Death's Master

I'm having a blast with Tanith Lee so far, I loved Night's Master and this book was more of that Flat Earth goodness. I was very curious to see how the series would continue on from such a non-standard first entry, would this book turn away from the decentralized story telling style of the first, or would this book build on the mythos with more interwoven fairy tales. The answer is a little of both: This book DOES have a main character, and we follow ONE story the whole way through. Likewise, this one story is a Matryoshka doll with diverting, detailed, and interwoven backstory provided for the entire cast. The further we get into the main story, the more of these secondary stories get woven in. Some people liken this to a long form epic poem, I can see that, personally I got the feeling that I was reading a novelized tapestry (but hey usually those tapestries are of the epic variety). Where Night's Master was titled after Azhrarn, Death's Master similarly is titled after Uhlume, the Lord of Death, another of the Lords of Darkness. Uhlume's presence is much more subdued and looming as compared to that of Azhrarn, he's this silent, morose and ever-present force in the story. The novel concerns a fated pair, Simmu and Zhirem, two characters who in some way meddle in the forces of life and death. There are many of the same story beats as Night's Master; boons with gods and demons, themes of love and betrayal, and more of that sort of stuff. I will note that Azhrarn also features in this book, I'm guessing he will in all of them, because he's the drama (he's kind of the malicious engine that drives the story).I found it nice to see Lee changing up the formula a touch for this second entry in the series. Most readers will appreciate the character focused narrative, this is a much more conventional story as compared to Book 1. Personally, the conventional format was a bit of a let-down, one of the things I dug most about Night's Master was just how unique that style of storytelling was in the Adult fantasy landscape. This book is also fantastic, but I felt the story dragging when it switched threads or delivered backstory late into the book. I think the key difference here is that the interwoven story was distracting from a larger narrative, whereas in NM the story was free to jump around. Pacing is definitely my chief complaint here, this book was twice as long as NM, and I was really feeling the increased page count whenever the story shifted gears later into the book. “Damn, this is really from the 80s?” That's a question I couldn't stop asking myself as I read this. I didn't note this explicitly for the first novel, but so far both entries have had some gay sex right off the rip, and the functional main character of this novel is gender-fluid. Gender and sex play into the story in a big and nonjudgmental way. In the 80s! And these books were popular! It's mind-blowing to me just how “modern” the sensibilities of these books are, and I love that I can get some vintage 80s fantasy without any of the cringe worthy chauvinism or poorly conceived romantic plots. I think of this series' contemporaries, series like [b:Dragons of Autumn Twilight 259836 Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance Chronicles, #1) Margaret Weis https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390668127l/259836.SY75.jpg 251833] and [b:The Sword of Shannara 15575 The Sword of Shannara (The Original Shannara Trilogy, #1) Terry Brooks https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1470063017l/15575.SY75.jpg 877015] that, while fantastic in their own ways, are bland and silent when it comes to such a popular contemporary subject. Obviously, not every book has to have an inclusive cast of characters or even LGBTQ themes (I will even chide authors who include those themes in a publishing/tick the boxes kind of way), but this book is the perfect example of how, when, and why to include those themes in a fantasy story; this book is just that much more interesting because of it. TL;DR: A more conventional fantasy story compared to book 1; a modern-vintage type of read.

Tanith Lee weaves a great mythos, and this story, slightly more narrative than the first volume, continues the epic world building of the Flat Earth. I particularly enjoy how Lee plays with gender and the effects it has on how people are perceived. I don't always agree, but it's interesting to find an older book with non-binary characters.