Dark of the Sun: A Novel of Saint-Germain(St. Germain Series) » (Reprint)

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is the author of more than twenty novels of the life and times of the Count Saint-Germain and other vampires, including Night Blooming, Midnight Harvest, A Feast in Exile, and the classic Hotel Transylvania. She has also written novels in a wide variety of other genres, including SF, fantasy, mystery, horror, western, and young adult adventure.

It is the 6th century of the common era. The vampire Saint-Germain, known in this time as Sangi-Ragozh, is peacefully doing business in Asia when, unknown to him-or anyone else in most of the world-Krakatoa explodes in a massive volcanic eruption. The island is nearly completely destroyed; tidal waves swamp harbors hundreds of miles away, ravaging trade ships and their cargoes; tons of ash and dirt are flung into the air.

In the months to come, the world grows colder and darker as the massive cloud of dust and ash spreads across the globe, blocking sunlight. Sea trade is ravaged. Crops fail. Livestock, and then people, begin to starve. Disease spreads. Panic rises.

What has caused the sun to go dark? With his scientific bent, Sangi-Ragozh suspects a natural cause, but most people assume a supernatural explanation-and begin to seek supernatural remedies.

As always in times of trouble, foreigners-and the vampire is always a foreigner, wherever he travels-become targets. Fleeing toward the West, where he hopes to find safety and sanity, the vampire travels with a nomadic tribe led by Dukkai, a female shaman who soon becomes Sangi-Ragozh's lover-and main source of sustenance.

But Sangi-Ragozh's problems are far from over. His vampire nature is discovered by an enemy; he is separated from Dukkai and begins to starve; he has lost everything, including his last sack of his native soil.

With death no longer a distant possibility, Sangi-Ragozh desperately tries to reach sanctuary in the one place he truly belongs-his homeland, the country he first left centuries earlier.

A land we now call Transylvania.

Publishers Weekly

Yarbro's 17th entry in her historical-horror series (Path of the Eclipse, etc.) adroitly uses the ever-metaphoric vampire to portray the human dimensions of a cataclysm that changed the course of history. Vampire Saint-Germain and his faithful companion, Roger, who go under the names Zangi-Ragozh and Ro-shei in this solid installment, are merchants in sixth-century A.D. Yang-Chau, as Shanghai was called during this period. Forced by political necessity to journey westward to Chang'an (aka Xian) during winter, the pair soon realize that this is a winter like no other. Never in his more than 3,500 years of existence has the well-traveled vampire experienced anything similar-a sun with "no warmth or strength," strange yellow snowfall and an "invisible cloud" distorting the sky. Unbeknownst to most of the world, an eruption of the volcano Krakatau (aka Krakatoa) is to blame. Agricultural and economic disruption result, illness spreads, social unrest and collapse follow. The Dark Ages begin. Faced with a multitude of hardships, Saint-Germain determines to travel across Asia to his native soil in the Carpathian Mountains. The romantic and supernatural play second fiddle to history in this well-told story that deals with the meaning of being human. Agent, Irene Kraas. (Nov. 1) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.