A fabulous read. One of those books you keep reading bits from to other people. Winder is insanely peripatetic and hopelessly in love with his subject...moreA fabulous read. One of those books you keep reading bits from to other people. Winder is insanely peripatetic and hopelessly in love with his subject.(less)
I've read a great deal of Tanith's material over the years, and the new works are as delightful as the old... but there are some that I keep coing bac...moreI've read a great deal of Tanith's material over the years, and the new works are as delightful as the old... but there are some that I keep coing back to. This is one. The book is as completely and compactly-structured a standalone as a writer could hope for; but at the same time, I wish there was a second and maybe even a third.
Part of the delight is the straightforwardly folkloric language -- the kind of thing only to be attempted by a writer who is very sure of her tone of voice. The reader gets a sense of being immersed into a world with depths to it, though there's nothing stagy about the prose, and absolutely none of the hey-look-at-me style of worldbuilding: everything is very matter-of-fact and subtly done. In this book, also, Tanith's love of color and her gift for physical description pops out unusually strongly.
There really needs to be an ebook edition of Volkhavaar. In the meantime, it looks like there are a fair number of the paperbacks around. If you like Tanith Lee's work, this is prime material: go find a used copy.(less)
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