3,5/5⭐️ veel te lang over gedaan en daarom ook een beetje geen zin meer in.
Mooi geschreven (en vertaald) in poëtische woorden die eeuwigheid en uitgestrektheid voelbaar maken.
Het verhaal was soms wat verwarrend maar dat kan goed komen omdat ik wat concentratie problemen had.

4.2 stars

It was a big goal of the author to make a creation story about a goddess in a parallel universe.

Novel contains heavy poetry, gravity, life vs death followed by more death. Centuries of suffering either feel exactly like centuries, or they feel like minutes when you’re a goddess. But author needs us to know that the minute of goddess suffering feels like double the amount of whatever we humans can imagine.

My life got shortened while reading this novel.

I don’t have any interest of becoming a Tanith Lee goddess follower. Everything one says must sound like a proclamation. Also one must have zero sense of humor—absolutely zero—do not even try. NO ONE EVER FEELS AMUSEMENT IN THIS UNIVERSE. IS THAT A SMIRK I SEE MADAM?? You are immediately banished!

Chuz takes Azhrarn's neglected daughter and starts her life on Flat Earth as a half-demon, half-mortal sorceress. We follow her wanderings, musings about her nature, and her feats - both big and small.

The book encompasses her whole life, and it's long and full of wonder, but also of boredom. Not all of the episodes is interesting, and some are quite metaphysical, and surreal.

The plotting was slow and I think this would be better read as couple of stories, not as a novel so one could enjoy it in short bursts, because a whole is a lot to swallow.

In the fourth book of the series, Tanith Lee unleashes all her delirious imagination. By the middle of Delirium's Mistress, the tale goes full surrealistic. Her narration also becomes more ornate than ever. But still, some whole chapters feel unnesesary, as the return of some characters from the previous books.

A series that continues to revel in its gorgeousness, even to the point of exhausting itself. Night's Master was a small sparkling dark jewel, and while this was similarly beautifiul, it had a stretched-out quality through its middle, not helped by all the characters turning Byronic and loving their melodrama. I'm not convinced that Lee was holding it all together.

Still, in decorations and dark-mirror synthesis of mythology, there is no equal. I dare anyone to read "The Story of Liliu", a diversion told to Sovaz that she interrupts because she figured out the ending and finds the telling to be tiresome. Or, "The Story of the Stallion's Back", the perfect rendering of a quibble in prophecy.

Cuarto libro de la serie de la Tierra Plana y uno un tanto distinto del resto ya que en su mayoría está enfocado en otro protagonista y la mayor parte de la trama se centra en un idilio amoroso con algunos pasajes cósmicos que sugieren un desenlace a lo grande que, por supuesto, se dará en el próximo (y último) volumen de la saga.

Me gusta que expande la mitología del mundo creado por Tanith Lee, dando esta vez protagonismo a los dioses primigenios, ángeles justicieros y una fugaz mirada al mundo del Caos más allá del borde de la realidad, aunque en general me parece que la trama resulta algo confusa. Esto se debe no solo a la estructura de varios relatos que se van superponiendo de forma fluida sino también porque en esta ocasión vemos el regreso de varios personajes importantes de las entregas anteriores, por lo que si ha pasado mucho tiempo desde que las leíste es probable que estés algo perdido.

Me gustó menos que los anteriores pero la prosa de Lee lo sostiene todo y hace de esta una historia de fantasía muy agradable de leer y encima poco habitual tanto en su tono como ambientación. Por supuesto leeré el último tomo en lo que pueda.

Not my favorite book in the Flat Earth series, but nevertheless a work of staggering beauty and imagination. I am quite literally stunned that these books and Lee are not more well known. The sheer inventiveness of her works, and particularly the Flat Earth, has few parallels; she matches some of the greatest masters of fantasy, in my opinion. Her prose is perhaps an acquired taste, but I don't think any could say that it is not lush, beautiful, and full of rich metaphors and turns of phrase. There are very, very few fantasy authors that write on Lee's level. I think of maybe Mervyn Peake (of whom Lee was an admirer), Ursula K. LeGuin, and a few others. But Lee's writing is incredibly beautiful, and as an aspiring writer myself, an absolute inspiration.

This book didn't work as well as the three previous books in the series simply because it took a bit too long to come into focus. Though it tells one long story, that of Azhriaz, daughter of Azhrarn, it feels disjointed and meandering a lot of the time. Though I did, of course, enjoy the meanderings, if you compare Delirium's Mistress to the more tightly plotted previous book, Delusion's Master, it becomes clear that this book might have benefitted from an editor's hand here and there. Nevertheless, by the end of the book, Lee's purpose becomes clear, and the finale is a beautiful, even spiritual kind of elegy on mortality. I think it might have taken a bit too much time to get to that point, myself, but I loved the book even so and will read the next book in the series with glee.

These are not books that will appeal to everybody. If you want a book with a meaty plot full of twists and turns, or well-developed characters that go through struggles and changes, you won't get that here. They read more like dark fairy-tales, more elaborate stories ripped out of the Arabian Nights, parables and fables. But if you are a reader who exults in beautiful writing, these are made for you. That is the centerpiece, the focal point of the Flat Earth series, and it is delicious.

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Gods and Demons contend, but Love masters all

Tanith Lee has written some of my favorite books of all time. This is not one of them. It's a snooze fest. It's so vague & I don't know what's going on. I'm not sure what was the point of the story. I only finished it because I'm trying to read everything she's ever written. I may have to re-think that considering this took me 3 years to read.

Beautifully written, much longer than the last installment from the Tales from Flat Earth series. Deliriums Mistress has an incredible challenge to follow the master stroke that Delusions Master was.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I initially thought that Soveh-Sovaz-Azhiraz daughter of Azrarn & the mortal star child Dunizel was an impossibly difficult character to develop as a protagonist. She is too powerful...half demon, part human & part comet she is a child of the Vazdru Lord of darkness Azrarn and thus kin to the demonic Underworld and city Druhim Vanashta whilst being a grandchild of the Sun itself.

As her mother was a mortal child of a comet & human Azirahz can bare the light of the Sun without being destroyed like no other demon can. Such a being with such power whilst lacking obvious weaknesses seems a tall order to develop as a character. However Tanith Lee succeeds, Soveh-Sovaz-Azhiraz turns out to be a complex and powerful entity & truly reflects her gestation as demon, human & star child. Soveh evolves across the story and her arch culminates in what I felt was thoroughly satisfying whilst unexpected in many ways.

Tanith Lee doesn't disappoint the story goes places that I never expected and the main protagonist moves from vindictive, angry demoness with daddy issues to a wise, sympathetic & passionate immortal on a quest to understand her origins and place in the universe. Through her ultimate quest to reconcile her origins as a tool for malice and misfortune as her father Azrahn intended we learn about the ultimate destiny of humanity and in fact how mortality is the greatest gift in the world of Flat Earth. Mortals will become the inheritors of the earth in a distant future and are blessed by the cycles of death & rebirth that lead to spiritual growth and understanding that even the God's will never know.

There are many interesting threads in the Tales of Flat Earth series. One the God's are cold aloof beings who care little for humanity. Demon kind whilst toying with humanity at least cares for the destiny of humans. The God's are incredibly powerful yet flawed beings, seeing their seclusion & inward focus as the most important part of their existence.

Through the wicked machinations of Azrahn the Prince of demons a greater and ultimate good and truth is revealed then enacted on the flat earth through Soveh-Sovaz-Azirahz. This is a deft and interesting way to spin the manifestation of evil through Azrahn and demon kind into an arch that gives demon kind an important place on the flat earth. Demons are the unmade beings that existed before the flat earth was created and through the evil they enact on mankind humans grow & evolve spiritually. Everything in the Flat Earth universe has a purpose and ultimately its part of ensuring the future destiny of human kind. Even through the way Azrahn the Prince of Demons evolves a greater destiny may await even the demons....

Deliriums mistress whilst a long tale succeeds in the intentions of the author. Be prepared for characters that evolve, embark on a journey that changes them and the world itself. Threads that are started that initially seem impossible to resolve reach smart conclusions. Parts of the book do stretch and I did feel the strain of the story especially during Azirahz rule as demon godess on the earth, but the way the story resolves itself easily makes up for this. I even think that Tanith Lee may have intended this. This is a wonderful book and as expected from Tanith Lee beautifully written...