Black Sun Rising

First published in 1991, this chunky volume is the opening book in the Coldfire Trilogy. It largely reads like fantasy, complete with sorcerors and demons, but has some science-fiction trappings. In the years that it waited neglected on my shelves, I read the prologue a couple of times and set it aside without being hoooked. This time, knowing that people I respect had loved the book, I persisted.Spoilers ahead. I can see why they enjoyed "Black Sun Rising." The worldbuilding is improbable if viewed as science fiction, but allows for a detailed and unusual mix of an alien planet and sorcerous powers. The plot is dramatic and energetic, the main characters frequently in a crisis. The use of magical healing means that they can sustain what would otherwise be lethal injuries yet continue their adventures the next day. This last point is one I usually consider a weakness rather than a strength, but can make for a page-turner provided I like the characters.In this case, I didn't initially like the characters. All told, there are approximately a dozen point-of-view characters, but one of them, Damien, receives considerably the largest page count. And I didn't find Damien an immersive, fully convincing character. He is a man of a faith, a priest whose religion guides his life, yet that aspect of his character didn't communicate itself at all well to me. [The "to me" is important -- every reader comes to a book with a different background and so reacts differently.] Likewise, fairly early in the story, Damien falls in love, but this, too, didn't feel convincing to me. And the book lacked touches that would have made me warm to him quickly: acts of kindness, moments of diffidence, certain types of humor and fallibility. I only gradually and incompletely came to sympathize with him.Another of the major characters has aspects that incline me to sympathize with him: his isolation, his commitment, his rather snarky attitude, yet I found it difficult-to-impossible to get past certain extravagantly repellent acts of his.Overall, I enjoyed this moderately rather than extravagantly, and am in no immediate hurry to progress to book two. Three out of five middling stars.About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).

Twelve hundred years ago, a sleeper ship from Earth deposited several thousand colonists on the wild, untamed world of Erna. Seismically active Erna is a harsh planet to survive on, made worse by the presence of the Fae, a source of energy that permeates the elements and can be harnessed by certain humans to further their own ends. Unfortunately, the Fae can also be manipulated subconciously, resulting in the people's fears and nightmares taking on solid form.With all high technology lost in the birth of a new religion, the colonists of Erna have descended to a Renaissance level of technology, although retaining certain advanced medical, astronomical and scientific knowledge. Damien Kilcannon Vryce, a warrior-priest of the Church and one of the few churchmen able to wield the Fae, arrives in the city of Jaggonath to adopt a new and difficult role in the Church hierarchy. However, when a local Fae-wielder is brutally attacked and her ability to wield the Fae is neutralised, Damien is drawn into a lengthy quest that will lead into the dangerous rakhlands to confront a powerful sorcerer. Along the way Damien is forced into a most uneasy alliance with the cold and arrogant Gerald Tarrant, a powerful wielder of the Fae who has secrets of his own...Black Sun Rising (1991) is the first novel in Celia Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy. This SF-epic fantasy hybrid was very highly regarded upon its initial release in the United States, but oddly it wasn't until a year or so ago that Orbit finally published the first UK edition.The novel is a mixture of the familiar and the use of more original tropes, although the familiar does win out in the end. This is a quest story, with an interesting band of 'heroes' setting out to right a great wrong and travel across a vast chunk of countryside in the process. The world of Erna has some interesting facets to it but the travelling makes for the more tedious part of the book, especially the endless mucking around in caves. Page after page of description of rocks and tunnels does not make for entertaining reading.Fortunately, Friedman's characters are an interesting, if largely unlikeable bunch. She isn't afraid to kill off major characters and paints them in convincing detail. Less impressive is that secondary characters are not very well developed at all. The rakhs' motivations in particular could have been fleshed out more and one key character who hangs around for a good 150-200 or so pages doesn't even get a name.The plotline is intriguing and there's no denying that the worldbuilding is quite well-thought-out. The cliffhanger ending comes out of nowhere and the enforced humour at the end of the book doesn't really work as well as intended. That said, the book was enjoyable enough to make me look forward to picking up the second volume, When True Night Falls.

I was surprised to read a few negative reviews proclaiming this book as a stereotypical, juvinial fantasy novel with cheesy cardboard characters reminiscent of said stereotypical fanrasy novels. I have read a lot of fanrasy books over the years of all kinds. I found Black Sun Rising was not typical in any regard.The planet of Erna is a new and unique take on environment and magic. The energy of the earth, the tides, ect is a reactive, magical force that can take form based on human thought/emotion/fear often creating monsterous demons. Religion was created in an attempt to direct, through faith, this reactive energy into protectice manifestations and keep the demons at bay. Human belief aline can create gods and make them real. It is a facinating concept and explored and explained wonderfully by Friedman.The characters are diverse but sympathetic, even the truly evil anti-hero Gerald Torrant. These chracters are real people with real struggles, flaws and virtues. They make bad decisions and assumptions that put them in danger. They compromise their beliefs and have to deal with the consequences. The grow to accept and understand new lands, new peoples and themselves. They change as a result and sometimes not for the better.Friedman writes on levels, the simple, the obvious, the subtle and the complex. If all one does is skim the book inpart without thought or careful attention i can see how the complexity and subtle development MIGHT be missed. Although to me it was abvious from page one that Black Sun Rising was a different read. I couldn't put it down, and in recent years that has become a rarity.And the subsequent books are even better!The only thing i can think of to caution new readers is the writing style. Friedman is very descriptive. I find the extensive description and all the internal dialogue a great addition, a way to experience the world and characters as if i was really there, seeing clear images in my mind as i read. Some might not fedl the same. The book it pretty long and involved.I liked this book well enough to also purchase it on Aubible.com and listen to it a second time at work. The plot and characters are complex enough that its not an easy listen for a first time read, but the barration and narrator is very well done. I highly recommend in any format.

I loved the world Friedman creates here. Erna is a well-developed and fascinating world where a mentally-responsive force called the fae (and its many varieties) creates a more fluid, magical world where magic is wielded both purposely and accidentally. I absolutely love the world and the living environment of it.I love the moral gray areas it takes you through as well. It's complex and challenging and gives a wonderful sense of tension as the story progresses.I loved the first half of the book, as we learn about the world and the fae and the characters and the plot takes us on twists and turns. The second half, however, loses itself in action. There is a journey, and a long one at that. Character development seems to slow to a trickle, and we find out little more about Erna and its history. While the complex relationships carried my attention through the first half, they faded away as the story progressed.The ending is one of the most disappointing endings I've ever read. Imagine preparing a marvelous dinner, and then as it's nearing completion you decide you just don't really care about it, and when it's done you push it off the table, and don't even ask what anyone else thought of it. That's the best I can do without any spoilers. The story has a resolution, but just doesn't care anymore about the motivation guiding the entire thing. The characters continue on to the next book like they're on autopilot.

Not since Dune have I read a book that so convincingly crosses fantasy and science-fiction. Like that epic novel, the Coldfire Trilogy is set on a distant planet in the far distant future. Man is without his usual technological conveniences, and the reasons for that are cleverly and intelligently revealed over the first two books. This book is so dark, about an evil so great, and acts so vile, it makes Frodo & Sam's journey to Morodor look like a walk in the park. Like Tolkien's Frodo & Gollum, Friedman's Vryce and Tarrant make for a wonderful dualistic alliance in their greater journey to destroy evil. But there the similarity ends. Tarrant's narcissitic and enticingly dark character is peeled like an onion, and in this first book, you will find yourself hating him with your very soul. In the second book, you will hate him even more. In the third... well, you will question your sanity. That is all due to Friedman's craft and persistent vision.