pages) and easy to read. If you liked this one, then you'll probably like the following two in this series: "Gold Unicorn" and "Red Unicorn."

I first read this book in junior high, and now I'm a freshman in college and I'm still re-reading it. This was the first Tanith Lee book I ever read, and it's probably the best one I've ever read (no easy feat).

The Black Unicorn is the subtle, humorous story of Tanaquil, the bored, cranky daughter of a powerful sorceress. She lives in her mother's fortress in the middle of a desert where no one ever comes, and is terribly, terribly tired of being there. One day Tanaquil "accidently" brings a unicorn to life, and Tanaquil finds herself on quite an adventure, together with a talking peeve whom she met in the fortress along for the ride.

Tanaquil is a wonderful character, one of my favorites of all time. She is smart, subtle, creative, strong, and realistic. Her little "sidekick", the desert peeve, is just as wonderful, and the book wouldn't be the same without it. The book is filled with all kinds of people and creatures and places and things, all of which are amusing and fully fleshed-out. Tanith Lee writes this story beautifully, with rich images, a sense of humor, and a real knack for the fantastic and the oddly magical mundane.

I'm really sorry to hear that this book is unavailable. If you like fantasies or fairy-tales, you should definitely try to find this book and its two sequels in a good library.

It's as if the Mayfair Witches were written better. But not necessarily Tanith Lee writing better. It's still an entertaining read, but that's all - entertaining.

I am thinking that someone locked Tanith Lee in a padded cell with a tv playing 24-hour soaps & then gave her a typewriter (although she writes her novels longhand). She can do much, much better than this. Although this is much better than a lot of other stories one can read.

Rachaela Day is the protagonist in Dark Dance, an attractive, dark-haired 29-year-old who lives a quiet, uninterrupted life between her small apartment and meaningless job in a bookstore. Her mother died four years ago (a woman Rachaela didn't mourn) and, many years earlier, her father had abandoned them. Otherwise, she has no family, no friends.

Then she is contacted repeatedly by messengers: her father's family want to meet with her, to make amends for his abandoning her all those years ago. Obviously, Rachaela is apprehensive, but when she is mysteriously fired and notified of a future building eviction, she has nowhere else to turn but to these strangers.

The House, simply named, is home to the Scarabae (pronounced Scarraby), a group of a dozen or so eccentric family members, including her father Adamus. As her mother had explained to her as a child, the Scarabae are unusual, "darkly ominous" people, which Rachaels discovers is all too true. She also learns their invitation had a more deviant purpose: to mate father with daughter. However, nobody expected the outcome to be so fatal.

Dark Dance is the first of three books in the Blood Opera Sequence; "Personal Darkness" and "Darkness, I" follow. This series is so far my favorite Tanith Lee series, as well as my favorite all-time vampire series. It's not as bloody as most present-day vampire books (in fact, there's very little gore; it's more gothic than violent), but if you're a big vampire fan (which I am), I would recommend you read all three books.

As fair warning, there are some sex scenes between father and daughter that might offend some readers.

If you've already read the Blood Opera Sequence, you might like Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles or Lives of the Mayfair Witches. Both series are somewhat alike to Tanith Lee's tale of the Scarabae, that is, if Anne Rice had merged her vampire world with her witch world.

I also recommend reading "The Kiss" by Kathryn Reines if you like vampires.

This is Tanith Lee at her best. It is (refreshingly) horror with out guts and gore; it is shocking but only quietly; it is consuming and un-put-down-able. Or, in other words, this book is for those who just want a damn good read! Don't miss out on this contemporary horror tale or its sequels 'Personal Darkness' and 'Darkness, I'.

I am writing this review because I was reading other readers' reviews, and realizing that too many of them had given away important surprising aspects of the book. When I read Wolf Tower, I did so without having any idea what the book was about, save for the vague summary on the back cover. I know you have probably already read the editor review that gives away the entire story, but I hope not.

Claidi lives in the House, an isolated oasis in the middle of what House residents call the Waste: a place of horrors where the profaners of sacred rituals are sent into exile. Claidi believes the dreadful tales of the Waste, and goes on suffering as a servant to Lady Jade Leaf in the House... until a balloon crashes in the House garden, and the balloon's occupant is put on trial. Then Claidi is swept into an adventure of her own, alongside Nemian, the golden stranger from the balloon. She comes to discover that the Waste is not at all what she has been led to believe, most things aren't what they seem, and that following her heart is, in the long run, going to make her happier than doing what her better judgement tells her is right.

I am a big fan of Tanith Lee, and have become even more so after reading Wolf Tower. The characters and places come alive, and hold more clarity than even some things in life. If you choose not to read this book, then you are truly missing a wonderful and beautiful tale. If you do decide to read it, then be prepared for a delightful, humorous, and sometimes poignant look into the life of Claidi, an ordinary girl on an extraordinary adventure.

Claidi's voice is strong and the diary style of her retelling very appealing. This book is worth reading for it's unpretentious recounting of rather extraordinary events. You will come to enjoy the whimsical characters and the ridiculous and bizarre world she inhabits, and jolly well end up liking her very much indeed.
I must say when I read this book I was reminded of myself in all my bumbling glory and Tanith Lee makes no effort to put her heroine up there with the usual pedestalled and dainty princess' nor with the heroic axe swinging warrior type amazons of other books which are all well and good, in a very liberated way, but a ordinary girl like Claidi is wonderfully refreshing and very likeable.
Have not yet read part 3 but part two was an absolute delight.
Not just for young adults but this book will be enjoyed by anyone who has wondered what would happen if adventure really did come to them?
I must also recommend TL's other series Red, Gold & Black Unicorn which are excellent although a little more fantastical than this. (You probably won't think that's possible)
ENJOY

This book was the first I've ever read by Tanith Lee and I found that she is an excellant author. She creates her own world for Claidi but she describes it so well that the story seems real. I also like the fact that Claidi wasn't anyone special in the beginning, she wasn't perfect either (which made her more likable and much more lifelike.)

In this book, a servant named Claidi helps a prisoner escape the House(sort of like a palace in the middle of a desert) where she lives. Soon they are on a crazy adventure through the Waste(the desert that surrounds the House and is supposed to be a terrible place to be) to another type of palace called the Wolf Tower. Not everything turns out the way Claidi thinks it will, though, and more than once she finds herself lost and not knowing whether she did the right thing by leaving the House. Claidi proves her strength and determination to be independent in the end, though, when she breaks the rules and does what she feels is right.

I don't want to give anything away because it is better when you find out things that you never expected on your own. This book is one of my favorites. I also have read Wolf Star and Wolf Queen, the sequels, which are just as good as this book. Claidi becomes a good friend while reading these books. I highly recommend this series to anyone who doesn't mind surprises, good and bad, and a lot of adventure.

I liked this book. But as the other guys have said, it's good to read the Hardcover book by James Christensen first. (Alot of the references are better if you follow our advice.) This is the only book I've read by Tanith Lee, But I know I got another book by her for Christmas Called "Wolf Tower" but I know that one of her books called "Vivia" seems a bit questionable. I've never read it, so it's not like I know, but I 've heard it has crucifictions and vampires and stuff...I don't think that stuff is right or good, so I find it a little strange that she could write such a wonderful cute book like this, then write trash like that.Actually, I did read an excerpt from it, so I kind of can have an opinion. Comon, Tanith, I love this book, and If you always wrote like this, I would have to put you near the top of my favorite authors. I love Hope in this book. She's a great young girl heroine, the kind of heroine that young girls need to read about more often. And Apollo turns out really nice and a great person too. So keep your standards high, everyone, and we can work together, to make great literature for the new generations. (...) ;-)I love ya, Tanith, you're a great writer.

This book was interesting and the idea was good but there was something missing, I just don't know what. Hope Glover was the typical orphan who had incredibly kind parents but is left as a servant in a nasty house hold. Apollo was mean to Hope but he is not mean at heart he was just raised to be that way. His father has drummed into his head that he will be " an important man." and that he is to keep his head up and his chest out. But from the parts of the story that are told from his point of view you see that he doesn't kwant to end up like that. I especially liked the end but I will not give anything away about that. The story begins with Hope living her usual life, when a young woman and her husband come to visit the Rivers. The young woman is Cassandra Aisling who has been on the Basset and was carried to the lands of legend years ago.( Make sure you read the original voyage of the Basset book by James c. christen first.) cassandra sees that hope will travel on the Basset soon aswell and indeed she is right. Hope gets carried away by a magic carpet/kites and takes Apollo with her without knowing it. After that both children see things that Hope had always dreamed of and that Apollo had never dared to, because of his father's instructions. I suggest you read tis bok if you are looking for something light to read if you are like me but fotr people who are not like me yo can decide whether to read it or not on your own.

Based on the adventures of "Voyage of the Basset" by James C. Christensen, "Islands in the Sky" by Tanith Lee is the first book in this children's fantasy series created by Mr. Christensen. Other notable fantasy writers have also collaborated, including Terri Windling and Ellen Steiber (#2: "The Raven Queen"), Sherwood Smith (#3: "Journey to Otherwhere"), Will Shetterly (#4: "Thor's Hammer"), and Mary Frances Zambreno (#5: "Fire Bird"). All of these books are worth reading if you enjoy children's fantasy fiction.

In "Islands of the Sky", 10-year-old orphaned Hope Glover has grown up a scullery maid in 19th century London, until she's magically taken away by a kite caught in a tree. Unknowingly, her master's spoiled son, Apollo Rivers, also tags along. Hope soon enters the world of the Basset, a flying ship occupied by dwarves and gremlins, and befriends the kind first mate, Sebastian, as well was an inept genie she finds in the sea. In this magical world full of mythical Greek creatures, she aides in the war against the cruel centaurs who intend to enslave all the wingless horses, animals the centaurs believe are far inferior to them since they only have one quality while the centaurs have two (being part human and horse). And while Hope assists Pegasus and his fellow winged and wingless horses, Apollo soon falls to the side of the enemies and is consequently imprisoned by Klatter in Centaur City.

"Islands in the Sky" is a wonderful story. Older Tanith Lee fans will love it, as will young fantasy/adventure readers. Recommended for children age 9 - 12, but suitable for adults as well.