 really good creepy, 2008-01-23
this is my first tanith lee. i'm completely entranced. lee has an odd and interesting way of turning a phrase, and a manner of description more delicately nuanced than most 'genre' fiction. i guess the right word for what i am trying to say is 'literary,' but to catagorize lee's unique style at all, seems to me to somehow minimize her gift--her unique voice. if you're a smart reader who yearns for fantasy/gothic/horror with more than the usual dose of panache, character development, surprising sentences, i think you might like tanith lee very much. dark dance is a good place to start--and there are two more in the series.
 Not Free SF Reader, 2007-09-24
A loner bookworm nerd girl is doing her own thing, working away, when she gets an invitation.
She accepts, and ends up staying with a very strange bunch, and she soon is in further than she thinks, pregnant, with the vampiric Scarabae hovering around, wanting to use her for their own ends.
Tanith Lee; a Literary Genius!!, 2004-08-07
All I am about to say about this author and this book, is that it is well worth your time to read this tale. I feel that you will leave this book, feeling amazed and smitten by the beloved Rachella. Tanith Lee tops my list of extraordinary storytellers, she has captured the hearts of all her fans and will not ever let go. This book is beautiful. Read it. (and the other 2 in the Blood Opera series.)
I hope you dance, 2003-08-21
"Dark Dance" is an early foray into horror for fantasy author Tanith Lee. I've never read any of her books, and I bought "Dark Dance" based on the cover description and the fact that the novel was published by the excellent, short-lived Abyss Horror (Dell) label. The Abyss Horror books were released in the early 90s, and introduced me to several quality horror novelists and stories. A shame it didn't catch on.This eerie tale begins with Rachela, a young twenty-something woman with some issues. She lives her life working jobs that go nowhere, and is haunted by her memories and personal demons, the most demonic of which was her mother. Mother kept Rachela under a clamp, molding her into a hermitesque life, while reinforcing the fact that Rachela was NOT to associate with her unknown father and his family. Rachela, of course, thinks her mother is a nut, and has been (almost) content since she died. Then the summons arrives. Her father's clan, the Scarabae family, has sent a messenger to find Rachela and offer her a chance to live in the family mansion deep in the English countryside. Rachela is stubborn and independent, and refuses the offer as long as she can. Fate seems to take over at that point, and she finds herself making the journey out of London and toward her destiny. There are a couple of reasons why I won't expand very much more on the plot. Number one is a fear of spoilers. Number two: this novel tells a long story, but is slow in developing, meaning that certain plotlines shouldn't be spoken here for fear of giving away the whole novel. I will say that the Scarabae clan is strange, ancient, detached from reality, and never leave their home. Rachela has a love-hate relationship with them and in particular her father Adamus. The Scarabae wish to continue their family line, and it just wouldn't do to poison the bloodline with any "outsiders"... The story takes place over a long period of time, with excellent usage of sinister prose combined with a sense of building horror. Ms. Lee has a style not unlike Anne Rice, and builds her own reality as the story dictates. This book is not as realistic as some would like, but I appreciate the fact that Lee does not waste time dwelling on the small stuff. The tale is told with the detail required to advance the plot with no padded filler. I couldn't put this book down. It captivated me all the way though, although it could have had a little bit more detail regarding the Scarabae and the history of this bizarre family. The ending worked for me. The book has little "shock" horror, but makes up for it with general creepiness. The characters all seem to be detached from the events around them, and I thought the characters could have expressed more personal horror during their journey of the damned. Still, "Dark Dance" rates a firm 4 star rating from me.
Fantastic Vampire Novel, 2001-09-25
Rachaela Day is the protagonist in Dark Dance, an attractive, dark-haired 29-year-old who lives a quiet, uninterrupted life between her small apartment and meaningless job in a bookstore. Her mother died four years ago (a woman Rachaela didn't mourn) and, many years earlier, her father had abandoned them. Otherwise, she has no family, no friends. Then she is contacted repeatedly by messengers: her father's family want to meet with her, to make amends for his abandoning her all those years ago. Obviously, Rachaela is apprehensive, but when she is mysteriously fired and notified of a future building eviction, she has nowhere else to turn but to these strangers. The House, simply named, is home to the Scarabae (pronounced Scarraby), a group of a dozen or so eccentric family members, including her father Adamus. As her mother had explained to her as a child, the Scarabae are unusual, "darkly ominous" people, which Rachaels discovers is all too true. She also learns their invitation had a more deviant purpose: to mate father with daughter. However, nobody expected the outcome to be so fatal. Dark Dance is the first of three books in the Blood Opera Sequence; "Personal Darkness" and "Darkness, I" follow. This series is so far my favorite Tanith Lee series, as well as my favorite all-time vampire series. It's not as bloody as most present-day vampire books (in fact, there's very little gore; it's more gothic than violent), but if you're a big vampire fan (which I am), I would recommend you read all three books. As fair warning, there are some sex scenes between father and daughter that might offend some readers. If you've already read the Blood Opera Sequence, you might like Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles or Lives of the Mayfair Witches. Both series are somewhat alike to Tanith Lee's tale of the Scarabae, that is, if Anne Rice had merged her vampire world with her witch world. I also recommend reading "The Kiss" by Kathryn Reines if you like vampires.
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