Scan barcode
A review by lacunaboo
Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee
4.0
This is actually a series of two books included in one volume: Don't Bite the Sun, and Drinking Sapphire Wine.
I have to say, I enjoyed the first book better than the second. Lee created a very colorful and strange world here, and she throws the reader right into it without any introduction or warning. As a result, it takes a good long while for you to stop thinking, "What the HELL is going on here?!" Once you get the hang of it, though, you're kind of hooked.
I admired the tone of the first book. It relates the tale of a person (sometimes in a female body, sometimes male) who has become disillusioned with the hedonistic way of life provided in the cities of the Fours. Is life getting boring despite all of the available ways to delight your senses? Go ahead and kill yourself, you can personally design the body you next inhabit right away. Want to have love with somebody without tying yourself down? Get married for just an afternoon, freeing yourself up for other lovers afterwards.
Our protagonist (whose name we never actually learn) doesn't even quite realize what the problem is for some time, but understands only that something is missing. That something turns out to be any sort of meaningful connection to other living beings, or perhaps any meaning to life itself.
The second book tells of the beginning of a resistance to that way of life. It wasn't bad, but didn't seem to hold quite the same tone as the first book, and didn't take things far enough for my liking. In the end, though, this story emphasizes that it's what's inside that counts - an admirable point.
I have to say, I enjoyed the first book better than the second. Lee created a very colorful and strange world here, and she throws the reader right into it without any introduction or warning. As a result, it takes a good long while for you to stop thinking, "What the HELL is going on here?!" Once you get the hang of it, though, you're kind of hooked.
I admired the tone of the first book. It relates the tale of a person (sometimes in a female body, sometimes male) who has become disillusioned with the hedonistic way of life provided in the cities of the Fours. Is life getting boring despite all of the available ways to delight your senses? Go ahead and kill yourself, you can personally design the body you next inhabit right away. Want to have love with somebody without tying yourself down? Get married for just an afternoon, freeing yourself up for other lovers afterwards.
Our protagonist (whose name we never actually learn) doesn't even quite realize what the problem is for some time, but understands only that something is missing. That something turns out to be any sort of meaningful connection to other living beings, or perhaps any meaning to life itself.
The second book tells of the beginning of a resistance to that way of life. It wasn't bad, but didn't seem to hold quite the same tone as the first book, and didn't take things far enough for my liking. In the end, though, this story emphasizes that it's what's inside that counts - an admirable point.