[Ballantine Adult Fantasy 11] • The High Place

"In the sulphurous The High Place, the

amoral hero Florian enters the sleeping-beauty story and (unlike Jurgen with

Helen) does not draw back at the sight of excessive beauty. Complications

ensue: Beauty is realistically diminished during pregnancy, the first-born

child is forfeit to Satan under the pact that guaranteed Florain's success, and

an irascible saint is eager to call down holy fire on transgressors. Florian

treads close to damnation and is saved only when Satan and the angel Michael

conspire to let recent events become, again, a dream: he has a rare second

chance and learns better." -- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy