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Secret Books of Paradys #2
The Book of the Beast
Book by Lee, Tanith
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
15 people are currently reading
419 people want to read
About the author
Tanith Lee
615 books1,970 followersTanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7."
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress.
Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971.
Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing.
Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror.
Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s.
Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress.
Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971.
Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing.
Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror.
Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s.
Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
June 1, 2020
another volume of gorgeous and ultraviolent sex—death poetry from the apparent queen of the form. book of the beast is comprised of one single story, broken into a few non-linear sections, as opposed to the three stories in book of the damned, but even with the extra room lee's confident, pithy prose enables her to tell a story of raw, transformative, malefic magic that spans centuries in barely over 150 pages. complete queen shit i am TELLING you.
an excerpt from the first chapter —
"The rain all at once slackened, and was lifted up like a swag of heavy curtaining. He heard the fountain breath of the drenched trees, and the individual notes of oval glass beads falling from branch to branch. The moon struck suddenly from a cloud like a spear. In the entry of the tomb stood a woman in a black gown, with dead-white hands clasped upon a dead candle, a white stalk of throat and a white face in a powdery bloom of hair."
yes bitch yes !!!! yes !!!!!
an excerpt from the first chapter —
"The rain all at once slackened, and was lifted up like a swag of heavy curtaining. He heard the fountain breath of the drenched trees, and the individual notes of oval glass beads falling from branch to branch. The moon struck suddenly from a cloud like a spear. In the entry of the tomb stood a woman in a black gown, with dead-white hands clasped upon a dead candle, a white stalk of throat and a white face in a powdery bloom of hair."
yes bitch yes !!!! yes !!!!!
June 24, 2018
I enjoyed book 2 of the series more than the first volume. This was one coherent tale, with the framing structure of the young scholar in the "present" day - from clues, a version of the 18th century perhaps - being given lodgings in an old house with a sinister past, encountering someone from that past who carries a deadly curse and then having the scholar return as the focus of the end of the tale.
In the central part of the book, we learn of the beginning of the curse during the founding of the city of Paradys during the late Roman Empire - at that time known as Pars Dis, due to the association with Pluto, god of the underworld, in the form of Dis, "the wealth", due to the former silver workings in the area, now played out. A Roman centurion becomes fascinated by a high class prostitute who seems to be from Egypt and who eventually offers him a jewel which will take away his bad luck - but, he discovers, at a terrible price in the form of a curse which is transmitted both sexually and from mother to child.
I liked the much more coherent nature of this volume with everything revolving around this one deadly element. One thing that was slightly confusing is - in keeping with the theme of precious stones for each part of the previous book - the jewel in the central story is amethyst and the eyes of those who are affected by the curse turn that colour, but in the framing front and back parts of the narrative, in the later period they exhibit emerald coloured eyes instead. Other than that, the story made a lot more sense than parts of the first volume and although there was still a lot of violence and sexual content, quite usual with the author's work, at least the rapes were "off camera" and more of the sex was consensual - although if the demonic force was trying to spread the curse, it doesn't make sense that it then went on to murder the victims as well. Anyway, this is a better rating, 3 stars.
In the central part of the book, we learn of the beginning of the curse during the founding of the city of Paradys during the late Roman Empire - at that time known as Pars Dis, due to the association with Pluto, god of the underworld, in the form of Dis, "the wealth", due to the former silver workings in the area, now played out. A Roman centurion becomes fascinated by a high class prostitute who seems to be from Egypt and who eventually offers him a jewel which will take away his bad luck - but, he discovers, at a terrible price in the form of a curse which is transmitted both sexually and from mother to child.
I liked the much more coherent nature of this volume with everything revolving around this one deadly element. One thing that was slightly confusing is - in keeping with the theme of precious stones for each part of the previous book - the jewel in the central story is amethyst and the eyes of those who are affected by the curse turn that colour, but in the framing front and back parts of the narrative, in the later period they exhibit emerald coloured eyes instead. Other than that, the story made a lot more sense than parts of the first volume and although there was still a lot of violence and sexual content, quite usual with the author's work, at least the rapes were "off camera" and more of the sex was consensual - although if the demonic force was trying to spread the curse, it doesn't make sense that it then went on to murder the victims as well. Anyway, this is a better rating, 3 stars.
November 9, 2022
Unlike the Book of the Damned (the 1st secret books of Paradys volume) which is three very separate novellas unified by place and to some extent theme of gender idenity, this volume is far more unified and a coherant narative. We still have three stories, or at least sets of characters: Ancient Rome, 1,100 years later (late Medieval) and 10 years (possibly) later - Early Renaissance - but the story weaves seamlessly between these and they all follow the same demon.
We begin in the Renaissance? With Raoulin a scholar, staying at the haunted manor belonging to the cursed Uscaret family. It's so ill thought of that the prostitute he visits comits suicide - in a particularly nasty way, once she hears where he's staying. And this sets the tone for the rest of the novel. He meets the ghost of Helise and we then get her telling her story - a riff off the gothic beauty and the beast/werewolf fairytale only her husband heros is possessed by the Sumerian bird headed god and transforms at orgasm - yes this really goes there. Her death and that of her husband are pretty nasty. This is followed by necrophilia as we find Raoulin making love to Helise's corpse and him realising that she was in fact a ghost....
During this narative we get an interlude where we meet Haninuh the jew and his daughter Ruquel - and see his first battle with the beast. He's like a Jewish Van Helsing.
We then jump back in time to Ancient Rome and meet Legionary Vusca who makes a pact for luck with a prostitute and is given the demon's amulet - and within this narative we jump further back in time to see how the amulet came to be formed. We see how Vusca gets possessed by the demon and how he passes on the curse to his son. Murder and suicide follow.
We then jump back to Raolin, now posessed of the demon due to his necrophilia - he tries to comit suicide but botches it and ends up on the doorstep of the jew, for the final showdown.
The narative structure impressed me greatly - this weaves its stories together like a tapestry - its not simply Raoulin's story as a framing device, because the Jew comes in in the middle and we break for Raoulin to get posessed. I love the non-linear storytelling here, you need to keep your wits about you, but it's masterfully done. There are some lovely echoes and parallels - like Helise trying to seduce Heros, and Vusca's son Petrus being seciced by his wife Lucia.
I also love the unique spin this puts on familar tropes - you've seen demonic posession, Faustian pacts and were-curses done before. Yet this presents everything in a fresh and new way. Things are familiar and yet not quite right - From the setting Paradys - Which could be Paris and yet is clearly other, to the slightly off names - Raoulin (Raoul) Ruquel (Raquel) Helise (Helen or Elise) Heros (Hero) - to the tropes themselves: It's not a were-wolf but a were- bird demon, the Faustian pact is made with a prostitute rather than the demon itself - and is a way to pass on the curse, Demonic posession is contracted through sex or procreation.
The other unique element to this one is its mythology and depiction of various religions. The bird headed demon is from Sumerian/Babylonian/Assyrian mythology - If you're familiar with the Burney Relief (Lilith and the Screech Owl) and some of the Assyrian friezes then this will be a true delight - the initial prostitute is named Lililla - nice nod to Lilith. We get Mithric religion here, worship of Isis, Judaism as well as Christianity - really liked that, it makes such a change from simply Christianity vs the devil.
The prose and atmosphere are wonderfully gothic and this holds its own against Angela Carter and Anne Rice at the same time evoking the likes of Poe.
• Adolescent heroine
• Colours
• Dark/Evil/Cursed family
• Good/Evil
• Life/Death/Rebirth
• Love/Hate relationship
• Male/Female
• Metamorphosis
• Myth – Assyrian/Sumerian/Babylonian
• Nature of “self”
• Sanity/Insanity
• Sin/Redemption
• True love
• Unstable heroines
• Witchcraft
My only disappointment is Peter Goodfellow's cover - while it follows the book of the damned, this deserves a lavish, gothic image of the bird-demon, theres so much scope here for something that represents the contents better. Still I loved this one and it shows why Lee is still my favourite author.
We begin in the Renaissance? With Raoulin a scholar, staying at the haunted manor belonging to the cursed Uscaret family. It's so ill thought of that the prostitute he visits comits suicide - in a particularly nasty way, once she hears where he's staying. And this sets the tone for the rest of the novel. He meets the ghost of Helise and we then get her telling her story - a riff off the gothic beauty and the beast/werewolf fairytale only her husband heros is possessed by the Sumerian bird headed god and transforms at orgasm - yes this really goes there. Her death and that of her husband are pretty nasty. This is followed by necrophilia as we find Raoulin making love to Helise's corpse and him realising that she was in fact a ghost....
During this narative we get an interlude where we meet Haninuh the jew and his daughter Ruquel - and see his first battle with the beast. He's like a Jewish Van Helsing.
We then jump back in time to Ancient Rome and meet Legionary Vusca who makes a pact for luck with a prostitute and is given the demon's amulet - and within this narative we jump further back in time to see how the amulet came to be formed. We see how Vusca gets possessed by the demon and how he passes on the curse to his son. Murder and suicide follow.
We then jump back to Raolin, now posessed of the demon due to his necrophilia - he tries to comit suicide but botches it and ends up on the doorstep of the jew, for the final showdown.
The narative structure impressed me greatly - this weaves its stories together like a tapestry - its not simply Raoulin's story as a framing device, because the Jew comes in in the middle and we break for Raoulin to get posessed. I love the non-linear storytelling here, you need to keep your wits about you, but it's masterfully done. There are some lovely echoes and parallels - like Helise trying to seduce Heros, and Vusca's son Petrus being seciced by his wife Lucia.
I also love the unique spin this puts on familar tropes - you've seen demonic posession, Faustian pacts and were-curses done before. Yet this presents everything in a fresh and new way. Things are familiar and yet not quite right - From the setting Paradys - Which could be Paris and yet is clearly other, to the slightly off names - Raoulin (Raoul) Ruquel (Raquel) Helise (Helen or Elise) Heros (Hero) - to the tropes themselves: It's not a were-wolf but a were- bird demon, the Faustian pact is made with a prostitute rather than the demon itself - and is a way to pass on the curse, Demonic posession is contracted through sex or procreation.
The other unique element to this one is its mythology and depiction of various religions. The bird headed demon is from Sumerian/Babylonian/Assyrian mythology - If you're familiar with the Burney Relief (Lilith and the Screech Owl) and some of the Assyrian friezes then this will be a true delight - the initial prostitute is named Lililla - nice nod to Lilith. We get Mithric religion here, worship of Isis, Judaism as well as Christianity - really liked that, it makes such a change from simply Christianity vs the devil.
The prose and atmosphere are wonderfully gothic and this holds its own against Angela Carter and Anne Rice at the same time evoking the likes of Poe.
• Adolescent heroine
• Colours
• Dark/Evil/Cursed family
• Good/Evil
• Life/Death/Rebirth
• Love/Hate relationship
• Male/Female
• Metamorphosis
• Myth – Assyrian/Sumerian/Babylonian
• Nature of “self”
• Sanity/Insanity
• Sin/Redemption
• True love
• Unstable heroines
• Witchcraft
My only disappointment is Peter Goodfellow's cover - while it follows the book of the damned, this deserves a lavish, gothic image of the bird-demon, theres so much scope here for something that represents the contents better. Still I loved this one and it shows why Lee is still my favourite author.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2020
Beautifully written dark fantasy about demons, lust, and humans who become monsters.
May 26, 2009
Tanith Lee is a master of dark and elegant fantasy, and this book is no exception. Well paced and plotted, but the ending seemed abrupt.
April 30, 2012
Reasonably well written, but imo not as interesting as the last one.
October 8, 2015
This is copy 30 of 250 signed numbered copies published by Unwin & Hyman in the UK.
May 6, 2019
2.5
This review and others posted over at my blog.
For this collection of shorts, I thought it would be more interesting and entertaining if I just typed out my notes, as is. So here we go:
The Scholar – He’s staying in a haunted house, fancying a ghost, then goes to a goth hooker. She kills herself (via poison douche!?) after finding out he’s staying at the haunted house. He meets the ghost lady who seems real, but says she’s dead. She tells him her story which leads to…
The Bride – She marries a guy who’s cursed to turn into a demon if he has sex. He literally fucks her to death?
The Jew – The (sex) beasts are killing people. This guy is a magical night watchman, but he didn’t (couldn’t?) stop the killings. Is the beast D’Uscaret? [That’s the family house from the first story and the guy The Bride marries.]
The Scapegoat – Young bride Helise isn’t dead. She told his [D’Uscaret’s] fam that hubby had a bird-demon head when he boinked her and they locked her up. Fucking him made him a demon and he prowls the city doing murders now. I assume that’s what the Jew saw. The family uses her as bait, when the monster comes back to screw her, they kill him mid-coitus then poison the poor bitch.
The Widow – Helise wasn’t dead or a ghost (?), but then she fucks the Scholar and she literally melts!! WTF. Did he bone a corpse?
The Roman – The birth of the curse, via this guy’s son after he takes a magic amulet from a whore. First it brings him luck, then the evil bird ghost from the amulet starts draining his life/energy. His son is the first monster?
The Suicide – The soldier is old now, his son grown and cursed. He kills his son and himself, but the son’s wife already has kids. Cursed.
The Madman – The Scholar is crazy now (totally don’t blame him) and maybe he’s infected? He also kills himself.
The Demon – Nope, he’s not dead (so many fake-outs!), he ends up finding the Jew and his daughter, who is grown now. The demon in him was passed on from Helise. They’re gonna try to exorcize it. Trippy sequence. He healed and married the daughter.
I much preferred this collection of shorts over the novellas in The Book of the Damned. I liked how they were all connected and told a broader story. The bird-sex-demon was confusing, but at least it was interesting.
This review and others posted over at my blog.
For this collection of shorts, I thought it would be more interesting and entertaining if I just typed out my notes, as is. So here we go:
The Scholar – He’s staying in a haunted house, fancying a ghost, then goes to a goth hooker. She kills herself (via poison douche!?) after finding out he’s staying at the haunted house. He meets the ghost lady who seems real, but says she’s dead. She tells him her story which leads to…
The Bride – She marries a guy who’s cursed to turn into a demon if he has sex. He literally fucks her to death?
The Jew – The (sex) beasts are killing people. This guy is a magical night watchman, but he didn’t (couldn’t?) stop the killings. Is the beast D’Uscaret? [That’s the family house from the first story and the guy The Bride marries.]
The Scapegoat – Young bride Helise isn’t dead. She told his [D’Uscaret’s] fam that hubby had a bird-demon head when he boinked her and they locked her up. Fucking him made him a demon and he prowls the city doing murders now. I assume that’s what the Jew saw. The family uses her as bait, when the monster comes back to screw her, they kill him mid-coitus then poison the poor bitch.
The Widow – Helise wasn’t dead or a ghost (?), but then she fucks the Scholar and she literally melts!! WTF. Did he bone a corpse?
The Roman – The birth of the curse, via this guy’s son after he takes a magic amulet from a whore. First it brings him luck, then the evil bird ghost from the amulet starts draining his life/energy. His son is the first monster?
The Suicide – The soldier is old now, his son grown and cursed. He kills his son and himself, but the son’s wife already has kids. Cursed.
The Madman – The Scholar is crazy now (totally don’t blame him) and maybe he’s infected? He also kills himself.
The Demon – Nope, he’s not dead (so many fake-outs!), he ends up finding the Jew and his daughter, who is grown now. The demon in him was passed on from Helise. They’re gonna try to exorcize it. Trippy sequence. He healed and married the daughter.
I much preferred this collection of shorts over the novellas in The Book of the Damned. I liked how they were all connected and told a broader story. The bird-sex-demon was confusing, but at least it was interesting.
August 20, 2018
I've read all the Secret Books of Paradys before, and this my year to give the series a reread.
And I have to say, I've read all the Books of Paradys more than once already, except for the Book of the Beast. This is by far my least favorite of the series. I didn't even remember the second half of the book where the history of the curse is revealed and dispelled. But that said, the monstrous sex in the first half will always be vivid in my memory.
The Book of the Beast details a sexually transmitted family curse of a Bird Demon in two different eras of the City of Paradys. Women are doomed to carry the seed of the demon and men are doomed to transform during climax. Tanith Lee's female characters remain witless and are always described as white white white, and sex in this book is cosmic and frightening.
The Books of Paradys are one of my favorite series by Tanith Lee, but having read the majority of her work, I know a weak link when I see one.
And I have to say, I've read all the Books of Paradys more than once already, except for the Book of the Beast. This is by far my least favorite of the series. I didn't even remember the second half of the book where the history of the curse is revealed and dispelled. But that said, the monstrous sex in the first half will always be vivid in my memory.
The Book of the Beast details a sexually transmitted family curse of a Bird Demon in two different eras of the City of Paradys. Women are doomed to carry the seed of the demon and men are doomed to transform during climax. Tanith Lee's female characters remain witless and are always described as white white white, and sex in this book is cosmic and frightening.
The Books of Paradys are one of my favorite series by Tanith Lee, but having read the majority of her work, I know a weak link when I see one.
June 15, 2021
Tanith Lee at the top of her game. Easily ranks up there with Cyrion and Night's Master. The copy I have of Birthgrave calls it essentially fantasy for women, or fantasy for the female gaze, a descriptor that suits basically any of her books that aren't that trilogy. It's certainly perfectly apt for this one.
January 22, 2022
I liked this second Book of Paradys even more than the firt, I think - maybe because it was easier to follow. The story is familiar - a demon curse creates problems throughout time - but she tells it really beautifully and I was engaged by every character I came across. Even stories that are basically flashbacks where we therefore have a good idea of what's going to happen, it's still a great story.
August 29, 2022
Abandons the more interesting explorations of gender found in the previous book in the series in favour of a recurring theme of "men just can't help assaulting women, it's in their nature", a deeply unedifying development. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...
November 17, 2025
Lee has a remarkable sense for nonexploitative violence that makes this series truly grim without requiring a barf bag.
I do feel like this entry would also benefit from more plot markers, but the fact that it focuses on one overall story does make it more intelligible.
I do feel like this entry would also benefit from more plot markers, but the fact that it focuses on one overall story does make it more intelligible.
May 20, 2022
Lee crafts sentences of such carefully curated, sanguine beauty while detailing such horrid things I often had to put this one down just to bask in a radiant sensation of 'oh yeah, that's the stuff'.
March 11, 2025
Now we're cooking
July 4, 2023
The second book, The Book of a Beast is more like a novel, though it’s probably better described as two nesting novellas.
The first is about a student from the countryside who stays in a dilapidated manor in the city. There’s no one there but two aged servants and a possible ghost. One day he goes to a brothel and mentions to the prostitute where he’s staying, her response is to kill herself with an acidic douche - something is up. He pursues the ghost, who is actually alive, a young woman married into the family years before. She tells him about how her husband turned into a harpy-beast when they had sex (something he was trying to avoid, but she drugged him). She then drugs the student and, as they having sex, she ages and putrefies. He now has the harpy-beast in him and must avoid sex.
The middle is all about a member of the Roman garrison of Paradys when it was first founded. He makes a deal and unleashes the harpy-curse into his bloodline. Then we return to the student and his attempts at exorcism.
This novel had the first hint of humour in this world. The beginning, when the student explores the obviously haunted house, Lee is having a lot of fun with the tropes of haunted houses. It then veers away from that gothic beginning, settling more into the Decadent elements to be expected in Paradys. It also has a lengthy Roman section, which weirdly reminded me a little of Naomi Mitchison’s Behold the Man, a story about Jesus’s crucifixion. There was a similar attitude from the soldiers about following different Gods for practical purposes, as a result of the Roman’s Pax Deorum.
The first is about a student from the countryside who stays in a dilapidated manor in the city. There’s no one there but two aged servants and a possible ghost. One day he goes to a brothel and mentions to the prostitute where he’s staying, her response is to kill herself with an acidic douche - something is up. He pursues the ghost, who is actually alive, a young woman married into the family years before. She tells him about how her husband turned into a harpy-beast when they had sex (something he was trying to avoid, but she drugged him). She then drugs the student and, as they having sex, she ages and putrefies. He now has the harpy-beast in him and must avoid sex.
The middle is all about a member of the Roman garrison of Paradys when it was first founded. He makes a deal and unleashes the harpy-curse into his bloodline. Then we return to the student and his attempts at exorcism.
This novel had the first hint of humour in this world. The beginning, when the student explores the obviously haunted house, Lee is having a lot of fun with the tropes of haunted houses. It then veers away from that gothic beginning, settling more into the Decadent elements to be expected in Paradys. It also has a lengthy Roman section, which weirdly reminded me a little of Naomi Mitchison’s Behold the Man, a story about Jesus’s crucifixion. There was a similar attitude from the soldiers about following different Gods for practical purposes, as a result of the Roman’s Pax Deorum.
April 17, 2013
More like a 3.5 but in this case I am rounding down. I wanted to love it more than I did. The writing is absolutely beautiful and evocative, the story creepy and altogether original. It's hard, actually probably almost impossible, to sit down and just devour. I could only handle a few pages at a time, as the writing is quite dense. It just left me feeling a bit unsatisfied.
I have the next two books in this series, and I have the distinct feeling that they are better taken as a whole, so I'll get back to you on that. Already I like the first book more (The Book of the Damned) after reading this one.
I have the next two books in this series, and I have the distinct feeling that they are better taken as a whole, so I'll get back to you on that. Already I like the first book more (The Book of the Damned) after reading this one.
January 2, 2010
Since I read the last chapter in 2010, I think it still belongs in 2009.
This one was much easier to deal with. Only the beginning was the kind of scary I can't do. (Ghosts, no. Monsters, oh hell yes!) And as Lucas said, the monster was excellent. I'm still a little confused about the change in eye color from purple to green, but I have decided to believe that she wouldn't leave such a gaping hole, and that it's in there somewhere.
Overall, I don't think it was as good as Book of the Damned, because at no point did I set it down and say "Woah," like I did with Malice in Saffron. But it also didn't give me nightmares. A careful balance, this. So I give it 4 stars like the other.
This one was much easier to deal with. Only the beginning was the kind of scary I can't do. (Ghosts, no. Monsters, oh hell yes!) And as Lucas said, the monster was excellent. I'm still a little confused about the change in eye color from purple to green, but I have decided to believe that she wouldn't leave such a gaping hole, and that it's in there somewhere.
Overall, I don't think it was as good as Book of the Damned, because at no point did I set it down and say "Woah," like I did with Malice in Saffron. But it also didn't give me nightmares. A careful balance, this. So I give it 4 stars like the other.
August 7, 2008
The Book of the Beast wasn't nearly as bad as the Book of the Damned as far as leaving me feeling icky. I enjoyed the story of how the Beast was laid on this family as a curse. The only thing that was left open was why the woman laid the curse on the Roman soldier in the first place. And also why the eyes started out amithyst and then later they turned emerald green. Still I liked the ending. It was pretty good.
November 29, 2016
I want to read more Tanith Lee, but I think I am done with Paradys. I hope her other books aren't so dang rapey, like, calm down. The story was interesting, I like the jumping narrative. Didn't like how she kept repeating the Jew and Jewess. Like I said in my review for the last one, just because you're using old-timey style, doesn't mean you need to use old-timey language all the time.
January 6, 2014
Overall, more consistent than the first book, but it never reached the heights of Malice in Saffron. Will any story in this series? It was very cleverly constructed; each story was a puzzle piece that fit together perfectly at the end. I give it a 3.5.
December 18, 2015
The second volume of The Secret books of Paradys is more of the same high-Gothic, colourful, arcane, mysterious fiction as the Book of the Damned, but more of a piece, the tales tied together more directly into a consistent single story.
January 22, 2016
An epic in miniature that manages to pack a Gothic saga in fewer than 200 pages. Very evocative and atmospheric, The Book of the Beast builds on the foundation established by The Book of the Damned, but this story is better realized and the "beast" is truly monstrous and intriguing.
December 10, 2008
One of the 1st 2 books in the Paradys series, which must all be read together to be truly enjoyable. See my review of Book of the Dead.
October 12, 2010
I love Tanith Lee's books, but one cannot gobble them.. these take a little longer to read....
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews