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At the Court of the Crow
Some decades ago, Tanith Lee was asked to write a novel with a steampunk ambience, and this book is the result of her writing the first three chapters. Unfortunately, the book was never finished. However, the chapters she did write form a neat novella, and for this reason her husband, John Kaiine, has asked Immanion Press to publish it. It’s something Tanith fans will love and deserves to see the light of day, if only because we won’t be getting any new stories from Tanith now.
Twenty years ago, something horrible happened - something so unspeakable that it never is spoken of. But it filled the sky with strangeness and peril, and the landscape with bleak mutated danger. The idea of God was banished and forbidden. To pray became a hanging offence.
In the house on the Plain, the nameless young woman exists with her Uncle’s family, to which she was brought at the age of six, an orphaned refugee from some disaster she does not remember. For her there is no kindness in the grim house either. She is despised, patronised and mistreated by both her relatives and their servants. Her days are drab and meaningless.
But an evening comes when her Aunt and Cousinesses are late returning from the town. Once the sun has set no one who can avoid it is out on the Plain, for after dark appalling creatures scavenge and hunt there. Then the carriage is sighted - running at full stretch and wreathed in flames. What emerges from that fire, the family’s sinister rescuer, has the appearance of an old man, an itinerant decrepit, dirty and hump-backed, who calls himself Olon. But he has the voice of a young god, and abnormal powers that soon become apparent.
As Olon begins to corrupt and metamorphose the entire household, the nameless heroine retains her so-far eternal role of outsider and watcher. But already she too is being drawn into Olon’s game, already her inner thoughts and desires are found out. Olon, who in certain lights and shadows may appear young, handsome and supernaturally different, must become her fixation. But what will she learn by her study of him - by her recruitment to his service? As the house, and later the town, the city, the outer earth, succumb to his fantastic and insidious whims, surely she must see he is the harbinger of nothing good... Maybe even he is the ultimate expression of an ancient Evil, returned into a ruined world - to end it.
Immanion Press is proud to present this strange and wondrous novella.
Twenty years ago, something horrible happened - something so unspeakable that it never is spoken of. But it filled the sky with strangeness and peril, and the landscape with bleak mutated danger. The idea of God was banished and forbidden. To pray became a hanging offence.
In the house on the Plain, the nameless young woman exists with her Uncle’s family, to which she was brought at the age of six, an orphaned refugee from some disaster she does not remember. For her there is no kindness in the grim house either. She is despised, patronised and mistreated by both her relatives and their servants. Her days are drab and meaningless.
But an evening comes when her Aunt and Cousinesses are late returning from the town. Once the sun has set no one who can avoid it is out on the Plain, for after dark appalling creatures scavenge and hunt there. Then the carriage is sighted - running at full stretch and wreathed in flames. What emerges from that fire, the family’s sinister rescuer, has the appearance of an old man, an itinerant decrepit, dirty and hump-backed, who calls himself Olon. But he has the voice of a young god, and abnormal powers that soon become apparent.
As Olon begins to corrupt and metamorphose the entire household, the nameless heroine retains her so-far eternal role of outsider and watcher. But already she too is being drawn into Olon’s game, already her inner thoughts and desires are found out. Olon, who in certain lights and shadows may appear young, handsome and supernaturally different, must become her fixation. But what will she learn by her study of him - by her recruitment to his service? As the house, and later the town, the city, the outer earth, succumb to his fantastic and insidious whims, surely she must see he is the harbinger of nothing good... Maybe even he is the ultimate expression of an ancient Evil, returned into a ruined world - to end it.
Immanion Press is proud to present this strange and wondrous novella.
135 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2020
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Tanith Lee
625 books1,996 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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