Faces Under Water (Secret Books of Venus, Book 1)

Rating:
Summary: A beautifully described sci-fi Venice
Review: I like Tanith Lee and I happen to think that she writes beautifully, but all that aside, this story didn't really hold my attention. I continued to read it only for the imagery it evoked and not because I really cared what happened to any of her characters.
The story begins with Furian Furiano (a disillusioned former aristocrate) wandering the canals during Carnaval looking for dead bodies to bring to a friend of his who is an alchemist and also possesses a magpie that he nourishes with scraps of human flesh from his experiments. (I know, what a great guy). Things begin to go awry as Furian discovers a mask in the water and brings it back to the Alchemist, Dr. Schaachen. He later links this to one of his father's friends who belongs to a mask making guild. This friend has a daughter with a rare disorder that prevents her from making any kind of expression. It draws vague parrelels to the Orpheus, Euridyche myth.
I did get bored while I was reading this book. Just because the story is sometimes vague doesn't mean that it is profound. Just because the characters are decadent and without morals doesn't make this story shocking. The book was well-written enough to keep me reading, but only as a travel guide to somewhere that doesn't exist.
I found myself missing some of Tanith Lee's earlier books like the Silver Metal Lover, and Biting the Sun. Her characters are so much more human. I recommend those if you want to see the kind of writing that she is capable of, and she is capable of some wonderful writing.
I probably will read the rest of the books in this series though.

Rating:
Summary: The Secret Books of Venus: Book I
Review: Set in a fantasy version of the 18th-century Venice Carnival (a setting I really liked), "Faces Under Water" follows Furian Furiano (very original name ;) as he comes across a mask floating in a canal. This discovery leads him into the company of dark alchemists, the Guild of Mask Makers--and ultimately into the arms of Eurydiche, a woman whose mask is her actual face--a well-woven twist to the authentic Carnival atmosphere.

Although it's been a long time since I've read this book (I had to browse through it again to remember most of the story in order to write this review), I do recall "Faces" was rather slow-paced, particularly in the beginning half, and not as exciting or intriguing as Lee's Paradys series, which this series appears to imitate. Based on this book alone, I doubt I'll like her new Venus series. There are three additional books to it--"Saint Fire," "A Bed of Earth," and "Venus Preserved"--but I'll probably stick with her Paradys series instead, one I'd recommend over this series.

Rating:
Summary: Dense
Review: Tanith Lee's writing seems to come in two categories, though not exclusively. Her Flat Earth series, and her fairy tale stories, are written in an arch style which suits them.

And then there are books like this one, and the comparable Paradys series, which speed past arch and enter baroque. I found the writing so distracting that I had difficulty following the plot.

Some readers might enjoy this style, but I don't. The book is short, which is nice, but it's still too long to sustain the style. On a positive note, the period setting and the mix of murder and alchemy are intriguing. If only I know where it was going and what it meant when it got there.

Rating:
Summary: Great Storytelling
Review: This is an enjoyable, unique fantasy that reveals a touching, unconventional love story. I liked the fact that both the heroine and (anti)hero of the story are misfits and both hold deep disappointment and disillusionment at their core; at the end of the story you really want for them to be happy because they've been so emotionally deprived. Their interations are both touching and erotic. I won't write more in order not to give the plot away, but I really would recommend reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Dark, colorful, and breathtaking...
Review: When Furian Furiano, a moody and temperamental young man with a painful past, comes across an exquisite mask of Apollo in his daily polings through the canals of Venus, the Venice of a shadowy alternate world, he has no idea what this chance find will bring him: a desperate love, initiation into an ancient and reclusive craft, and a closer encounter with death than he ever wished. In the hidden places of Venus, something is stirring and waking, something kept skillfully hidden until Furian's clumsy searches bring it to light...and not Furian, not his beautiful lover Eurydiche, perhaps not even Venus herself will be safe if its power is not stopped.

Like Lee's novels of Paradys, which seems to belong to the same world as Venus, "Faces Under Water" deals with a wide range of emotions and environments, from the darkness and the decadence to the unexpected joys and pains-all of which Furian's troubled life encompasses. Central to his thoughts and the story is the idea of the mask: what lies behind it? Can one even know what is really there? Furian's lover Eurydiche is perhaps a personification of this question; born with a rare disorder that keeps her mute and her face as still as stone, she cannot affirm her love to Furian in any way that he can concretely accept. In the same way that Furian can never be sure what Eurydiche is thinking behind her beautiful mask, he cannot fathom the plot that is forming around him until it reveals itself to him at last. The Mask Makers' Guild...a mysterious tribe known as the Orichalci that dwell in the southern Amarias (seventeeth-century Venus' name for the Americas)...questions of life and death...unlikely pieces joining together, they form an impenetrable screen around Furian, weaving darkness until he cannot find his way out alone. Yet dark as Venus' world may be, it is not entirely without its lights. Humor and odd bits of truth are provided by Furian's friend/mentor/irritant Dianus Shaachen, an aging doctor who dabbles in alchemy and other mystical arts, dotes on his pet magpie, loves to be cryptic, and may actually know something of use to Furian. Furian's own interactions with his fellow characters show him to be more than a figure moved about a stage-by turns wry, sarcastic, and vulnerable, afraid to admit love, unable to deny it, he is achingly, familiarly human. And Eurydiche and Furian's love, whatever its nature, may the one thing that can heal both these wounded people. Such things are necessary-for how can you know what you have gone through if there is nowhere to pause and look back...and how can darkness have meaning without the light?