Black Sun Rising

Coldfire Trilogy, Book 1

By: C. S. Friedman

Narrated by: R.C. Bray

Length: 23 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

The Coldfire trilogy tells a story of discovery and battle against evil on a planet where a force of nature exists that is capable of reshaping the world in response to psychic stimulus. This terrifying force, much like magic, has the power to prey upon the human mind, drawing forth a person's worst nightmare images or most treasured dreams, and indiscriminately giving them life.

This is the story of two men: one, a warrior priest ready to sacrifice anything and everything for the cause of humanity's progress; the other, a sorcerer who has survived for countless centuries by a total submission to evil. They are absolute enemies who must unite to conquer an evil greater than anything their world has ever known.

©1991 C.S. Friedman (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Amazing listen!

I fell in love with this series back in the 90s and was so thrilled to find it on Audible.

The story is extremely deep, allowing for tremendous character growth. Each of the main’s have a unique voice. And the ending is quite satisfying.

The voice performance is solid, though some of the ancillary characters take some odd choices.

If you are a fan of fantasy this series is a great choice for you!

Great Story

I had read the series beforehand and enjoyed this performance immensely. looking forward to the next volume.

Nice narration, interesting premise, but bad story

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.

Great story.. good voice

What made the experience of listening to Black Sun Rising the most enjoyable?

I was a HUGE fan of this series in print when I as a youngster....
I was overjoyed to see it finally available in Audio!!

The story remains as great as ever. (just go with it past the grisly start of
the story!)

The Audible narator is servicable, but I had hopes for something slightly
more "rough-edged" to portray the "Hunter" Character.

Still a great buy that you will not be disappointed with!

An excellent rendition of a superb story

This trilogy is one of my very favorite reads. Mr. Bray does an amazing job with the voices, especially the unhuman voices. Highly recommended to anyone who already thinks they might want it, and to those who enjoy an intricately plotted, character driven, richly detailed story which explores the natures of good and evil, altruism and self-interest, and unlikely allies. This is a complex series, yet each book comes to a satisfying conclusion, so one is not left hanging should one decide to stop after the first (hard for me to imagine, but tastes do vary). If you enjoy admiring an attractive villain, there are few as attractive as Gerald Tarrant, and Damian Vries makes an excellent hero as well.

Great twist -- very likable bad-guy....

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

Pleasure to Hear

The story was great. It had a wonderful balance of actual characters and magic with rules. The bad guy was bad but yet still had more character then a single drive and goal villain. The whole time I didn't want to put the story down. The action was great without the battles becoming tiresome. Bray did a nice job without over powering the story.

Note there are a very few scenes where if you a thin voice hard to hear you might very difficult. However they are for the most part short and not super critical to the plot.

GIVE IT A CHANCE!

What did you love best about Black Sun Rising?

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

Which scene was your favorite?

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.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

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.

Any additional comments?

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!

Starts slow, builds steam

The beginning feels a bit dry and dense, but if you stick with it the world building is interesting, and so are the characters.

Favorite Narrator for My Favorite Book

Powerful character tale told on a dark rich stage of beauty and intellect and determination.