Dancing Through the Fire

Cover copy:

Life, death, love, and truth: major themes that frequently appear in Grandmaster Tanith Lee's fiction, are all represented in Dancing Through the Fire, one of the last collections she put together before her untimely death. The stories in this book have never before been collected, and four of them have never before been published. These tales will transport you from mystical lands to mystical worlds, corporeal manifestations of myth, and mythical interpretations of life, into realms you've never visited (and in some cases, could never have imagined visiting).

Among the reprinted stories are:

* "Comfort and Despair", which Publishers Weekly called "eloquent."

* "Fold," which editor Mike Allen called "surreal and haunting."

* "That Glisters Is," which, according to Voya, "leaves a disturbing aftertaste."

* "The Death of Death," which Colleen Anderson said is "rich with personality and style."

The four new stories include:

* "My Lovely," a chilling little tale of a house where people drop in. [short story]

* "Last Dancer," which tells of an annual commemoration that just may be the social ticket of the year. [short story]

* "Lora," the story of a god gazing lovingly upon one of her subjects. [short story]

* "Burn Her," which may be a semi-autobiographical telling of the life (and afterlife) of an artist. [novelette]

In her obituary, the Guardian called Tanith Lee "one of the most influential revisionist and feminist voices in contemporary fantasy writing," and said her work has a "sensibility in which the relentless pursuit of personal autonomy and sensual fulfilment leads her characters to the brink of delirium, as well as to a fierce integrity that can co-habit with self-sacrificing empathy." The Village Voice called her "the Princess Royal of Fantasy," and enotes says she is "an accomplished technician and stylist. Her sophisticated presentations carry the reader along breathlessly, yet her style invites reading aloud."

Biography:

Tanith Lee was born in the UK in 1947. Though she couldn't read until she was eight, she began writing at nine, and never stopped. She wrote over ninety novels and more than three hundred short stories. She wrote for television (Blake's 7) and various BBC radio plays. She won the World Fantasy Award for her novel Death's Master (1980). Endless awards followed, and she was made a Grand Master of Horror and honored with the World Fantasy Convention Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. Tanith died peacefully at home in 2015. She was married to the artist/writer John Kaiine, who will continue to keep her work in print via numerous short story collections and much more. In 2024, SFWA named her the Infinity Award Recipient.

Reviews and Comments on Tanith Lee:

The "Princess Royal of Fantasy" --The Village Voice

"...one of the most influential revisionist and feminist voices in contemporary fantasy writing.... Yet all her work shares a tone -- Lee captured like few other modern writers a gothic, not to say goth, sensibility in which the relentless pursuit of personal autonomy and sensual fulfilment leads her characters to the brink of delirium, as well as to a fierce integrity that can co-habit with self-sacrificing empathy." --The Guardian

"Tanith Lee is also an accomplished technician and stylist. Her sophisticated presentations carry the reader along breathlessly, yet her style invites reading aloud." --enotes