Delusion’s Master

Tales from the Flat Earth, Book Three

By: Tanith Lee

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

Delusion's Master is the third 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 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 the middle. Chuz, Prince Madness, third of the Lords of Darkness - beauty on one side, foul corruption on the other - "takes pity" on the world. In his gentle soft embrace mortal minds repose in a tide of illusion and twisted desire. Yet no one is immune from the sweetest madness of all, and even immortals fall at the cast of the bone dice....

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.

©1981 Tanith Lee (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Perfect book cannot stand the narrator

The narrator’s breathy voice with the annoying uplift at the end is so hard to listen to that it’s only my love for her writing that keeps me listening. Just awful.

Tanith Lee's Tales from the Flat Earth

Susan Duerdan's rhythmic and sonorous narration is a bit of an acquired taste that I've come to believe is perfectly attuned to the Eshvaesqe mystical and dreamlike myths of Tanith Lee's Tales from the Flat Earth. Tanith Lee's writing is evocative, brilliant, and unique. And these five are my favorite books from adolescence onward.

Peerlessly gorgeous

In Delusion???s Master, the third of Tanith Lee???s FLAT EARTH novels, we???re introduced to another Prince of Darkness: Chuz, the Prince of Madness, who is handsome when seen from one side and hideous when seen from the other. Chuz watches humans and uses the opportunities they give him to practice his craft: There were several doors by which Madness might enter any house; one was rage, one jealousy, one fear.

We first meet Chuz when a jealous queen tries to get rid of the baby she believes has caused the king to stop loving her. When she accidentally kills the child and her husband puts her aside, Chuz shows up to comfort her by helping her descend into madness. When he offers to grant her a wish, she asks that Chuz make her husband, the king, as mad as she is. That???s why the king decides to build a tower to heaven where he will wage war on the gods. Everyone knows that pride comes before the fall so, sure enough, disaster strikes the land. This sets off a string of strange events that have the demons, once again, meddling in the affairs of men.

The beautiful demon Azhrarn, from the first two FLAT EARTH books, continues to be a main character. When he becomes involved in Chuz???s doings on earth, we see Azhrarn get his feelings hurt, seek revenge, fall in love, and have a child. The demons are not like the uncaring gods above ??? they are passionate creatures. Occasionally they can be tender and compassionate with favored mortals, but their fickle emotions can suddenly turn to vanity, petty jealousy, and hate. And then the humans suffer.

Delusion???s Master is quite a bit shorter than Night???s Master and Death???s Master and Chuz, the title character, isn???t nearly as interesting as Azhrarn, but fortunately we get plenty of Azhrarn here. All of the FLAT EARTH tales have been dark, but Delusion???s Master actually gets uncomfortable because it includes baby killing, rape, and the torture of a mentally disabled girl. The imagery is vivid and I admit that I squirmed. Still, Tanith Lee continues to enchant us with the exotic setting and peerlessly gorgeous writing.

There are several biblical allusions in this installment: the Tower of Babel, the Flood, redemption of humanity through death, and man???s natural hatred of snakes. The most beautiful moment in the book is when Azhrarn goes up to the Earth to find out why men hate snakes and then, as a favor to snakes, sets out to make them more palatable to humans.

I???m still enjoying this series on audio. Susan Duerden???s narration gets even better with each book. Each also has an interesting introduction by Tanith Lee. In this one she talks about how her mother influenced her writing.

One of the best I’ve ever read

I was simply immersed in every moment of each tale to the end. I highly recommend this book series

Not her best, with a narrator who overdoes it

I read these as a teenager, and I am now decidedly Too Old For This