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Birthgrave #3
Hunting the White Witch
Hunting the White Witch is the concluding volume of the Birthgrave Trilogy. Rediscover this realm of brilliant cruel beauty and seductive immortal ruins, of savage war and grand conquest, of falling stars and silver gods—with these 40th anniversary editions of legendary fantastist Tanith Lee's debut book series.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
15 people are currently reading
600 people want to read
About the author
Tanith Lee
615 books1,975 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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January 3, 2023
"Worship or deny them, we are all, perhaps, in the hands of the gods."
Hunting the White Witch, the final installment of Tanith Lee's Birthgrave trilogy ends in a bizarre and unsettling way, but that is perhaps nonetheless appropriate for the characters of Tuvek and his mother, the first protagonist (if you can even call either one of them that by the end) Karrakaz. This whole trilogy was strange from the beginning, but the strangeness there was a unique and intriguing one. The strangeness here will stay with me, even for all its disturbance.
Taking place just after the ending of Shadowfire, Tuvek, still going by his deceased father's name, Vazkor, and compelled by the shadowfire of his spirit, searches the world for his witch mother Karrakaz. A goddess to some, a witch to others, Tuvek is still intent will killing her to revenge the father he never met. A bult of the story takes place in the city Bar-Ibithni, a city once built by the Hessek people and now control by the Masrians, a people possibly inspired by Zoroastrian Persians. Tuvek befriends Sorem, the son of the current king and half-brother to the appointed heir, and by extension falls in love with Sorem's bisexual mother Malmiranet. To the various peoples of Bar-Ibithni, Tuvek is a scoundrel, a brave warrior, a magician, and a divine healer. But above all, he is an angry young man with a bloodlust for his mother. And the events in Bar-Ibithni will warp him mentally and emotionally.
Once again, Lee delivers beautiful prose. Her descriptions of the world, while sometimes a bit on the heavy side, are vivid and literally colorful. Skies, statues, clothing, and so many other things are all revealed in their luscious details. However, I was, once again as with The Birthgrave there were some descriptions of people and their skin tones that made me confused. One side character is called "swarthy white" and to be perfectly honest, I don't know what that means. Like with olive skin or a tan-colored tone? I don't know.
Hunting the White Witch continues the trilogy's subtle themes of gender, goddesses, and masculinity. While still subtle, more things are brought to attention and brought to the surface here. We see this primarily with the Masrians. Bisexuality and homosexuality are openly accepted, which Tuvek seems mystified and somewhat disturbed by--more on that latter part later. This last book is a bit queerer than the previous ones with aforementioned Malmiranet, the possibility that Sorem *might* be attracted to Tuvek, one of Malmiranet servant girls Isep is a lesbian, that Sorem's father has a thing for young boys, and the fact that there are some people in Bar-Ibithni who are born as men and dress as women. It is difficult to determine the gender identity of some of these latter people we meet from Tuvek's perspective. Some of them are just cross-dressing men, others appear to be genderfluid or transfeminine, but it's never outright said. None of these characters suffer for who they are, but we must remember that this is the cruel world of The Birthgrave and some do not all meet happy fates.
Within Bar-Ibithni, Tuvek experiences both admiration, fear, and scorn for his Power. He works with Sorem and Malmiranet in the hopes that overthrowing Sorem's father and giving the throne to Sorem will help him find Karrakaz. In between these political machinations and his forbidden romance with Malmiranet, Tuvek searches Bar-Ibithni himself and through his servants to find Karrakaz. Through this, he learns his mother is worshipped by the Hesseks under another name, and they believe him to be their dark god incarnate.
All of these new cultures and religions are detailed appropriately. Not EVERYTHING about them is revealed to us, but enough is to show us how and why certain people act the way they do and why they see Tuvek as a certain way. All of the new characters that we meet inside of and outside of Bar-Ibithni are all great. Even if they're people we're not supposed to like and/or are only there temporarily, they are genuinely interesting people and seeing how Tuvek interacts with them affects his own perceptions of himself and his task. I'm not saying that all these characters solely exist to serve Tuvek and the plot, Lee is not guilty of such an error, but it shows how impactful they are. Also, the central plot of Tuvek searching for Karrakaz is very much secondary while the events of Bar-Ibithni play out. Of the new cast, I think I enjoyed Sorem and Malmiranet the best. Tuvek's relationships with both are different yet equally fraught with some desire (or lack thereof or denial of) Tuvek wants with them. For instance, Tuvek knows that he porbably shouldn't be with Malmiranet and that Sorem would be greatly angered by it. However, we must remember that with him, Lee is deconstructing the sword and sorcery buff warrior hero who gets all the ladies. At the end of Shadowfire, Tuvek learned through Hwenit that many a woman has her own desires, some even dark and forbidden, but he also learned that no woman is cattle (partially paraphrased from his own words). The relationship between Tuvek and Malmiranet, although forbidden, is consenting and it is what she wants. Malmiranet knows her role as a mother of the true king, and she does love her son. However, she says she is also a woman with her desires which shocks Tuvek for a moment. Tuvek can get the ladies, but if he's true to that Don Juanism then he can still accept the women who have their own desires for him. I believe Sorem and Malmiranet were meant to be an alternative counterpart to what Tuvek feels about his mother Karrakaz.
This theme of women having desires that shock men is shown through another character Lellih. Lellih starts out as an old woman while Tuvek is going around healing people. When she approaches him, Lellih desires to be made young again AND to have her virginity restored (based on the antiquated notions that the state of the hymen determines virginity) and to for him to have sex with her. She does this all while in her old body. Tuvek is disturbed. Lellih is another interesting character I enjoyed; from the weaponizing of her sex, her usage of Hessek magic, and her role in the cult dedicate to the god she thinks Tuvek is. If Lee were alive and had the ability to, I would have requested her to write a prequel story (or perhaps a sequel) with Lellih. After Tuvek makes Lellih younger, in a very cool and body horror way mind you, she still desires Tuvek and to serve her god. She causes a freakin' storm of insects to descend upon the city and eat people alive and spread a plague. Damn girl! Ianthe Tridentarius ain't got nothin' on you.
Tuvek's interaction with these women's desires does disturb him to various extents. Despite his statement that he has acknowledged that women have them, has he really accepted them? FYI, Lellih is a bad person, so his disturbance is understood. Nonetheless, this brave, tough warrior's facade is cracking. Lee illustrates the mental and emotional side of this cracking well. Tuvek isn't a whiney, fragile brat, there is some nuance to him.
On the other side, however, is Tuvek's interactions with Sorem. Throughout the events in Bar-Ibithni, many people suggest or insult that Tuvek and Sorem are lovers. Even Malmiranet! Lellih, while trying to seduce Tuvek, also taunts him with this to get a rise out of him. As I said above, Tuvek is initially shocked by the queerness of Bar-Ibithni; when it comes to the gender non-conforming characters, he clearly is wary of them but he never outright taunts or persecutes them. When it comes to lesbian and bisexual women characters, he is shocked, but not as much nor is he wary. However, when it comes to queer men, Tuvek is clearly disturbed; and more so at the accusations between him and Sorem. At one point, Sorem is sent a statue from his half-brother that has a dog and a rabbit (at least I think those were the animals) mating, but his and Tuvek's heads are on them. Sorem is angered by this and so is Tuvek, but we only really ever continue to see Tuvek mocked by it. Sorem actually grows closer to Tuvek, but Tuvek, while still friendly, keeps him at a distance. At another point, Tuvek wonders if Sorem does have feelings for him. This is never truly revealed other than Sorem appreciating Tuvek's friendship It is possible that Sorem was bisexual or gay and fell in love with Tuvek, but Tuvek rejected it entirely. Along with this mental and emotional cracking, which is also weighed down by Tuvek's anxious ache to find and kill Karrakaz and to "fulfill" his dead father's wish and by his obsession with his Power, we see Tuvek's tough masculinity start to show its weaknesses. Again, Tuvek's isn't mocked for this nor does Lee parade him around as some fragile brat, still she shows what needs to be showed.
What's interesting about the masculinity portrayed in this book is how it pairs against Tuvek's actions with his Power. As I stated in one of my updates and in my review of The Birthgrave there is a mixture of Christian and Pagan imagery and themes throughout this trilogy. At the beginning of this book, Tuvek literally walks on water and does it towards the end of the book. He also heals people and accumulates and great following (but no disciples, not quite). He even lies dead in a tomb for 30 (not 3) days and comes out and journeys through the sea and wilderness for forty days. Gee! Wonder where Lee got that from? At the beginning of the book, Tuvek thinks his Power makes him great--he still somewhat thinks that towards the end--he was forgotten the vulnerability he felt when he healed Hwenit at the end of Shadowfire. After the events of Bar-Ibithni, however, Tuvek is burnt out. He heals some people because they're desperate and he feels sympathy for them. But he has lost more people he cared about as well, and perhaps he regretted how he acted towards them. With some new advice, he leaves Bar-Ibithni with a Sri man called Gyest and looks for Karrakaz. Through more of his Power talents, coveted by others (mostly other men) he eventually winds up in a snow-covered wilderness and journeys though it for forty days. While taking shelter in a cave, he becomes hungry and loses his Power temporarily. In a dream, he finally realizes that the Power came from Karrakaz, not Vazkor. He learns that his plight and his dedication to his dead father are all for not. Baseless. Tuvek awakes the next morning no longer feeling hunger; he has gained the immortality of the Lost Race, Karrakaz's people, and his Power is back. But still, he needs to find Karrakaz. He needs to see his mother. Tuvek still uses the Power, but he no longer brandishes it as some source of his pride.
The final portion of the book has Tuvek finding the land of people descended from the Lost Race who also have the Power. On an island mountain, Karrakaz dwells where only her personal guard meet with her...and her daughter, Tuvek's half-sister Ressaven. Here, Tuvek is given another name: Zevarn. Just like his mother in The Birthgrave, he has also been given names by other people. Here, Zevarn commits incest with Ressaven--who repeats the exact words Demizdor did in Shadowfire when he claimed he loved her: "I am so little to you." He replies, "You are the world's end to me, and the heart of my life."
Zevarn finally knows true love with an equal. Ressaven doesn't want this to happen because of their relationship, but she consentingly gives in, despite the taboo of it. After this, Ressaven deserts Zevarn, but he journeys up the mountain to find her. He fights Karrakaz's personal guard and finds his half-sister again. And he finally finds Karrakaz again. He asks why she abandoned him, what happened with Vazkor, and if she loved him. Karrakaz enters his mind and reveals all she went through. He sees Vazkor's death and his own subsequent birth. Karrakaz wanted to keep him and love him, but she couldn't. She gave him to Tathra, because without a son Zaevarn's false father Ettook would've abused her. She loved him because he resembled both Vazkor and Darak from The Birthgrave and she still loves him.
And then comes the reveal.
Hunting the White Witch ends invertedly where The Birthgrave started. The latter began in an exploding volcano, the former in a White Mountain. Symbolic, I'm sure. The Goddess and her traveling, healing son have reunited.
This was a strange and weird trilogy. Lee went way outside the box of anyone else I've read. I don't think I've read another fantasy like this, except for Black Leopard, Red Wolf. This trilogy was decadent, possessive, beautiful, strange, and unnerving. A trilogy about two people who are both terrible in their own ways, though one more than the other.
Tanith Lee is a fucking master.
Hunting the White Witch, the final installment of Tanith Lee's Birthgrave trilogy ends in a bizarre and unsettling way, but that is perhaps nonetheless appropriate for the characters of Tuvek and his mother, the first protagonist (if you can even call either one of them that by the end) Karrakaz. This whole trilogy was strange from the beginning, but the strangeness there was a unique and intriguing one. The strangeness here will stay with me, even for all its disturbance.
Taking place just after the ending of Shadowfire, Tuvek, still going by his deceased father's name, Vazkor, and compelled by the shadowfire of his spirit, searches the world for his witch mother Karrakaz. A goddess to some, a witch to others, Tuvek is still intent will killing her to revenge the father he never met. A bult of the story takes place in the city Bar-Ibithni, a city once built by the Hessek people and now control by the Masrians, a people possibly inspired by Zoroastrian Persians. Tuvek befriends Sorem, the son of the current king and half-brother to the appointed heir, and by extension falls in love with Sorem's bisexual mother Malmiranet. To the various peoples of Bar-Ibithni, Tuvek is a scoundrel, a brave warrior, a magician, and a divine healer. But above all, he is an angry young man with a bloodlust for his mother. And the events in Bar-Ibithni will warp him mentally and emotionally.
Once again, Lee delivers beautiful prose. Her descriptions of the world, while sometimes a bit on the heavy side, are vivid and literally colorful. Skies, statues, clothing, and so many other things are all revealed in their luscious details. However, I was, once again as with The Birthgrave there were some descriptions of people and their skin tones that made me confused. One side character is called "swarthy white" and to be perfectly honest, I don't know what that means. Like with olive skin or a tan-colored tone? I don't know.
Hunting the White Witch continues the trilogy's subtle themes of gender, goddesses, and masculinity. While still subtle, more things are brought to attention and brought to the surface here. We see this primarily with the Masrians. Bisexuality and homosexuality are openly accepted, which Tuvek seems mystified and somewhat disturbed by--more on that latter part later. This last book is a bit queerer than the previous ones with aforementioned Malmiranet, the possibility that Sorem *might* be attracted to Tuvek, one of Malmiranet servant girls Isep is a lesbian, that Sorem's father has a thing for young boys, and the fact that there are some people in Bar-Ibithni who are born as men and dress as women. It is difficult to determine the gender identity of some of these latter people we meet from Tuvek's perspective. Some of them are just cross-dressing men, others appear to be genderfluid or transfeminine, but it's never outright said. None of these characters suffer for who they are, but we must remember that this is the cruel world of The Birthgrave and some do not all meet happy fates.
Within Bar-Ibithni, Tuvek experiences both admiration, fear, and scorn for his Power. He works with Sorem and Malmiranet in the hopes that overthrowing Sorem's father and giving the throne to Sorem will help him find Karrakaz. In between these political machinations and his forbidden romance with Malmiranet, Tuvek searches Bar-Ibithni himself and through his servants to find Karrakaz. Through this, he learns his mother is worshipped by the Hesseks under another name, and they believe him to be their dark god incarnate.
All of these new cultures and religions are detailed appropriately. Not EVERYTHING about them is revealed to us, but enough is to show us how and why certain people act the way they do and why they see Tuvek as a certain way. All of the new characters that we meet inside of and outside of Bar-Ibithni are all great. Even if they're people we're not supposed to like and/or are only there temporarily, they are genuinely interesting people and seeing how Tuvek interacts with them affects his own perceptions of himself and his task. I'm not saying that all these characters solely exist to serve Tuvek and the plot, Lee is not guilty of such an error, but it shows how impactful they are. Also, the central plot of Tuvek searching for Karrakaz is very much secondary while the events of Bar-Ibithni play out. Of the new cast, I think I enjoyed Sorem and Malmiranet the best. Tuvek's relationships with both are different yet equally fraught with some desire (or lack thereof or denial of) Tuvek wants with them. For instance, Tuvek knows that he porbably shouldn't be with Malmiranet and that Sorem would be greatly angered by it. However, we must remember that with him, Lee is deconstructing the sword and sorcery buff warrior hero who gets all the ladies. At the end of Shadowfire, Tuvek learned through Hwenit that many a woman has her own desires, some even dark and forbidden, but he also learned that no woman is cattle (partially paraphrased from his own words). The relationship between Tuvek and Malmiranet, although forbidden, is consenting and it is what she wants. Malmiranet knows her role as a mother of the true king, and she does love her son. However, she says she is also a woman with her desires which shocks Tuvek for a moment. Tuvek can get the ladies, but if he's true to that Don Juanism then he can still accept the women who have their own desires for him. I believe Sorem and Malmiranet were meant to be an alternative counterpart to what Tuvek feels about his mother Karrakaz.
This theme of women having desires that shock men is shown through another character Lellih. Lellih starts out as an old woman while Tuvek is going around healing people. When she approaches him, Lellih desires to be made young again AND to have her virginity restored (based on the antiquated notions that the state of the hymen determines virginity) and to for him to have sex with her. She does this all while in her old body. Tuvek is disturbed. Lellih is another interesting character I enjoyed; from the weaponizing of her sex, her usage of Hessek magic, and her role in the cult dedicate to the god she thinks Tuvek is. If Lee were alive and had the ability to, I would have requested her to write a prequel story (or perhaps a sequel) with Lellih. After Tuvek makes Lellih younger, in a very cool and body horror way mind you, she still desires Tuvek and to serve her god. She causes a freakin' storm of insects to descend upon the city and eat people alive and spread a plague. Damn girl! Ianthe Tridentarius ain't got nothin' on you.
Tuvek's interaction with these women's desires does disturb him to various extents. Despite his statement that he has acknowledged that women have them, has he really accepted them? FYI, Lellih is a bad person, so his disturbance is understood. Nonetheless, this brave, tough warrior's facade is cracking. Lee illustrates the mental and emotional side of this cracking well. Tuvek isn't a whiney, fragile brat, there is some nuance to him.
On the other side, however, is Tuvek's interactions with Sorem. Throughout the events in Bar-Ibithni, many people suggest or insult that Tuvek and Sorem are lovers. Even Malmiranet! Lellih, while trying to seduce Tuvek, also taunts him with this to get a rise out of him. As I said above, Tuvek is initially shocked by the queerness of Bar-Ibithni; when it comes to the gender non-conforming characters, he clearly is wary of them but he never outright taunts or persecutes them. When it comes to lesbian and bisexual women characters, he is shocked, but not as much nor is he wary. However, when it comes to queer men, Tuvek is clearly disturbed; and more so at the accusations between him and Sorem. At one point, Sorem is sent a statue from his half-brother that has a dog and a rabbit (at least I think those were the animals) mating, but his and Tuvek's heads are on them. Sorem is angered by this and so is Tuvek, but we only really ever continue to see Tuvek mocked by it. Sorem actually grows closer to Tuvek, but Tuvek, while still friendly, keeps him at a distance. At another point, Tuvek wonders if Sorem does have feelings for him. This is never truly revealed other than Sorem appreciating Tuvek's friendship It is possible that Sorem was bisexual or gay and fell in love with Tuvek, but Tuvek rejected it entirely. Along with this mental and emotional cracking, which is also weighed down by Tuvek's anxious ache to find and kill Karrakaz and to "fulfill" his dead father's wish and by his obsession with his Power, we see Tuvek's tough masculinity start to show its weaknesses. Again, Tuvek's isn't mocked for this nor does Lee parade him around as some fragile brat, still she shows what needs to be showed.
What's interesting about the masculinity portrayed in this book is how it pairs against Tuvek's actions with his Power. As I stated in one of my updates and in my review of The Birthgrave there is a mixture of Christian and Pagan imagery and themes throughout this trilogy. At the beginning of this book, Tuvek literally walks on water and does it towards the end of the book. He also heals people and accumulates and great following (but no disciples, not quite). He even lies dead in a tomb for 30 (not 3) days and comes out and journeys through the sea and wilderness for forty days. Gee! Wonder where Lee got that from? At the beginning of the book, Tuvek thinks his Power makes him great--he still somewhat thinks that towards the end--he was forgotten the vulnerability he felt when he healed Hwenit at the end of Shadowfire. After the events of Bar-Ibithni, however, Tuvek is burnt out. He heals some people because they're desperate and he feels sympathy for them. But he has lost more people he cared about as well, and perhaps he regretted how he acted towards them. With some new advice, he leaves Bar-Ibithni with a Sri man called Gyest and looks for Karrakaz. Through more of his Power talents, coveted by others (mostly other men) he eventually winds up in a snow-covered wilderness and journeys though it for forty days. While taking shelter in a cave, he becomes hungry and loses his Power temporarily. In a dream, he finally realizes that the Power came from Karrakaz, not Vazkor. He learns that his plight and his dedication to his dead father are all for not. Baseless. Tuvek awakes the next morning no longer feeling hunger; he has gained the immortality of the Lost Race, Karrakaz's people, and his Power is back. But still, he needs to find Karrakaz. He needs to see his mother. Tuvek still uses the Power, but he no longer brandishes it as some source of his pride.
The final portion of the book has Tuvek finding the land of people descended from the Lost Race who also have the Power. On an island mountain, Karrakaz dwells where only her personal guard meet with her...and her daughter, Tuvek's half-sister Ressaven. Here, Tuvek is given another name: Zevarn. Just like his mother in The Birthgrave, he has also been given names by other people. Here, Zevarn commits incest with Ressaven--who repeats the exact words Demizdor did in Shadowfire when he claimed he loved her: "I am so little to you." He replies, "You are the world's end to me, and the heart of my life."
Zevarn finally knows true love with an equal. Ressaven doesn't want this to happen because of their relationship, but she consentingly gives in, despite the taboo of it. After this, Ressaven deserts Zevarn, but he journeys up the mountain to find her. He fights Karrakaz's personal guard and finds his half-sister again. And he finally finds Karrakaz again. He asks why she abandoned him, what happened with Vazkor, and if she loved him. Karrakaz enters his mind and reveals all she went through. He sees Vazkor's death and his own subsequent birth. Karrakaz wanted to keep him and love him, but she couldn't. She gave him to Tathra, because without a son Zaevarn's false father Ettook would've abused her. She loved him because he resembled both Vazkor and Darak from The Birthgrave and she still loves him.
And then comes the reveal.
Hunting the White Witch ends invertedly where The Birthgrave started. The latter began in an exploding volcano, the former in a White Mountain. Symbolic, I'm sure. The Goddess and her traveling, healing son have reunited.
This was a strange and weird trilogy. Lee went way outside the box of anyone else I've read. I don't think I've read another fantasy like this, except for Black Leopard, Red Wolf. This trilogy was decadent, possessive, beautiful, strange, and unnerving. A trilogy about two people who are both terrible in their own ways, though one more than the other.
Tanith Lee is a fucking master.
April 28, 2020
Again, a change of title (from Quest for the White Witch, so I'm genuinely not sure why it was changed).
This picks up pretty much exactly where Shadowfire left off -- Vazkor, starting to come into his powers as a sorcerer, continues his revenge-quest for the mother who abandoned him, in this case by sailing (and eventually walking) across the sea to a different continent, where he'll arrive in a major city, be hailed as a savior, get enmeshed in political and romantic intrigues, and generally have a bad time of it as his search continues, all told in Lee's inimitable style.
(He'll also, perhaps, start to mellow out a bit? And there's a section in the middle with a plague ravaging the city that's not necessarily prescient or anything, but does have a different resonance today than it would have even a couple of months ago.)
This picks up pretty much exactly where Shadowfire left off -- Vazkor, starting to come into his powers as a sorcerer, continues his revenge-quest for the mother who abandoned him, in this case by sailing (and eventually walking) across the sea to a different continent, where he'll arrive in a major city, be hailed as a savior, get enmeshed in political and romantic intrigues, and generally have a bad time of it as his search continues, all told in Lee's inimitable style.
(He'll also, perhaps, start to mellow out a bit? And there's a section in the middle with a plague ravaging the city that's not necessarily prescient or anything, but does have a different resonance today than it would have even a couple of months ago.)
January 3, 2017
The first part of this narrative, Book One, is magnificent. Vazkor, pursuing revenge against the woman who birthed him, comes to the city of Bar-Ibithni and immediately becomes embroiled in the intrigues of this place. It is not helped that Vazkor, newly come into his complete Power, lords his abilities over the inhabitants and cynically wields people--individuals, groups, whole ethnicities--for his purpose. And does so without remorse or empathy.
In fact, his actions speak of hubris and arrogance. It all snaps together with the machine precision of Greek tragedy: his fall is a direct result of his actions, as helped by a false need for revenge, inflated sense of self-importance, and single minded purpose.
His voice during all this, the narration, speaks of the same detachment as his mother Karrakaz/Uastis, tinged with a remorse and self-loathing that foretells the elaborate and many-leveled disaster.
If the book had ended there, at his lowest point, I would have been satisfied. But it felt like Lee wanted to move on from this series, and had completed Vazkor's journey. It is thematically relevant but contemplative and less action-filled.
In fact, his actions speak of hubris and arrogance. It all snaps together with the machine precision of Greek tragedy: his fall is a direct result of his actions, as helped by a false need for revenge, inflated sense of self-importance, and single minded purpose.
His voice during all this, the narration, speaks of the same detachment as his mother Karrakaz/Uastis, tinged with a remorse and self-loathing that foretells the elaborate and many-leveled disaster.
If the book had ended there, at his lowest point, I would have been satisfied. But it felt like Lee wanted to move on from this series, and had completed Vazkor's journey. It is thematically relevant but contemplative and less action-filled.
February 25, 2023
3.0⭐
The edition of this book I read was titled "Hunting The White Witch". It's the final book in the Birthgrave trilogy, which sees the sorcerer/warrior/barbarian Vazkor finally come to grips with his sorceress/goddess/mother, Karrakaz. It's a satisfactory conclusion to an above average fantasy series. Lee is an imaginative writer with a talent for colorful description. While it's certainly an adult fantasy series it's not vulgar or graphic. While comparisons with other writers are not always useful ( or fair) I think Lee took inspiration from Jack Vance and Robert Howard and still skillfully created her own, unique setting. I don't know that I'd go out of my way to read more of her books (classic fantasy just isn't my main thing), I wouldn't avoid them, either. -30-
The edition of this book I read was titled "Hunting The White Witch". It's the final book in the Birthgrave trilogy, which sees the sorcerer/warrior/barbarian Vazkor finally come to grips with his sorceress/goddess/mother, Karrakaz. It's a satisfactory conclusion to an above average fantasy series. Lee is an imaginative writer with a talent for colorful description. While it's certainly an adult fantasy series it's not vulgar or graphic. While comparisons with other writers are not always useful ( or fair) I think Lee took inspiration from Jack Vance and Robert Howard and still skillfully created her own, unique setting. I don't know that I'd go out of my way to read more of her books (classic fantasy just isn't my main thing), I wouldn't avoid them, either. -30-
February 26, 2017
This is the third in the Birthgrave trilogy and, like book 2, is narrated by Vazkor, son of the eponymous 'White Witch' whose real name is Karrakaz. It continues where book 2 ended, with him embarking on a sea voyage to follow his mother to the southern continent, on the quest set by what seemed to him to be the spirit of his father, to murder her in revenge for his father's death at her hands.
As his mother did before him, in Book 1, Tuvek/Vazkor grows into his powers. At first, he wields them in a godlike fashion, walking on water, flying, healing, killing with lightning bolts - whatever seems most pleasing at the time, rather than what is necessary. He is profligate with the lives of mortals, such as his devoted servant Long-Eye, and when it's too late feels a bit sorry, but not much. He has inherited his mother's ability to heal even from fatal injuries - she is the sole survivor of the godlike Lost Race - and so the sorrows and suffering of humanity have little impact on him.
Vazkor, as he now calls himself, arrives in the main city of an empire established by the Masrimas, formerly a warrior race who conquered the older civilisation of the Hessians. The latter are now mostly slaves in the city or else inhabitants of a benighted slum, the remains of the former capital/port which has sunk into an unhealthy swamp a little way along the coast. Vazkor sets out to become notorious as a wizard by organising public mass-healing sessions for ordinary folk, and to become wealthy by charging the rich large fees to heal their illnesses. Through hubris, he becomes involved in a stunt to rejuvenate a malicious old woman and restore her to fifteen years of age. His subsequent decline of her attentions has serious repercussions .
As with the case of his mother, who was transformed mostly against her will into the goddess Uastis for his father's political benefit, he becomes a catalyst in the ongoing political instability whereby the emperor has set aside his first wife and her son Sorem in favour of the elder son of his second wife. Vazkor becomes Sorem's right-hand man and the secret lover of his extremely capable and beautiful mother, a secret that will ultimately lead to a falling out between the two men. In the meantime, Vazkor becomes a key player in the conflict between Sorem and his half-brother, and enables Sorem to win, though at a price. Sorem is about to become emperor when disaster strikes as a direct result of Vazkor's earlier behaviour.
Surviving against enormous odds, Vazkor becomes wiser and feels old beyond his years. He travels away from the city in the company of Gyest, a wise man from an egalitarian tribe, who helps him understand his nature and convinces him not to renounce his Power but to use it for the good of humankind. Eventually, rumours of his mother lead him to a more distant land, and gradually he reaches a full understanding of the isolation from humanity that his power has forced upon him, and his obligation not to misuse his abilities. His earlier thirst for vengeance recedes, but he still wants answers and perhaps retribution for his mother's rejection. Their final face to face confrontation provides surprises for him and for the reader.
As his mother did before him, in Book 1, Tuvek/Vazkor grows into his powers. At first, he wields them in a godlike fashion, walking on water, flying, healing, killing with lightning bolts - whatever seems most pleasing at the time, rather than what is necessary. He is profligate with the lives of mortals, such as his devoted servant Long-Eye, and when it's too late feels a bit sorry, but not much. He has inherited his mother's ability to heal even from fatal injuries - she is the sole survivor of the godlike Lost Race - and so the sorrows and suffering of humanity have little impact on him.
Vazkor, as he now calls himself, arrives in the main city of an empire established by the Masrimas, formerly a warrior race who conquered the older civilisation of the Hessians. The latter are now mostly slaves in the city or else inhabitants of a benighted slum, the remains of the former capital/port which has sunk into an unhealthy swamp a little way along the coast. Vazkor sets out to become notorious as a wizard by organising public mass-healing sessions for ordinary folk, and to become wealthy by charging the rich large fees to heal their illnesses. Through hubris, he becomes involved in a stunt to rejuvenate a malicious old woman and restore her to fifteen years of age. His subsequent decline of her attentions has serious repercussions .
As with the case of his mother, who was transformed mostly against her will into the goddess Uastis for his father's political benefit, he becomes a catalyst in the ongoing political instability whereby the emperor has set aside his first wife and her son Sorem in favour of the elder son of his second wife. Vazkor becomes Sorem's right-hand man and the secret lover of his extremely capable and beautiful mother, a secret that will ultimately lead to a falling out between the two men. In the meantime, Vazkor becomes a key player in the conflict between Sorem and his half-brother, and enables Sorem to win, though at a price. Sorem is about to become emperor when disaster strikes as a direct result of Vazkor's earlier behaviour.
Surviving against enormous odds, Vazkor becomes wiser and feels old beyond his years. He travels away from the city in the company of Gyest, a wise man from an egalitarian tribe, who helps him understand his nature and convinces him not to renounce his Power but to use it for the good of humankind. Eventually, rumours of his mother lead him to a more distant land, and gradually he reaches a full understanding of the isolation from humanity that his power has forced upon him, and his obligation not to misuse his abilities. His earlier thirst for vengeance recedes, but he still wants answers and perhaps retribution for his mother's rejection. Their final face to face confrontation provides surprises for him and for the reader.
September 18, 2025
I am so sad that Tanith Lee has passed away.
This book is even better than Vazkor son of Vazkor, and I will now go back and read the first one, the Birthgrave.
Lee writes in a lyrical, metaphorical way, painting visual pictures of beauty and wonder while at the same time keeping the narrative action moving along and the reader engaged.
Such an underrated master of fantasy and science fiction.
Superb.
This book is even better than Vazkor son of Vazkor, and I will now go back and read the first one, the Birthgrave.
Lee writes in a lyrical, metaphorical way, painting visual pictures of beauty and wonder while at the same time keeping the narrative action moving along and the reader engaged.
Such an underrated master of fantasy and science fiction.
Superb.
May 24, 2025
It would be hard to imagine any reader experiencing the first two novels in Tanith Lee's BIRTHGRAVE TRILOGY--namely "The Birthgrave" and "Vazkor, Son of Vazkor"--who didn't feel the overmastering desire to press on to Book #3 immediately after. In that first volume, which was initially released in June 1975, the reader had been introduced to a petite, albino, amnesiac woman, with a range of superhuman abilities, who had wandered across a medieval-seeming landscape in search of herself. In Book #2, initially released 2½ years later, in January 1978, her son, whom she had abandoned as a sort of tribal changeling, picked up the narrative thread 14 years later. That son, Tuvek, had only learned of his real mother when he was 19 years old, and had sworn an oath to his deceased wizard father, Vazkor, to hunt down and slay his unknown female parent, all the while coming into possession of his own bequeathed superhuman abilities. As that Book #2 had wrapped up, Tuvek and the slave Long-Eye, who worshipped the 19-year-old lad as a god, had pushed off in a skiff to track down the albino sorceress in another land to the southeast. What could possibly happen next? Fortunately for Tanith Lee's many fans, a lapse of 2½ years would hardly be required to find out!
That Book #3, "Quest for the White Witch," first saw the light of day a mere month following the publication of Book #2! As had its predecessor, the novel was first issued as a $1.95 DAW paperback with cover art by Gino D'Achille. It was a fairly faithless cover, portraying a woman--a redheaded Barbara Bouchet type--holding on to an enormous leashed lizard, elements not to be found in the story itself. DAW would come out with another edition in 1983 with a more faithful piece of cover art by Ken W. Kelly, as well as an edition in 2016 (the year following Tanith Lee's passing, at age 67) with the book's title changed, for some obscure reason, to "Hunting the White Witch." Internationally, this Book #3 would be released in the U.K. (1979 and '85), Holland (1980 and ’86, as "De Witte Heks," or "The White Witch"), Germany (also 1980, as "Die Weiss Hexe," or "The White Witch"), and France (1986 and '89, as "La Quete de la Sorciere Blanche," or "The Quest of the White Witch"). In size, this final novel of the renowned trilogy was midway between its two predecessors: 400+ pages (or 185,000 words) for the first, 200+ pages (or 90,000 words) for the second, and 300+ pages (or 135,000 words) for this third. Similar to Book #2, it turned out to be an epic fantasy of the highest order, with not a hint of the science fictional element that had been such a surprising feature of Book #1. And similar to both its predecessors, this concluding installment was just crammed with exciting incidents, a remarkable amount of color and detail, and any number of highly dramatic sequences and gasp-inducing revelations.
Now, whereas the action in Book #2 had picked up almost a decade and a half following the events of "The Birthgrave," Book #3 picks up just moments after its predecessor. Once again, Tuvek narrates his story, which covers the course of two full years; he is all of 21 by his tale's conclusion. Tuvek had begun evincing remarkable abilities in that second book--the power to slay mentally, to heal his own bodily injuries astonishingly quickly, to understand and speak all languages--and as his next narrative proceeds, we witness him begin to command so many powers as to be virtually godlike. Thus, by this book's end, he is also able to heal and rejuvenate others with a laying on of hands, go indefinitely without food and water, influence the weather, dissolve metallic fetters mentally, start fires with a glance, levitate objects, mesmerize anyone, make his own horse soar through the air, surround himself with something akin to a force field, control his body heat to the point where he can easily subsist in frigid conditions, walk on water, be aware of an object's history by touching it (psychometry), and, perhaps most astonishing, resurrect himself from the dead! Not to mention, of course, his tribal talents of hunting and swordsmanship. Truly, a formidable character! As had his mother in Book #1, during his travels, he would be justifiably hailed as a healer by some, a god by others. And as in his first narrative in Book #2, here, his story is divided into two lengthy and discrete sections.
In the first, much longer one, we pick up with Tuvek and Long-Eye in their skiff on the high sea. When a sudden hurricane capsizes them, causing the two to nearly drown, Tuvek becomes aware of two latent abilities. He wills the hurricane to cease and then walks himself and Long-Eye over the choppy waters, till they come upon an oared galley. Once aboard, Tuvek allows himself to be made a slave pulling an oar, till he quickly tires of the business and takes over the ship. Arrived at the port city of Bar-Ibithni, he sets himself up as a healer and wonder-worker. In time, he befriends the prince Sorem, whose father, the emperor, had practically disowned him in favor of his second son, Basnurmon. Tuvek ultimately fights on the side of Sorem when a civil war of sorts erupts. Bar-Ibithni had, around a century earlier, been conquered by the Masrians, who currently control it. Tuvek allows the native Hesseks to worship him, ultimately betraying them to the Masrians in that war, which pits race against race and prince against prince. And all this while, our Tuvek manages to carry on a secret love affair with Sorem's mother, the ex-empress Malmiranet. But despite Sorem's ultimate victory and coming into full power, a double disaster soon strikes, in the form of an enormous swarm of flies that blankets the city, and the arrival of the Yellow Mantle, a horrible plague that kills thousands, including our narrator! But never fear! Tuvek, after many weeks, arises from his underground tomb and, with a fresh clue as to his mother's current whereabouts, sets out anew. So ends the first, lengthier section.
In the second, he travels for weeks, with a small caravan of mystics, across the barren Wilderness, ultimately taking another ship for a months-long voyage to a wintry waste. He pays his way by manning the oars again (not as a slave this time) and acting as a healer, but the seamen soon grow suspicious of him and toss him overboard. Little deterred, Tuvek walks across the ocean's surface to the shore, and spends many weeks trudging across the snowy terrain. In the abandoned city of Kainium, which had been built eons before by the Lost Ones (the dead race from which both he and his mother sprang), he finds white-haired, albino children with abilities almost on a par with his own, and learns that these children, the so-called Lectorra, have been adopted and trained by his mother, who dwells on an island some miles offshore. He even meets a woman, Ressaven, the oldest of the Lectorra, who he feels must be his half sister. And it is on that mountainous island that Tuvek finally does indeed come face to face with his mother, who he has travelled so far to destroy....
As I said when reviewing Books #1 and 2 of this series, it might seem that I have gone overboard in setting out the story line above, but again, what you have just read is but the sketchiest of outlines in a book with so many subplots and details that I could not possibly touch on here. Indeed, this is the kind of book that crams in so much plot and detail that you can read around 10 pages, pause to look back, and be stunned by how much has transpired therein. Thus, I had to chuckle when Tuvek at one point remarks "Only eleven days, and so much in them." And oh my goodness, what a love affair with the English language Tanith Lee seemed to be having! As in the first two books, more hugely impressive prose is to be had here. And so, we get sentences such as these: "The night had passed like a folded wing." "I was lowered and left to die in a stinking dark, the anus of despair." "Her breath carried the scent of flowers, and her mouth was the color of a winter sunrise in that winter face." I don't know where or how Tuvek learned to master the writer's craft so well, even given his apparent knowledge of all languages, but his prose really does stun the reader, and often. He even sent me scurrying off to the dictionary on several occasions, to look up such words as "cochineal," "jointress," "titivate," "bothy," "leman" and "hypocaust." Pretty impressive, indeed, for an unschooled tribal warrior!
Lee's book grows almost unbearably suspenseful in its final 50 pages, as we wait breathlessly for the long-anticipated meeting of mother and son; a meeting that those darned Lectorra do their utmost to prevent, using both illusion and raw power. Is the reader's patience rewarded? Well yes, I suppose so, although that ultimate confrontation is like nothing you might be expecting, incorporating a tragedy of sorts of almost Sophoclean dimensions! Typical for this series, there is much in the way of grotesquerie; take, for example, the Hessek priest whose mask is comprised of mummified beetles, and the Yellow Mantle sickness itself, whose effects you don't want to know, trust me! Also typical for this BIRTHGRAVE TRILOGY are the assorted sexual acts seen or discussed here: straight sex (of course), gay and lesbian sex, bisexual sex, sex with transvestites, incestuous sex...but no human-lizard sex, as was shown in Book #1. Say what you will about the young Tanith Lee, she was no prude, that's for sure!
Unsurprisingly, she here regales her readers with any number of exciting sequences and bravura set pieces. Among them: the monstrous hurricane at sea that almost does in our narrator; Tuvek's rejuvenation of a wizened crone, Lellih, before Bar-Ibithni's Hall of Physicians (the now-youthful Lellih will play a major role in upcoming events); Tuvek's visit to the Shaythun worshippers in the swampy remnants of the Hessek town Bit-Hessee; the infiltration of the emperor's Crimson Palace to spirit Malmiranet away before the fighting; the back-to-back-to-back triple punch of the civil war, the attack of the flies (if you thought the avian attacks in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 masterpiece "The Birds" were impressive, hold on to your hats here!), and the Yellow Mantle; Tuvek's rising from the dead, and his attempt to resurrect someone near and dear to him, only to find that she is now a soulless zombie; our hero's long slog through a winter wonderhell, during which even he almost succumbs to starvation; that battle that Tuvek engages in with the Lectorra, while they casually fling bolts of energy at one another as if they were in a Marvel superhero movie; and finally, of course, Tuvek's epochal meeting with the heroine of Book #1...the woman he had waited for years, and traveled so many thousands of miles, to kill.
For the rest of it, "Quest for the White Witch" amplifies what had already been an accomplished feat of world building (in whichever world this happens to be), and so here we get a further wealth of detail regarding architecture, peoples, customs, foods and religions. The conqueror Masrians, for example, are fire worshippers, and allow no open flames to be exhibited. Thus, we learn, all their meals are stewed, not roasted or broiled, whereas the offshoot sect known as the Fire-Eaters is looked down upon because of their habit of ingesting live flames! Besides the profusion of detail, Tanith Lee's book also gives us at least two very shocking surprises--one involving Lellih, the other concerning Tuvek's meeting with his mother--about which the less said, the better, I suppose. Oh...and one final thing: Do you remember the scene in the wonderful Errol Flynn movie entitled "The Sea Hawk" (1940), in which Flynn and his companions, after slaving away as oarsmen in a Spanish galley and subsequently capturing the ship, resume their arduous rowing as free men, now lustily singing all the while? I couldn't help but be reminded of that scene when Tuvek, after having done similar brutal work as a slave, happily returns to the same occupation, but now as a free man. The fact of being free--and free of the lash--makes all the difference, I suppose...even to a rapid healer such as Tuvek!
To be perfectly honest, I did have some very minor problems with Tanith Lee's otherwise very fine work here. For one thing, I can't help but feel that this trilogy would have been well served by the inclusion of a map showing the relative placements of the many cities in Book #1, and especially how that land mass lies in relation to Bar-Ibithni and Kainium here. Tuvek sails east for several weeks to reach that first city, and then west for many months to reach the latter. Is Bar-Ibithni on a different continent than, say, the cities of Book #1? It's impossible to say. This reader also found the incest highlighted in the book to be rather...icky, more so even than the incest shown in Book #2, but that's just my own cultural bias speaking, I suppose. I was also disappointed that we ultimately never learn how the Lost Ones attained to their astonishing superpowers before being wiped out as a race. But perhaps what disappointed me the most, as I just inferred, is the fact that we never do learn definitively what planet this trilogy is set on, and perhaps even more important, when. Oh, there's some mention of the world having a single moon, and there's even a reference to the earth (with a lower-case "e"), but that's it. I'd been looking forward to a revelation as to time and place throughout this entire trilogy, a revelation that Tanith Lee oddly withholds, for some reason. I have been told that in one of her books in the later WARS OF VIS TRILOGY--namely "The Storm Lord" (1976), "Anackire" (1983) and "The White Serpent" (1988)--it is suggested that all six books are set on the same world...again, whatever world that might be. And trust me, based on my experience with THE BIRTHGRAVE TRILOGY, I certainly wouldn't mind reading another Tanith Lee trio, just to find out! Anyway, so much for my minor quibbles. "Quest for the White Witch," for the most part, remains a hugely captivating entertainment. It brings the curtain down on a trilogy of truly remarkable epic fantasies, all the more impressive for having been written (in shorthand!) by a woman still in her late 20s, and just starting out on her much-lauded career. It would seem that, similar to Ressaven, Tanith Lee was, early on, a young woman with considerable superpowers all her own!
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Tanith Lee....)
That Book #3, "Quest for the White Witch," first saw the light of day a mere month following the publication of Book #2! As had its predecessor, the novel was first issued as a $1.95 DAW paperback with cover art by Gino D'Achille. It was a fairly faithless cover, portraying a woman--a redheaded Barbara Bouchet type--holding on to an enormous leashed lizard, elements not to be found in the story itself. DAW would come out with another edition in 1983 with a more faithful piece of cover art by Ken W. Kelly, as well as an edition in 2016 (the year following Tanith Lee's passing, at age 67) with the book's title changed, for some obscure reason, to "Hunting the White Witch." Internationally, this Book #3 would be released in the U.K. (1979 and '85), Holland (1980 and ’86, as "De Witte Heks," or "The White Witch"), Germany (also 1980, as "Die Weiss Hexe," or "The White Witch"), and France (1986 and '89, as "La Quete de la Sorciere Blanche," or "The Quest of the White Witch"). In size, this final novel of the renowned trilogy was midway between its two predecessors: 400+ pages (or 185,000 words) for the first, 200+ pages (or 90,000 words) for the second, and 300+ pages (or 135,000 words) for this third. Similar to Book #2, it turned out to be an epic fantasy of the highest order, with not a hint of the science fictional element that had been such a surprising feature of Book #1. And similar to both its predecessors, this concluding installment was just crammed with exciting incidents, a remarkable amount of color and detail, and any number of highly dramatic sequences and gasp-inducing revelations.
Now, whereas the action in Book #2 had picked up almost a decade and a half following the events of "The Birthgrave," Book #3 picks up just moments after its predecessor. Once again, Tuvek narrates his story, which covers the course of two full years; he is all of 21 by his tale's conclusion. Tuvek had begun evincing remarkable abilities in that second book--the power to slay mentally, to heal his own bodily injuries astonishingly quickly, to understand and speak all languages--and as his next narrative proceeds, we witness him begin to command so many powers as to be virtually godlike. Thus, by this book's end, he is also able to heal and rejuvenate others with a laying on of hands, go indefinitely without food and water, influence the weather, dissolve metallic fetters mentally, start fires with a glance, levitate objects, mesmerize anyone, make his own horse soar through the air, surround himself with something akin to a force field, control his body heat to the point where he can easily subsist in frigid conditions, walk on water, be aware of an object's history by touching it (psychometry), and, perhaps most astonishing, resurrect himself from the dead! Not to mention, of course, his tribal talents of hunting and swordsmanship. Truly, a formidable character! As had his mother in Book #1, during his travels, he would be justifiably hailed as a healer by some, a god by others. And as in his first narrative in Book #2, here, his story is divided into two lengthy and discrete sections.
In the first, much longer one, we pick up with Tuvek and Long-Eye in their skiff on the high sea. When a sudden hurricane capsizes them, causing the two to nearly drown, Tuvek becomes aware of two latent abilities. He wills the hurricane to cease and then walks himself and Long-Eye over the choppy waters, till they come upon an oared galley. Once aboard, Tuvek allows himself to be made a slave pulling an oar, till he quickly tires of the business and takes over the ship. Arrived at the port city of Bar-Ibithni, he sets himself up as a healer and wonder-worker. In time, he befriends the prince Sorem, whose father, the emperor, had practically disowned him in favor of his second son, Basnurmon. Tuvek ultimately fights on the side of Sorem when a civil war of sorts erupts. Bar-Ibithni had, around a century earlier, been conquered by the Masrians, who currently control it. Tuvek allows the native Hesseks to worship him, ultimately betraying them to the Masrians in that war, which pits race against race and prince against prince. And all this while, our Tuvek manages to carry on a secret love affair with Sorem's mother, the ex-empress Malmiranet. But despite Sorem's ultimate victory and coming into full power, a double disaster soon strikes, in the form of an enormous swarm of flies that blankets the city, and the arrival of the Yellow Mantle, a horrible plague that kills thousands, including our narrator! But never fear! Tuvek, after many weeks, arises from his underground tomb and, with a fresh clue as to his mother's current whereabouts, sets out anew. So ends the first, lengthier section.
In the second, he travels for weeks, with a small caravan of mystics, across the barren Wilderness, ultimately taking another ship for a months-long voyage to a wintry waste. He pays his way by manning the oars again (not as a slave this time) and acting as a healer, but the seamen soon grow suspicious of him and toss him overboard. Little deterred, Tuvek walks across the ocean's surface to the shore, and spends many weeks trudging across the snowy terrain. In the abandoned city of Kainium, which had been built eons before by the Lost Ones (the dead race from which both he and his mother sprang), he finds white-haired, albino children with abilities almost on a par with his own, and learns that these children, the so-called Lectorra, have been adopted and trained by his mother, who dwells on an island some miles offshore. He even meets a woman, Ressaven, the oldest of the Lectorra, who he feels must be his half sister. And it is on that mountainous island that Tuvek finally does indeed come face to face with his mother, who he has travelled so far to destroy....
As I said when reviewing Books #1 and 2 of this series, it might seem that I have gone overboard in setting out the story line above, but again, what you have just read is but the sketchiest of outlines in a book with so many subplots and details that I could not possibly touch on here. Indeed, this is the kind of book that crams in so much plot and detail that you can read around 10 pages, pause to look back, and be stunned by how much has transpired therein. Thus, I had to chuckle when Tuvek at one point remarks "Only eleven days, and so much in them." And oh my goodness, what a love affair with the English language Tanith Lee seemed to be having! As in the first two books, more hugely impressive prose is to be had here. And so, we get sentences such as these: "The night had passed like a folded wing." "I was lowered and left to die in a stinking dark, the anus of despair." "Her breath carried the scent of flowers, and her mouth was the color of a winter sunrise in that winter face." I don't know where or how Tuvek learned to master the writer's craft so well, even given his apparent knowledge of all languages, but his prose really does stun the reader, and often. He even sent me scurrying off to the dictionary on several occasions, to look up such words as "cochineal," "jointress," "titivate," "bothy," "leman" and "hypocaust." Pretty impressive, indeed, for an unschooled tribal warrior!
Lee's book grows almost unbearably suspenseful in its final 50 pages, as we wait breathlessly for the long-anticipated meeting of mother and son; a meeting that those darned Lectorra do their utmost to prevent, using both illusion and raw power. Is the reader's patience rewarded? Well yes, I suppose so, although that ultimate confrontation is like nothing you might be expecting, incorporating a tragedy of sorts of almost Sophoclean dimensions! Typical for this series, there is much in the way of grotesquerie; take, for example, the Hessek priest whose mask is comprised of mummified beetles, and the Yellow Mantle sickness itself, whose effects you don't want to know, trust me! Also typical for this BIRTHGRAVE TRILOGY are the assorted sexual acts seen or discussed here: straight sex (of course), gay and lesbian sex, bisexual sex, sex with transvestites, incestuous sex...but no human-lizard sex, as was shown in Book #1. Say what you will about the young Tanith Lee, she was no prude, that's for sure!
Unsurprisingly, she here regales her readers with any number of exciting sequences and bravura set pieces. Among them: the monstrous hurricane at sea that almost does in our narrator; Tuvek's rejuvenation of a wizened crone, Lellih, before Bar-Ibithni's Hall of Physicians (the now-youthful Lellih will play a major role in upcoming events); Tuvek's visit to the Shaythun worshippers in the swampy remnants of the Hessek town Bit-Hessee; the infiltration of the emperor's Crimson Palace to spirit Malmiranet away before the fighting; the back-to-back-to-back triple punch of the civil war, the attack of the flies (if you thought the avian attacks in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 masterpiece "The Birds" were impressive, hold on to your hats here!), and the Yellow Mantle; Tuvek's rising from the dead, and his attempt to resurrect someone near and dear to him, only to find that she is now a soulless zombie; our hero's long slog through a winter wonderhell, during which even he almost succumbs to starvation; that battle that Tuvek engages in with the Lectorra, while they casually fling bolts of energy at one another as if they were in a Marvel superhero movie; and finally, of course, Tuvek's epochal meeting with the heroine of Book #1...the woman he had waited for years, and traveled so many thousands of miles, to kill.
For the rest of it, "Quest for the White Witch" amplifies what had already been an accomplished feat of world building (in whichever world this happens to be), and so here we get a further wealth of detail regarding architecture, peoples, customs, foods and religions. The conqueror Masrians, for example, are fire worshippers, and allow no open flames to be exhibited. Thus, we learn, all their meals are stewed, not roasted or broiled, whereas the offshoot sect known as the Fire-Eaters is looked down upon because of their habit of ingesting live flames! Besides the profusion of detail, Tanith Lee's book also gives us at least two very shocking surprises--one involving Lellih, the other concerning Tuvek's meeting with his mother--about which the less said, the better, I suppose. Oh...and one final thing: Do you remember the scene in the wonderful Errol Flynn movie entitled "The Sea Hawk" (1940), in which Flynn and his companions, after slaving away as oarsmen in a Spanish galley and subsequently capturing the ship, resume their arduous rowing as free men, now lustily singing all the while? I couldn't help but be reminded of that scene when Tuvek, after having done similar brutal work as a slave, happily returns to the same occupation, but now as a free man. The fact of being free--and free of the lash--makes all the difference, I suppose...even to a rapid healer such as Tuvek!
To be perfectly honest, I did have some very minor problems with Tanith Lee's otherwise very fine work here. For one thing, I can't help but feel that this trilogy would have been well served by the inclusion of a map showing the relative placements of the many cities in Book #1, and especially how that land mass lies in relation to Bar-Ibithni and Kainium here. Tuvek sails east for several weeks to reach that first city, and then west for many months to reach the latter. Is Bar-Ibithni on a different continent than, say, the cities of Book #1? It's impossible to say. This reader also found the incest highlighted in the book to be rather...icky, more so even than the incest shown in Book #2, but that's just my own cultural bias speaking, I suppose. I was also disappointed that we ultimately never learn how the Lost Ones attained to their astonishing superpowers before being wiped out as a race. But perhaps what disappointed me the most, as I just inferred, is the fact that we never do learn definitively what planet this trilogy is set on, and perhaps even more important, when. Oh, there's some mention of the world having a single moon, and there's even a reference to the earth (with a lower-case "e"), but that's it. I'd been looking forward to a revelation as to time and place throughout this entire trilogy, a revelation that Tanith Lee oddly withholds, for some reason. I have been told that in one of her books in the later WARS OF VIS TRILOGY--namely "The Storm Lord" (1976), "Anackire" (1983) and "The White Serpent" (1988)--it is suggested that all six books are set on the same world...again, whatever world that might be. And trust me, based on my experience with THE BIRTHGRAVE TRILOGY, I certainly wouldn't mind reading another Tanith Lee trio, just to find out! Anyway, so much for my minor quibbles. "Quest for the White Witch," for the most part, remains a hugely captivating entertainment. It brings the curtain down on a trilogy of truly remarkable epic fantasies, all the more impressive for having been written (in shorthand!) by a woman still in her late 20s, and just starting out on her much-lauded career. It would seem that, similar to Ressaven, Tanith Lee was, early on, a young woman with considerable superpowers all her own!
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Tanith Lee....)
February 23, 2013
This is one of Tanith Lee's better books, so I recommend it whole-heartedly. That said, here are the important details.
This story begins with a man who solves every problem he has with magic, and that initially turned me off, as nothing seemed to be a problem. As the story progresses, he seems to use it more and more, until there are things that pose a true challenge. And then, the painful regress and a new path toward enlightenment. To get to the more thoughtful bits, you'll have to go through a lot of swordplay, sorcery, and sex, but that is very similar to a lot of Lee's work. In addition, she features a major taboo, as in Night's Master, but well toward the end. I would say this is the most sword and sorcery type of novel I've read of hers, but I cannot stress how much I enjoyed it after page 40 or so. It is also long, so makes for good reading on long journeys.
Also, you do not need to read the preceding books to get this one, as I read without reading either of the first two.
This story begins with a man who solves every problem he has with magic, and that initially turned me off, as nothing seemed to be a problem. As the story progresses, he seems to use it more and more, until there are things that pose a true challenge. And then, the painful regress and a new path toward enlightenment. To get to the more thoughtful bits, you'll have to go through a lot of swordplay, sorcery, and sex, but that is very similar to a lot of Lee's work. In addition, she features a major taboo, as in Night's Master, but well toward the end. I would say this is the most sword and sorcery type of novel I've read of hers, but I cannot stress how much I enjoyed it after page 40 or so. It is also long, so makes for good reading on long journeys.
Also, you do not need to read the preceding books to get this one, as I read without reading either of the first two.
December 18, 2020
Guys did I seriously read the ending correctly? That he ended up the ending ruined it for me.
Vazkor goes after his mom; there's an extended interlude in a city where he helps to set
Most of the book is of people behaving in ways we wouldn't consider civilised. There's a lot of life without modern medicine: blindness and kidney stones, for example. Vazkor eventually mellows out in his subsequent search for his mom.
1/5 stars
Vazkor goes after his mom; there's an extended interlude in a city where he helps to set
Most of the book is of people behaving in ways we wouldn't consider civilised. There's a lot of life without modern medicine: blindness and kidney stones, for example. Vazkor eventually mellows out in his subsequent search for his mom.
1/5 stars
May 23, 2017
With Quest for the White Witch, Tanith Lee concludes her Birthgrave trilogy. With each book of the trilogy, Lee's writing gets stronger and stronger; Quest, then, ends up being the best of the three. Containing beautiful language and imagery, Quest is a tale of revenge that takes some unexpected detours along the way, concluding with an incident that is as disturbing as it is surprising. Quest, like the other two books in the trilogy, is rich and deep and wonderful. A very good book indeed.
June 15, 2017
I've read the 2016 reissue (titled Hunting the White Which, because, I can only assume, we readers are too dense too understand the idea of a quest). The consistency of elegance in the writing, mixed with the continued renewal of imaginative thought, like flowers in constant bursts of blossom, reminds me why I go back to Lee again and again. The second two volumes of the trilogy could have been printed as one long novel. Perhaps they were imagined as such and the vagaries of the publishing world forced them into the more acceptable short novels they became.
July 19, 2021
It's good to complete the series- perhaps I waited too long to read this after reading the first two books and lost the trilogy thread. I found this an uneven book, with moments of immersion and then being pulled out of the story by details that the protagonist doesn't seem likely to be observing described (it's written in first person). Sometimes he comments on how he would later think differently of what he's thinking at that time and the later shift of perspective wasn't always clear to me in the tale.
August 29, 2025
It started off where book 2 ended and was initially very good, but then it digressed into another story, which was good, but by the time Vazkor gets back to the quest to find his mother over 200 pages have gone by and I’d lost a lot of interest in it. Even then it meandered about so much before he finally found her that, in spite of a better than expected ending, I docked a star from it. Tanith Lee is an amazing fantasy writer, very sensual and always dealing with difficult issues. She should be much better known.
November 18, 2020
An Epic SF story that will challenge your every belief
Tanith Lee at her best following The Birthgrave, now turning the story to her son, left at a barbaric tribe but born to be the sorcerer he is. A story that will rock your every believe and keeps you turning pages till the very end. Thrilling but deep, deceiving your persecution and questioning your beliefs. A must read.
Tanith Lee at her best following The Birthgrave, now turning the story to her son, left at a barbaric tribe but born to be the sorcerer he is. A story that will rock your every believe and keeps you turning pages till the very end. Thrilling but deep, deceiving your persecution and questioning your beliefs. A must read.
December 13, 2024
I feel like I missed something along the way.
I enjoyed the meandering jaunt through a well realised world, rich in culture and variety. The abrupt turn from a retribution story to what it became is equal parts puzzling and vile.
I enjoyed the meandering jaunt through a well realised world, rich in culture and variety. The abrupt turn from a retribution story to what it became is equal parts puzzling and vile.
January 3, 2018
A fantastic journey in a land that's forgotten it's masters.
Didn't like the main character too much. Put this one down a few times, but still pretty darn good.
Didn't like the main character too much. Put this one down a few times, but still pretty darn good.
January 20, 2018
This book is the last in the trilogy and has a fantastic surprise ending that it hindsight seems fitting.
May 6, 2025
Follow the villain of any other story as he accidentally destroys an entire city, and then sleeps with his own mother. This was wild in a bad way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 19, 2026
They really don't write em like this anymore.
August 6, 2016
Hunting the White Witch starts off immediately after the events of Shadowfire, which makes me wonder if the two books were initially intended to be just one story. Together, they make up an epic tale of a warrior on a quest for identity and revenge, going from place to place and having adventures at each location on the quest. Also, the first book was told from the perspective of one character, while the last two books were told from a different character's perspective; the last two books feel like a deviation of sorts from how Lee began this saga.
On the other hand, the first two books in the series have a feminist feel to them, while the third book, at first blush, does not. By now, Vazkor, son of Vazkor (the original title of the second book makes sense to me now), has accepted his god-like powers and becomes as a god himself. The opening chapters feature him healing, calling down storms, and walking on water, so the parallels to Jesus are pretty obvious. Vazkor tries to do good, but still finds himself in the position of killing people out of revenge. He still seems to be acting toward good intentions, and he feels remorse for the killings, but he's not above manipulating people to get what he needs, and what he needs is to find his mother, whom he plans to kill. It's a complicated relationship, one which becomes even more complicated by the end of the story.
This novel features strong women characters, but like in Shadowfire, they seem to exist just outside of the story, with their influence affecting Vazkor. This time, he forms a relationship with a woman who is the mother of an emperor-to-be whom he is advising. She's older, more experienced, and a stronger character than Vazkor, his advisee, or anyone else in the story. Their relationship becomes a complication, but that relationship, as the ones Vazkor had in Shadowfire, affects him enough to grow into a better person.
The last two books in this trilogy are about Vazkor's development from a barbarian to someone more introspective, and Lee takes time in showing us the trials of his journey and how they affect him. From arrogant warrior to courageous leader to confident god, Vazkor's life plays out before us. Even though the shift in perspective indicates a change in theme, Lee still makes the entire series about strong women.
The series isn't the easiest of reads (it demands time and patience from the reader), but it feels worthwhile. This wasn't my favorite book in the series, but the first two books are worthwhile, and it's necessary to finish the third book to get the full story of Vazkor and his mother. That Lee's style is rich and flowing makes the books even more worth reading. Anyone looking to discover Tanith Lee as an author would do well to start with this trilogy.
On the other hand, the first two books in the series have a feminist feel to them, while the third book, at first blush, does not. By now, Vazkor, son of Vazkor (the original title of the second book makes sense to me now), has accepted his god-like powers and becomes as a god himself. The opening chapters feature him healing, calling down storms, and walking on water, so the parallels to Jesus are pretty obvious. Vazkor tries to do good, but still finds himself in the position of killing people out of revenge. He still seems to be acting toward good intentions, and he feels remorse for the killings, but he's not above manipulating people to get what he needs, and what he needs is to find his mother, whom he plans to kill. It's a complicated relationship, one which becomes even more complicated by the end of the story.
This novel features strong women characters, but like in Shadowfire, they seem to exist just outside of the story, with their influence affecting Vazkor. This time, he forms a relationship with a woman who is the mother of an emperor-to-be whom he is advising. She's older, more experienced, and a stronger character than Vazkor, his advisee, or anyone else in the story. Their relationship becomes a complication, but that relationship, as the ones Vazkor had in Shadowfire, affects him enough to grow into a better person.
The last two books in this trilogy are about Vazkor's development from a barbarian to someone more introspective, and Lee takes time in showing us the trials of his journey and how they affect him. From arrogant warrior to courageous leader to confident god, Vazkor's life plays out before us. Even though the shift in perspective indicates a change in theme, Lee still makes the entire series about strong women.
The series isn't the easiest of reads (it demands time and patience from the reader), but it feels worthwhile. This wasn't my favorite book in the series, but the first two books are worthwhile, and it's necessary to finish the third book to get the full story of Vazkor and his mother. That Lee's style is rich and flowing makes the books even more worth reading. Anyone looking to discover Tanith Lee as an author would do well to start with this trilogy.
March 28, 2021
Alla fine di Shadowfire il protagonista Tuvek/Vazkor era partito via mare in cerca di sua madre, la Strega Bianca; Hunting the White Witch inizia subito dopo, con lo sbarco di Tuvek in una terra esotica e misteriosa. Qui il nostro eroe rimane invischiato in una lunga e corposa vicenda di intrighi di corte e fanatismo religioso, che anche se estrapolata dalla trilogia sarebbe un appassionante romanzo breve: l'autrice ci ha combinato dramma politico, scene di superstizione e millenarismo, momenti apocaliticci e conflitti fra culture, e personalmente tutto l'insieme mi ha ricordato tantissimo le Storie di Erodoto, con i capitoli cronachistici su Creso di Lidia e Dario I di Persia.
A questa lunga sezione segue l'epilogo dell'intera vicenda: un vero e proprio pellegrinaggio di Tuvek verso il nascondiglio della Strega Bianca, pervaso di raccoglimento e culminante in un climax efficace... ma molto meno interessante di quello conclusivo di The Birthgrave, che per altro ne risulta impoverito: il modo in cui le due vicende si riallacciano, infatti, toglie pathos e significato allo scioglimento del primo romanzo, pur di rendere possibile nella continuity il colpo di scena finale del secondo (a questo punto ne sono certo, Shadowfire e Hunting the White Witch vanno intesi come un romanzo unico spaccato in due parti).
Nel complesso, confermo il 4/5 già dato a Shadowfire, visto che la storia di Tuvek ha una prosa più rifinita e un ritmo più equilibrato di The Birthgrave; quest'ultimo però ha un impatto emotivo più intenso e un senso del meraviglioso decisamente superiore, e mi chiedo se non sarebbe stato meglio lasciarlo autonomo, piuttosto che "depotenziarlo" con un sequel. Ciò detto, il worldbuilding di questi romanzi è perfetto per farne un universo espanso!
A questa lunga sezione segue l'epilogo dell'intera vicenda: un vero e proprio pellegrinaggio di Tuvek verso il nascondiglio della Strega Bianca, pervaso di raccoglimento e culminante in un climax efficace... ma molto meno interessante di quello conclusivo di The Birthgrave, che per altro ne risulta impoverito: il modo in cui le due vicende si riallacciano, infatti, toglie pathos e significato allo scioglimento del primo romanzo, pur di rendere possibile nella continuity il colpo di scena finale del secondo (a questo punto ne sono certo, Shadowfire e Hunting the White Witch vanno intesi come un romanzo unico spaccato in due parti).
Nel complesso, confermo il 4/5 già dato a Shadowfire, visto che la storia di Tuvek ha una prosa più rifinita e un ritmo più equilibrato di The Birthgrave; quest'ultimo però ha un impatto emotivo più intenso e un senso del meraviglioso decisamente superiore, e mi chiedo se non sarebbe stato meglio lasciarlo autonomo, piuttosto che "depotenziarlo" con un sequel. Ciò detto, il worldbuilding di questi romanzi è perfetto per farne un universo espanso!
April 22, 2010
This is the final book of a trilogy that started in Birthgrave, Lee's first novel. That one was a phantasmagorical journey of a woman without any memory of herself through a landscape with that pulp fiction feel of H Rider Haggard tales of lost civilizations, or perhaps even more akin, Jane Gaskell's Atlan Saga The middle book, Vazkor, Son of Vazkor, as signaled by it's title, is centered on a Conan-like character called Vazkor, son of the heroine of Birthgrave. He retraces her steps, like her tells the story in his own voice, and if the fascination of the first book lies in the mystery of her identity, the fascination of this middle lies a great deal in his so very different perspective. Vazkor is very hard to like in that book--a raping sword-swinging barbarian. But there is more to him here, as in his quest--for revenge against his mother--he increasingly comes into his powers and sees the value in others. Lee's style and her world could both be described as lush. Though along with Tanith Lee's poetic prose you're going to get a psychological complexity you're not going to find in Conan the Barbarian.
December 1, 2015
Tuvek, now known as Vazkor continues his quest to find and destroy his mother. Through conquered cities, across the ocean and into strange magical lands, he discovers and shapes his powers, brooding on how he will end his mother's life and avenge his father.
To be honest, this book didn't hold my attention the way the previous two did. It still centered primarily around Vazkor and his journey, and while he did progress as a character, I was more interested in his mother. I found myself getting impatient, just wondering when he was going to find her. Vazkor spends a decent amount of time in book two and three in the same city and I grew bored - none of the more minor characters were very compelling. I wanted to know more about the race Vazkor and Uastis were descended from and less about the people living in the land now. I also expected the sci-fi elements to come back into play and sadly they didn't, making their appearance in the first book puzzling and mostly useless. The ending was a let down too, though there was one little twist. I don't regret reading this book but it certainly didn't live up to the quality of the first two for me.
To be honest, this book didn't hold my attention the way the previous two did. It still centered primarily around Vazkor and his journey, and while he did progress as a character, I was more interested in his mother. I found myself getting impatient, just wondering when he was going to find her. Vazkor spends a decent amount of time in book two and three in the same city and I grew bored - none of the more minor characters were very compelling. I wanted to know more about the race Vazkor and Uastis were descended from and less about the people living in the land now. I also expected the sci-fi elements to come back into play and sadly they didn't, making their appearance in the first book puzzling and mostly useless. The ending was a let down too, though there was one little twist. I don't regret reading this book but it certainly didn't live up to the quality of the first two for me.
August 29, 2015
OK, Vazkor's quest is finished, Tanith Lee turned the late and surprising success of a single Fantasy novel into a trilogy. Or so it seems.
The last two books are very coherent, they slightly differ in style and, of course, they are written from the point of view of a man.
I won't tell anything about the conclusion, but I will say that I enjoyed this book. It's well worth a read for everybody who is sick of the sterile, stereotypical "Yount Adult" fantasy of today. By the way, I was 16 when I first read it in German translation and I have waited ages for the English version to appear on the Kindle.
It's not an action book though. There is no suspense and you won't ever fear for the life of your hero. Especially not that :)
The whole trilogy features an engaging world, not as detailed as Tolkien's, but with interesting and unique circumstances. The cultures and some of the cities are definitely memorable. I know, because I remembered Bar-Ibithni for more than 30 years.
Recommended!
The last two books are very coherent, they slightly differ in style and, of course, they are written from the point of view of a man.
I won't tell anything about the conclusion, but I will say that I enjoyed this book. It's well worth a read for everybody who is sick of the sterile, stereotypical "Yount Adult" fantasy of today. By the way, I was 16 when I first read it in German translation and I have waited ages for the English version to appear on the Kindle.
It's not an action book though. There is no suspense and you won't ever fear for the life of your hero. Especially not that :)
The whole trilogy features an engaging world, not as detailed as Tolkien's, but with interesting and unique circumstances. The cultures and some of the cities are definitely memorable. I know, because I remembered Bar-Ibithni for more than 30 years.
Recommended!
March 19, 2025
He called himself by the name of the father he had never known, Vazkor, king of a forgotten land. In his veins were mingled the blood of that regal warrior and that of his witch mother, the silver-masked, snowy-haired survivor of the hated Old Race. He had sworn that she would die at his hands in the name of his father and all that his world had become.
Across that barbaric and age-haunted planet his quest went relentlessly on. As he searched, so grew his own powers, his fearful heritage. Across wide seas, in conquered cities, and among haunted mountains, the hunt took him. And as he drew closer to his objective, the clearer became the way she must be slain, the more certain his ability to sunder all her witchcraft and ancient science to rid the world once and for all of his creator--the white witch from the volcano.
Across that barbaric and age-haunted planet his quest went relentlessly on. As he searched, so grew his own powers, his fearful heritage. Across wide seas, in conquered cities, and among haunted mountains, the hunt took him. And as he drew closer to his objective, the clearer became the way she must be slain, the more certain his ability to sunder all her witchcraft and ancient science to rid the world once and for all of his creator--the white witch from the volcano.
June 2, 2015
RIP, Ms Tanner. You left behind some wonderful stories. Another victim of a terrible disease. Wonderful words on your website to say goodbye "“Though we come and go, and pass into the shadows, where we leave behind us stories told — on paper, on the wings of butterflies, on the wind, on the hearts of others — there we are remembered, there we work magic and great change — passing on the fire like a torch — forever and forever. Till the sky falls, and all things are flawless and need no words at all.” Didn't know that she lived just down the road in East Sussex 02/06/15
October 10, 2016
This took me forever to get through. It dragged on and on and on and on. I get it, he's on a quest. I don't need to hear about every tree he sees and what every person is doing as he passes them. That was an issue for me. The book was decent enough though. I was really hoping for a bigger confrontation at the end. And to know what the hell was up with the saucer dudes at the end of book one! They only get a slight mention in this one. Nothing else! What was the purpose of them then? Ugh! Now that the trilogy is over I'm going to miss the world and most of the characters.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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March 26, 2016I don't know why I had to wait until Lee's passing and it's rerelease to read this trilogy. I've seen these books on the shelf for years. I guess for many of those year I said I did not like fantasy books, only sci-fi. Well I'm often a stupid ass. This trilogy has marvelous writing and enchanting characters, and it is dark and haunting and epic too. There are scenes here that will echo in my mind for the rest of my life. No one writes like Tanith Lee, and this trilogy proves that was the case from the very start. Highly recommended.
August 5, 2022
Nothing to see here, move along. Talk about endings that makes you feel awkward AF. I did like the character growth in this- as he learned more about life and got some little more respect for women. I kind of predicted the ending to myself as soon as he met a particular person, bit still yikes. Oedipus Rex is clear inspiration- except, Oedipus felt more guilty.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 11, 2008
Very well written, as always. But, thank God, it's over! The end was definitely worth the read.
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