Night's Master

Tanith Lee

Book 1 of Tales From the Flat Earth

Language: English

Publisher: DAW

Published: Jun 7, 2016

Description:

Night's Master: Flat Earth #1 by Tanith Lee

A recognized master fantasist, Tanith Lee has won numerous awards for her craft, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror.

Rediscover her classic, most popular fantasy series, Tales from the Flat Earth, where demons and gods grant wonders and wreak havoc. Visit the Upperearth, where dwell the gods; the Underearth, the realm of nightmarish demons; the Innerearth, domain of the dead; and the Flat Earth itself, the home of mortals.

Supreme amongst them all is the demon god Azhrarn, Night’s Master, whose deadly whims could change the lives of those in the Flat Earth. Azhrarn holds in his heart a mystery which could alter the very existence of the Flat Earth forever.

NIGHT'S MASTER is the first book of the stunning arabesque high fantasy series Tales from the Flat Earth, which, in the manner of The One Thousand and One Nights, portrays an ancient world in mythic grandeur via connected tales.

Long time ago when the Earth was Flat, beautiful indifferent Gods lived in the airy Upperearth realm above, curious passionate demons lived in the exotic Underearth realm below, and mortals were relegated to exist in the middle. Azhrarn, Lord of the Demons and the Darkness, was the one who ruled the Night, and many mortal lives were changed because of his cruel whimsy. And yet, Azhrarn held inside his demon heart a profound mystery which would change the very fabric of the Flat Earth forever...

Come within this ancient world of brilliant darkness and beauty, of glittering palaces and wondrous elegant beings, of cruel passions and undying love.

Discover the exotic wonder that is the Flat Earth.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Lush imagery, sensual language and erotic undertones age well in this reprinted classic-as complex, seductive, and daring now as when it first came out in 1978. The award-winning Lee (Tempting the Gods) weaves a colorful tapestry of words as she laces together eighteen tales of the Flat Earth, where dismissive gods regard humanity as a mistake and capricious demons toy with mortals to while away the centuries. Though the cast changes every few stories, Azhrarn, Prince of Demons and Lord of Darkness, remains a constant presence, affecting mortal lives both directly and indirectly. From adopting a human infant for his own inscrutable reasons, to bringing down an over-ambitious king and challenging the gods for the fate of the world, Azhrarn's mark on the world stretches over the centuries and leaves no one untouched by the end. Themes of love and hate, truth and lies, beauty and ugliness are intertwined against a mythic backdrop that borrows adeptly from fairy tales and folklore while drawing inspiration from Oscar Wilde and the Arabian Nights. Eschewing a conventional plotline in favor of short stories sharing common elements and overlapping characters, this fantasy continues to push boundaries and challenge expectations.