Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
DAW Books (New York, 1975). 1st edition, 1st printing. 408 pages. $1.50.
Description
A mysterious woman awakens in the heart of a dormant volcano. She comes forth into a brutal ancient world transformed by genocidal pestilence, fierce beauty, and cultural devastation. She has no memory of herself, and she could be anyone--mortal woman, demoness lover, last living heir to a long-gone race, or a goddess of destruction. Compelled by the terrifying Karrakaz to search for the mysterious Jade that is the answer to her secret self, she embarks on a journey of timeless wonder. Rediscover this realm of brilliant cruel beauty and seductive immortal ruins, of savage war and grand conquest, of falling stars and silver gods. This 40th anniversary edition of legendary fantastist Tanith Lee's debut novel includes its original introduction by Marion Zimmer Bradley.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Petroglyph
A decadent fantasy tale of personal trials within a grand setting.
The nameless main character, who emerges from a dreamless sleep fully grown but without memories, makes her dissociated way through a largely barbaric world dotted with the relics of a once-great civilization. She moves from culture
For large parts of the book the process of self-discovery blends into the background, largely forgotten as the main character gets caught up in the events that happen around her, making other people's motivations temporarily her own. She is a passive character throughout, allowing herself to be carried along by the wills of others, usually a domineering male. This is the background against which the few active choices that she does make stand out and form recurring patterns. As a result, much of the book is contemplative in nature, with the main character trying to make sense of the world around her and her position in it -- or perhaps outside it. Fortunately, Lee inserts well-timed bursts of action that alternate pleasantly with the more quiet chapters. Through it all, the main character becomes increasingly aware of how utterly detached she is from the vividly drawn cultures around her: she is believable as a character who is not quite human, but who slowly is learning to fend for herself.
What I like best about this book is how well this meandering purposeless-yet-goal-oriented storyline blends with Lee's writing style. Both mingle the lush and the decadent with the sparse, reinforcing and echoing each other, and that makes for a wonderfully evocative reading experience. I particularly enjoy the atmosphere of living in the shadow of inimitable sophistication that permeates the sections set in the few remaining pockets of reflected civilization.
The thing I dislike most is how rushed the ending feels, in that the pacing suddenly shifts a couple of gears: in the span of ten pages a convenient explanation is provided for all the hints and the patterns that the book has slowly been building up to. This is at least partially intentional: the main character has reached a point where she can't progress without an external catalyst; but I can't help but feel that the transformation is unpleasantly jarring -- especially because Lee essentially has to shift genre to accomplish it.
The nameless main character, who emerges from a dreamless sleep fully grown but without memories, makes her dissociated way through a largely barbaric world dotted with the relics of a once-great civilization. She moves from culture
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to culture, adopts various roles and professions, and plays at interacting with people she really has little interest in. Over the course of her travels patterns begin to emerge and take shape, and she slowly discovers who she is, and what the extent is of her superhuman powers. For large parts of the book the process of self-discovery blends into the background, largely forgotten as the main character gets caught up in the events that happen around her, making other people's motivations temporarily her own. She is a passive character throughout, allowing herself to be carried along by the wills of others, usually a domineering male. This is the background against which the few active choices that she does make stand out and form recurring patterns. As a result, much of the book is contemplative in nature, with the main character trying to make sense of the world around her and her position in it -- or perhaps outside it. Fortunately, Lee inserts well-timed bursts of action that alternate pleasantly with the more quiet chapters. Through it all, the main character becomes increasingly aware of how utterly detached she is from the vividly drawn cultures around her: she is believable as a character who is not quite human, but who slowly is learning to fend for herself.
What I like best about this book is how well this meandering purposeless-yet-goal-oriented storyline blends with Lee's writing style. Both mingle the lush and the decadent with the sparse, reinforcing and echoing each other, and that makes for a wonderfully evocative reading experience. I particularly enjoy the atmosphere of living in the shadow of inimitable sophistication that permeates the sections set in the few remaining pockets of reflected civilization.
The thing I dislike most is how rushed the ending feels, in that the pacing suddenly shifts a couple of gears: in the span of ten pages a convenient explanation is provided for all the hints and the patterns that the book has slowly been building up to. This is at least partially intentional: the main character has reached a point where she can't progress without an external catalyst; but I can't help but feel that the transformation is unpleasantly jarring -- especially because Lee essentially has to shift genre to accomplish it.
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LibraryThing member SELindberg
The Birthgrave by Tanith Lee
S.E. Lindberg rating: 4 of 5 stars
Haunting Release: The Birthgrave is a coming of age novel of (and by) a female goddess. Tanith Lee’s debut novel is adult oriented, dark fantasy. This one is epic, dosed with poetic horror and battle, and features lots of risky writing
The female narrator quests to free her body/soul from a curse; although suffering from amnesia as she awakens from an active volcano, she learns that she is a goddess among humans… and she knows her ancestors are all mysteriously gone. She is alone, powerful, and yet ignorant and weak. There is plenty of rough sexual encounters, not gratuitous but written more dispassionately than romantically – and seems to toy with the stereotypes of the genre. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s introduction is short yet insightful and touches on this interplay:
Most women in science fiction write from a man’s viewpoint. In most human societies, adventures have been structured for men. Women who wish to write of adventure have had to accept, willy-nilly, this limitation. There seems an unspoken assumption in science fiction that science fiction is usually read by men, or, if it is read by women, it is read by those women who are bored with feminine concerns and wish to escape into the world of fantasy where they can change their internal viewpoint and gender and share the adventurous world of men…
…Here is a woman writer whose protagonist is a woman—yet from the very first she takes her destiny in her own hands, neither slave nor chattel. Her adventures are her own. She is not dragged into them by the men in her life, nor served up to the victor as a sexual reward after the battle. For the first time since C. L. Moore’s warrior-woman, Jirel of Joiry, we see the woman-adventurer in her own right. But this book is not an enormous allegory of women’s liberation, nor an elaborate piece of special pleading. It’s just a big delightful feast of excitement and adventure—Introduction by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Expect Ambitious, Risky Writing that Works Most of the Time: This is a first-person-perspective for 450pages! The content is full of adult psychology and complex mystery, written by a 22yr old! And it is her debut novel! How is that for pioneering? Most of the time, the risk taking pays off. The perspective works as it should, and it was easy to forget (even 400 pages in) that I still did not know “her” proper name---but by then I knew “her” so well a name was not needed. She unfolds a mystery with perfect pacing with periodic ghostly encounters and déjà vu moments. There is plenty of commentary about gender roles across barbaric and civilized cultures, though it steered away from being political commentary thankfully. Tanith Lee’s gift for poetic language is stunning. The book is saturated with efficient characterizations, like the two below:
If I broke into a run to escape them, would they too run to keep up? My eyes grew strange, and everywhere I looked, I seemed to see the glitter of the Knife of Easy Dying. Die, and let them follow me to death if they would. But I was still too new to life to let it go.
…Darak had called them to some council then, on the low hill beyond the houses. Yes, that would be it. A little king on a little throne, lording it because his subjects were smaller than even his smallness.
Avoiding spoilers, I must still note that there is a sudden encounter very late in the novel that seems to shift the genre out of its dark-fantasy-epic mold. Given the 1975 wording and delivery, it would be easy to over emphasis this section. Diehard genre readers feeling sucker-punched may have to sigh or trust my review that ultimately the milieu is consistent. In short order, the story rights its trajectory in a consistent manner.
I really enjoyed reading this experiential novel and am saddened to learn of Tanith Lee’s death. Thankfully, she was a prolific writer and wrote a large library of weird, dark fantasy… which I look forward to delving into. The Birthgrave begins a trilogy; the sequel is Vazkor, Son of Vazkor, and the finale is Quest for the White Witch. The releases come with new covers from artist Bastien Lecouffe Deharme.
S.E. Lindberg rating: 4 of 5 stars
Haunting Release: The Birthgrave is a coming of age novel of (and by) a female goddess. Tanith Lee’s debut novel is adult oriented, dark fantasy. This one is epic, dosed with poetic horror and battle, and features lots of risky writing
Show More
(entertaining). The 2015 reprint comes with a haunting introduction written in January, just months before her May death coinciding with the paperback release in the US.The female narrator quests to free her body/soul from a curse; although suffering from amnesia as she awakens from an active volcano, she learns that she is a goddess among humans… and she knows her ancestors are all mysteriously gone. She is alone, powerful, and yet ignorant and weak. There is plenty of rough sexual encounters, not gratuitous but written more dispassionately than romantically – and seems to toy with the stereotypes of the genre. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s introduction is short yet insightful and touches on this interplay:
Most women in science fiction write from a man’s viewpoint. In most human societies, adventures have been structured for men. Women who wish to write of adventure have had to accept, willy-nilly, this limitation. There seems an unspoken assumption in science fiction that science fiction is usually read by men, or, if it is read by women, it is read by those women who are bored with feminine concerns and wish to escape into the world of fantasy where they can change their internal viewpoint and gender and share the adventurous world of men…
…Here is a woman writer whose protagonist is a woman—yet from the very first she takes her destiny in her own hands, neither slave nor chattel. Her adventures are her own. She is not dragged into them by the men in her life, nor served up to the victor as a sexual reward after the battle. For the first time since C. L. Moore’s warrior-woman, Jirel of Joiry, we see the woman-adventurer in her own right. But this book is not an enormous allegory of women’s liberation, nor an elaborate piece of special pleading. It’s just a big delightful feast of excitement and adventure—Introduction by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Expect Ambitious, Risky Writing that Works Most of the Time: This is a first-person-perspective for 450pages! The content is full of adult psychology and complex mystery, written by a 22yr old! And it is her debut novel! How is that for pioneering? Most of the time, the risk taking pays off. The perspective works as it should, and it was easy to forget (even 400 pages in) that I still did not know “her” proper name---but by then I knew “her” so well a name was not needed. She unfolds a mystery with perfect pacing with periodic ghostly encounters and déjà vu moments. There is plenty of commentary about gender roles across barbaric and civilized cultures, though it steered away from being political commentary thankfully. Tanith Lee’s gift for poetic language is stunning. The book is saturated with efficient characterizations, like the two below:
If I broke into a run to escape them, would they too run to keep up? My eyes grew strange, and everywhere I looked, I seemed to see the glitter of the Knife of Easy Dying. Die, and let them follow me to death if they would. But I was still too new to life to let it go.
…Darak had called them to some council then, on the low hill beyond the houses. Yes, that would be it. A little king on a little throne, lording it because his subjects were smaller than even his smallness.
Avoiding spoilers, I must still note that there is a sudden encounter very late in the novel that seems to shift the genre out of its dark-fantasy-epic mold. Given the 1975 wording and delivery, it would be easy to over emphasis this section. Diehard genre readers feeling sucker-punched may have to sigh or trust my review that ultimately the milieu is consistent. In short order, the story rights its trajectory in a consistent manner.
I really enjoyed reading this experiential novel and am saddened to learn of Tanith Lee’s death. Thankfully, she was a prolific writer and wrote a large library of weird, dark fantasy… which I look forward to delving into. The Birthgrave begins a trilogy; the sequel is Vazkor, Son of Vazkor, and the finale is Quest for the White Witch. The releases come with new covers from artist Bastien Lecouffe Deharme.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lunaverse
I really wanted to like this book. I read it to the end, hoping the lead character would redeem herself. But she never did. She is a goddess, with superpowers, but she allows herself to repeatedly be a victim of any victimizer within range.
I heard Tanith Lee was a feminist fantasy author, so I had
I heard Tanith Lee was a feminist fantasy author, so I had
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high hopes for this... and maybe I missed something... but this book sucked. Show Less
LibraryThing member silentq
This is Lee's first book, and reading Marion Zimmer Bradley's introduction, I got to share in the excitement of discovering a wonderful new author through a wonderful story. A nameless woman awakes deep in a volcano, is told that she's evil and cursed, and runs as the volcano erupts. She's followed
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by death, sometimes meting it out herself, as she struggles to find the Jade that will explain everything, wandering the world. The world feels like a post apocalyptic one, with ruins of the Lost dotting the landscape, but magic is lurking under the surface. She works as a healer, is taken for a godess, becomes a warrior, lives and loves and searches. The language is perfect, the world vividly drawn, and my only quibble is that she seems to be a bit passive at times, plus there's a few incidents of rape that were disturbing, though her reactions are explained away. There's a bit of the Mary Sue about the woman, as she's great at whatever she tries, and heals overnight from any injuries, up to death. But the mystery kept me engaged and guessing until the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member unapersson
A goddess awakens beneath a mountain and learns of the curse that will follow her if she goes into the outside world. She finds a mixture of love, hatred and exploitation wherever she goes; and disaster is never far behind in her struggle for truth. It's one of Lee's early novels and quite an epic
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with more than a few of her usual decadent touches, very much dark and gloomy fantasy with not even the glimpse of a comfortable shire. Show Less
LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
Sounds paradoxical, that title, doesn't it? It fits though. It's the story of a woman who awakens in an erupting volcano and goes on a quest to discover her identity--for she doesn't even remember her name. Some reviewers complained she's too passive, too victimized, in all that follows--but I
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think that just goes with her loss of self--she learns about the world around her as we do, something the first person underlines. It's an unputdownable book, that takes you through exotic lands; it has that pulp fiction feel of H Rider Haggard She or Robert Howard's Conan, or perhaps even more akin, Jane Gaskell's Atlan Saga. Lee's style and her world could both be described as lush. Though along with Tanith Lee's poetic prose you're going to get a psychological complexity you're not going to find in Conan the Barbarian. It was Tanith Lee's first book and won the 1975 Nebula Award for best novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member MillieHennessy
A woman wakes deep beneath a mountain with no clue who, or even what, she is. She discovers a strange being who tells her she's the last descendant of a god-like race and if she chooses to live out her life and leave the mountain she'll be cursed. She decides to leave and begins her new life
As usual, Tanith created a character who is complex and emotional. Our main character, known in parts as Uastis, annoyed and entertained me. As she learned of the powers she possessed and struggled through various relationships, I varied from wanting to slap her to wanting to hug her. When she was being a badass, chariot-riding warrior-babe I was rooting for her to dominate the world. There are a lot of classic fantasy elements in this book, enriched by Tanith's writing style and spiced up with surprising sci-fi elements towards the end. It's a somewhat heavy read-not something you can fly through in a day or two-but worthwhile for fantasy fans. I also have to mention the lovely cover art by Ken Kelly, which captures one of my favorite parts of the book and is everything you could want in a vintage fantasy book cover. It's my favorite cover of the three.
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running from an erupting volcano. Arriving in the remains of a small town, she's hailed as a local goddess and begins her journey through the land. Goddess is just one of the roles she finds herself in- witch, slave, partner and mother being some of the others-while she tries to discover who she is and wants to be. As usual, Tanith created a character who is complex and emotional. Our main character, known in parts as Uastis, annoyed and entertained me. As she learned of the powers she possessed and struggled through various relationships, I varied from wanting to slap her to wanting to hug her. When she was being a badass, chariot-riding warrior-babe I was rooting for her to dominate the world. There are a lot of classic fantasy elements in this book, enriched by Tanith's writing style and spiced up with surprising sci-fi elements towards the end. It's a somewhat heavy read-not something you can fly through in a day or two-but worthwhile for fantasy fans. I also have to mention the lovely cover art by Ken Kelly, which captures one of my favorite parts of the book and is everything you could want in a vintage fantasy book cover. It's my favorite cover of the three.
Show Less
LibraryThing member empress8411
I read this as part of First Author Contact hosted by Red StarReviews and MillieBot Reads on Instagram. I have read Tanith Lee before, but it was a collection of short stories. This was my first exposure to a novel by her.
It was good - different than my normal reading - which I appreciated. Her
The ending was weird and I am still not sure what I think about it. It was incongruous with the rest of the novel, but it also connected.
I'm thankful for the exposure and the expansion of my reading habits. I will be purchasing, at some point, the sequel.
It was good - different than my normal reading - which I appreciated. Her
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characters were complex and terrifying in their realness, and the twist and turns of the plot kept me hooked. Lee explored gender and relationship issues, but not in an overt way. It was more part of the overarching exploration of the main character, and her search for self. The ending was weird and I am still not sure what I think about it. It was incongruous with the rest of the novel, but it also connected.
I'm thankful for the exposure and the expansion of my reading habits. I will be purchasing, at some point, the sequel.
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LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
Vis, the world of Tanith Lee's Storm Lord Trilogy, and the follow-up Anackire series is a good place to visit. It's hard-edged stuff, trying to convey a world of active Gods rather than feel-good sorcerers. She starts in the Birthgrave, with a plausible biography of a Goddess. The books she found
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there are my favourite works by Lee. I think she's gone downhill since, and hope enough readers can be found for these early works. Show Less
LibraryThing member MillieHennessy
A woman wakes deep beneath a mountain with no clue who, or even what, she is. She discovers a strange being who tells her she's the last descendant of a god-like race and if she chooses to live out her life and leave the mountain she'll be cursed. She decides to leave and begins her new life
As usual, Tanith created a character who is complex and emotional. Our main character, known in parts as Uastis, annoyed and entertained me. As she learned of the powers she possessed and struggled through various relationships, I varied from wanting to slap her to wanting to hug her. When she was being a badass, chariot-riding warrior-babe I was rooting for her to dominate the world. There are a lot of classic fantasy elements in this book, enriched by Tanith's writing style and spiced up with surprising sci-fi elements towards the end. It's a somewhat heavy read-not something you can fly through in a day or two-but worthwhile for fantasy fans. I also have to mention the lovely cover art by Ken Kelly, which captures one of my favorite parts of the book and is everything you could want in a vintage fantasy book cover. It's my favorite cover of the three.
Show More
running from an erupting volcano. Arriving in the remains of a small town, she's hailed as a local goddess and begins her journey through the land. Goddess is just one of the roles she finds herself in- witch, slave, partner and mother being some of the others-while she tries to discover who she is and wants to be. As usual, Tanith created a character who is complex and emotional. Our main character, known in parts as Uastis, annoyed and entertained me. As she learned of the powers she possessed and struggled through various relationships, I varied from wanting to slap her to wanting to hug her. When she was being a badass, chariot-riding warrior-babe I was rooting for her to dominate the world. There are a lot of classic fantasy elements in this book, enriched by Tanith's writing style and spiced up with surprising sci-fi elements towards the end. It's a somewhat heavy read-not something you can fly through in a day or two-but worthwhile for fantasy fans. I also have to mention the lovely cover art by Ken Kelly, which captures one of my favorite parts of the book and is everything you could want in a vintage fantasy book cover. It's my favorite cover of the three.
Show Less
LibraryThing member aeceyton
An amazing first full length novel. Beautifully written in that poetic verbose prose I love so much, with world building that hints at complexity without getting bogged in details. A strong heroine, flawed and seeking. 4 stars because to my internet addled brain, it was too long.
Subjects
Awards
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1975)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1975
ISBN
#UW1177
Local notes
On flyleaf: "Nelson W. Black (over) Ridgewood (over) 11/26/76".