I totally forgot to write about last month’s Sword & Laser assignment Night’s Master by Tanith Lee. I went into this without any real expectation as I didn’t know the author nor that series (“Tales from the Flat Earth”) and fantasy is usually not my thing. That being said, this book surprised me by being a collection of myths. Not about someone from the Greek or North mythology but instead everything takes place on a different Earth divided into three planes (heaven, earth, underworld). This particular book is centered around the dark prince of the underworld Azhrarn.
I normally enjoy classical myths quite a lot and was impressed by how vivid the author mentioned to imagine the world around Azhrarn. What stood out to me was that the prince wasn’t really evil per-se but just extremely self-centered. Whatever brings him entertainment is good. If it benefits other people that’s OK. That behavior coming from someone who rules an “underworld” full of daemons was something new.
What I also really liked was the depiction of the gods as beings that simply didn’t care about anything. Greek mythology has some hints in that direction but Tanith Lee pushed that mindset to the maximum with the gods not even caring what happened around the ruler of the underworld.
To summarize, I quite enjoyed this book but I’m pretty sure I won’t find the time to read other entries in that series. If you enjoy fantasy, though, and haven’t read “Night’s Master” yet, give it a try 🙂
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