Night's Master

Night's Master is a beautifully written, unusual novel: it spans centuries and consists of a variety of tales following several different characters, though they are all connected in that the titular Prince of Demons plays a role in all of them. It's not flawless, but I loved it and want to read more Tales from the Flat Earth.

My Rating: 8.5/10

Full Review on My Site

And here I was worried that January would open with 3 duds. Not the case. Not the case at all. What I got is one of the best fantasy novels I've ever read. Night's Master is a unique blending of different traditional mythos, a little Abrahamic religion, a dash of Greek gods, and for added spice it's written in the style of Arabian Nights. It's high fantasy and weird, it's also progressive as fuck for 1978; I loved it.This book is a lot of firsts. This is the first book in the Flat Earth series, it is also my first Tanith Lee novel. Oh, and I almost forgot: this is my first 5-Star read of 2024 (meaning it's also the first book I have bought in physical print this year).Well, shucks, I guess I spoiled the review. Just pretend I didn't say anything.Night's Master is high fantasy, it's about as high as fantasy can get if you ask me. I've only read one other series that comes close to taking such a lofty approach to its story telling, and that's [b:The Shadow of the Torturer 60211 The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun, #1) Gene Wolfe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329650008l/60211.SX50.jpg 762497], which I'll come back to later. This is the first book in a sequence of stories that chronicle the Flat Earth, a mystical time when the Earth was flat and sandwiched between the demonic under-earth and the mysteriously silent heavens. This entry follows the master of the under-earth, the prince of demons, Azhrarn. What Night's Master is, is a series of interwoven stories that connect in some way to the deeds/misdeeds of Azhrarn. This book is NOT a protagonist-centered narrative. What we get is the mythology of an entirely imagined world, something similar to the Homeric Hymns and the Epics of the Epic Cycle. It's more accurate to say that those themes are mixed into the delivery of Arabian Nights, with each story leading into the next across the ages. This is written in a style similar to the epics, not really in terms of morality or density and inscrutability, but rather it captures the episodic and dreamy vibe of stories of the oral tradition. You could easily imagine the contents of this book being read out by a bard or crier to the illiterate inhabitants of some nameless tavern. It's Lore, and it's good Lore. I mentioned Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun earlier. I don't want this whole review to be compare and contrast between these works, but Wolfe is the only other person who writes like this. BTNS is a reimagining of the (far future) worlds' mythos in the style of the Testaments. It's wacky and weird, but also ingenious and anachronistic to a time that does not exist. Wolfe's work is a bit of a Christ allegory, and the prose carries a lot of that trademark biblical density. Those characteristics mean the narrative adopts a more traditional story structure to offset just how alien its prose and story beats can be. But we're talking about Night's Master here, right? Well, this book is similar to Gene Wolfe's work, it assumes the character and style of Arabian Nights and old fairy tales and curates a careful mix of uncaring gods and vicious demons playing the games of Greek tragedy upon humanity. This book is taking the grandeur and imagery that Greek and Christian myths have, and it weaves this flowing tale that borrows from those tropes and stories but without any of the moralism, none of the preaching. I really dug Night's Master, this book has politics that I agree with and prose that's 5/5 for depth and clarity. I actually preferred this to TBNS because of how fantastic the prose was. Not to leave it at that-I understood this book cover to cover on my first read, it seems to me that Lee went for clarity in prose given the winding nature of the narrative, and that's never been the case for Wolfe's work. I've to say that if this is just how Lee writes, I need to read more Lee.This book is nearly 50 years old, so I won't say much more. If you're interested, but I haven't sold you, feel free to check out some other reviews by much better critics (I think you'll end up adding this to your TBR). If you are a fan of Romantasy/faerie courts books, I would highly recommend this, especially if your main draw to those books is the lore and world building.

I haven't read Tanith Lee in so long, and I don't think I ever read the Flat Earth series. This is a really interesting take on building mythology. The gently interweaving stories feel more along the lines of an Edda or some other cultural foundation. The writing is elegant (although some of the sex scenes use ... interesting figurative language). I enjoy how Lee plays with gender roles personal identity through the various stories. The ending too is satisfying, tying together all that came before while setting the stage for the next collection.

Maybe if I had read this in my teens, when reading The Silmarrilion seemed like a fun way to pass the time, this might have caught my imagination more. Unfortunately, now, this bored me; there are only so many flowery phrases and turgid metaphors that I can handle per paragraph.

Also, it may not have helped that I listened to the audio book. The intonation of the narrator was like nails on a blackboard; every sentence was delivered as if it were the finest, most beautiful prose, which might have been ok if this were poetry, but it is not.

I'll leave this as two stars, since I can imagine there is an audience for this (obviously, given the book's reputation), but unfortunately that is not me.