chomiji | Lee, Tanith: Tamastara, or the Indian Nights (re-read) (Reply)

Tanith Lee is an old, old favorite of mine. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for her particular blend of purple prose, fantasy, horror, dark humor, and touches of kink. And I'm not generally a fan of short stories, but this small collection is one to which I return again every year or two. Are these stories fair and worthwhile in their portrayals of the people of India? I don't know: all I can say is that there are both good people and bad in here, and they're well distributed among the nationalities mentioned.

The stories range from the horrific mystery "Bright Burning Tiger" through the sweetly whimsical short fantasy "Chand Veda" to the futuristic title story, in which science and religion intersect. Here's a quick rundown of all seven, with comments.

First Night: Foreign Skins - A young boy, son of a brutally intelligent and domineering British civil servant, embarks on a mystical quest to aid his Indian governess, who is more than she seems. Beautiful and moving - I always re-read this one.

Second Night: Bright Burning Tiger - When a skilled tiger hunter is found very messily dead, an academic researcher decides to investigate. This one is not to my taste. I think Lee was trying a little to hard to carry out her conceit, which is based on Blake's famous poem.

Third Night: Chand Veda - A lovely little story of how spur-of the-moment generous wish turns what could have been a loveless arranged marriage between two lonely people into a thing of beauty. My favorite, as you can guess.

Fourth Night: Under the Hand of Chance - A three-part riff on reincarnation, and the possibilities facing a single soul. This one is a cerebral pleasure for me - I like seeing how the parts interweave.

Fifth Night: The Ivory Merchants - A knowledge of reincarnation and the differences between the European Christian and traditional Indian Hindu cultures become weapons in an occult scheme for vengeance. Not my thing, but the intricacy of the plot is intriguing.

Sixth Night: Oh Shining Star - For my money, this is the scariest story in the book, and I'm sometimes compelled to re-read it. A beautiful girl, carefully chosen and trained to become a movie superstar, pays a higher price than she ever imagined for her fame. A dark fable about Bollywood, written before that term gained common use.

Seventh Night: Tamastara - What happens when souls become damaged during their millenia-long cycles of birth and re-birth? A research institute of the soul enables a young musician of the far future, crippled by mental illness, to travel back to the near future and possibly heal the psychic wound that torments her. Interesting and affecting.

I know, I know - I promised a write-up of Saiyuki Reload 7. The book has gone missing in one of several Sargassos of reading material around the house, and I want to have it in hand while I blog ... :-(