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Tanith Lee
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A Bed of Earth: The Secret Books of Venus Kindle Edition

by Tanith Lee (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
In this “deliciously creepy” novel by the Bram Stoker Award winner, two feuding families face supernatural vengeance in a parallel 16th-century Venice (Publishers Weekly).
 
In the City of Venus, two noble families—the della Scorpias and the Barbarons—have been locked in a bitter dispute over burial grounds on the overcrowded Isle of the Dead. But it is fourteen-year-old Meralda della Scorpia who pays the ultimate price for their rivalry.
 
As years pass, parties complicit in her disappearance begin to suffer the consequences. Their shocking deaths can only mean one thing: A supernatural force has been unearthed from the city’s rotting understructure. As these bizarre events throw the city into a panic, a humble apprentice gravedigger is left to sort out the mysteries and subdue the ancient terror that threatens to destroy the entire republic.
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  1. Book 3 of 4
    The Secret Books of Venus
  2. Print length
    322 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    The Overlook Press
  5. Publication date
    October 28, 2003
  6. File size
    3.8 MB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This deliciously creepy third installment in Lee's Secret Books of Venus series (following Faces Under Water and Saint Fire) deals with death and the question of whether humans have souls. Written from the perspective of Bartolome da Loura di An'Santa, a Settera Master of the Guild of Gravemakers, the story centers on a longstanding feud regarding disputed burial grounds of two powerful families. Like the Italian city-state of Venice on which it's patterned, Venus includes islands, canals, lagoons and little land for Christian burial. Any plot of ground set aside for graves is highly sought after, so when two of the most powerful families in Venus squabble over a patch of earth, the outcome is a vendetta that goes on for generations. At some point, far away from the origins of the feud, a girl from the della Scorpia family, who is betrothed to an evil old shell of a man, takes a fancy to a no-name painter's assistant, loses her virginity and tries to run off with her lover. Unfortunately, when word reaches a member of the other side of the vendetta, the girl and her lover meet a gruesome end. From this awful event comes the winding tale that entangles humans, spirits, death, life and the earth itself. The City of Venus casts a gloomy, ghostly shadow over the plot, and several wickedly ingenious deaths (including death by flamingo) serve to underline Lee's well-earned reputation as a master of dark fantasy. FYI: The author has won many World Fantasy Awards as well as the August Derleth Award.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

An intense rivalry between the noble houses of Barbarons and della Scorpia over a prime piece of burial ground escalates into treachery as a daughter of the della Scorpia family falls prey to a vicious plot. Mysterious events dog both houses until a self-effacing gravedigger manages to uncover the dark secret behind the feud and discovers some remarkable truths about his own past. Lee's mystical alternate history of a 16th-century city much like Venice continues with a powerfully told tale of youthful passion and ghostly revenge. Libraries owning the previous two books in the series (Faces Under Water; Saint Fire) should add this elegantly written sequel to their fantasy collection.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07QWMPPW8
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Overlook Press; 1st edition (October 28, 2003)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 28, 2003
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.8 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 322 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

About the author

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Tanith Lee

Tanith Lee

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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.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
13 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Kat
    4.0 out of 5 stars a rivalry between families
    Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    I liked it at first as two families fight over a cemetery and the beginning
    of their feud. A great threat comes to Venus and a gravedigger from a
    guild must face it. It was ok and I didn't feel the romance. Worth a read.
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  • Craig Laurance Gidney
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Fever-Dream Venice
    Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2002
    Verified Purchase
    The art of alchemy is in the transformation. The third book in Lee's alchemically-based series set in a magical Venice follows this theme closer than the other novels in the series. It starts out as dark as imaginable. Feuding families, dark secrets, supernatural vendettas. But the novel changes, from a black-hearted to tragedy to a twilight-hued romance. The novel follows the fates of people involved in a particularly cruel prank-and all manner of comeuppance-not excluding forgiveness-is played out. It's a mélange of gothic horror, morality fable, and historical romance as only Lee can tell it. Her usual strengths are on display-fever dream imagery ("The eels leapt through the lagoon, like silver whips, fracturing the mirror-moon..."), erotica, devilish twists of fate and the odd historical anecdote. It is a bit more phantasmal than usual, but that's hardly a sin.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • booksforabuck
    4.0 out of 5 stars Almost poetic view of fantasy Venice
    Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2002
    In a version of renassaince Venice not too far different from that in our own history, doomed love works its magic. Two families have feuded for centuries over a stretch of land in a graveyard. Generations later, the feud continues, working its destructive force on the children of the noble families. Meralda, a dela Scorpio, falls for a handsome painter but is betrayed by her servant and by the heir to the Barbarons. Beatrixa, daughter of the Barbaron, falls for a ghost spirit who claims to be a dela Scorpio. And Bartolome, the gravedigger, finds his true love too late.
    Author Tanith Lee creates a fascinating world where magic treads just lightly enough to make history into something colorful and wonderful. Her richly drawn characters, especially Silvio and Beatrixa, with their doomed love, cannot help create reader sympathy and fascination. Lee's descriptions of her mythical Venice (Venus) ring true both for the Venice of our own history and for that of myth.
    Readers looking for action and adventure will not find much of that here. Instead, A BED OF EARTH is a strange and doomed romance, a poem of people and souls, and a bit of philosophy.
    6 people found this helpful
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