Fiction with Tarot

Bluemanticore

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but can anyone suggest some good tarot-themed fiction? Any fiction titles come to mind that are stories based on tarot? I mainly like reading fantasy and mystery stories, but anything will do. Thanks.

BlueManticore
 

mercenary30

OOP suggestion

God of Tarot
Vision of Tarot
Faith of Tarot

This is a Trilogy written by Piers Anthony.

I believe there is also a single book called Tarot, that combines all three.

I am reading the second one right now, and I am still looking for the third one.

These books are quite interesting and bring a whole new twist on tarot cards, humanism, and religion.
 

jmd

You may be interested in the quite dark tale of William Bayer's Tarot...

Alternatively, there is also the delightful collection of short stories edited by Rachel Pollack & Caitlin Matthews: Tarot Tales (isbn 0099649802 & 0441003524).

Then there are books which include or mention Tarot (such as the Science Fiction multi-part Dune).

There are others too - some which I seem to recall were previously mentioned on Aeclectic, but cannot recall these at the moment...
 

gloria

Hi Bluemanticor,
If you go to Google and type in 'Discovering Tarot in Literature: The List'
Nina Lee Braden has compiled a list of tarot fiction, there should be something there to suit you.
Hope this helps, Gloria.
 

philsgrl

I just finished reading "The Prince of Cups" by Gayle Feyrer. It's a historical romance, but before you make a face hear me out.
I usually steer clear of this genre, I find the writing sounds forced and the overall plotlines are just silly. But this book is like intelligent romance, if there is such a thing.

I picked up this book because I had just gotten my tarot cards and thought this book, with its title, sounded like fun. The main character's grandmother practices tarot, and so they often have some conversations about the cards that turn up, and each chapter has a picture of the RW version of the prince of cups. So I thought that was neat. I'm not sure if the guy, the "Prince of Cups" in the story was accurately represented, but I don't know too much about that...yet :)

The writing was pretty good in this book, and the plotline held my interest. Plus I think it was a pretty accurate representation of Renaissance Italy.

~R
 

HudsonGray

The Ivory series by Doris Egan, it's science fiction & uses a divination deck (a futuristic tarot).
 

Hedera

The Wishing Garden, by Christy Yorke.

The main character is a tarot reader, and the cards feature rather extensively in the book.

It's quite a good, fast read.
 

firemaiden

Leo Perütz - Zwischen Neun und Neun - Between Nine and Nine -- I haven't read it yet, but there is a picture of the Hanged Man card on the cover. There is are a lot of Major Arcana type characters in his other fiction. Perütz is currently my favorite author. His stuff is poetic, witty, and very suspenseful.
 

Laura Borealis

Reviving an old thread, because I was interested in the same question. I'll have to look for the book you all have mentioned! :)

My short list:

Part of the reason I was drawn to tarot was because of John Crowley's novel, Little, Big. One of the narrative devices is a deck of cards that is passed down from generation to generation of the Drinkwater family. They aren't the tarot we know, for they have a different Major Arcana. The deck is also tied in with the faery world. It's a lovely novel, well worth reading.

Another of my favorite novels is Emma Bull's Bone Dance, which is set in a post-apocalyptic future and has a spiritual core that really speaks to me. There is a card reader among the main character's friends, and the spread she reads frames the plot. I always wondered if Emma Bull constructed the novel around an actual tarot spread, rather than create one in the book to fit her plot. :)

One last: Moonwise by Greer Ilene Gilman. Again, the cards are used as a narrative device. It's not a tarot deck, but a homemade deck of cards that the two central characters use to play a story-telling game. One is "lost" in the game, drawn into the other world. Her friend sets off to find her. It's a gorgeous novel, though many are put off by the quantity of archaic words and folkloric references scattered throughout the dreamlike prose. Out of print, but I've seen it on half.com.
 

Cerulean

Tarot Fantastic--has anyone seen this?

http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?qwork=6553989&matches=4&qsort=r

alibris.com is my favorite new browsing site for old stuff...I've never heard of this before.

Short stories gathered with tarot in mind!

Cerulean Mari

P.S. I search for it on alibris, but post a comparison on amazon and abebooks.com separately to find the better price. Abebooks.com has better prices, but you got to know what you want because of all the listings.