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Tanith Lee

Four books of dark fantasy and eroticism from “a literary great . . . A series of Gothic, interlinked stories set in an alternate Paris” (The Washington Post).
 
 With these four books, together now in one collection, escape to a city known by three names—Paradys, Paradise, and Paradis—where you’ll find many strange stories and novellas exploring gender, identity, sexual transgression, and more . . .
 
The Book of the Damned: A poet discovers a mysterious ring that drags him into a world of vampires. A young woman’s attack sows the seeds for a civilization’s downfall. And a writer receives a cryptic note that leads her to a sinister, ancient force.
 
The Book of the Beast: A young scholar has just moved to Paradys to study at the university, and a beautiful phantom of a young bride begins visiting him, drawing him toward her. Soon, he will be infected with the horrific curse of the Beast . . .
 
The Book of the Dead: Seven stories of enchantment, misfortune, corruption, and death are in the third volume of this fantasy series, including the story of a vengeful orphan tracking down his parents’ killer only to find a treacherous nightmare.
 
The Book of the Mad: A labyrinth of ice connects three nightmarish versions of one city—Paradis, Paradys, and Paradise. In each of them, a story unfolds, breaking taboos, relishing horror, and conjuring the perverse.

Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy

The Secret Books of Paradys

The award-winning author of The Birthgrave invites you to Paradys, an alternate Paris, with three tales of dark magic, eroticism, and gothic fantasy.
 
 Three novellas from Tanith Lee—World Fantasy Award winner, Nebula finalist, and the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award for best novel—cast shadows on the history of the City of Light.

Stained with Crimson: In the nineteenth century, poet Andre St Jean comes into possession of a ruby scarab ring, only to discover it belongs to the pale-skinned, ebony-eyed Antonina von Aaron, the most beautiful woman in Paradys. Preying upon Andre, she taps into his deepest, darkest desires, drawing him into her vampiric world of gender shapeshifting and bloody nightmares . . .
 
Malice in Saffron: In the Middle Ages, young Jehanine has had her innocence torn from her by her brutal stepfather. Fleeing to Paradys, she seeks sympathy from her stepbrother, Pierre, who accuses her of lying and casts her out into the inhospitable streets. Finding refuge in a nunnery, Jehanine tries to live in God’s grace. But when dusk falls, she transforms into her male alter ego, Jehan. Prowling the alleyways with a gang of Devil-worshippers, he stalks the city’s denizens, unknowingly sowing the seeds for the fall of Paradys . . .
 
Empire of Azure: In the early twentieth century, writer Anna Sanjeanne receives a cryptic note from a mysterious man: “In a week or less, I shall be dead.” On the predicted date, Anna follows the stranger’s trail. A chain of clues—a shattered window, a hanging corpse, a leather-bound diary, and a portrait of an unknown woman—soon lead the young journalist toward a sinister and ancient force . . .
 
 Told with lush fantastical prose and an acute aesthetic sense, The Book of the Damned ventures into a morbid and disquieting parallel world, exploring the recesses of identity, gender, and sexual transgression that lie within.

The Book of the Damned

In a city imbued with dark fantasy and gothic horror, an ancient curse transforms the lives of all it touches

 The city known by three names—Paradys, Paradise, and Paradis—conceals many strange stories. In the second volume of the Secret Books of Paradys, young scholar Raoulin has just moved to Paradys to study at the university. He lodges at the once noble, now decrepit House d’Uscaret, a place he knows is haunted from the moment he arrives. There, Raoulin is frequented by the mysterious and beautiful phantom of a young bride with wide-set emerald eyes, and as he is drawn toward her, he realizes that his every action skirts the border of reality and dream. Soon, the voluptuous ghost has infected him with the curse of the Beast—a horrific amalgam of bird, lizard, and man that has preyed on the city’s inhabitants for centuries.
 
 Past and present are irrevocably intertwined in this horrifyingly lush tome, in which author Tanith Lee plunges the reader into the lore and monstrosities of an alternate Paris: the lurid and infamous Paradys.

The Book of the Beast

A macabre dark fantasy of enchantment, misfortune, corruption, and death

 The unnerving third volume of the Secret Books of Paradys begins with a fable of two doomed weddings. In “The Weasel Bride,” a white weasel transforms into a fair maiden under the light of a full moon. A local trapper releases the animal from its curse by marrying it, but on their wedding day, the weasel inflicts the groom with a fatal wound. This tale flows into the story of a bride who is brutally strangled in the nuptial bed after giving her husband a small nibble on the hand. Decades later, his motive comes to light when the woman’s unearthed tomb reveals a ghastly truth.
 
 In the second narrative, “The Nightmare’s Tale,” Jean de St. Jean is an orphan of the Revolution who grows up with a deep yearning for revenge. Determined to kill the man responsible for his parents’ death, he sets off for the colonial island of Black Haissa. But he arrives on distant shores only to find that his adversary is already dead and that the isle is a country of wild nightmares, supernatural possession, and petrifying beasts. And in “Beautiful Lady,” small, shabby Julie d’Is lives in a tiny apartment near Temple Church that no one ever visits. Some refer to Julie as Bella Donna, but she has other nicknames—for wherever she goes, the Grim Reaper follows close behind.
 
 Five additional fantasies entrance the reader with the gothic and tortured plights of the citizens of Paradys—a mythic city where vampire owls, occult conjurors, and femmes fatales abound.

The Book of the Dead

A surreal gothic fantasy of three nefarious cities: Paradise, Paradis, and Paradys

 Welcome to Paradise, where the sun hasn’t shone for years and a callous, ritual-obsessed populace roams the decayed metropolis enshrouded in fog. The citizens are unhinged, murder and incest are praised, and madness reigns. Only a pair of twins, Felion and Smara, remains sane. But their sole hope of escaping the city is a mysterious ice labyrinth connecting parallel worlds.
 
 Thus begins the sinister finale to the Secret Books of Paradys, in which three alternate versions of one city—Paradise, Paradis, and Paradys—are the layered canvas upon which twisted narratives unfold. In Paradis, Leocadia, a striking and eccentric painter, lives a hedonistic and unremorseful life. She is the sole heir to her uncle’s fortune, but the ease of life this affords her becomes a dizzying burden when her lover is murdered and doctors lock her up in an asylum called the Residence. Do the medics want to cure her madness—or do they wish to drive her insane?
 
 Meanwhile, in Paradys, fifteen-year-old Hilde is a pale and perfect child with milk-white skin, ginger hair, and an obedient and loving countenance. But Hilde has a secret nocturnal life, budding sexuality, and lustful heart that becomes irrevocably engorged at the sight of a handsome actor with the face of a priest.
 
 Written in author Tanith Lee’s signature style, The Book of the Mad breaks taboos, relishes horror, and conjures the perverse.