Rating: 
Summary: Dash it all. Here we are again.
Review: Sooooo...this was an exercise in how many unpronounceable names can you put in one book. Or perhaps how many times can you have repetitive conversations about religious blindness. Was there a story in there? OK, so it was better than Come Twilight, which was painful to read but still...more than 250 pages into the book and our hero hasn't met his babe for more than a fleeting moment. He's too busy mucking around giving his Word (does that capitalization grate on anyone else's nerves?) to Great Karl and the peasants and generally having a very dull time, sing halleluiah. Once we leave the north and travel to Rome the story tries to pick up steam, but in the end it seems someone forgot to hitch the coal car to the engine. Fizzle fizzle thunk. The short scenes with Olivia and Niklos are the only relief from the monotony. If you're looking for an historical picture of religious fundamentalism at its intolerant worst you've come to the right place. If you're looking for a captivating story with remarkably well-drawn characters too bad for you. I keep coming back to this series because of my love for Yarbro's Saint Germain, but the last three books have been really trying. Where is the man from Hôtel Transylvania and Blood Games? Has the well run dry? Will the next book also tank? ...this one certainly did.
Rating: 
Summary: Sanit Germain a vampire? You could have fooled me ...
Review: Tempted to read Night Blooming and Hotel Transylvania by the reviewers' comments, I was sorely disappointed in these books and the primary character, Saint Germain.Germain is "supposed" to be a vampire - although it is really hard to tell since the only vampirific tendencies he regularly exhibits are 1) he has a hard time crossing running water, and 2) he has to tuck his native earth into shoes, saddles, and other accoutrements SO THAT HE CAN BE OUT AND ABOUT IN THE SUN. Come on, I realize vampire characteristics differ - but two things are usually universal 1) vampires drink the blood of the living to continue their existence, and 2) they can be killed by exposure to sun light. Oddly enough, "Saint" is an excellent title for Germain because he and Mother Theresa could be good friends. Germain travels the earth doing good works. He spends his time helping ladies that he fancies, kings that require advice and counsel, down trodden servants, outcasts of society, and so on. I really don't know why Yarbro bothered to make Germain a vampire - the books would be more interesting if he were a regular person who did these things; because he is supposed to be a vampire, you keep expecting him to do gothic, vampire-like stuff, when he doesn't, he slips into being dull, predictable, and tiresome. For me, Yarbro's writing style is tedious, vapid, and uninspired. It took me many more days than it should have to read these books because I kept falling asleep. All of the tedium about titles, church minutia, underdeveloped characters, and loose ends ... I was secretly hoping to permanently misplace the books so that I did not have to finish reading them. I am sorry that this series did not live up to its billing. Since Anne Rice's glory days (I don't count her more recent work to be a part of her stellar past), it is difficult to find engaging vampire fiction. If you are dying to read this series, make certain that you either adjust your expectations about what a vampire is and does or load up on caffeine before you begin.
Rating: 
Summary: St. Germain - an acquired - ahem - taste ...
Review: This is one of the most popular vampire series on the market - and it's very existence flies in the face of common editorial wisdom. I know because I've sold a number of novels, including a vampire romance coming out in 2003, Those of My Blood, and the vampire related novels of Sime Gen such as The Unity Trilogy ASIN 1592220037. Most professional editors will tell you that if you want to sell a book to an editor, you can't mix your genres. And if the publisher has any hope of selling to a wide audience, you really really must never ever mix genres. Well, The Chronicles of Saint-Germain are Vampire-Romance-Historical-Feminist psycho-drama, as Those of My Blood and Sime Gen are also mixed genre. Yarbro has blended the twenty-first century's terse style with that antique style of words for their own sake, images described for 10 pages in paragraphs two pages long, words and words and words that just ripple across the senses for the sake of evocation of strange places in the minds of those who have never been 20 miles from their birthplace and never met anyone they haven't known all their lives. Yarbro evokes that wordy style without a spare word anywhere. Relying on the reader's modern experience, Yarbro transports us to "there and then" by capturing the attitudes and ideas, the viewpoints of those who lived in such a world. These novels have no action. Even when the characters are running for their lives, there's nothing resembling the kind of "action" you see on tv or in films. But you know what? That's exactly why I love them! How refreshing! A real, complex, deep, rich story told without depending on fight scenes the way "Walker, Texas Ranger" does. Yarbro uses plenty of danger, threats that materialize, angst,and conflict to give us insights into how our culture has become what it is today. I've done a long review of Night Blooming in my review column focusing on how perfectly the story of Gynethe Mehaut, a woman who is a totally passive victim of her life, time and circumstances reveals the full complexity of the definition of Enemy. She's an albino raised by Nuns, and has accepted a life of nothing but penitential prayer. Then the Church investigates why her hands bleed with stigmata reminiscent of Christ's wounds. She is sent from convent to convent and eventually to Charlemagne's court. She has solid emotional defenses against the life she's caught in -- until Saint Germain introduces her to the delights of the body. At one point, he uses a length of silk to pleasure her -- and offers her entre into his "life." Shortly after that, she's tortured. It seemed to me that because he broke down her inner defenses, the torture was hundreds of times worse for her than it would have been. For the torture scenes alone, Night Blooming is a stunning achievement of the writer's craft. But aside from that, the book reveals the full meaning of the casual references sprinkled in some of the other St. Germain novels about the time Saint Germain was at Charlemagne's court. If this is your first Saint Germain novel, I don't think you'll be able to rest without reading the others. Like watching just one episode of Forever Knight - it leaves you tantalized by so many questions. Live Long and Prosper,
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Rating:
Summary: Vampires and Stigmata
Review: This series never fails to enthrall with its fastidious attention to historical detail and its equally charming vampire hero. It's really quite amazing how subtly and so casually author Yarbro deals with the mundanities of vampirism, which never gets in the way of the plot or the history. Saint-Germain himself just gets better all the time. What a fabulous character, created from a bit of history himself! The supporting cast -- his manservant, his former-lover-turned-best-vamp-bud, and her charming and witty ghoul amanuensis --- are so well developed throughout the series, they now seem like old friends. Admittedly, Anne Rice and her Lestat, worthy of praise and adultation, tend to overshadow the more quiet seduction of Yarbro and S-G; that seems a bit unfair, but then this kind of historical fiction does not appeal to everyone. If you love Rice, you should though at least give Yarbro a try. The same is true for fans of Laurell Hamilton, whom this writer finds to be an acquired taste which just hasn't happened for him yet, if ever. NIGHT BLOOMING is a superb additon to the S-G chronicles.
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