Great Jones - Shop now
$7.99 with 20 percent savings
Digital List Price: $9.99

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Sold by Amazon.com Services LLC.
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

Tanith Lee
Follow
Derek Jarman
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Book of the Damned (The Secret Books of Paradys 1) Kindle Edition

by Tanith Lee (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 38 ratings
The award-winning author of The Birthgrave invites you to Paradys, an alternate Paris, with three tales of dark magic, eroticism, and gothic fantasy.
 
Three novellas from Tanith Lee—World Fantasy Award winner, Nebula finalist, and the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award for best novel—cast shadows on the history of the City of Light.

Stained with Crimson: In the nineteenth century, poet Andre St Jean comes into possession of a ruby scarab ring, only to discover it belongs to the pale-skinned, ebony-eyed Antonina von Aaron, the most beautiful woman in Paradys. Preying upon Andre, she taps into his deepest, darkest desires, drawing him into her vampiric world of gender shapeshifting and bloody nightmares . . .
 
Malice in Saffron: In the Middle Ages, young Jehanine has had her innocence torn from her by her brutal stepfather. Fleeing to Paradys, she seeks sympathy from her stepbrother, Pierre, who accuses her of lying and casts her out into the inhospitable streets. Finding refuge in a nunnery, Jehanine tries to live in God’s grace. But when dusk falls, she transforms into her male alter ego, Jehan. Prowling the alleyways with a gang of Devil-worshippers, he stalks the city’s denizens, unknowingly sowing the seeds for the fall of Paradys . . .
 
Empire of Azure: In the early twentieth century, writer Anna Sanjeanne receives a cryptic note from a mysterious man: “In a week or less, I shall be dead.” On the predicted date, Anna follows the stranger’s trail. A chain of clues—a shattered window, a hanging corpse, a leather-bound diary, and a portrait of an unknown woman—soon lead the young journalist toward a sinister and ancient force . . .
 
Told with lush fantastical prose and an acute aesthetic sense, The Book of the Damned ventures into a morbid and disquieting parallel world, exploring the recesses of identity, gender, and sexual transgression that lie within.
 
Previous slide of product details
  1. Book 1 of 4
    The Secret Books of Paradys
  2. Print length
    406 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
  5. Publication date
    February 2, 2016
  6. File size
    4.1 MB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
Next slide of product details

Shop this series

 See full series
There are 4 books in this series.

Customers also bought or read

Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1
Previous page
  4. Lent: A Novel of Many Returns
    Kindle Edition
    $2.99
  5. The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales
    Kindle Edition
    $9.99
  6. The Silver Metal Lover
    Kindle Edition
    $7.99
  7. The Onion Girl (Newford)
    Kindle Edition
    $9.99
  9. Warriors (Lord John Grey)
    Kindle Edition
    $9.99
  13. Biting the Sun: A Novel
    Kindle Edition
    $6.99
  14. Glimmering
    Kindle Edition
    $6.99
  17. Velveteen vs. The Early Adventures
    Kindle Edition
    $6.99
  20. War for the Oaks: A Novel
    Kindle Edition
    $11.96
  22. Anno Dracula
    Kindle Edition
    $7.99
  24. The Worm in Every Heart: Stories
    Kindle Edition
    $7.99
  26. The Enterprise of Death
    Kindle Edition
    $8.99
Next page
Loading...

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA-- Three bizarre, spellbinding novellas comprise the first volume of this series. "Stained with Crimson" is an erotic, horror-filled vampire tale. In "Malice in Saffron," a young girl exacts vengeance against men as a result of being brutally raped, but then tells of her eventual redemption and horrible self-sacrifice. "Empires of Azure" is a grim tale of death and sorcery. The unifying element is the setting: the magical French city of Paradys during the medieval era. Lee's superb imagination and her creative use of language to convey mood has generated three fantastic tales, but they are definitely not for the faint-hearted.
- Pat Royal, Crossland High School, Camp Springs, MD
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

United by their setting in the ethereal, lost city of Paradys, three stories of classic horror open windows onto a world of shadowy and elusive creatures of the netherworlds. Lee's seductive prose and sensitivity to nuance restore the "atmosphere" to a genre too easily overwhelmed by gore. First published in Britain, this title belongs in most fantasy collections.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B019ESGO1W
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy (February 2, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 2, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4.1 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 406 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 38 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Previous page
  1. Tanith Lee

    Tanith Lee

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Tanith Lee (19 September 1947 – 24 May 2015) was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of over 90 novels and 300 short stories, a children's picture book (Animal Castle), and many poems. She also wrote two episodes of the BBC science fiction series Blake's 7. She was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award best novel award (also known as the August Derleth Award), for her book Death's Master (1980).

    Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Danie Ware (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Derek Jarman

    Derek Jarman

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

    See more on the author's page
Next page

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
38 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Top reviews from the United States

  • DSMom
    5.0 out of 5 stars book of the damned
    Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This, & the rest of the series, is gripping. You never know what will happen next. Pure Tanith Lee.
    2 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • mickey
    4.0 out of 5 stars "Malice in Saffron" excellent
    Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2002
    The Book of the Damned is perhaps the best of Tanith Lee's Books of Paradyse series, if only for the presence of the second novella, "Malice in Saffron". The first novella, "Stained with Crimson" begins with an interesting encounter, but becomes so mired in atmosphere and more atmosphere that the plot becomes indecipherable. Still, it evokes such a sense of hopelessness (in me at least!) that it's worth a read just to feel one's emotions tugged so. The third novella, "Empires of Azure", is less compelling. The characters feel caricatured despite Lee's typically stylish prose. It should be for "Malice in Saffron" that you buy this book. Jehanine, a peasant girl who's raped by her (step?)father, undergoes a personality split when she flees to Paradyse. Her nighttime persona of a carousing, murderous young man is a gripping portrayal of repressed rage finally unleashed. Late in the story, Lee introduces a plague to the city, and her subsequent descriptions rank with Camus, in my opinion, for depicting mass reaction to that particular fear of death (obviously, I like Lee very much). Finally, the twist of the "miracle" meal caps the story in a very satisfying manner. I think readers of various genres, fantasy, horror, even history, will get a kick out of this story.
    9 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Laurie3488
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book
    Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Wow!! Good Book
    Helpful
     Report
  • Mostly anonymous
    3.0 out of 5 stars Too much of a good(?) thing
    Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2001
    The first novella ("Stained with Crimson") rambled along deliriously until it had long overstayed its welcome. The second ("Malice in Saffron") was relentlessly, unapologetically violent. After slogging through those two, I dragged my feet at reading the third ("Empires of Azure"), but it was best, evoking the spine-tingling suspense of a Gothic horror tale.
    Throughout, there was too much emphasis on gender-bending in all its permutations. It would have been a nice touch, if it hadn't been so liberally applied. You had your men with women, men with men, women with women, men with women dressed as men, men with men dressed as women, men turning into women, women turning into men, people of the either/or variety turning into... well I guess they were pretty contented as-is. As for myself, I was more than ready to simply call everyone "a person" and never mind who they slept with, but that would have eliminated two thirds of the book.
    There you have it. It was fantasy, it was horror, and it was a blatant call for publicly-funded sex change surgery.
    20 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • MJM
    2.0 out of 5 stars I read a third of this book and gave up.
    Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    The writing is fine but the subject isn't of interest to me. It came up under science fiction but it isn't science it is fantasy.
    Helpful
     Report
  • imaginati@aol.com
    4.0 out of 5 stars Disorienting, haunting...be careful...!
    Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 1997
    "Gothic at her best" is an interesting description indeed. This book, made up of three (relatively) short novellas, is only for those who like sudden, unexplained and disorienting events that are chained together for no apparent reason. Like David Lynch? Like cross-dressing? Read this...!
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Lizz Joffe
    5.0 out of 5 stars Looking forward to read
    Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    still unread
    Helpful
     Report
  • Han Jie
    5.0 out of 5 stars Rich, evocative, and darkly enchanting...
    Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2016
    Tanith Lee is quietly one of the great writers of dark fantasy, and though now passed, still deserving of a wider audience. Walking her own path in a field filled with wannabes, she slowly but steadily built an oeuvre of stories grounded in rich prose, a sensitivity to the workings of the human soul (ill-intentioned, good-hearted, or otherwise), a deep understanding of the power of myth and faery, and a talent for synergizing it all in fascinating stories. 1988’s The Book of the Damned (reprinted by Open Road Media in 2016) is the first in a series of works examining the phantasmagorical depths of the decadent, haunted city Paradys. It remains one of not only Lee’s, but fantasy’s best works.

    Presented as stories from a strange city (the subtitle is The Secret Books of Paradys), The Book of the Damned is ostensibly three novellas: “Stained with Crimson,” “Malice in Saffron,” and “Empires of Azure.” Like Lee’s earlier Flat Earth books, however, the tales bleed and seep into one another to create a whole, of sorts. Distinct yet suffuse entities, the characters and stories at each’s core takes one step further toward building in the reader’s mind the city of Paradys.

    In “Stained with Crimson,” writer Andre St. Jean is walking the streets one night when a strange man hands him a ruby ring before dashing away. Another with hounds approaching soon thereafter, asking if he’d seen a man running this way, St. Jean’s tucks the ring into his pocket, and answers no. Life only getting more intersing in the days that follow, he soon finds himself head over heels in love with an aristocrat’s wife—his desires seeming to outstrip his conscience as she only emerges at night. Forcing a meeting with the woman one evening, however, changes his mind. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for St. Jean, it also changes many other things.

    In “Malice in Saffron,” a young woman has enough of the abuses of her peasant family and escapes to the alleys and shadows of the city of Paradys. Disguised as a boy, she learns its decaying wonder, of its gangs, and the thriving underworld. Joining a nunnery, she also learns that the abuses of her home have competition. Rogue by night and holy woman by day, eventually something has to give in her dual-identity.

    And lastly, “Empire of Azure.” A frame story, it tells of a journalist and their finding of a strange diary. The diary containing the account of one Louis de Jenier, a famous female impersonator, the journalist learns of his strange discovery of a sapphire earring, and the ghost which haunts his apartment. More than a simple haunting, de Jenier’s diary eventually twists itself into the journalist’s life, the ghost transcending the frame of just one person’s life.

    In The Book of the Damned, Lee’s exquisite prose guides the reader through stories sensual for the detail of setting as much as character and plot. Erotic without whips and leather, visceral without ostentation, and moving fluidly without skipping the particulars, the book is a gorgeous specimen of writing. But that the consequence and import of the characters’ stories are likewise not empty is where the book finds full value.

    In the end, The Book of the Damned is a darkly enchanting trilogy of stories linked by the grotesquely Gothic streets of Paradys and the manner in which gender, spun by the setting, comes back around to influence identity and agency. The twist in spelling twisting not only gender, the city itself becomes ugly opulence, something as much beautiful as sinister—the duels, surrealness, madness, and visions perfectly delimited phantasmagoria. Superb book.

    (The word ‘series’ mentioned at the outset, it should be noted that in no way does the ending of the book require purchase of the next. The quality of Lee’s writing may induce such action, however.)
    11 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • ムラサキ
    5.0 out of 5 stars 翻訳が良い
    Reviewed in Japan on April 23, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    読んで良かった
    Report

Report an issue


Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report