Rating: 
Summary: A truly staggering, gothic, vampirically cursed world.
Review: C.S. Friedman's coldfire trilogy is composed of Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, and Crown of Shadows. As a series, it is excellent. In Black Sun Rising, Ms. Friedman introduces us to a truly original world, one so important in its mysterious ability to manipulate and feed on a person's fears that it seems like a character. There is enough high, magical weirdness to her world to fill the novel, and Friedman builds her story around that in Black Sun Rising. For instance, I remember the magical wards she placed on homes to thwart danger. Also, an evil forest exists where it is rumoured that an ancient sorcerer lives by the name of Gerald Tarrant. In his youth, he committed a terrible crime to achieve an exalted status, and now he has become a sort of fear-consuming vampiric demon. Friedman knew the potential of this material, and she took advantage of it. As good as Black Sun Rising is, I liked When True Night Falls even better. At over six hundred pages, it posed no difficulty for me to read half in one sitting. My car was in the shop, and I was in an alien world.
Rating: 
Summary: Black Sun Rising
Review: By any reasonable standards, this is a godawful book.On a sentence level, it's wordy, "telly" and full of obtrusive dialogue tags. The setting is pseudo-SF -- there's really no reason at all why it shouldn't be fantasy, since it's about magic, and then we could get rid of silly words like "neocount". The cat people are some of the less personable aliens I've run across, though their subterranean kin are more interesting, and so is the at-will evolutionary concept. The plot, though it does move along, has at least one huge continuity error (er, what happened to Ciani's having enticed Senzei to kill himself, or if that was a simulacra, what happened with that...?) Despite all this, I kept reading the book to the end, and I came up with two reasons. One is that, despite it all, Friedman does write about darkness, and does come up with some interestingly twisted situations, even if they aren't all that well written. Another is the character Tarrant -- yeah, he's the cliche Sexy Devil, the vampire prince, et cetera, but he really is cool, there's no denying it. I'll probably even read the rest of the series. Ack.
Rating: 
Summary: if only i could give this book a zero
Review: this book was so horrible when i finished it i through it away and when the second book was released i couldn't even look at it. All i have to say about it is do not i repeat do not buy this book it would be a total lapse fo judgement on your part if you did.
Rating:
Summary: Best Fantasy Book Ever Written...
Review: If you love fantasy books, this is the book for you. If you DON'T love fantasy books, this is still the book for you. I recently finished reading the 1st book in the trilogy for a second time, and it was even better this time around. C.S. Friedman created a world so unlike our own, yet so BELIEVABLE! And Damien is such a likable character with emotions so utterly HUMAN that you can't help but fall inlove with him and share his sorrows, joy, or confusion. The unlikely friendship that develops between him and Tarrant is beautiful. This is a story of adventure, struggle, loss, gain, growth, sacrifice, and human (and sometimes non-human) bondage.
Rating:
Summary: UTTERLY GRIPPING
Review: THIS BOOK IS SIMPLY AMAZING. I ONLY KNOW THIS BECAUSE I AM VERY PICKY, AND, I WILL DROP A BOOK IN A SECOND IF IT WILL NOT HOLD ME. THIS BOOK IS FILLED WITH VIBRANT CHARACTERS WHO DRAW YOU INTO THEIR WORLD AND TAKE YOU ON AN ADVENTURE GRANDER THAN ANY I HAVE BEEN ON. TOLKIEN WROTE A GREAT STORY WITH THE LORD OF THE RINGS BUT THIS SURPASSES IT ONLY BECAUSE IT DOES NOT REQUIRE SOME OF THE WORK TOLKIEN REQUIRES TO FINISH IT. I AM WRITING THIS AFTER HAVING READ ALL THREE BOOKS IN THIS SERIES AND I HAVE TO SAY THAT WHEN THIS SERIES WAS OVER I FELT THE SICKNESS AND PAIN ONE FEELS WHEN EXPERIENCING THE LOSS OF A FRIEND. THIS IS A MUST READ TRILOGY IF EVER THERE WAS ONE TO COMPETE WITH ENDERS SERIES BY ORSON SCOTT CARD. THE WORLD IS FASCINATING, THE CHARACTERS ARE ALIVE AND BEAUTIFUL,AND THE ENDING WILL HURT YOU TO THE CORE SO DELICIOUSLY YOU WILL BEG TO READ IT UNTIL YOU ARE SUCKED IN. IN SUMMATION THIS BOOK AND THIS SERIES SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING
Rating: 
Summary: Average stuff
Review: Black Sun rising. I find the book to be ponderous. There's a lot of internal reflection by the characters. Damien (the warrior priest) irritates me, that's not good. It's mainly because of his morals, I tend to have that problem with religious people who let their beliefs and so called honour get in the way of what is the right and most pragmatic thing to do. Certainly there's plenty of action, and when the story gets rolling it's attractive. But this is countered by an extremely uninteresting world. The fae are truly the only interesting thing. Another thing that I don't appreciate in this series is all this "Knowing, Working, Seeing, Distracting, Obscuring"). I think this is where it shows that this is definitly SF as well as Fantasy. Too technical for my taste. It would have sufficed for me if Friedman has explained that the Fae could be bound to do this and that. The constant references to Working and Knowing is tedious. Aside from that I find the characters of Senzei and Ciani to be utterly bland. Since they are two of the four main leads, that's a pretty high percentage. What I like: Gerald Tarrant, cool character,Hesseth, the Rakh,Calesta, an intriguing demon,The cover art Dislike Uninteresting world,The ponderous nature of the book,The morality of the Priest. The fact that I have to read about yet another souldrinking sword,the terminology for the magic.
The poor quality of the DAW paperback. This is the worst sort of PB IMO. Small printing on dark-beige paper. I may buy the sequel at some time or another, they're not really bad, just average. But even though I appreciate more than simple sword and sorcery with hidden heirs , this isn't what I'm hoping for.
Rating: 
Summary: A typical adventure sage with religious overtones
Review: The place is Erna, located on the Rim of the galaxy in the far distant future. Earth colonists have established a primitive society on a living planet that can read thoughts, wishes, dreams and especially fears and translate them into reality. A place where certain people, faeborn, and socerers fight to control the fae. A place where an evil grows, an evil that comsumes a victim's mind and memories, leaving them an empty husk. A place where Gerrald Tarrant, NeoCount and psycho-vampire must join forces with a priest to save the world.
Tarrant was originally the Prophet of the Church, peaching that together, humans cound control the world. Then the Church turns against him and he, for fear of death, sacrifices his family and becomes the antithesis of good, light, warmth.
Damien Vryce, a priest/socerer/Healer/defender of the Faith, must rely on Tarrant to save the woman he loves and his Church. With the aid of a native aborigine rakh, Hesseret, they travel to the Forbibben Lands to confront the Evil. Triumphant at last, they realize that the evil they destroyed is not the source but a symptom. And so the stage is set for the 2nd book.
As the Emperor Leopold said the Mozart" an enjoyable effort but it has too many words." This is how I feel about this book. Friedman spends an inordinate amount of time trying to describe the lands, cities and everything else in such detail that it detracts from the storyline. The action is predictable as are the characters. It starts off slow but picks up about half-way. It could be simply me but a few terse desriptions would add more to the book than these elaborate ones. Personal preference. I read it at the beach at a leisurely pace with no compunction not to put it down. Good summer reading.
Rating:
Summary: If you read it you'll be hooked!
Review: My ex-boyfriend gave me this for my birthday when we were still dating. He set me up on a long string of book purchases! I now own everything by this author I could find. Black Sun Rising introduces a great cast of characters. The desire to follow their adventures is like a craving for the reader. Hard to put down and rendered in fabulous style and beauty. This book has rhythm to it, and the word choice is superb. The concepts of the world C.S. Friedman creates are interesting and I wish I had written it! I would definitely recommend this book to any fantasy lovers (and sci-fi folks will like it too!) who are looking for something to read on a long plane trip. It will absorb you and fascinate you to the very end, and then you will want it to go on. A clever way to make you buy the other 2 in the series. Definitely a page-turner.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutly Amazing!
Review: I am completly absorbed in this wonderful series. I checked out the first one, Black Sun Rising, at the library and couldn't wait to get on to the second one... so I went out that night and bought the second and final one in the trilogy and had them all read by the next evening! They were that good!
The plot really isn't the best part of the book, although it is pretty darn amazing. The real heart of the novels is the ever expanding link between two men who, under normal circumstances would find the other one everything that they hate and fear. Through Friedman's work, the relationship between the Hunter and the Priest evolves into a heart wrenching trip that leads two opposite men into a true test of character and defining moments that inevitably affect one another and redefine the meaning of true loyalty and forgivness. This book and series is not one to be missed and I gaurantee that once finished you will find your perspective on friendship forever altered.
Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding!
Review: Gerald Tarrant is the most engaging "evil" character I have ever encountered. He alone makes the book worth reading, but the whole concept of the Fae and the skill with which the book was written is a standing tribute to scifi/fantasy excellence.
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