THE SECRET BOOKS OF VENUS by Tanith Lee

[GRWelsh]

I've been reading this book series and I'm almost finished with the fourth and final book. I got the Science Fiction Book Club hardback edition (two volumes) about 20 years ago when I was a member and they would automatically send me something if I didn't select anything. Sometimes I'd send them back and other times I'd keep them. I kept these even though I didn't really get into them only reading the first book, FACES UNDER WATER, at the time. Recently, I started the series again since I remembered it was set in an alternative earth with a version of Venice named Venus plus alchemical and supernatural elements. Since I was going to visit Venice, I was reading everything I had related to Venice, so started this series again. The writing is very good, and I like the tangential-Venice geography and details, like Isola San Michele ("the isle of the dead") being San Fumo, and St Mark's Basilica being the Primo, and the Doge being the Ducem. But the series doesn't quite captivate my imagination I was I was hoping it would. I remember Tanith Lee from the early 1980's when I was an avid reader of ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE and I remember liking but not loving her stories which often had a dark fairy tale romance theme going on, even when they were science fiction. I read an excerpt of THE SILVER METAL LOVER about a spoiled rich girl in the future falling in love with a robot which felt very baroque and fairy tale like even though ostensibly science fiction. In THE SECRET BOOKS OF VENUS probably what is most interesting to me are the influences on Tanith Lee when she wrote these books... For examples the influences of the film CASANOVA (1976) by Fellini and its dancing doll scene on the stone face girl in FACES UNDER WATER, Joan of Arc on the second book in the series, SAINT FIRE, and ROMEO AND JULIET on the doomed lovers from feuding noble houses in A BED OF EARTH. There are classical influences as well, such as ancient Roman writers.

[GRWelsh]

I finished this series yesterday. The final book in the series, VENUS PRESERVED, is probably the strangest... It seemed to be influenced by William Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST -- with liberal quotes from that play sprinkled throughout -- Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN, and perhaps also Michael Crichton's JURASSIC PARK -- which in a way is retelling of FRANKENSTEN with the theme of "We could but never asked ourselves if we should." The other big influence was Christian apocalyptic literature. It's always odd to me when authors mix science fiction with the supernatural, but I think she did a good job tying the loose ends together at the end. I was hoping for more references to the actual Venice, but it seems this series is only loosely inspired by Venice and most of the time when I'm reading it I'm imagining a fictional world.