Tempting Fate

Rating:
Summary: The best to date of the St. Germain series
Review: An extremely enjoyable book. What makes this story so good is St. Germains's poignant relationship with his ward Laisha. Against the backdrop of WWII, this non-stereotypic vampire travels through Europe protecting and helping the humans he has taken under his wing. He's a tragic figure with fine sensibilites. His ongoing but no longer requitable love for Madeline de Montalia, his tenderness toward Gudrun, and the way he cherishes Laisha all contibute our understanding of the seemingly enigmatic Count. I was very disappointed that the author chose not to develop the relationship between Laisha and her "Papa".

Rating:
Summary: The best to date of the St. Germain series
Review: An extremely enjoyable book. What makes this story so good is St. Germains's poignant relationship with his ward Laisha. Against the backdrop of WWII, this non-stereotypic vampire travels through Europe protecting and helping the humans he has taken under his wing. He's a tragic figure with fine sensibilites. His ongoing but no longer requitable love for Madeline de Montalia, his tenderness toward Gudrun, and the way he cherishes Laisha all contibute our understanding of the seemingly enigmatic Count. I was very disappointed that the author chose not to develop the relationship between Laisha and her "Papa".

Rating:
Summary: "Papa, can you hear me"?.......
Review: I had heard nothing but wonderful things about this book and, while being extremely emotional and engrossing, I just could not get into Saint-Germain doin' the Daddy thing.

In this novel, Saint-Germain adopts an orphan and while that plot may sound fascinating...and it is...I found his daughter Laisha to be somewhat of a spoiled brat. Try as I might, I just couldn't like her.

However, there were many other, more likeable characters in this sweeping epic and out of all of the books in the series, I could definately see this one being made into a feature film. (Though "Blood Games" would make a good movie, too.) The time period was fascinating and the atmosphere richly textured. You could almost taste the strudel.

We really get to see Saint-Germain in some heavy duty emotional turmoil and for that alone, I would recommend this novel.

Be on the lookout for some delicious moments towards the end, one in particular dealing with Schnapps. It's one of my favorite Saint-Germain moments in the entire canon!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Rating:
Summary: mitigate... how can it mitigate?
Review: Le Comte de St. Germain is a much more real, more interesting vampire than any written by Anne Rice. This is vampire literature for the intelligent reader -- be sure to read Hotel Transylvania by the same author.

Rating:
Summary: Fifth in the Saint Germain series.
Review: This book, the fifth in the series about the vampire Franz Ragozy de Saint Germain, was originally intended to be the last of the series. (It says so, in the "about the author" section in the back.) Of course, there are roughly a dozen more out now; Yarbro keeps getting new ideas for the character, beyond what she'd originally planned. This is unquestionably the best written of the first five books in the series, but be warned: do not read it unless you are in the mood for tragedy. It is powerfully written, and captures all too fully the trauma that struck all too frequently in that time and place; "The Sound Of Music" this most assuredly is NOT. ("Hotel Transylvania" was set in prerevolutionary France, "The Palace" in renaissance Italy in the time of Botticelli, "Blood Games" in imperial Rome at the time of Nero, and "Path of the Eclipse" during the Mongol invasion of China; this is set primarily in Germany during the period between the world wars.)

There is little of the feel, all too evident in the first three books of the series, of the cheap Gothic Romance; the characters are very real, and so are the events (in at least two cases, a little TOO real for my taste, but I can't reasonably fault the author for that; the setting and period would not have been done justice had everything turned out well.)

For those unfamiliar with the series, the Comte de Saint Germain is a vampire who has "lived" since approximately 1500 BC; he has many of the typical features of the stereotypical vampire; he doesn't age, is difficult to injure, and needs to drink blood to survive. But unlike the stereotype, he doesn't kill with his blood-drinking, and blood itself is not sufficient; there must be an emotional connection as well, and the less emotional connection there is, the less satisfying the blood is. He can be killed by severing the spine or destroying the brain; other wounds are painful, but ultimately superficial. He is susceptable to sunlight, but less so than many vampires; he doesn't care for it, but hardly bursts into flame on exposure. Essentially, he sunburns easily. Similarly, he cannot rest unless it is on his native soil, and cannot cross running water. All of these prohibitions, however, are alleviated by the expedient of wearing his native soil in the soles of his shoes, using it in the foundation of any home he builds, and filling his mattress with it, so he CAN, in fact, be seen in broad daylight in the Mediterranean summer on shipboard.

The character is an unmitigated hero, not the antihero of most vampire fiction; wealthy, urbane, kind, generous, most worthy of emulation. Still, he's a bad man to cross. The series as a whole is highly recommended, and this book is powerfully written, if EXTREMELY unsettling.

Rating:
Summary: St-Germain in Germany
Review: This is the fifth book in Yarbro's long-running St-Germain series, and it's one of the best. All of Yarbro's standard touches are here: the well-researched historical background (pre-WWII Germany), the narrow-minded brutality of most of the human characters, the horrors they inflict, St-Germain's involvement with a lonely woman, the danger that forces him to flee, the emotional losses he experiences, etc. etc. But there's another twist to this book: the immortal vampire becomes a father when he saves--and raises--an orphaned girl.

This presents us with a somewhat different view of St Germain than we get in the other novels in the series. Normally, the Count lives among humans and even loves a select few, but always knows that he will eventually be forced to move on. In this book, he loves in a way that he hasn't allowed himself to before. That, in combination with the more recent time period of the novel, makes the inevitable tragedy that much more poignant.

Rating:
Summary: A new insight into St. Germain's life
Review: This story, which takes place from the end of World War I thru the rise of the Nazi's in the 1930's, is set a few years after the end of "Writ in Blood" and continues a few of the peripheral characters first mentioned in that book. St. Germain, fleeing imprisonment in post-Revolution Russia, finds an abandoned 7 year old girl and takes her with him to his castle in Bavaria. He becomes Aleisha's guardian, and has the first time ever experience of raising a child. We watch, with him, as she grows from a frightened child to a confident, loving and outspoken young lady. For someone who hasn't changed in 4000 years, the opportunity to see his beloved child grow out of clothes, learn to play the piano, and gain a growing knowledge of the world (including an acceptance of his true nature) is an unique experience. But Germany and the world around them is changing as well, and eventually tragedy strikes.