John Colton's blog

My very first blog entry mentioned that I had started reading Black Sun Rising, the first book in C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy.

Since then, I've finished all three books. The second and third ones are When True Night Falls and Crown of Shadows, respectively.

I'll review the trilogy together now.

Overall rating: 10/10

Wow, I was blown away. This is the best fantasy/science fiction I've read in years. It's kind of a hybrid of fantasy and science fiction. The science fiction aspect is that it's set in the future on a world far from earth, and re-gaining lost technology is a major part of the back-story. But I consider it mainly a fantasy series: characters use swords and magic. The magic is via a native bacteria-like (from what I gather) life form called the "fae", which take human emotions and desires and give shape to them. It's an interesting take on magic, and Friedman does a good job of defining rules for the operation of the fae which her characters must follow--usually a good sign of a quality serious story.

(Aside: the "fantasy in science fiction garb" business reminded me of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books--the Dragonriders books are ostensively science fiction stories, but in practice they are about dragons, castles, and other fantasy-type stuff.)

One of the major success of the Coldfire books is the successful incorporation of serious religious themes. The fae, as mentioned, give shape to emotions and desires, so they can also take shape as demons and gods. There are thus churches, enemies of those churches, and demon-banishing is a serious business. The main character is a "fighting priest" type, and his own internal conflicts and interaction with his church play a major role in the story.

It reminded me of something that I think Orson Scott Card wrote once that science fiction/fantasy is the last bastion in today's society for giving serious treatment of religious topics. Not to be preachy, of course, but to have the flexibility to address the effects of religion in a society. Sorry, I did a web search and came up empty for the exact quote. If anyone can help me out here, I'd appreciate it! In the process of my searching, though, I did run across these other two quotes by Card on religion in speculative writing that are interesting: interview 1, interview 2.

Back to Coldfire: the heart of the books are the two fascinating characters Damian Vryce and Gerald Tarrant. Vryce is the genuinely religious one, who must do good at all times regardless of personal cost/effort. Tarrant on the other hand, is an evil man who willingly became a vampire and kills in order to extend his natural life. The two get joined together by a common enemy, and must interact with each other. The possible redemption of Tarrant is an obvious theme to use, and Friendman does. What proved even more interesting to me was the possible "fall from grace" of Vryce. That is, even as he helps Tarrant become less evil (or does he?), Tarrant's influence leads Vryce to compromise his own values. A large part of Vryce's own internal conflicts revolve around the serious question of whether/when the end justifies the means.

In short, they are extremely highly recommended. I can't believe I hadn't run across these books before, considering the third one came out more than 10 years ago.

Here is some more info about the books (these links contain plot spoilers):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sun_Rising
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_True_Night_Falls
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Shadows