Black Sun Rising: Coldfire Trilogy, Book 1

Prelude: A lot of people seem to enjoy this book, so you might as well.

I almost always finish the audiobooks I purchase, and I finished this one. But it was a chore, not a pleasure. The book failed for me on so many levels, but many devolve to a set of unlikable, boring characters with inexplicable motivations.

Why does Damien, a warrior priest, instigate the quest to recover Ciani's stolen memories and adept skills? The author tells us it is because Damien is in love with Ciani, but it isn't believable. He hardly knows her at the start of the journey, and once the journey begins, he mostly avoids speaking with her. Sure, he obsesses over her in countless internal monologues, but it's an illustration of puppy love, not the type of love that would motivate a long journey by a mature man to confront a dangerous foe.

Why does Damien hate Tarrant, the powerful dark adept that joins them on the journey? It could be because Tarrant lacks basic human values, but the author roots the conflict in Damien's religious beliefs. This is emphasized in countless internal monologues, and through some of their interactions. The problem is that the tenets of the religion are never presented. So the conflict, which represents a major plot thread, has no understandable basis. In fact, Tarrant is by far the more interesting and likable of the two characters, which makes Damien's hatred seem churlish.

Did I mention the countless internal monologues, which go nowhere and reveal little? Half way through the book, my greatest wish was to see Damien die a horrible, horrible death. By the end, I was just happy to be finished with him and the rest.

There are things to like about the book, such as an interesting and novel world. Unfortunately, I found it to be populated by tedious characters, a poorly explained magic system, and contradictions that made my jaw drop.

The story took me by surprise in that I was not expecting a 'new' spin on such a controversial subject: Religion. You have a group of colonists effectively stranded at the outer edge of the universe on a planet that literally takes their hopes and fears and make them real. The struggle to control the human psyche and the 'monsters' that can be created from it comes down to creating and sustaining a belief system so that they can survive and thrive. However, just like in our own society, there are those that buy into the belief system and those that oppose it. The introduction of an unknown but increasingly powerful villain that requires an equally powerful but somewhat equally distasteful "hero" just makes the story that much more interesting. Imagine the creator of your most cherished and beloved philosophy turning into the very thing you're fighting against. A "creature" that embodies the things you hate and despise the most but, at the same time needing that self same individual to help you save the human race.

The first book took a little long to get around to the actual story and character development seemed somewhat slow; but, as I listened I became more interested in the underlying story. The narrator, R.C Bray did an excellent job, and I look forward to listening to other books he has done.

The reviewer "William" said it better than I could--this story became a chore to listen to. The story started off interesting and with a cool premise, but by the middle of the story it was becoming clear that the plot was going to progress at a very slow pace, that the characters weren't going to find sufficiently believable motivations, and that the stakes weren't going to be raised any time soon. I consistently found myself asking why this quest was still happening.

The main character makes decisions that are bewildering, sacrificing his core values--and really, the core values of anyone even trying to be moral, that is, "killing lots of innocent people is bad" for a cause he has all but emotionally abandoned by that point.

The stakes are assumed to be high, and "people will suffer if we don't finish this" is used as a justification for helping an evil person who must kill countless innocents to survive. The trouble is that despite the book's description, the story never really gives us any evidence that this is true. The main character wrestles with the moral problems of whether or not he can justify working with evil to fight some vague evil, but never stops to wonder what it is he's actually doing or why.

It just got frustrating.

R.C. Bray adds energy and fresh enjoyment to one of my favorite novels by giving a unique voice to each character, and breathing life into the book as a whole. By adopting firm yet subtle accents and inflections he helps give the sense that the regions the characters travel through, as well as the people they meet within, each have their own history and background, even when that was never hinted at in the narration itself. It's nice to hear a fantasy novel where not everyone sounds like they're all from the same country.

As well, one of my favorite aspects of Black Sun Rising (and The Coldfire Trilogy as a whole) is its treatment of "magic" within the book. Friedman has spun a rather unique yet understandable take to it, which allows the reader to quickly learn how it works within this world, as well as what its defining laws are. Something I find rare in most fantasy novels, which too often tend to do little more then just say "What? It's magic! It just works!"

Lastly I enjoy that the each of the characters, while most do fall into some kind of fantasy novel archetype, are all fleshed out, distinct, and well written individuals. They all have flaws as well as strengths just like the rest of us, and even though they live in a world far different from our own, it's very easy to understand both them and their motivations, even if you may not necessarily like or agree with all of them. Most importantly I find that they all consistently stay true to themselves, even when forced to compromise, and are never allowed to suddenly break character just to more easily or expediently further some aspect of the plot.

Overall I highly recommend this audiobook and will be listening to the rest of the Coldfire Trilogy as soon as possible!

Everything! The story line was great, the characters were well developed and the narrator was amazing.

One of my favorite scenes was when the first venture into the Hunter’s woods occurred. I will leave it at that to not give out an spoilers for those who really want to read the book.

I particularly loved how all of the characters had to join forces to overcome an evil despite the fact that they really would have rather killed each other! The control and determination that was portrayed by each of them kept the story going and it really made you want each of them to triumph despite all the wrong some of them had done.

I am writing this after reading the first two book and I must say that I absolutely love this set so far. I started this set after finishing a more historical fiction trilogy and must say it took a little bit to accumulate to the different nature of the books, but man once I did I was hooked. I was honestly very surprised by all of the negative review. The book opened with a scene that grabbed you and made you hate the character and then it kept going and this character developed into so much more and then you cannot decide of you really hate him or not. Then once you move into the second book the line gets closer and closer together and you hate to love this character, but you just cannot help it.

I am a very vivid reader and I love making a book come to life and R.C. Bray was AMAZING and helped me do just that! I am so glad that I listened to this as opposed to actually reading because I really think that he made the book have that “it” factor that kept me hooked.

I loved the buildup of relationships between the characters over the entire series. If you have not read on you really should. The twist and turns and the moral calling between right and wrong is just so intriguing. I listened to the books every they were just one of those books that you don’t want to put it down, or in this case, take the headphones off. I am so glad that I read them and am excited to finish the third!

Fantastic, imaginative, and fun!

The Hunter. He is a true Lawful Evil character and C.S. writes him beautifully.

So far I'm liking Damien. R.C. Bray is excellent in his art. All the characters are well read.

I rewound a great deal. The story is so complex and compelling just one word mis-interpreted by the listener (me) can actually change a whole scenario. I laughed out loud a few times.What a great world Friedman has created. I want to find people to role play it some day. It would be a D&D world were everyone was a wild mage to one degree or another. That would be my initial interpretation. D&D 2nd Edition rules.

I read every Friedman book I could ten years ago. I was so happy to find her books on Audible. Life is so busy anymore and not having the time to read, being able to hear the story, remember, and imagine is a great feeling. C.S. Friedman is a favorite and in the upper pantheon of writers in this genre. When Brooks, Martin, Goodkind, and Salvatore play poker Friedman is at the table too.

This book is dark, and it is serious. Book has very interesting settings as well as characters. I always wanted to read a book with a vampire type creature in epic fantasy, and this book does a justice to that specific type of fiction. Vampire discussed in this book, is intelligent, powerful and mysterious. This Vampire has done what an intelligent being with such power would do. As evil as this vampire is described to be, it is still not the main bad guy of the book.

This book is also about conflict, intrigue and pragmatism. A priest that is in conflict within his own church with a lot of intrigue; a conflicted but necessary relationship between a priest and a vampire both of whom cant stand each other, but had to work together to achieve a goal.

This book has a lot of substance, and it brought to light with a very good narrator. Narration is correctly done that it is not overly dramatic, nor it is too passive for the story.

I already am on the second book, and I would recommend this book for folks who are interested in reading a fantasy book with interesting settings and with dark background throughout the book.

No

No

Yes

No

This book was interesting at the beginning, with an usual magic system. Then it devolved into endless wandering, with little to nothing happening. C.S. Friedman has a tendency to use the same word over and over again. Malevolence was used so often, that I wanted to throw a thesaurus at her. Not recommended, and I willl not be reading the rest of the series.

Most definitely. The story is compelling and gripping.

The characters and the plot. The story is beautifully told and the characters are brought to vivid life by the R. C. Bray. The word play is a delight.

His stunning performance brings the story and characters to life such that if they ever make a movie out of the books, they should, at the very least, use his voice for Damien Vryce's character.

The extreme reaction was in not wanting to stop listening to the book.

I have been a Star Wars junkie for a while and after listening to Dominion, I decided to get this book. What a pleasure. After this book, I was hooked to the trilogy. Amazing work. I love it.

I was introduced to Gerald Tarrant and Damian Vryce maybe 2007 or 2008 and have enjoyed the dialog between the two ever since. When I saw that it was in audio form I decided to chance it.

I've seen other reviews where this trilogy was characterized as tedious, maybe I was spared that because I had already read the trilogy, more than once.

There is a sense, at least to me, of earned respect given by each character. The mix of frontier mentalities with the canonical structure of the Church made for a great backdrop for Tarrant and Vryce.

There is a slower pace to this story that is a wonderful change from my other genres where things are always on the move or blowing up, etc.

Another thing that I enjoyed, is that it the characters where not truly black or white, all had their faults, all had their strengths.

Then there is Tarrant, how could I not love, him... arrogant, powerful, but always, well almost always true to himself...

In the previous statements I wanted to say that all the main characters have a dark side and a side that strives for the goodness of the light; with Tarrant he has his dark side, and then his maybe-no-so-dark side... ;-)

I didn't get to the point where I had to write in the margins of my copy of this book; for that try reading "My House has Two Doors" by Han SuYin, but I can see where one might have to double back a couple times to see if he or she missed something. Really not easy with an audio file..

My two cents for what it is worth..

pj