Tanith Lee?

[Azlan]

Tanith Lee's "Flat Earth" and "Paradys/Venus" series are very much adult. If they were movies, they'd be rated NC-17. These works contain dark, decadent, and even depraved settings/characters. Also, they are highly erotic. I'm not surprised a White Wolf roleplaying game was inspired by these works. Tanith Lee was writing "goth" fantasy fiction years – decades, even – before it became popular.

IIRC, the "Flat Earth" series was set in a Renaissance-like world that reminded me a lot of Michael Moorcock's Young Kingdoms (from the "Elric of Melnibone" series), while the "Paradys" series had an 16th/17th Century European setting, in an exotic city-state that was like Venice. I don't recall what the setting of the "Venus" series was like, except that it was quasi-historical. All three settings were rife with dark magic.

Years ago, the Science Fiction Bookclub compiled Tanith Lee's "Flat Earth" novels, novellas, and short stories into two omnibus volumes...

- The Lords of Darkness (includes Night's Master, Death's Master, Delusion's Master)

- Night's Daughter (includes Delirium's Misteress, Night's Sorceries)

Lee's "Paradys/Venus" novels, novellas, and short stories were compiled into several omnibus volumes. I don't remember them all, but I do have two, in my collection...

- The Secret Books of Paradys I & II (contains The Book of the Damned, The Book of the Beast)

- The Secret Books of Venus I & II (contains Faces Under Water, Saint Fire)

There are many used bookstores that carry old, hardback books from the Science Fiction Bookclub. You can even find them on-line. (Amazon and ebay's half.com are good sources.)

Edit: I see both the "Tales from the Flat Earth" omnibus volumes are to be found, at amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ef=sr_1_1/104-4723116-9795946?ie=UTF8&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ef=sr_1_2/104-4723116-9795946?ie=UTF8&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ef=sr_1_1/104-4723116-9795946?ie=UTF8&s=books

 

[Aus_Snow]

Her prose tends to be quite dream-like, or vision-like (at times), perhaps.

It seems to inspire love or hatred, mainly. One good friend of mine can't stand it, for example. Fair enough, I suppose.

I would be lying if I claimed that her writings have had no lasting effect on my own writing. . . and roleplaying creations, in fact. And it seems (based on Wombat's comments) that there is another author's writing I really should explore: Gene Wolfe's.

*sigh* Too many books to read, too few days to a year.