"Fantastic reading"

Twenty-five hundred years old vampire Count Saint-Germain uses the name of Zangi-Ragozh in Yang Chou, China where he heads a shipping and trading business. With him is loyal ghoul five hundred years old Ro-Shei. Wen Emperor Yuan Bou-Ju summons Zangi-Ragozh and other merchants to come to Chong'en; none realize that half a world away Mount Krakatoa erupted and will change the world for several years afterward.

Zangi-Ragozh gets his first inkling of the change when the sun fails to rise above the volcanic ash that seems to be all over the atmosphere. Being out in daylight does not bother the Count as much, but along with this benefit comes the downside that travel to Chong'en is impossible. Crops fail and famine becomes the norm. Zangi-Ragozh returns to his place of birth by joining the caravan of the Desert Cats. He earns passage by bartering his medical skills, but is tossed out when the clan bans foreigners. They meet again in Tak-Kala where a magician who he trusts betrays him even as danger from the famished survivors mounts.

Never in the long running series has Saint-Germain come closer to the True Death than he does in this time of the DARK OF THE SUN. He has lost much of his native earth, willing donors are rare, and has a potentially lethal wound. The Krakatoa effect on the world adds depth and turns the novel in many ways in spite of a vampiric protagonist into more a historical than a supernatural tale. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro provides another fantastic reading experience for her fans.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 15, 2004

Summary

It is the 6th century of the common era. The vampire Saint- Germain, known in this time as Sangi-Ragozh, is peacefully doing business in Asia when, unknown to him-or anyone else in most of the world-Krakatoa explodes in a massive volcanic eruption. The island is nearly completely destroyed; tidal waves swamp harbors hundreds of miles away, ravaging trade ships and their cargoes; tons of ash and dirt are flung into the air. In the months to come, the world grows colder and darker as the massive cloud of dust and ash spreads across the globe, blocking sunlight. Sea trade is ravaged. Crops fail. Livestock, and then people, begin to starve. Disease spreads. Panic rises. What has caused the sun to go dark? With his scientific bent, Sangi-Ragozh suspects a natural cause, but most people assume a supernatural explanation-and begin to seek supernatural remedies. As always in times of trouble, foreigners-and the vampire is always a foreigner, wherever he travels-become targets. Fleeing toward the West, where he hopes to find safety and sanity, the vampire travels with a nomadic tribe led by Dukkai, a female shaman who soon becomes Sangi-Ragozh's lover-and main source of sustenance. But Sangi-Ragozh's problems are far from over. His vampire nature is discovered by an enemy; he is separated from Dukkai and begins to starve; he has lost everything, including his last sack of his native soil. With death no longer a distant possibility, Sangi-Ragozh desperately tries to reach sanctuary in the one place he truly belongs-his homeland, the country he first left centuries earlier. A land we now call Transylvania.