Book 3 in the Flat Earth series is a shorter story and is set some time after the events of the second.
The character of the title is demon number three, Chuz. Prince Chuz is the master of madness and so he visits the put-aside wife of the king of Sheve, who accidentally killed her baby while trying to abandon it in a nomadic encampment, as her mental illness led her to believe that the child was responsible for her husband's lack of interest. In reality, her husband is shallow and has a high sex drive, so he turned to many other women during her pregnancy.

Chuz offers to grant her a request as she is truly his already, and she asks him to make her husband just as mad as she. So he sets out to instill a disquieting sense of mortality into the king. After the king reads about Simmu, the character in the second book, he decides to emulate his success in wresting immortality from the gods, but by assaulting heaven by means of a huge tower Baybhelu, rather than by cunning. And so the prologue retells the biblical Tower of Babylon story.

The story proper begins some years later. Sheve, abandoned after the disaster in the prologue, was subsequently rebuilt as a gorgeous centre of religious pilgrimage. Pilgrims are now arriving at the city, now renamed Bhelsheved. They are joined by two demon princes, Azhrarn, Prince of Darkness who was the main character of the first volume in the series and an important player in book two, and Chuz in his role of trickster and mischief maker. Azhrarn is furious to discover that the story of his sacrifice to save humanity (told in book one) has been distorted into a tale that blames him, describes him as a foul creature instead of the inhumanly beautiful demon that he is, and gives the credit for saving humanity to the gods, who in reality are totally disinterested (as previously witnessed in the other two books). He acts to gain revenge, but in doing so triggers off events which have a profound effect on himself and set up the events of the next in the series. The various tragedies are helped along by Chuz who sets himself up as Azhrarn's enemy.

The writing as ever is baroque and gorgeous, but as before it is difficult to sympathise with any of the characters. Even some of the human ones are actually not really fully human, and nearly everyone is full of greed, malice and envy. In one sequence, when Azhrarn offers each of the pilgrims a boon, even the children choose to hurt others rather than to ask for help for others, or positive favours for themselves. The book continues the theme of the nasty nature of humanity as seen in the first two stories, and includes rape and torture of a mentally disabled woman. So it does make for rather grim reading despite the deliciousness of the prose. For that reason, I can't rate it as more than 3 stars.

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Read, favourite. ( )

The titular character of Delusion's Master is Chuz, Prince of Madness, but as with the previous two Tales of the Flat Earth books by Tanith Lee, it is the demon lord Azhrarn who is the power at the heart of the story as much as any. The pacing and structure of this volume of the series is closer to the first (that entirely revolved around Azhrarn) than it is to the second book Death's Master. Again, Azhrarn allows himself to love a mortal, this time with very different consequences.

This book is brimming over with narratives. Lee riffs on legends and folklore from the Tower of Babel to Rumpelstiltskin. There are background tales for various characters (though not for Prince Chuz) and for particular locations. My favorite part of the book might have been the little digressive story of the origin of cats (155-7).

I will be sure to read the remaining two books of this series.

Rather sexual ( )

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

In Delusionƒ??s Master, the third of Tanith Leeƒ??s FLAT EARTH novels, weƒ??re introduced to another Prince of Darkness: Chuz, the Prince of Madness, who is handsome when seen from one side and hideous when seen from the other. Chuz watches humans and uses the opportunities they give him to practice his craft: There were several doors by which Madness might enter any house; one was rage, one jealousy, one fear.

We first meet Chuz when a jealous queen tries to get rid of the baby she believes has caused the king to stop loving her. When she accidentally kills the child and her husband puts her aside, Chuz shows up to comfort her by helping her descend into madness. When he offers to grant her a wish, she asks that Chuz make her husband, the king, as mad as she is. Thatƒ??s why the king decides to build a tower to heaven where he will wage war on the gods. Everyone knows that pride comes before the fall so, sure enough, disaster strikes the land. This sets off a string of strange events that have the demons, once again, meddling in the affairs of men.

The beautiful demon Azhrarn, from the first two FLAT EARTH books, continues to be a main character. When he becomes involved in Chuzƒ??s doings on earth, we see Azhrarn get his feelings hurt, seek revenge, fall in love, and have a child. The demons are not like the uncaring gods above ƒ?? they are passionate creatures. Occasionally they can be tender and compassionate with favored mortals, but their fickle emotions can suddenly turn to vanity, petty jealousy, and hate. And then the humans suffer.

Delusionƒ??s Master is quite a bit shorter than Nightƒ??s Master and Deathƒ??s Master and Chuz, the title character, isnƒ??t nearly as interesting as Azhrarn, but fortunately we get plenty of Azhrarn here. All of the FLAT EARTH tales have been dark, but Delusionƒ??s Master actually gets uncomfortable because it includes baby killing, rape, and the torture of a mentally disabled girl. The imagery is vivid and I admit that I squirmed. Still, Tanith Lee continues to enchant us with the exotic setting and peerlessly gorgeous writing.

There are several biblical allusions in this installment: the Tower of Babel, the Flood, redemption of humanity through death, and manƒ??s natural hatred of snakes. The most beautiful moment in the book is when Azhrarn goes up to the Earth to find out why men hate snakes and then, as a favor to snakes, sets out to make them more palatable to humans.

Iƒ??m still enjoying this series on audio. Susan Duerdenƒ??s narration gets even better with each book. Each also has an interesting introduction by Tanith Lee. In this one she talks about how her mother influenced her writing. ( )