View Full Version : Tarot in Literature
tarotbear
05-10-2001, 12:41
MondalaMon started a thread on tarot-themed books. Does anyone have suggestions to add to the list? Tarot can be a major or minor plot device.
"Lammas Night" by Katherine Kurtz. Covens band together to stop Hitler's invasion of Britain.
truthsayer
05-10-2001, 15:08
ninalee braden's moonstruck site in the tarot section has a very comprehensive tarot as lit site. i've been having a little trouble getting these links to work so try both of these. http://www.geocities.com/~ninalee/
http://www.geocities.com/~ninalee/tarot/tarlit/
roger zelazny's amber cronicles come to mind, a story in which "trump" cards were used that represented actual living people, through which one could commincate with that person across various dimensions. they even made a deck based on the charactors in the book - all trumps of course.
luv and light,
nexy
Thirteen
05-10-2001, 18:17
tarotbear (06 Oct, 2001 02:41):
MondalaMon started a thread on tarot-themed books. Does anyone have suggestions to add to the list? Tarot can be a major or minor plot device.
The very BEST use of Tarot as a plot devise in a book that I've ever, ever seen was in BONE DANCE by Emma Bull. A spread is laid out and each card becomes a chapter. But it also relates to the book as a whole, it's feel and theme. Wonderful.
Major Tom
05-10-2001, 20:46
Tim Power's books Last Call and Earthquake Weather both use tarot imagery.
In Last Call gamblers play tarot poker and a particularly evil character is using the game to steal bodies...until the hero figures out how to stack the deck. }>
Great reads both of them.
Hi! I would like to recommend the book Little,Big by John Crowley.It is a tale about a family who live in contact with the realm of faery,and where a sort of Tarot deck has a major role.
It is published as no 5 in the series Fantasy Masterworks,2000,in Great Britain by Millennium,An inprint of Victor Gollancz(paperback).
Well, although its not a major part of the book, the Tarot is mentioned in the Philosophy book, 'Sophie's World' although it isn't given a very good press at all. I was quite annoyed, as the main character totally demeaned Tarot, whilst giving no backup to his ideas.
Kiama
That norweigean author;Jostein Gaarder has written another novel;Maya, where a deck of playing cards comes to life,including the mysterious Joker,who plays an important part in the story.
Love and Light,Genna.
The Hanged Man by Francesca Lia Block has a bit of a tarot theme. Each chapter is associated with a card. She's categorized as um...'young adult' fiction but I feel that it is an injustice to her. She's a wonderful writer.
Glass Owl
26-02-2006, 10:29
I just ordered three books by Victoria Laurie and I can't wait to finish the book I'm reading so I can start to read these. They are from her Psychic Eye Mystery series. The second one in the series is titled "Better Read Than Dead." The front cover shows a woman holding up the Tower card and below the title is says, "Abby's new client is one she can't refuse."
From what the backs says, the main character is Abby Cooper who is a psychic intuitive who agrees to read tarot cards at a wedding as a favor for a friend and ends up doing a reading for a mob boss.
Edit: I absolutely loved these books! I would highly recommend them.
"Tarot Fantastic", edited by Martin Greenberg & Lawrence Schimel, DAW Books, Inc., ISBN 0-88677-729-1. A mixed (Tarot) bag of 16 short stories by various authors including noted sci-fi/fantasy writers Tanya Huff & Charles de Lint, whose stories amongst the best. Also, George Alec Effinger's Solo in the Spotlight takes its title from a Barbie doll of the same name; however, a creative device that works in a well-written story about a newly elected President & his young daughter during a national crisis.
"Tarot Tales", edited by Rachel Pollack & Caitlin Matthews, ACE Books, ISBN 0-441-00352-4. Dedicated to Mary K. Greer. Another mixed bag of 16 short stories by various writers including Rachel Pollack. Most of these stories strike as surrealistic with Tarot a distant or indirect inspiration.
"Death in the Cards", by Sharon Short, Avon Book, ISBN-13: 978-0-06-079324-1. Third in a series called "A Stain-Busting Mystery", its quirky main character is Josie Toadfern, proprietor of a laundrymat in a small town ironically named Paradise, Ohio & self-acknowledged stain expert. A Psychic Fair has brought all kinds of folks to town & not all of the divinatory interest. Good use of Tarot as part of the story. Josie Toadfern given to the introspective as well as the 'extrospective'. An intriguing character in the stories is Mrs. Oglevee, a deceased & former high school teacher who appears in her dreams & usually much to her dismay as there was no love lost between them. & oft, the best parts of the books. As a fan of Jill Churchill & Lilian Jackson Braun, these books are fun to read.
See this old thread in Tarot Books & Media: Fiction with Tarot - Bluemanticore:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?threadid=19891
HudsonGray
26-02-2006, 14:10
The Labyrinth Gate uses the tarot quite well. I forget who wrote it (Doris Egan?), but it's been out in paperback for at least 20 years. Good book! I liked it a lot.
And actually The DaVinci Code mentions tarot in passing (as a game and as reference to the cards 'telling' something in the Medieval times), though no actual cards are used in the book.