Why Light

by Tanith Lee

A short story featured in " Vampire Tales" edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

Unknown Binding

About the author

Tanith 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.

Reviews

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gosh, what an absolute masterpiece. The first sentence of this story instantly hooked me, and it surprised me by going in the complete opposite direction that I expected it to based on that sentence. Daisha, after all, doesn't fear or hate light at all—she loves it! The world-building in this story was also incredibly lovely, so much that I feel like it's a shame it's only a short story, because I would have loved to spend more time in the world Lee crafted here. My heart fluttered like crazy while reading because I fell head over heels in love with Zeev, and I felt so effervescent inside after I finished reading because I loved his relationship with Daisha so much. Zeev is such a hopeless romantic, and being a hopeless romantic myself, I couldn't help but melt into a puddle. I fell for him even before his misunderstanding with Daisha was cleared up (naturally, I expected there was much more to him than meets the eye), so of course I only fell deeper once their misunderstandings were clarified, and I love that the situation started out as something demeaning & terrifying to Daisha but ultimately became the best thing to happen to her. It's so romantic that she & Zeev gave each other the love and light that they were both previously lacking in their lives. What a beautiful story. It feels incredibly fitting that this was the last piece in the anthology because it took my breath away!

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the characters, and their world and hope I get the chance to read the story again and/or to read more within the series.

My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.