Review: Dark of the Sun

Dark of the Sun is a novel of Saint-Germain set in the time of 535-536 A.D. It is the story of Saint-Germain and his companion, Rojeh’s travels from southern China back to Saint Germain’s home land of Transylvania in the Carpathian Mountains. Saint Germain, known in Southern China as the foreigner, Zangi-Ragozh is living as a wealthy merchant and importer of goods on his fleet of ships. He is summoned to a new leader’s town in another part of China. In order to remain in good standing and keep his business thriving he must answer this summons and travel to meet the new leader.

Soon after the journey begins, a volcano, Krakota, in the southern islands erupts and begins a mini ice age and weird things are happening, such as the snow turns yellow and smells of sulfur. The servants of Zangi-Ragozh and Rojeh are taken from them and forced to join one of the armies forming in the area leaving them to travel alone. The road to the leader’s town to which they have been summoned, is full of raiders and warriors so therefore they change course and head for Transylvania.

This journey will take them several years traveling mainly on the Silk Road through China. On the road they meet numerous others and go from town to town watching as famine and disease wreak their havoc after the volcanic eruption. The people are starving and being killed by the cold and disease. Animals are dying rapidly also as there is no feed for them either as the sulfer and cold have killed off much of the plant life and new plants aren’t growing. It also showed the extremes the conditions could turn humans into from becoming more religious and believing that God was testing them, to becoming looters and bandits to survive.

The book is also interspersed with correspondence from various religious men and others to attest to the devastation in other parts of the land. The book may have been easier to follow also if it had contained the maps that I presume will be in the actual publication copy but were only blank pages in the ARC I read so it was hard to figure out where they were during their journey. Also if not for the Author’s Introduction, one would have no more idea than the people of the times as to what was actually going on and the cause of the cold and yellow snow.

I picked this book for review as I enjoy reading about vampires. However for vampire’s readers, this would not be a book I would highly recommend. Although I did find this quite an interesting read, it is more of a travelogue or fictional history account of a place in time where a volcano erupted and the disastrous effects it had on all areas of the world especially trade. It did not give a lot of information into the mind or habits of Saint-Germain or his companion Rojeh, who is some type of Ghoul. Although they fare somewhat better than humans in this book due to them not being alive, they do have some close calls and nearly meet the True Death and struggle a great deal in their journey. Perhaps you need to read the previous books in the series to have a greater understanding of Saint Germain and Rojeh’s role in his life.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Gina Metz - RAM

Book Review: Dark of the Sun