Faces Under Water by Tanith Lee

After eight years, two continents, five countries, and countless states, I have finally read this book.  And it was good--actually, really great!

Furian is a mysterious figure on the Isle of Venus, an alternate world obviously modeled after 18th-century Venice.  Although Furian is an educated gentleman, he lives in the gutters of Venus and makes money through odd jobs such as collecting bodies from the canals for the mad scientist, Doctor Shaachen, to experiment on.  One night during Carnival, he spies an elegant and expensive mask floating in the canal.  Not having found any bodies that night, he takes the mask to Shaachen and unknowingly sets himself on the path of searching for a group of killers in Venus who use magic to ensnare their victims.

This is not the type of book where things are laid out clearly at all.  At first you have no idea what's going on.  Then Lee lays a trail of breadcrumbs, promising that eventually you'll find out.  Things are never what they seem in this world or in the words used to describe it, which are lyrical and beautiful and obfuscating, most especially when describing the basest actions.  There is also tons of symbolism in the novel, which I'm not even going to attempt to unravel at this point.  But color, statues, and masks obviously have some sort of iconic meaning.

This is the first book in a series that is themed after the elements--fire, water, earth, and air.  As you can probably guess by the title, this one is dedicated to water--and there is a lot of water, as well as the color blue and green, in the world of Furian.  However, I think blue represents much more than just water--it's indicative of magic, divinity, love.  Green hides vast secrets.  Still waters definitely run deep in this novel, as the reader discovers.

The more I think about this book, the more it reminds me of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell--not because the plots are similar at all, but because they both death with themes of magic, lust for power, hidden worlds and dangers, and love.  However, I think Faces Under Water is by far the better book--not just because it's about 600 pages shorter, but because the writing style is much more lyrical and beautiful, the story is told in a more interesting way, and it makes a bigger impact on the reader.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating that Tanith Lee is one of the most underrated authors out there.  I honestly think she is one of the greatest fantasy writers of our generation, and this book only confirmed my opinion.  The first fifty pages of Faces Under Water are hard going simply because everything feels so impenetrable, and I didn't think the reveal at the end of the book came together as smoothly as it could have; but overall this is a great, enthralling, and very quick read.  I know the cover is terrible, but I would recommend Lee's novels to anyone who enjoys fantasy.


Venice Challenge: 2/6 books read

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The Silver Metal Lover

My favorite Reads is a weekly meme hosted by Amy from At Home with Books.  You simply feature a favorite book that you read before you started blogging!  In honor of Kill the Dead, which I read this week (see the review here), I decided to feature one of my favorite Tanith Lee books, The Silver Metal Lover (this one's actually still in print).

Here's the cover from Amazon:



But one of my friends went to a book sale once and ran across the original hardcover, which she bought for me.  This is what my copy looks like:



Isn't it so, so '70s?  I love it.

Anyway, back to the point--The Silver Metal Lover is loosely based on the fable of Demeter and Persephone, and is about a lonely young woman named Jane who doesn't have a lot of confidence and lives at home with her controlling mother.  One day she's wandering around her city (set in the distant future), and she sees a presentation for nextgen robots.  They have acrobats, dancers, concubines, and musicians for people's entertainment.  Jane is immediately attracted to a robot named Silver (which is an acronym for Silver Ionized something-or-other), who is a minstrel.  Since Jane's family is extremely wealthy, she's able to purchase him then and there.

Silver is programmed to act like a human, and lonely Jane quickly falls in love with him, much to her mother's horror (human-robot love ist verboten).  It's part of Silver's programming to reflect Jane's emotions, so it's merely programming when Silver seems to fall in love with Jane, too--or is it???  Is Silver just a machine, or does he have a soul, too?

I should warn you ahead of time that this tale does not have a happy ending.  I don't really remember if I cried at the end or not, but since this is me we're talking about, I probably did.  However, I think it had a very satisfying ending, in that the story had a powerful conclusion and Jane is a better person for the time she's spent with Silver.

The Silver Metal Lover is a love story, but it's also a coming-of-age story for Jane (who is only 16--did I mention that?), and a fable about what makes us human.  It's widely considered one of Lee's best novels, and I definitely recommend it.

The Silver Metal Lover also has a sequel (which I haven't read yet), called Metallic Love.

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Take a Chance Challenge: Kill the Dead

Kill the Dead by Tanith Lee

I read this book to satisfy the third part of Jenner's Take a Chance Challenge at Find Your Next Book Here:

Birth Year Book
Find a book that was published or copyrighted in the year of your birth. Read the book and write about it.

I was born in coughnineteeneightycough. I spent some time looking at the bestseller lists for that year, and almost decided to read a Sidney Sheldon novel, but I just couldn't do it. Then I was doing a search for Tanith Lee on Amazon.com for one reason or another, and I ran across Kill the Dead. Intriguing title, and it was written in 1980! Yay! I immediately decided to order it (from the library, since it is out of print) and read it for the challenge.

Tanith Lee is one my favorite authors. I admit that my reading of her books seriously stalled with Faces Under Water, but overall I consider her an absolutely brilliant writer who tells great stories and is always ambitious in her writing. I honestly don't know why she isn't as famous as Ursula K. le Guin or Charles de Lint (could it be the wtf covers?), but she deserves to be.

Kill the Dead takes place in some alternative land whose name is unknown. The back of the book makes it sound like it's a battle of wits between Parl Dro, a professional exorcist, and two witch sisters, one (or both?) of whom are ghosts; but that is not the case at all. The majority of the book is about Dro and a minstrel named Myal Lemyal, and their quest for Ghast Mortua, an infamous city of ghosts from which no Ghost Hunter has ever returned.

The ghosts, called deadalive, of this world are not like Caspar the Friendly Ghost; they are demons who feed off the living and can--and do--kill them, as well. They are extremely dangerous to hunt and kill; but Dro is a legendary exorcist and has never met a ghost who could kill him. Literally, most people don't even believe he exists. As he passes through a town on his way to Ghast, he encounters and minstrel of brilliant talents, both psychic and musical, and they form a quick bond despite Dro's reluctance.

This is a great book. I loved the characters, I loved learning about Parl Dro's past, and there wasn't a single dull moment in the book (at 170 pages, there better not be). These type of journey books can be a bit repetitive, but this one keep me interested through the whole thing and only got more interesting as the book continued. Also, there's a twist at the end--actually, two twists--that I didn't see coming at all. It was the kind of twist that makes you immediately want to flip to the beginning of the book and re-read it to see how it all plays out now that you know it (if I hadn't had to return the book to the library, I really would have done that).

Overall this was a satisfying, great read that I really enjoyed. I'm happy I got to read this book, since it has inspired me to start reading Tanith Lee again. I highly recommend it to those who love fantasy.

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The Sunday Salon

I didn't get much reading done this week, what with job interviews and trying to throw together a presentation about Counter-Reformation art in a day.  I did finally finish Bound by Your Touch by Meredith Duran on Monday night.  It was a very good book that I would definitely recommend to anyone who likes historical romances (review forthcoming).  Then I started Kill the Dead by Tanith Lee.  I'm reading this book for the Take a Chance Challenge and it was due at the library about two days ago. =/  The guy who is in charge of Interlibrary Loans is going to kill me.  Did I mention he used to be my Earth Sciences teacher in high school?  Oh, yeah, and he also is a member at the bank my mom works at, and the last time I was late returning a book, he told my mom about it! o.O On the plus side, though, I always get the books order.

I don't know why, but it's been really difficult for me to focus on reading these past two weeks (hence the loooooong time it took to read Bound By Your Touch, even though it was a good book).  Maybe the heat is just getting to me and I can't concentrate.  Nevertheless, I still acquired my usual pile o' books the past two weeks.  I even bought some books (the first time I've bought a book since March--very exciting!).

Here's what I bought:

• Don't Tempt Me by Loretta Chase
• My Wicked Marquess by Gaelen Foley
• Bending the Rules by Susan Andersen
• What Happens in London by Julia Quinn
• Bound by Your Touch by Meredith Duran

Here are the books I got at the library:

• The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson (heard about it at I'm Lost in Books)
  
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (recommended by just about everybody)

I also read "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier for Summer of Hitchcock (review of both story and movie forthcoming).  And I won a contest at One Literature Nut.  Yay, me! ^_^

So hopefully this next week will see me out of the summer doldrums and I'll be able to get some serious reading done.  And hopefully I'll finished Kill the Dead soon, because I'm determined to do so before I return it.  Even if I risk the wrath of the librarians. :P

What did you read this week?

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Not Thursday Not Tea

Hey!  It's not Thursday again, so that must mean it's time for me to post a Thursday meme!  What can I say, it's been a busy week.

Thursday Tea is hosted by Anastia over at Birdbrain(ed) Books.  To play along, all you need is some tea, a book, and the will to answer some very simple questions: what tea are you drinking (and do you like it)? What book are you reading (and do you like it)? Tell us a little about your tea and your book, and whether or not the two go together.



The Tea

Um, I'm not drinking tea.  (Not tea and not Thursday--why do I even bother?)  I'm drinking Scarlet of Paris 2005 Pinot Noir.  It's okay.  Very fruity but not too acidic.  Plus it was pretty cheap for a French wine, so that's always appreciated.



The Book

I'm reading Kill the Dead by Tanith Lee.  It's about a guy who gets rid of either ghosts or zombies, I haven't figured out which yet.  It's due tomorrow. *gulp*

Do they go together?

Not really.  Kill the Dead takes place in an alternate universe and I'm not sure they have wine.  But if drinking wine and reading books is wrong, I don't want to be right!

On the other hand, since I got the book from a library, that means both of these things were inexpensive.  Which is a total win and proves there is such a think as cheap fun. :)

What are you drinking and reading this Thursday?

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The Humans are Dead

From harmony0stars:

What does it mean to be "human"? Is it possible for a machine to be "human"?
Coleslaw_From_Hell

This question reminds me of one of my favorite books, The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee. It takes place in "the future" and is about a shy girl from a rich family who gets a pleasure-bot. And no, it doesn't provide that kind of pleasure... necessarily. Get your mind out of the gutter!

So, where were we? Oh yeah--well, you see, in this future, there are a few very expensive, humanesque robots who are programmed to specialize in certain entertainment features--dancing, playing music, etc. Silver, the 'bot Jane gets, specializes in music. The robots are not supposed to have souls or feelings, but they are programmed to respond to and learn from their human overlords owners. In the end, this turns out to be inherently contradictory, and let's just say Silver gets re-programmed.

The question of whether or not machines can be human always seems to come down to two things: do they have feelings, and do they have souls. As if humans are the only animals on earth that have feelings or souls?! As harmony0stars pointed out in her post on this same subject, humans tend to overrate themselves, even among our own species. It wasn't that long ago that Thomas Jefferson was pondering whether or not American Indians had souls (he was certain that African, re: black, people didn't). Nowadays, I think most people would agree that all humans have souls, along with animals and even plants--or at the very least that they all have an animating consciousness.

The next question then becomes, can humans create something with a soul? The answer of course is yes: we create little babies all the time. And unless babies don't have souls, I think that counts. Of course machines are another matter entirely, but I think this is the sticking point because the idea that scientists could create something as or more intelligent than we--humans--are is terrifying. Like a super-charged Hitler or Ted Bundy. But this fear has nothing to do with the actual machines; it has to do with their creators and whether or not they have any morals. A creation run amok, just like Frankenstein's monster, is a reflection of its creator (actually, Frankenstein isn't the only tale with this theme--the myth of Pygmalion goes all the way back to the Ancient Greeks and deals with similar issues, except in that case the "creature" is a statue brought to life). Writers like Tanith Lee who create cautionary tales of humanoid robots and artificial intelligence aren't cautioning us against robots; they're asking if the people parenting this next step on the evolutionary ladder are responsible enough to be good parents. And I think we all know the answer is typically NO.

And in honor of this question, I think it's time for a music video:

The Humans Are Dead by Flight of the Conchords

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