Customer Reviews

Communion Blood: A Novel of Saint-Germain

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the seventeenth century Rome, Atta Olivia Clemens death leaves her vast estate to her loyal servant Niklos Aurilios. However, Ahrent Julius Rothofen challenges the will by claiming he is the son of Olivia's spouse. By virtual of that relationship, he inherits the estate. Niklos turns to Olivia's long term friend Count Saint-Germain for help.

The Count knows that his cherished Olivia had no husband. However, Ahrent is part of Archbishop Walmund's retinue, which means he has powerful connections. That threat fails to deter the honorable vampire who alienates the Archbishop further when he helps a young lady escape from marrying the brother of the holy man. Though he knows he needs to show more caution, Saint-Germain continues to do what he feels is right in spite of the danger posed by the Church.

The latest entry in the long running Saint-Germain novels continues the excellence of its predecessors. The story line remains fresh due to the emphasis on the characters and the era rather than just another vampire tale. The myriad of tidbits woven into the plot adds a historical feel rarely seen in a novel. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro keeps her lead protagonist from becoming stale almost as if this is his first appearance, but he still retains his basic charming traits. Ms. Yarbro continues her tradition of providing the best of the "vampiric" tales because she understands it's not the gore or a bushel of victims. It's the authenticity that counts.

Harriet Klausner

As always, I enjoyed the integration of history and story line in Ms. Yarbro's work. This book continues a wonderful new trend in the St-Germain chronicles. Events sometimes spiral out of the protaganists' hands and he does not know all of the forces that are in play against him. Therefore, some friends will not be saved; in some cases, he must make compromises that he does not like.

This book also continues the examination of the lack of power of women over their own lives throughout history.

Great read, will not be dissappointed by Sanct Germain's latest adventure

I have followed Saint-Germain now for over 15 years. I fell in love with the vampire and the historical settings and people that Yarbro placed her vampire in and around. For a while there Saint-Germain was silent, and when the novels once again started coming forth, I was extremely happy. Unfortunately, the stories and situations that were written about were so extremely dark and depressing that it still takes me a long time to build up the courage to begin a new Saint-Germain book. I am very happy to say that Communion Blood and Blood Roses were extremely wonderful to read. Not that there wasn't darkness because there is in abundance especially where the Roman Catholic Church touches. However, there is a great deal of hope that shines through in Saint-Germain and those that touch his life which was very unlike what was portrayed in Mansions of Darkness, Better in the Dark, or even Tempting Fate. I would highly recommend this book not only for the historical accuracy and removed-blinders look at the power that the Roman Catholic Church wielded, but for a real glimpse of why Saint-Germain still remains even more human than many of us today.

I enjoyed -Communion Blood-, but not for the plot. Saint-Germain has faced off much worse villians in -Mansions of Darkness- or -Darker Jewels-, to name a couple. The book's strengh was in its secondary characters. It was great fun to see Saint-Germain as a contemporary of Scarlatti, and I liked Georgiana. The Penitent (I'm blanking on her name) was a carbon-copy of any other oppressed woman Saint-Germain tries to help, but she didn't have Xenya's depth--or strength--of personality (Darker Jewels). My favorite secondary character was Genarro; it was fun to have a secondary character as a common thread through three different novels. On the whole, I'm glad I bought the book. (There is no such thing as a "bad" Saint-Germain book) But I'm glad it wasn't the first Saint-Germain book I read; I might not have come back for more.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has definitely written better Saint-Germain books. _Communion Blood_ takes the vampire hero to 17th-century Rome, where he gets embroiled in a real-estate dispute, Papal politics, and the composition of an opera (with music great Alessandro Scarlatti, no less). As always, Yarbro's historical research is adequate (although not nearly as impressive as her fans always seem to insist it is). But not only is the plot tedious, the characters are absolutely cardboard and inconsistent. As for Saint-Germain, he has almost no personality at all, except to serve as a vaguely-defined fantasy version of the Perfect-In-Control-But-Sensitive-Almost-To-The-Point-of-Being-Annoying Male.

Overall, this book has the feel of having been written in a terrible rush. Yarbro has a tendency to put stilted, verbose language in her characters' mouths when she means them to be elegant or clever. Even worse, whoever edited the book deserves to be fired: on average, a typo, a grammatical error, or gross misspelling occurs once every five pages ("roughian" instead of "ruffian," or "thredony" rather than "threnody," for example). Not to nitpick, but when you're reading an author whose reputation is based largely on her research skills and her intelligent use of language, it jars quite a bit to read prose that looks like it's been proofread by a middle-school student.

As always Ms.Yarbro is a great read, but I felt she was a little less than clear on just how frighteningly powerful these People and the Church were at this time. The menace just wasn't as strong as it needed to be. Everything else was pure Saint-Germain and all we love about this vampire. I got a good sense of the histoical locale, customs and the surport cast was well drawn. Looking forward to her next novel. Brava!

Or thirteenth, if you count "Out of the House of Life", which is primarily a spinoff novel about Madeline de Montalia (former lover and vampiric "childe" of Saint-Germain), but which does include some flashback scenes to some of Saint-Germain's early history.

Or sixteenth, if you also count "A Flame in Byzantium", "Crusader's Torch", and "A Candle For d'Artagnan", the spinoff series about Atta Olivia Clemens, an earlier vampiric "childe". This book is, after a fashion, a sequel to "A Candle for d'Artagnan".

The book is set in seventeenth century Rome, 30 years after Olivia's death, and somewhat more than that after "Mansions of Darkness". The plot and historical settings were interesting enough, if not Yarbro's best; the love interest, for a change, was neither traumatized, killed, nor psychotic, and even the secondary female character, who WAS traumatized and a bit difficult, was at least not completely psychotic. It was interesting to see, for a change, that the diligence of the church investigators actually worked to Saint-Germain's advantage.

The only real problem with this book was that the writing was inexcusably sloppy. I've long since accepted the fact that there are going to be errors in any mass-market paperback, and in spite of the fact that we pay "quality paperback" prices for the current run of Saint-Germain books, they are basically mass-market paperbacks in Sunday-Go-To-Meeting clothes. And Yarbro has always tended to be a tad on the sloppy side about her proofreading, but I can accept a typo or three per book without getting all worked up over it. But if there aren't two dozen sloppy errors in this book (including one in which she misspells her own main character's name, as "Saint-German") (bottom line of page 363) I'll be astonished. Errors that an author of Ms. Yarbro's reputation shouldn't be making; things like "The courts have long preferred the claims of relatives over that of servants..." and "The worker have left for the night" and "there had been stalls for nearly a hundred horses here, and was thought a smallish enterprise" and "Now there were stall for twenty" (those last two being back-to-back) and "A few worldly slights such as mine must be seem more amusing than dangerous". This is far from a comprehensive list; these were all before page 75, and the frequency did NOT lessen as the book progressed.

Get this woman an editor who isn't willing to rubber-stamp everything she writes because of her reputation. Someone capable of attention to detail.

Even 30 years dead, no-nothing men are still trying to run Olivia Clemen's unLife and those of her associates. She wrote an iron-clad will, making Niklos her beneficiary. (He's a ghoul, not a vampire, whose been with her 1600 years, not 1300, as one of the pros said...) But some jerk affiliated with the Church just wants to take it all from her and Niklos _again._ Saint-Germain prevents this, but isn't so successful in all his endeavors. I liked particularly the opera subplot with Scarlatti. And, as always, the rich detail.

The Count Saint Germain must help an old friend, Olivia Clemens. She
was also a vampire, but has now given up the ghost and is truly dead.
Being wealthy, she had a reasonable estate, and has left it to her
servant. However, the ever greedy Catholic Church would really like the
land, and are not above being ruthless bastiches to get it.

Here, the Count will try and help.