Volkhavaar

by Tanith Lee

The author of the unforgettable BIRTHGRAVE, of the panoramic outworld of THE STORM LORD, and of the future folk of DON'T BITE THE SUN, now presents us with something different - and yet equally enthralling in its color and fantasy and high adventure.For VOLKHAVAAR is a novel of witchcraft and wonders on a world far removed from those we know. Here the gods contend for power - the Dark forces against the Light - and here an entire city and its land is plunged into the shadow of an evil beyond anything conceivable. It is the story of Shaina the slave girl and of Volk the outcast who enslaved himself to cosmic forces to gain total power - and of how they were finally to meet and clash - with an entire world as their prize.VOLKHAVAAR is high fantasy comparable only to the best of Andre Norton and Michael Moorcock.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Magic, Science Fiction Fantasy, High Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7."
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress.

Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971.

Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing.

Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror.

Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s.

Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.

Reviews

[Magrat Ajostiernos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si algo me gusta de Tanith Lee es su manera de transformar una historia aparentemente sencilla en una aventura inolvidable gracias a su manera de narrarla.
Es una autora que juega con las palabras de una manera maravillosa, recuerda a Ursula K Le guin y a otras grandes clásicas del género emulando los cuentos tradicionales, pero con un tono mucho más oscuro e incluso cruel.
Y cuando lees 'Volkhavaar' realmente te sientes dentro de un cuento. La esclava protagonista se enamora a primera vista, ruega por la ayuda de una bruja para rescatar a su amado y debe enfrentarse al mago más terrible de todos los tiempos. Un argumento quizás muy manido pero contado de una manera tan brillante, cuidando con tanto mimo a sus personajes y creando un escenario tan interesante, que se vuelve una lectura deliciosa.
Y única.
Resulta muy difícil encontrar hoy en día este tipo de relatos tan ricos gracias a su lenguaje y la capacidad de la autora simplemente de "contar".
A veces no se necesitan mil páginas de sistema mágico o "worldbuilding" para construir una gran novela de fantasía.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the first subversion of my expectations was the way Lee suddenly shifted focus away from her protagonist Shaina--slave girl, nascent sorceress, unrequited lover of Dasyel--and to the utterly reprehensible Volk Volkhavaar, the antagonist and evil sorcerer. And then to spend fully half the book from Volkhavaar's perspective, from personal history to personality to setbacks to evil schemes to very evil schemes and so on. There's a greater plan to this, not apparent until late, when Lee shows how much Shaina is like Volkhavaar, only inverted, and where Volkhavaar projects power and strength, Shaina _is_ power and strength.

As always, Lee's writing is a joy, rendering complex ideas and images in undecorated but striking language.

[Diane Duane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a great deal of Tanith's material over the years, and the new works are as delightful as the old... but there are some that I keep coing back to. This is one. The book is as completely and compactly-structured a standalone as a writer could hope for; but at the same time, I wish there was a second and maybe even a third.

Part of the delight is the straightforwardly folkloric language -- the kind of thing only to be attempted by a writer who is very sure of her tone of voice. The reader gets a sense of being immersed into a world with depths to it, though there's nothing stagy about the prose, and absolutely none of the hey-look-at-me style of worldbuilding: everything is very matter-of-fact and subtly done. In this book, also, Tanith's love of color and her gift for physical description pops out unusually strongly.

There really needs to be an ebook edition of Volkhavaar. In the meantime, it looks like there are a fair number of the paperbacks around. If you like Tanith Lee's work, this is prime material: go find a used copy.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This earlier novel of the author's is compact and centres around two main characters: the boy who sells himself to evil from an early age and becomes a feared and fearsome magician, and the young slave girl abducted as a child from her native land and now labouring in a village house where she, among other things, takes the goats out to their mountain pasture when the son of the household is hungover as he is frequently. On one of these trips she encounters a local witch who warns her that she is shortly to undergo an event which will change her life. Soon afterwards, a troop of strange actors arrives, led by a man who, it transpires, is Volkhavaar, and the slave girl falls completely for a young actor in the troop. But he, like two others, have had their souls enslaved by the magician.

The book then shows the early life of Volkhavaar and what has brought him to this point, before narrating the entwined lives of both characters. The power of love is a strong theme, and the story has a folktale flavour slightly reminiscent of Russian folktales especially with the character of the witch who trains the slave in how to send out her astral body to follow the young actor. It is told with Lee's usual colourful and powerful prose and I found it more satisfying than her later Flat Earth series which I have just finished reading, perhaps because the story is more compact and coherent and it does have an ending which, although not fairy tale, is satisfying. So a good 4 star read.

[Nicholas Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

More 3.5/5 stars than anything.

Shaina is a slave, taken from her homeland as a child and now forced to work under a cold and selfish family in the land of Korkeem. Her only comfort are the goats she takes care of and the image of the mountain god she passes by daily. One day, however, the magician Kernik comes to Shaina's village with his illusions and circus trope. Everyone is ensorcelled by the illusions, but Shaina can sense something is off. Not only that, she finds herself smitten by one of the actors, the handsome Dasyel. With the help of the vampiric witch who lives on the mountain, Barbayat, Shaina learns the magic of separating her soul from her body so she can fly across the lands and see Dasyel.

But then Kernik notices.

Kernik too is a foreigner and learner of magic. But he is a cruel man who subdues villages and cities to his will and worships Takerna, a malevolent deity called the Black God and Lord of Night and Shadowed Places. Taking the name Volk Volkhavaar, Kernik brings down an entire kingdom within Korkeem and proclaims Takerna as the ultimate god, desiring nothing but power for himself. But when he notices Shaina's soul, he gives chase.

Volkhavaar, while not the best of Tanith Lee's work, turned out to be a nice surprise. There is some subtle commentary and some refreshing takes and subversions on certain fantasy tropes and expectations, especially those prevalent at the time of the book's publication (1977). Much like her adult debut The Birthgrave, Lee appears to be flipping some gendered fantasy stereotypes in Volkhavaar, from its themes and plot focus to how it portrays women and men.
Now, I'll be upfront with this: there are some outdated things in this. Both Shaina and Kernik are foreigners to the land of Korkeem. We are constantly reminded of Shaina's long, black and, at one point, her hand's skin seems to be very briefly described as brown; however, this description isn't shown or told problematically, and I still don't really know Shaina's race even by the story's end, but this does not come off offensive. It is Kernik's origin and description that will cause discomfort. He's described as sallow, saffron, and yellow in terms of his skin color and he has long nails (see the cover) and uses his illusion magic to control people. This will probably cause some aversion and discomfort in some readers, and it is understandable. If not for this, along with some other issues related to plot development, Volkhavaar would be a perfect stand alone.

Volkhavaar is divided into four parts: the first, where we meet Shaina and her first meeting with the witch Barbayat who inducts her gradually into magic; the second, with Kernik's backstory and rise to power along with the much briefer backstory of the former prince turned actor Dasyel; the third, when Shaina's souls is unable to return to her body and remains stuck in a cat's, yes, you read that right; and the fourth, when Shaina finally confronts Kernik and the falling out from that. All four of these parts have proper pacing for the positions of the plot they occupy. The first two parts a little slower than the last two parts, as per the course in fantasy plot development. They follow typical fantasy tropes and expectations--some of which get turned on their head by the end--, but I will admit that they were the weakest portions of the book. Not terrible by any means, save for the aforementioned descriptions of Kernik, especially in his backstory, but they just did not have the weight and intrigue that the last two parts did.

Thankfully, Lee's wonderful, luscious prose populates all four parts throughout, thus those weaker first two parts are not completely uninteresting. As per usual with Lee's fantasy prose, colors of the sky, clothes, buildings, and nature, overwhelm the senses. Her prose is even stronger her dialogue as she able to capture that wit of hers. Everyone speaks you would expect them to: Shaina as a naïve, but courageous girl; Kernik as a cunning and power-hungry magician; Barbayat as a knowledgeable, but cantankerous old witch; and even Mitz the cat as, well...a cat. Thankfully, none of the dialogue gets stereotypical as one could find from some mainstream 1970s fantasy novels. As I stated, Volkhavaar is a novel were things turn on their head. At the end of the second part and the beginning of the third part is when things greatly change, where Lee injects her classic weirdness into the story and things get a dark turn. And also, unexpected things happen!

These changes and subverted expectations are primarily reflected in Shaina's character development. As I said, she starts off as your typical naïve, but kind and courageous girl. She is somewhat passive in the beginning, but she isn't dumb. She knows what to say and when to say it. However, when her soul is gone from her body for too long, the village people think she is dead and in the process of becoming a vampire, so the visiting priest cuts her head off. As a result, Shaina ends up in Mitz the cat's body and they have to share the body. With Barbayat's magical aide, Shaina is eventually back in her healed body and when she wakes back up she is more confident and resolute than ever before. But...she also has realized certain things about herself, about Kernik, about the god Takerna, and about Dasyel.

What's fascinating about Kernik is how he gets his power and what he does with his magic to gain power and influence over people. He's definitely very cunning and calculating despite all the evil he does. After he takes over a kingdom, he marries the previous duke's daughter Woana, repeatedly described as a plain-looking and doleful girl, and the whole kingdom falls into a frenzy of immoral behavior and orgies as the sky and buildings of the kingdom darken. What I found interesting is that Kernik had no interest in sexual or romantic relationships with Woana. Despite the sexual debauchery happening just outside her doors, sexual violence is never a threat to Woana. Kernik is evil and will do and has done monstrous things, but he does not appear to be motivated to do such things to everyone he encounters. He greatly devoted to Takerna, probably not so out of true religious devotion, but out of power, and I'll come back to this later, but like most men driven and obsessed with power, he fails to understand the power of the natural world around him.

What interesting about all of the minor characters is that none of them feel like they are there just for the sake of the plot's progression. They aren't tools, they're characters. Granted, some of them get more page time than others, and for a lot of them I wish we could've seen more of them than be told about them, but they are an interesting bunch. There's a small but diverse range of women in this story: Shaina, who goes on her heroine's journey (no, I don't mean the Joseph Campbell kind); Barbayat, the mysterious witch who uses her magic to help Shaina get stronger and to her goal, but whose motives seem entirely self-motivated at times; Woana, who never falls to Kernik's corruption; Woana's mother who is utterly uncaring and useless; and even the woman who owns Shaina who is selfish and cruel. I bring this up because, despite Kernik's primary moving of the plot, this is a woman-centered story and the women here are not stereotypes nor paragons. The "heroes" of Volkhavaar are Shaina, Barbayat, and Woana, but each one of them are flawed in their own way. Honestly, the weakest character is Dasyel, but I think there's a point to this. When Shaina first sees Dasyel, she falls in love with him, but they don't meet till the end of the book. As the story progresses, we wonder why Shaina even loves a man who does not yet know she even exists yet--it feels like a stereotype from one of those fantasy stories written by a man who doesn't have the best women characters. Fortunately, Lee doesn't lose sight of this and Shaina comes understand what love should really entail. In a surprisingly and pleasing twist, Shaina and Dasyel do not get together at the end; she realizes her "love" was juvenile, but perhaps someday it could be true.

It is Shaina's journey, guided by love and hope, that makes her become more knowledgeable about things, but also about how her world works. Particularly, the god Takerna.
So, remember the mountain god idol that I mentioned at the beginning? Well, Shaina learns that that god is Takerna! However, when she worshipped him, beautiful white flowers grew around him, whereas when Kernik "worships" him, darkness and decadence follows. In a final confrontation, Shaina repeats something to Kernik that he himself stated earlier in the book: "Men make gods in the images of themselves." This is not a statement of atheism; Takerna is a very real god in this book, he does appear physically within the story. Nor is it a statement of how the real-life philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach viewed God as a projection of people's certain values or behaviors. Here, the power of humans, particularly all those differently-named spellcasters, influences the god. Kernik turned Takerna dark and fearsome, but Shaina turned him bright and kind. This is another flip on the fantasy genre at the time, as most fantasy stories then dealt with non-magical warriors encountering the supernatural, whether real or illusionary; albeit they sometimes have magical companions. Volkhavaar is a story of magic and the people wield it or are enchanted by it. Although Dasyel performed a mighty hero in the play before Kernik bewitched him, there are no sword-wielding heroes or heroines in this story. Although, a sentient bronze sword and its copper and tin makeups do speak at one point, manipulating events around them.
Takerna grows peaceful and kind when human display such traits. He grows fearsome and frightening when someone uses their power and his power for their own gain. This provokes an interesting reflection when you think about both Shaina and Kernik's origins and what they came to be. Both are foreigners initially mistreated and viewed with suspicion in the land they now live in. Both grow on their journeys to get what they want, one more nefarious than the other. Both learn things about themselves and the world around them that makes them slip up and rethink. Both of them influence the god they both need.
Not to beat a dead horse, but this book would've been so much more powerful if not for the physical descriptions of Kernik, for this book is about subverting stereotypes, but it doesn't subvert that one.

Still, the very ending of the book reminds us that time and the world is a circle. No, Kernik is not dead, but what will he do from here on out? Shaina is no longer a slave, but is now a witch. But will she finally find love? Who knows...

[Irene Rosignoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could say many things about this book. But in the end all that matters is that is beautifully written. I'm not talking about the plot or characters - they're really good too, of course, but I'm talking about language itself. I don't think I can describe it. It's rich, and precise, and clear, and beautiful. This kind of writing is why I am a reader.

[Temucano · Rating 4 out of 5]

De entrada me sorprendió este ambiente de cuento, relleno de metáforas y florituras, donde destaca la heroína resuelta frente al villano maldito y grotesco, coctel de magia entre hechizos, gatos, sacerdotes, brujas, orgías y sangre, la justa y necesaria para amalgamar todo esto, envuelto en esa prosa agradable, casi lírica, sin complicados argumentos pero con estilo. Cautivante.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review originally appeared on my blog, Books Without Any Pictures:
http://bookswithoutanypictures.com/20...

My paperback of Volkhavaar by Tanith Lee is so old and battered that even my cell phone Instagram picture is higher resolution that anything I can find on the internet. This tells me two things–(A) Volkhavaar is not one of Tanith Lee’s best known books, and (B) I got hella lucky at the used bookstore.

Volkhavaar is quintessentially a novel about the power of love. The story begins with Shaina, a slave girl with a rough but ordinary life in a peasant village. One day she goes up the mountain to walk the goats, and encounters a witch, who tells her that her life is about to change. That night, a magician and his troupe come to town, and all of the villagers enthralled by his performance. And when I say enthralled, I don’ mean just figuratively–they’re completely under his spell. Everyone, that is, except for Shaina, who immediately falls in love with one of the magician’s assistants. The magician is, of course, the titular Volkhavaar, and he’s not just an illusionist, but a power-crazed warlock who manipulates people for shits and giggles. Shaina’s lover is under his spell, and so Shaina must fight Volkhavaar in order to regain his soul.

I’m always pleased by the kind of atmosphere that Tanith Lee’s writing evokes, and this book is no exception. It’s kind of a cross between fairy tales and horror, which is how most true fairy tales are. Volkhavaar is dark and twisted, with each character a larger-than-life archetype in the battle between love and the lust for power. As someone who loves Russian literature and mythology, I found myself seeing echoes of Eastern European folklore, from the gods of the forests to the witch (who reminded me more than a bit of Baba Yaga, minus the chicken leg house).

Perhaps my favorite part of the novel was the ending. I’ve been on a Tanith Lee kick lately, and in each of her books that I’ve read thus far, the ending has a bit of a twist that challenges assumptions that you’ve made while you’ve been reading. I love that, especially when I’m reading books that have a pulpier feel to them.

Overall, Volkhavaar was a delightful little tale, and if you come across it in a used bookstore, it’s definitely worth your time.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our story clearly requires a hero, so we have the girl Shaina, taken from her parents at a young age and enslaved.

And our story clearly requires someone for the hero to save, so we have Dasyel, fifth son of a noble, under a terrible enchantment.

And most of all our story requires a villain, so we have Kernik Volk Volkhavaar, himself born of unfortunate circumstances, but now pledged to the darkest of dark powers.

And when Kernik, the Clever Showman, the Prince of Conjurors, the Master of Acrobats and Actors, the High Priest of Entertainment, Lord of the Laugh, Maker of Magic and Stealer of Scenes, comes of an evening to Shaina's village, and Shaina sees the handsome Dasyel as part of his troupe, forces will be set in motion, both light and dark, bargains will be struck and secrets will be revealed as Shaina and Volkhavaar clash.

[Kaila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little Tanith Lee book. I liked the first 50 pages the best, especially the comments about the goats and their particular brand of crazy. I enjoyed that the love story did not end up how I thought it was going to. I love Lee's writing and it comes across especially strong. Otherwise, pulpy fantasy and not much here.

[Laura Gaelx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tanith Lee es una maestra en crear historias nuevas, alejadas del patriarcado, con los hilos de los cuentos de hadas tradicionales. Además, maneja el lenguaje —en su dimensión conceptual y sensorial— como una sabia narradora oral.

La visión fue terrible, tan terrible que las palabras no pueden expresarlo, porque las palabras son cobardes como los hombres, y ocultan cosas igual que éstos.

[Tor Gar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novela curiosa. A partir de un inicio sencillo se va complicando y pone sobre el papel cosas interesantes. Además incluye un par de momentos de sorprendentes de ¡AHIVALAHOSTIA! y reflexiones cuasifilosóficas sobre la vida o el amor.

La prosa tiene un tono de cuento muy atractivo y sugestivo que sin embargo lastra el ritmo al ser altamente descriptiva haciendo el conjunto algo árido. Se debe a que las descripciones no van enfocadas a las acciones llevadas a cabo por los personajes ni a su comportamiento o planteamiento ante toma de decisiones o diálogos. Son descripciones de estatuas, castillos, elementos arquitectónicos en general, trajes, paisajes, bailes, actuaciones… lastrando el tempo y que por momentos se hace un poco bola.

Creo que en teoría debería ser un libro cálido, algo intimista por momentos (favorecido por el tono con aroma a cuento) y a mi me deja un poco frío. No me acaba de convencer del todo.

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shaina was captured and sold as a slave when she was a very young child. She lives in a relatively poor village on a small farm, where she is expected for preform labour with little food and no comforts. But one day a troupe of actors come to the village, and Shaina falls in love with a young man called Dasyel. She discovers that Dasyel's soul belongs to Volkhavaar, an evil magician, and Shaina decides she will do anything to save him. Some of this story is interesting -- Volkhavaar's backstory, elements of the gods, the vampire-witch, who helps Shaina -- but for me too much rested on Shaina's sudden and unexplained desire for Dasyel, and the lengths she went to save him did not seem to be justified. I was also made uncomfortable by the racism surrounding Lee's depictions of Volkhavaar and how his evil actions were attributed to his ugly countenance. There is potential here, but it's not Lee's strongest work. However, the ending is subversive and surprising.

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved Tanith's Lee novel. First of all it's a fantasy/romance kind of novel. We follow two characters - Volk the evil sorcerer and Shaina a slave girl. It's very interesting that one chapter is one , then it changes to the other (probably not in the same timeline).

What's interesting is that Volk is not born evil. He, has a boy that have a rough upbringing and so turn to evil by via of a strange god. The girl, who have lived most of her life as a slave meets a witch that says something will change drastically. All of these takes like 80/100 pages and they were marvellous. IF tanith lee is good at something is fleshing her characters.

Then the story evolved and we get more of Volk (which was my favorite character) and then we get a new character and the the culmination and meeting of the two characters and that I didn't enjoy that much. If Volk was so powerful in the dark arts how could a girl with the power of love and light defeat him so easily so anti-climatic... as a youtuber says "barely an inconvenience". I hope for more.... That's why I won't give this book 5 stars. Btw, the last two pages were also horrendus to the point of vomiting (I am kidding of course but in the 70's grimdark stuff didn't exist per se... yuo expected happy disney (old disney) endings... Oh well

Read it if you enjoy good characters development and how to make a evil character. Also a bit of new age stuff with all the gods/wicca (?) who knows what inspired Tanith.

Don't forget... the power of love and light will triumph over evil. 8/10

[Elihú · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evocadora historia sobre la obsesión ciega con el odio y el amor, que me recordó a los mejores cuentos de hadas largos como Stardust o El Último Unicornio, en donde, al final, no todo es comieron perdices.

La manera de narrar la historia, al estilo de Las Mil y Una Noches, viene de perlas cuando llega el momento de conocer a Kernik, cuya historia es la mejor construida y la más sorprendente, a la par que la más aterradora. Hay momentos muy mal rollo en estas poquísimas, pero inteligentes, 200 páginas.

La novela contiene un aire místico que hace avanzar a la protagonista de forma coherente y sin sobresaltos abruptos. Contenida, pero con excelente desarrollo, estoy algo molesto que esta autora hoy en día esté relegada al olvido, pero deseo con fervor conseguir cuanto antes El Señor de la Noche, para continuar descubriendo estas joyas que actualmente pocos reconocen.

[Remco Straten · Rating 4 out of 5]

It may be an advantage for some; Volkhavaar is not a big book. Not a story spread out over 3 doorstops. In plot it's not so very remarkable expect a good, solid Fantasy adventure with plucky heroine against the odds and a master magician. It's in the details and the use of language where Tanith Lee excelled - it's as if she can't help sprinkling little askew observations throughout, and give her characters idiosyncratic edges. It's what makes her prose and characters come alive. And where another writer would spot the finish line three quarters in and write towards it, Lee saves some neat plot twists to hold us captive until the last page.

[Philip Athans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, which came to me in some random way, sitting in a box waiting for me to pick it out, again at random, and I'm glad I did. This book seems to have slipped into obscurity and that's a shame. I liked everything about it: the evocative writing, the touching human quality to both the plot and the theme of the story, the wild and weird magic… just a terrific, near-perfect stand-alone fantasy gem.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The daring heroine here, driven by love & hope, is not as vulnerable or soft as Jane in The Silver Metal Lover or emotionally warped as Magdala in Electric Forest, but with more of a innocent strength like Chiharu in Spirited Away.

The adventure is told in Lee's lyrical style, & the villain is as enjoyable as the heroine.

[Elizabeth O. · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when Lee tackles classic fairy tale tropes (magician, the enchanted, and a savior) and has her own go at it? A read so captivating it's like she came up with the tropes.

I have missed train stops while reading, not knowing I missed them. Don't go into this book lightly; you'll end up feeling for all the characters.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cover, I know, I know! It was the 70s, guys! Michael Whelan's come a long way since then. It looks super cheesy, but I love Tanith Lee, so hopefully the inside is just as awesome and weird as her other stuff tends to be.

Aaaand yes. Yes, yes, yes, this book is awesome and weird and I'm definitely putting it down as my very favorite so far of Lee's, though admittedly I have much more ground to cover before that becomes definitive (she was kind of crazy prolific--13 novels down, only 64 more to go!).

Anyway, this is a story of two orphans, opposite sides of the same coin. It's a story of forgotten gods and sorcery and souls without bodies and bodies without souls. Hate and love, sacrifice, passion and strength and mercy and truth.

Another reviewer says it has the feel of a story passed down in the oral tradition, and it really does have that quality to it, something you can imagine being told over the course of many days by a master storyteller. While reading it I kept trying to compare it with other things I've read, and the closest I can get is a weird mix of John Fowles' The Magus, Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword, and Isabel Greenburg's The One Hundred Nights of Hero; it's not really very similar to any of those, other than something in the voice, and the depth to which it immersed me in the world and the language. Tanith Lee's Wikipedia article says "Critics describe her style as weird, lush, vibrant, exotic, erotic, rich, elegant, perverse, and darkly beautiful." I think that's fairly spot on, and fits Volkhavaar perfectly.

I don't really expect anyone to read this review and go running out to track a copy of this down (it's out of print, although you see copies fairly often at Half Price Books and places like that), but as I say every time I read one of Lee's books, I think it's a real shame that she's not better known these days. If you love fantasy, sci-fi or horror, can deal with a hearty helping of strange, and don't mind working a bit (her stuff is never exactly light and fluffy), you should definitely give something of hers a try at some point. Maybe you'll find yourself just as smitten as I am!

P.S. Oddly, this is actually the best cover available for this book--I looked up other editions and they are all TERRIBLE! But it's what's inside that counts, right?

[Cristina Murillo Muela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tal es la violenta, estupida, misteriosa y primitiva naturaleza del amor, que empuja todo ante él igual que el mar. Lo racional es el odio, el odio hace leyes. El amor no necesita leyes. El amor sabe.

¡Me ha sorprendido mucho! Es la primera vez que leo a Tanith Lee y estoy segura de que no será la última. Es una historia que juega con elementos propios de un cuento de hadas: la bruja, la esclava, el mago tenebroso, la ciudad brillante, etc, pero lo retuerce hasta convertirlo en una historia original y MUY tenebrosa. En serio, tiene unos tintes oscuros que me han sorprendido mucho (y orgías. Muchas orgías, tanto que los niños que salgan de ahí seguro que acaban ladrando).
La pluma de la autora es preciosa. No es densa pero tiene unos adornos que la convierten en un estilo muy bonito, es muy vívida y evocadora.
Con respecto los personajes, es curioso porque he llegado a empatizar con el villano, gracias a que conocemos su historia de muy cerca. Y la resolución de la novela es redonda y muy satisfactoria, tanto que creo que no le hace falta mucho más. Es una novela que con doscientas páginas es muy completa, con pinceladas de un worbu que me parece muy interesante y unos personajes que evolucionan y completan su arco de forma coherente.
Queda muy recomendado. Ojalá las editoriales españoles se animen a traer más cositas de Tanith Lee (en septiembre sale El señor de la noche con Duermevela, EJEM) porque vale mucho la pena y sin duda es un gran referente para la fantasía.

[Ming · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the while I was reading this, I couldn't help think: this would make a gorgeous Studio Ghibli film. If I did it, some things would have to be tweaked here and there (e.g. it would be nigh impossible to have Mitz and Shaina converse with each other save through some really corny ghostly echoey dialogue which would be awful), but I think it'd look smth like Princess Mononoke. And I think, I would have Barbayat as the narrator.

I quite liked this book, although parts of it felt like it was treading the well-trodden path of a conventional fantasy story. But Lee always adds a strange touch. Yes, it's true that the ending is kind of a poetic justice conclusion where love essentially triumphs over evil, but Lee does a couple of things that prevent it from just being another cliched ploy: (1) it ties in with the overall theme of the battle between light and darkness that pervades this novel, including the play about the Shepherd, the Moon & the Sun that Daysel was initially involved in before he ran into Kernik Volk; (2) as Lee writes, there really is no such thing as an ending. Things are in a ring, a circle. For who is to say that Kernik Volk, no longer Volkhavaar, will not emerge from the waters, and start his war again?.

3.5 stars, rounding up because I liked certain bits of it especially.

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magical, demonic, romantic...like Anne Rice if she wrote fantasy. Beautifully written and conceived. A great entry point for a Lee virgin.

[Nighteye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okey story following different persons in arcs all linked together in one big story. A dark God and dark religion suppresses and love searching soul themed is was storywise original and good.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volkhavaar by Tanith Lee
DAW Books
Cover art by Michael Whelan
Frontispiece by Jack Gaughn 
1977
192 pages 

I am always searching for books that I do not own. Tanith Lee is certainly at the top of the list of authors I seek. When Camelot, my local bookstore, closed up I had an enormous amount of store credit to burn. So, I purchased all of the Tanith Lee books they had on hand. As I am sorting through the books, keeping the better copies and adding the rest to the trade bin, I stumble upon Volkhavaar. To my sheer disbelief I did not have this title in my collection! With the bright yellow spine and striking cover art by Michael Whelan, I had seen this book many times over the years. All the while I had assumed it was somewhere in my personal library. On whim I picked it up and decided to read it immediately. 

Tanith Lee holds a special place within the hearts of many readers. Her stories have a dream-like fairy-tale quality about them. There is just something about her writing that draws so many fans of S&S to her books year after year. 

On the surface, Volkhavaar is the story of a powerless young woman who becomes enamored with an actor from a passing troupe. The actor does not even know the girl exists, and the actor serves an all-controlling master. Certainly not something that would normally appeal to my reading interest. However, I was pulled in. Riveted. The story is told in three parts.

Part one introduces Shaina. A child of unknown provenance who was stolen from her homeland and sold into slavery. Her life of staid drudgery is interrupted when an acting troupe passes through. A night of exorbitant revelry consumes the village. Ultimately Shaina seeks the help of the local witch, Barbayat, to help her achieve her heart's desire.

Part two introduces Volkhavaar and Dasyel. This part is essentially the back-story of both characters. I continue to ruminate about this part of the book. Volkhavaar, the antagonist, wasn't born evil. A child of circumstance, he is a person left without guidance. No morals. Often powerless. It's no small wonder that he made the choices he did. His power seems to come from an external source, but I've since pondered whether it was in fact innate but only useful when given focus through his god Takema.  

Part three brings the three together for the conclusion. There were numerous twists and turns during the story. One in particular, I could see coming, but it still shocked me as it happened. Leaving me to wonder what now? The sorcery and magic throughout the book aren't elaborated upon. It is often simple and of the quality found in old stories of folklore. The story concludes with enough closure to call it an ending. Although, there is enough left open for the reader to decide what may or may not occur afterward. Honestly, I enjoyed this book much more than I anticipated.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the Great City Square came a noise like two armies, four bull-rings, eight orchestras, sixteen taverns. Every color and every sound and scent known in the Korkeem — and a few not known. Wonders opened like flowers and the fans of peacocks, and dusts and incenses spread before the sun chariot in a mauve gauze, as it galloped into the morning. [loc. 1690]

Short, standalone fantasy novel by Tanith Lee -- probably my most-read author in my teens and twenties, though I haven't engaged as much with her more recent work. I first read Volkhavaar when I borrowed it from the library, at a tender and impressionable age: as usual when rereading, I'm surprised by what I remember and what I'd forgotten. I remembered the black stone idol, and the flowers, and the bronze sword. I'd forgotten the rather downbeat ending (which I think would have impressed me massively at the time -- what, you don't have to have a HEA?) and the excellent cat, Mitz.

The setting is what I think of as typical Lee: medieval-ish, demons and a multiplicity of gods, an Arabian Nights ambience, supernatural creatures who are more benevolent than their usual fictional depictions, enterprising young women and gorgeous young men. Our heroine, Shaina, is a slave who's never lost her pride: our hero Dasyel is an actor, clearly under the spell of our villain Kernik (whose villainy stems from injustice and abuse, plus a nasty streak all his own). Also a likeable vampire and the aforementioned excellent cat, who belongs to the rather feeble Princess Woana. Shaina falls in love with Dasyel without ever speaking to him, and enlists the help of a witch. Things do not work out as planned -- but there are happy endings all round, though not necessarily the traditional ones.

Volkhavaar made a powerful impact on me when I first read it: the vivid descriptions, the exuberance of the prose, the strong determined heroine. And perhaps the inversion of gender roles, with Shaina falling for Dasyel simply because of his looks, and doing her best -- through peril and pain -- to win him: just like a knight, an adventurer, the hero of a hundred fairytales... 

I've read a lot of fantasy novels over the intervening decades, but I still think Tanith Lee, with her glorious excesses and her subversions of genre tropes, is one of my favourites. I probably do need to read more of her later works -- many of which are out of print. 

[Jesus Gerardo Rodríguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tanith Lee fue una escritora de fantasía que me cautivó con su libro "El señor de la noche", una historia compuesta a su vez de varios arcos literarios que nos hacen sentir en una nueva "mil y una noches". Sus descripciones de escenarios fantásticos y magia son hermosos y espectaculares, acompañados de personajes con interesantes conflictos.
Leer ahora "Volkhaavar" (Colección Fantasy, Ed. Martinez Roca), fue un reencuentro con la autora y sus mundos de fantasía. Desde un punto de vista personal, no resulto tan atractivo como "El Señor de la Noche", pero las historias de amor, de odio, de esperanza y ambición también aquí están. De igual manera su descripción de los procedimientos y recursos mágicos continúan presentes.
Chicas enamoradas de jóvenes esclavizados por la magia, dioses casi olvidados que resurgen en poder gracias a la devoción de un ser perturbado y misántropo, brujas que rejuvenecen por la sangre de sus aprendices, viajes astrales, funciones de teatro cargadas de magia y mucho más.
La lectura de la novela fue agradable, pero debo de admitir que el hecho de que tuve que esperar como 25 años para conseguirla tal vez dio lugar a que me hiciera unas expectativas demasiado ambiciosas de lo que esperaba de dicha novela. Pero lo cierto es que nuevamente compruebo que leer a Tanith Lee nunca sera tiempo desperdiciado.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

The antagonist or big evil of the book is a lot of insidious fun, the hero is a bore. That really sums it up for me, every time the dark wizard/prophet appears and especially the chapters were we follow him, I had lots of fun with this story whilst when she took over I had to struggle to keep going. Her motivations are in my eyes until the very end shallow and when she does step away from that shallow self interest it doesn't improve that much. Concerning the end, it made me take away a star, I mean it's so cheesy and undeserved almost akin to a fairy tale in morale and execution but the rest of the book is not that at all, if it had been written as a fairy tale it might have worked better as a whole but as you can see from the needlessly erotic cover, it doesn't want to either.

I am genuinely impressed though, not by this book but the author. My gosh over 90 books and 300 short stories?? She was a writing machine! I am tempted to give her another chance because I really did like the warlock's chapters and I am curious to explore a bit more.

[Cristóbal López Silla · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 STARS
Esta autora en España desgraciadamente no hay casi nada traducido. Es la primera novela que leo de ella y me ha sorprendido para bien. Novela de fantasía (no épica) oscura, con un mago malvado, muy malvado. No voy a contar la historia, descúbrela.
Muy interesante todo lo que describe sobre el alma y lo físico de una persona, explicado de forma entendible, sin paranoias o flipadas.
Un final que tiene cosas interesantes pero también tiene demasiados clichés de vivieron felices y comieron perdices, es un poco anti-climax. Lo que menos me ha gustado los pasajes relacionados con la gata.
De todas formas, la recomiendo, me lo he pasado muy bien. Esperando que se le reconozca en España para que podamos tener más de sus obras traducidas, ya que en el mundo anglosajón sí se la tiene en cuenta.

[K.S. Trenten · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a powerful story, a myth, a self-contained fairytale in a fantasy world where the legendary figures take their places in a drama which feels almost like a play, dripping poetic prose while breathing feelings. A girl grows into strength and power, chasing a dream of love, a fancy for a young man caught in the web of a cruel and powerful illusionist, Volkhavaar. Volk’s own descent into darkness and power, collecting the souls he fancies weaves in and out with the girl’s until the two of them vie for the same object of passion.

This was one of the first stories I read by Tanith Lee. It enchanted me as much years later as it did the first time; feeling like a fairytale I recognized, reshaped into a new form. It was a delight to rediscover this.