Day by Night

 

By Tanith Lee

On a planet where one side is in eternal darkness and the other in eternal day, two societies built on similar patterns are unaware of the other society's existence. In both, the struggling masses are ruled by a technological elite who call themselves princes and princesses. Life for the masses is brutal, harsh and deprived. Life for the elites is luxurious beyond belief.

Princess Vel and her brother Prince Velday are young elites, living in ease and excess on the lightside of the planet. But a friend of theirs, Prince Ceedres, is living in poverty due to the failure of his estate, getting by sponging off his friends. Ceedres wants to marry Vel and thus gain access to her wealth and her estates. Even though Vel actually does loves Ceedres, she also knows he doesn't love her, he wants her wealth. When she refuses to marry him, he frames her for attempted murder of himself, and as punishment, Vel's portion of the family estate is awarded to Ceedres and she is sent to live among the workers.

Meanwhile, on the darkside, is Princess Vitra and her brother Prince Vyen. Vitra is creating the story of Vel, Ceedres and Velday, who she believes are characters she has created. She doesn't know the lightsiders are real and not made from her imagination. Vitra, Vyen and Prince Casrus have a similar story to that of the lightside characters, with slight differences. Vitra and Vyen are the ones whose estate has failed and they have hatched a plot to seize Casrus' property by framing him for assaulting Vitra. The plot works and Casrus is exiled to hard labor with the rest of the working poor and Vitra and Vyen are awarded his estate for their own.

How is it that two separate sets of young elites on opposites sides of the world are living such similar lives? It's like some godlike force is playing with their lives, letting the evil ones prosper and sending the innocent to perdition. But why?

This was quite a good story. Especially once Vel and Casrus are cast out of their comfortable lives of wealth and privilege and forced to confront the reality of the struggle of the working people. The different ways they cope with their circumstances is very gripping. However, the ending is rather lame, I think: deus ex machina. 

Review by James Nicoll Reviews.

Kill the Dead

By Tanith Lee

When Parl Dro was a young teen boy, a girl he liked was killed and her ghost began haunting him. It drew strength from Parl Dro and tried to tempt him into joining it in death. This was the beginning of Parl Dro's start as an exorcist, one who puts the dead to permanent rest,
Parl Dro is not alone in this tale. He is joined by a talented musician who plays an extraordinary instrument. Myal Lemyal has not had a prosperous or happy life. As he explains to Parl Dro, he wants to write an epic song and thus make his fortune. He wants to base the song on Parl Dro's battle with the ghost town of Ghyste Mortua, a battle that rumor has it is Parl Dro's ultimate destination.
A third "person" will accompany the two men on their trip to Ghyste Mortua: the ghost of Ciddey Soban. Ciddey may be dead, but her need for revenge against Parl Dro burns. Parl Dro came to Ciddey's house and against her wishes laid to rest the ghost of her dead sister, a ghost that Ciddey had purposely freed from the grave. Upon discovering what Parl Dro had done, Ciddey promptly killed herself, crazed with grief upon losing her sister for the second time. Her ghost has attached itself to Myal Lemyal and is following him and Parl Dro on their fateful journey to face the killer ghosts of Ghyste Mortua.

This was not an interesting story. It was boring. Although I did find the twist at the end to be unexpected and surprising. It kind of redeemed the rest of the story.

Sabella or The Blood Stone

By Tanith Lee

Sabella lives alone in her dead mother's house on Novo Mars. Novo Mars bares a striking resemblance to Mars, being dry and bleak and barren and reddish in hue, but not as red as Mars.
Sabella chooses to be alone because it is safer for everyone if she does so. Sabella is a vampire of sorts. She drinks the blood of men she seduces, she is inhumanly strong and fast, she cannot bear the sunlight. But she is not undead, she does not sleep in a coffin, she has a reflection and garlic, holy water and crosses are no big deal.
Sabella was just a normal kid until the day she crawled into a cave. In the cave is where she found the blood stone that she wears constantly on a chain. When she is hungry, the stone is clear. When she has fed, it is ruby red.
She had no one to teach her how to be a vampire. She killed people at first but gradually learned how take just so much but not too much. Then she back slid and killed a young man who had a big brother. Big brother is at Sabella's door and he is big and he is strong and he is determined to find out what happened to his brother. Sabella may have finally met the only man she cannot seduce and bend to her will. And he may be her only salvation from the life of degradation she has fallen into.

This is about the third time I have read this story and it is still a gripping and thrilling read even after all this time. I first read it back when it originally came out in the 1980s. I don't consider the story to be fantasy, because Sabella's condition has a scientific explanation, not a supernatural one. I think that is one of the reasons I like the story so much, because it is logical.

Piratica

By Tanith Lee

 Artemis was at a school for young ladies when she took a tumble and hit her head and suddenly started to remember things about her past that she had forgotten. She remembered being a little girl, at her mother's side, as her mother led her crew of pirates in raids. Now obsessed with this memory, she escapes from the school and goes looking for her mother's gang of pirates.  She finds them, but they claim her mother was never a real pirate,  she was an actress, playing the role of pirate captain on stage.
But Artemis knows her memories are not those of someone just playing a part, she remembers in vivid detail the events at sea and the various ports her mother's ship visited. Somehow, she talks her mother's old gang into joining her in returning to the sea and following in her mother's footsteps and into piracy.

Somehow the author wants the reader to believe that piracy is an acceptable occupation if you don't kill anyone or take people's treasured mementos. This is just stupid. It is still thievery and Artemis is not a role model for teenage girls.  The whole book is kind of ridiculous, and not in a good way, although it seemed to me that the author intended Artemis to be a beacon of courage and good sportmanship, the fact is that Artemis is just a thief and a criminal.  And besides that, the book was just not that interesting.

Lycanthia or The Children of Wolves

By Tanith Lee

Christian is dying and he wishes to die alone. So he takes himself off to a mansion in France that he has inherited with the desire to shut out the world and then kill himself when he can no longer bear the pain.
It's an uncanny and strange place where this mansion is located and the locals seem fearful and suspicious of Christian. There are peculiar icons and odd crosses and the stained glass window in the church of the Virgin Mary doesn't seem quite right.
Christian then encounters a weird family, the de Lagenays, a man and a woman. They claim to be werewolves and turns out they are. Christian becomes quite involved with these two people, even to the extent of firing the staff at the mansion and letting the de Lagenays move in.
The villagers are not happy to see Christian and the de Lagenays getting so cozy. Christian's ancestors and the de Lagenays have an ancient history and the villagers are worried history is repeating itself. And they are going to stop it, even if they have to commit murder.

This was an OK story. Christian turns out to be selfish and the werewolves turn out to be very nonthreatening. It's hard to see what the villagers are so riled up about, these werewolves are not man-killers. They are only occasionally man-nippers. Anyway, Christian goes his selfish way and the whole thing ends rather sadly. Isn't it irritating when escapist literature tries to take itself too seriously?

New Words

Memento mori: Memento mori is a Latin phrase that may be translated as "Remember that you are mortal," "Remember you will die," "Remember that you must die," or "Remember your death". 'The memento mori of this was intolerably banal to him.'

Galvanic: electric, affected by emotion as if by electricity; thrilling. 'Unbound from its prim butcher's roll, her hair lay over her shoulder blades; coarse, dun peasant hair, but strong and galvanic.'

Auberge: hostel, a hotel providing overnight lodging for travelers. '"Some auberge will be open for business, no doubt."'