Monday 16 September 2024

Black Sun Rising - Celia Friedman

Black Sun Rising by Celia Friedman (or C.S. Friedman) is book one of her Coldfire trilogy. I thought it would make a good read for early autumn as that's when it begins, and I thought right, as it absolutely did. It 'has' taken me two weeks to read it, I'm not sure why, other than it's 530 pages long and quite densely written. But it was worth taking my time as it was a cracking read. 


The planet of Erna was colonised by humans hundreds of years ago. Already inhabiting this world was a sort of non-sentient species called the Rakh, who were displaced and went to live behind a canopy on a continent of their own. Something has since happened to them though in the way of advancement of the species. But they weren't the only inhabitants. There's a natural force called the Fae which can manipulate and prey on human minds and is deadly unless humans can learn to control it somehow.

Fast forward many centuries and that is what has happened but it's not proper control and living on Erna is a very dangerous business. The priest, Damien Vryce, is one who has learned some control over the Fae. Arriving in the northern city of Jaggonath he meets Adept, Ciani, who is in tune with all things supernatural and Fae. But he hasn't known her more than a couple of days before she is attacked by fiendish creatures and robbed of all of her memories and deep experience in dealing with the Fae.

Damien knows he has to follow the trail of these creatures, back to where they came from, to get Ciani's memories back. Unfortunately, it turns out to be behind the canopy of the Rakhlands. Something there has sent these abominable fiends to pray on humans. Ciani goes with him along with her protege, Senzei... and someone Damien's powers cannot best, Gerald Tarrant. Damien knows he's not like them, but what is he? He's clearly dangerous but dangerous to whom - their enemies or themselves?

So this is a bit of a mixed genre novel. It's clearly science fiction as it involves humans and space travel. That said, it's described as 'Dark Fantasy', and it is that too. There's also  lot of what would come under the heading of horror in this book, but not gory horror, it's very much a fantasy based horror. And it's definitely a 'quest', 'travelling' themed book, my favourite kind of fantasy, so no wonder it suited me so well. 

The two characters that stuck out for me were Damien Vryce and Gerald Tarrant. Vryce is very much the hero and Tarrant a fascinating anti-hero. It's not long before the reader realises what Tarrant is but Vryce seemed a bit slow on the uptake somehow and doesn't understand why he hates the other man so. It's very interesting to watch their interactions. Oddly enough, the whole reason for their journey was Ciani but I didn't get a strong sense of her at all... possibly because she had lost her memory and thus wasn't that interesting. I rather fancy though that the author was more smitten with her two male protagonists and I can understand why.

The world building in the novel is superb. From the magic system with the Fae, to the bleak Rakhlands, the various species of Rakh, 'winter' and how they survive it, fantastic underground cave sequences, all brilliantly done and so beautifully written. Celia Friedman is right up there with my other favourite fantasy writer, Robin Hobb, and I surprise even myself saying that. This was just 'great', I loved it and gave it 5 stars without even having to think on it. I immediately bought book two, When True Night Falls, because I want to know what happens to Vryce and Tarrant on their next adventure which starts tantalisingly right at the end of Black Sun Rising, and looks to involve a sea journey into the unknown. Perfect.


14 comments:

Margot Kinberg said...

This does sound like really effective world building, Cath. And the characters sound interesting , too. I give credit to authors who combine genres; that's not easy to do, especially in a longer, more complex story. Glad you enjoyed it .

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

As Margot has previously commented, I too can appreciate the talent of authors who can combine genres, and do it well, as seems obvious with this book, given your glowing review. I hope that the series continues to live up to expectations and that the character development is as good as the storyline.
As you would expect, this is definitely not one I shall be rushing to add to my own list!

Is this (for you) new style of longer review for individual books, something you are trying, or was this book so 'stand out' that it deserved some prime feature space of its own? Whereas I have desperately been trying to make my own reviews more succinct and less rambling, so that I can spend my time reading for pleasure, rather than needing to make notes about a book as I go along.

Enjoy the last of the Autumn sunshine this week :)

Sam said...

I can see why this took two weeks, Cath. It sounds really complicated, with a lot of different things simultaneously to keep up with. That you persevered for so many days speaks highly of this author's ability to tell a good story. I seldom read this genre, but I'm kind of tempted now to take a closer look. :-)

Lark@LarkWrites said...

I always enjoy quest/travelling fantasy adventures, too. Though I don't have the bandwidth for a 500+ book right now. But I will keep this series in mind for when I do. :D

Kathy's Corner said...

Nice review and glad you liiked this book so much Cath. I don't have much experience with science fiction and fantasy but fascinating characters like Vryce and Tarrant are so important in a novel and even more so in a series.

TracyK said...

This seems like a good science fiction / fantasy series and I will be looking out for a copy. I will check with my son and see if he is familiar with the author. I really wish fantasy books were not always so long, but that seems to be the way it is.

Cath said...

Margot: I quite agree that combining genres is not easy. I will use it for a Book Bingo challenge I'm doing where the category is 'mixed genre'. I was wondering what to read so this one fell into place quite nicely.

Cath said...

Yvonne: No, this book is probably not at all your kind of thing. LOL! And thank re your good hopes for future books, hopefully the author keeps up the good work.

I used to do a lot more longer reviews than I do these days. These days I tend only to do them for books I've really liked. Also, it was time to do a book post as it's two weeks since I did one, and as I'd only read one book it had to be a longer review or wait until I'd read a couple more. As I'm entering another busy phase I didn't want to wait that long. So a longer review was what got done.

I'm actually hoping for more autumn sunshine for next week as I'm off to Cornwall for a few days. Keep your fingers crossed.

Cath said...

Sam: Yes, the book is complicated and quite deep with a very strong sense of the planet and its quirks. I was very pleasantly surprised as I'm not much of a fantasy reader these days, finding a lot of it a bit samey. And the excellent writing doesn't harm at all, not always a given in the fantasy genre either.

Cath said...

Lark: Why did I have a feeling that you would be a fan of quest and travelling fantasy books too? :-) Yes, do keep it in mind for when you have the time and headspace for a longer fantasy novel. I don't think it will disappoint.

Cath said...

Kathy: Thank you. I don't read that much fantasy myself these days, I got a bit tired of the sameiness of a lot of it. This one differs from the run of the mill stuff, plus I felt invested in the characters. As you'll know, there are times when you just don't care about any of them.

Cath said...

Tracy: I would be interested to know whether your son has heard of Celia (or C.S.) Friedman. It's my impression that she's slipped under the radar a bit, although I have seen mention of her on a few Youtube channels. Most recently, Rachel at Shades of Orange, which is why I picked this one off my shelf to read. She liked the whole series so I have high hopes. I'm ashamed to say that I actually bought it in 2008.

I hope you're feeling a bit better now?

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

I am pleased that you are keeping yourself busy and hope that you enjoy your Cornish break! I have my fingers crossed for the weather though and hope you get one of those famous Cornish 'micro climates' :)

CLM said...

I never knew her name was Celia! I guess she uses initials to broaden her audience, which perhaps is necessary in that genre.