my favourite of the series, still.

I've read more than a dozen books by Tanith Lee, and it is generally true that her shorter works are better than her long works. Her short SF and fantasy is some of the best of the past several decades. Her short novels like Don't Bite the Sun, Kill the Dead and Electric Forest as exotic and compelling. I enjoyed the first three books in the Flat Earth series very much. Predictably, I found Death's Master a bit slow at times, but it is still a great book. I had hoped that the same would be true for Delirium's Mistress. Alas, this is the weakest entry in the series. This is an episodic novel, and some of the episodes are quite good. However, the whole is less than the sum of of the parts. Given that the book is full of demons, angels and gods, you would expect it to be more exciting and compelling, but Lee's descriptive prose can get in its own way. I'm still a great fan of Lee's work, but this is one of my least favorite of her works.

Quite enjoyable.

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish

After writing the excellent and compact 'Night's Master', the author had, for some reasons, left that format. She had started writing lengthier works, full of lyrical imagery and haunted characters, spread across hundreds and hundreds of pages. I don't know about others, but for me the works started losing charm almost immediately. They became soporific, as pace was eschewed in favour of supposed character-development.
The massive novel under discussion is probably the biggest victim of that attitude.
Spread into stories dealing with various characters but connected by one overarching character, it could have been vastly more readable. But this one? It simply goes on, and on, and on...
Despite the shrapish ending, the book appeared tame and flabby compared to that first beast. Perhaps the last one would be better.
Perhaps.

I hate to say it but this was at least twice as long as it needed to be. Still beautiful prose though.

Tanith Lee passed away in 2015, and while I mourned my favourite author, of whose death I only heard months later, the prices of her books skyrocketed, making it almost impossible for me to continue this much-beloved series without going bankrupt. Few works ever touched me like Lee's, and witnessing her stories being removed from print one after the other felt like running out of time. The old novels sold out for horrendous sums, and I desperately reread the three first parts of the Tales from the Flat Earth, repeating them like a mantra.

How grateful I am then for these lovely new editions that deliver Tanith Lee's beauteous prose to new generations of readers! The gorgeously illustrated covers do her work justice, so much that I'm already thinking about rebuying the ones I already own. I've waited so long for the story to continue that the sheer beauty of it brought actual tears to my eyes. It was like experiencing her writing for the first time all over again. And although I've compared other authors' writing to hers before, in the end nobody comes even close to this feverdream of a style.

To keep my adoration short, Delirium's Mistress is on a par with the preceding Tales from The Flat Earth, and in my opinion seemlessly fits into the series, playing with words and wording, imagery and symbolism. To my surprise, numerous characters from preceding installments make a reappearance, which made my goth heart overflow with joy! And each encounter with the almost-forgotten figures of her lore made me miss Tanith Lee even more.

There are still so many stories of hers that I haven't had the chance to read yet, and that is one of the biggest comforts to me, the continued existence of the grand lady of fantasy inside her books. Perhaps I'll buy Night's Sorceries right away - or perhaps I'll procrastinate the premature end of a beloved series by re-examining the previous tales first. In any case, this was marvelous.

A spiritual ending to a dark adult fantasy.
The reactions to this book are very divided, as it is quite different from the rest; some are disappointed, some compelled.
I began this series as an escapist read. What I received was eventual transformation into a profound spiritual meditation on the meaning of life. What does one do with immortality, and what type of immortality? How does reincarnation differ from one unending life, and do they in the end have the same result?
As a Buddhist, I found this work both moving and electrifying in ways that I did not expect. However I know from experience that those not interested in this subject will see the story as wandering and pointless. To me it was a riveting, unerringly pointed story of spiritual transformation and transcendence.
We are all both star and sun born, and filled with darkness. We are all living in a world of magic and wonder that we do not recognize. We are all immortal, whether we recognize it or not. We are all Azhrarn, Azhriaz, Dathanja and Chuz, and like Uhlume, we see that death itself wears out.

The ending was so moving, I was in tears, and that is rare.

A huge disappointment, this book by Tanith Lee. It is superfluous and repetitive without any apparent reason, its narration is mundane and tiresome, and character development seemingly occurs just to occur. In my opinion, Tanith Lee grew complacent. Just because you supposedly put all five Lords of Darkness in one book, coupled with epic battles and confrontations (which are not written in a very stimulative manner, I might add), does not mean that your storytelling will automatically turn out alright. This book needed polishing and a lot more work before getting published. It felt as if the characters and the numerous worlds that they explore were hollow and meaningless.

This is a fairly long book for Tanith Lee - its so densely packed that for a while it felt like the plot was not going anywhere.
The entire time I was reading it I was thinking 3 stars
but wow the ending is beautiful...I would say the last third of the book made it 4 stars
I even teared up a bit in the end won't lie
the author is magical with words no doubt

A more satisfying end to a glorious series than I had believed possible. It took me years to find this book, and I read it until the front cover fell off. It's marvelous to see the culmination of a decade of character-building; everyone who began in the earlier books as immature(Azhrarn, with his reckless lust and casual cruelty, Uhlume, with his unlove for humanity, Zhirem/Zhirek/Dathanja with his uncertainty, and so many others)come into themselves in so many interesting ways. Each of the prior novels tend to have less hope than pain in them, but this final piece is the light at the end of all things, and though it's still as sharp as a glass knife, it is beautiful. Interesting, too, that of all the Lords of Darkness, Azhriaz/Sovaz/Soveh is the one that finally sees through to the truth of the world; but Tanith Lee said from the very beginning that Azhrarn invented love, and so it only follows that any child of his would go further up that path.

След магията на лудостта идва обсебващата пропаст на делириума, в който заспиват сърца и се събуждат души. С промяната на съзнанието и възраждането на мечтите у героите полу-хора, но не и покровители на човешкия род, правилата на световния ред се изменят по волята на несъществуващи зарове. Четвъртият лорд на мрака – принц Кишмет или Съдбата , излиза на сцената , за да спаси най-новата богиня на плоската земя, сменяща имена и спомени като сенките в ясно черните си коси.

От жестоки владетели и безмилостни божества, до загубили пътя си безсмъртни магове и души с повече от едно тяло, летящи в райските висини рамо да рамо с дългокоси ангели – комети, или спускащи се в черните дълбини със зеленокожи амфибии – приключението на неродената любов и неумиращата омраза към човешкия вид и борбата между нетленните демони и неживелите богове придобива своя финален обрат. Любовта побеждава и изменя, но и убива и се забравя с времето – най-големия противник на истинските чувства.

Една от най-красивите поредици, в която думите са цветове, изреченията – мелодии, а героите – оживели сънища, завършва с тъжния финал на старостта след векове, когато смъртта е награда за проявените грижи към недълговечните хуманоиди, а не наказание за неуспели мечтания. Тъгата разцъфва в своята теменужена красота, а усмивката е много, много повече от израз на някакъв далечен полъх на радост. Плоските земи изчезват, отстъпвайки на модерната глобализация, в която демоните – богове място нямат. Но поне имаме утешението на пожълтелите страници легенди за неслучилото се съновидение на забравила за света магьосница…

Знам, цялата тази алтернативна вселена от думи би била кошмарна за превод, тъй като всяка буква е важна, придиханията между редовете и мелодичната лексика се предават толкова трудно на не-демонски език, а мислите на великата Танит избледняват произнесени от нечии читат��лски устни. Но все пак се надявам някога в моя живот да има повече от един читател, който да се е докоснал до истинската красота на майсторското думосъздаване. Защото това е остатъка от онази божествена искра, която ни е създала, и тя сгрява по-силно и от най-буйния огън на реалността.