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""The soul is a magician. Only living flesh hampers it."" -- from Death's Master Death's Master, winner of the August Derleth Award for Fantasy, is the second book of the stunning arabesque high fantasy series Tales from the Flat Earth, which, in the manner of the One Thousand and One Nights, portrays an ancient world in mythic grandeur via connected tales. Long time ago when the Earth was Flat, beautiful indifferent Gods lived in the airy Upperearth realm above, curious passionate demons lived in the exotic Underearth realm below, and mortals were relegated to exist in the middle. Uhlume, Lord of Death, second of the Lords of Darkness, King of Shadow and Pallor, makes an unusual bargain which sets in motion an intricate sequence of events that entangle men and gods, queens and kings, sorcerers and witches, and lowly wanderers. When the secret to immortality falls into human hands, dark magic and wickedness are unleashed, testing the bounds of mortal love and sanity, and questioning the nature and purpose of life itself. Come within this ancient world of brilliant darkness and beauty, of glittering palaces and wondrous elegant beings, of cruel passions and undying love. Rediscover the exotic wonder that is the Flat Earth.… (more)
User reviews
My favorite part was probably the wonderfully-imagined undersea adventure of Zhirem, well toward the end of the book.
series, with more focus on Uhlume/Death (and now I finally know where
that old alt.gothic poster got his handle from!) with some meddling by
the prince of Underearth. Uhlume doesn't appear quite so much in this
novel, but the characters are driven by their immortality and
quest for it and to get rid of it. Interesting musings on what it can
mean to live forever and what people are willing to do to get there
and to pass the time once they have. I'd had hopes that the one
character who could switch between male and female bodies would spend
an equal amount of time as each, but he's mostly male (though the
pronouns are well handled). Love and trickery and revenge thread through the story as well.