Customer Reviews

A Dangerous Climate: A Novel of The Count Saint-Germain

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

 

 

*A Dangerous Climate* is the twentieth novel centering on Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's benign vampire hero, Count Ferenz Ragoczy Saint-Germain. I've been a fan of Yarbro's Count for thirty years, and this is one of my favorite of the novels so far.

The foundation of every Saint-Germain novel is a vivid and meticulously researched portrait of one or more times and places in world history, often one that is not commonly presented in fiction. *A Dangerous Climate* takes us to the year 1704 and the founding of the Russian city of Sankt Piterburkh by Tsar Piotyr I, or Peter the Great, at the mouth of the Neva River on the Baltic sea.

In the first chapter, night watchmen discover Saint-Germain right after he's been beaten so severely that he can't remember exactly what happened. A living man wouldn't have survived. Since Saint-Germain does, he spends the rest of the book trying to determine what happened, who wants him dead and when they'll make another attempt. The opening chapters describe his slow recovery, complicated by his need to conceal how well he's really doing from the physician and healers who are treating him.

We soon learn another unique aspect to Saint-Germain's situation in this story: he is not in Sankt Piterburkh as a lone "foreigner." The Count is visiting in disguise, pretending to be Arpad Arco-Tolvay, Hercegek Gyor, the missing husband of a Polish aristocrat, Zozia, Ksiezna Nisko. A gifted diplomat and spy for the Polish monarch, Augustus II, the Ksiezna must be escorted by a male relative in order to move freely among the foreign dignitaries in Sankt Piterburkh.

Saint-Germain's beating directly leads to his acquaintance with the independent Ludmilla Borisevna Svarinskaya, a Russian matron who has been rejected by her husband and is running a care house in Sankt Piterburkh. She earns Saint-Germain's admiration and respect, and eventually a closer relationship. But even as he juggles clandestine liaisons and extremely delicate politics, Saint-Germain is confronted with a crisis in his own affairs. While he has gone underground to impersonate the Ksiezna's husband, he learns that somebody else is impersonating him. His title, property and estates, under the care of a steward who sends regular reports to him in Sankt Piterburkh, are being claimed by an impostor. Now he has another problem to untangle, without unmasking his real identity to Piotyr and the other residents of Sankt Piterburkh or threatening the Ksiezna's mission.

The complications don't stop there. *A Dangerous Climate* features more in the way of complex puzzles and elaborate maneuverings than raw action. The plot spins out against the finely described backdrop of newborn Sankt Piterburkh--crude, muddy, cold and inhospitable, and yet filled with high born diplomats and ambassadors displaying all the luxury expected in a royal court, because Piotyr insists upon it. By the end of the book, we feel as though we've lived in Piotyr's city ourselves. As often is the case with Yarbro's novels, we're also deeply grateful that we don't live there now. But the conclusion of *A Dangerous Climate* is less grim than some of the other novels. Fans of the Count and new readers alike will thoroughly enjoy this book.

I really liked the earlier books in the series. They explored the implications of having eternal life in a new and unique way. Unfortunately, the last two releases have so disappointed me that I feel I have to write this review. They almost appear to be ghost written as they are unidenifiable when compared with the writing style of the earlier works. The tedious focus on the details of the characters dress at the expense of actual character development itself is only eclipsed by the total lack of plot development. Reading the other reviews here I almost feel like I must have read a different book. I felt no tension of characters, didn't sense the loneliness and weight of the years, and almost hoped he would be uncovered as a fake or a vampire just so something would happen!

When reading the novel description you are left hungry for the twists and turns of an espionage plot at a critical moment in history interwoven with an impersonation triangle that promised so much. Throw in a switch of royal sponsors that should split the spies one against the other - especially since they are presenting themselves as husband and wife - and this would have to be one of the most exciting books ever written. Unfortunately, absolutely nothing happens in the book! Nothing! There is no espionage. No secrets that could change the world as Russia, Sweden, Poland, and the Hapsburgs struggle for European supremecy. Nada. Nothing results from the split of sponsors as Augustus II is replaced by Stanislas as King of Poland. The triple layers of imposters results in nothing! No blackmail or power plays as one is forced to concede important objectives to avoid being unmasked - in fact the climactic meeting of the two fake Grofok Saint-Germains occurs in the form of a letter and not even a scene in the book! It is like the author went out of the way to have the plot executed without it ever being relevant to the story - very strange and what leads me to think someone else wrote the last two books.

In fact, the Author's notes at the beginning are the most interesting part of the novel. Otherwise it is a twenty page pamphlet about the building of early Saint Petersburg and a twenty page pamphlet on the fashions of the time stretched out over three hundred pages of "Do you want me to get your medicines", "Yes, they may prove helpful", "Ok, I will get them", He goes to get them, "I have them here", "Thank you, old friend". Such stilted, lifeless writing makes me think it is time for the 'True Death' for this series. Sad to see it.

This is the 21st novel in Yarbro's long running Saint-Germain series. I've been reading the series since the very first one was published back in 1978. I would venture to say that after so long I know the Count well. Throughout the series he is a monster, and yet he is truly the one that is humane. Humans are the true monsters. What we do to each other far exceeds the depravations of any monster.

In this installment the Count is sent to Saint Petersberg at the behest of the King of Poland. The one wrinkle is that he isn't going as himself, but posing as the Hungarian husband of a spy and diplomat, who's real husband has been missing for some time. As a woman though she cannot venture to the burgeoning city on her own, but must be accompanied by her husband or other male relative.

The story opens with Saint-Germain being found by the Watchmen. He's been beaten so badly he can't even remember his attacker. If he wasn't a vampire, he probably wouldn't have survived the attack. He's taken to the care-house where he meets Ludmilla (forgive me for not giving the full name. I don't have the book in front of me and would probably end up misspelling it.) and Van Hoek. Saint-Germain must conceal how well he is healing while keeping his somewhat capricious "wife" happy. His position is somewhat compromised when Stanislaus replaces Augustus on the Polish throne, and his "wife's" brother is sent to Saint Petersberg. Saint-Germain moves into the care-house to make room for the brother in the Polish household. Besides helping with the functioning of some of the construction equipment he takes on the care-house as a project to help. To add to his problems an Hungarian comes claiming to be Saint-Germain's heir. Saint-Germain can't refute the claim without jeopardising his mission with the Polish crown. He asks Niklos Aulirios, Olivia's former companion, to impersonate him, and refute the claim.

Yarbro's attention to historical detail make the time period come alive. It is true that some things must be altered for the sake of narrative flow, but overall the feeling is one of authenticity. Some may quibble about the amount of time taken to describe the clothing and such. The details though serve to show how difficult the environment was in the burgeoning city. Nobles used to the pomp and circumstance of palaces and manner estates were forced to endure living in houses barely above the level of a shack while keeping all the conventions diplomacy required. They were dealing not only with the intricacies of court politics, but had to deal with gang violence as well. The founding of Saint Petersburg was a difficult period.

Yarbro's convention of taking a monster, in this case a vampire, and showing the creature to be the hero was unique at the time the books were first published. Through the eyes of this monster we see that the real atrocities are inflicted by humans against humans. Yarbro has explored religious intolerance, racial inequality, women's rights and other themes where humans will visit upon each greater horrors than one creature drinking blood to survive could ever conceive.

I am writing this review from the perspective of someone who is interested in 18th century history and Russia, rather than a dedicated fan of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Saint-Germain series. I found A Dangerous Climate entertaining, but ultimately disappointing.

Yarbro gives the reader a sense of what life was like for the European diplomats who were living in Saint Petersburg during its founding: the physical hardships, and the intrigue and scheming. She also conveys the remarkable engineering and labor that went into the construction of St. Petersburg.

Unfortunately, the story suffers from a real lack of momentum. Yarbro sets up a number of promising subplots which are left unresolved. The diffuse plot is not helped by the author's tendency to indulge in details and scenes that do not meaningfully further the story.

Yarbro's Count Saint-Germain is an interesting take on a vampire, with his compassion that comes from thousands of years of witnessing man's inhumanity. However, the characterization of the secondary characters was mostly flat. Dialogue is not one of Yarbro's strengths: although there is a lot of talking in this novel, the characters tend to sound the same regardless of rank, education, and nationality.

Finally, Yarbro's Russian is marred by inconsistent transliterations, misspellings and incorrect grammar. She gives one of the female leads' patronymic as `Borisevna' (Borisovna would be correct). She also occasionally uses Russian words where English ones would do, and then gets the Russian wrong - both sloppy and pretentious of the author. It would be better to use correct English than incorrect Russian.

A Dangerous Climate could have been much better with a tighter plot, better characterization of the secondary characters, and a Russian language consultant. Fans of Yarbro's work will no doubt enjoy the book, but for the general reader who isn't already a committed fan, this one would be better to borrow from the library.

This is the twenty-seventh book in the Saint Germain series;twenty second if one doesn't count the stories of Atta Olivia Clemens and Madeline de Montalia, two lovers of Saint Germain who became vampires through their association with him. And two of the books in the series are collections of short stories, which accounts for one of the other reviewers calling this the twentieth of the Saint Germain novels.

As always, the character of Saint Germain is a delight, and the setting is marvellously educational by being well-researched and elaborate; this time, it's Russia, specifically Saint Petersburg, just after its founding during the time of Peter the Great. And this book is far more interesting and entertaining than some of the recent novels in the series; Borne In Blood, for one, I found rather dull, as was States of Grace. But given that many of the plotlines were ultimately unresolved, I felt that this story was a bit unsatisfying, when it came right down to it. I understand and even appreciate Yarbro's refusal to have every story be an action-packed thriller with all loose ends tied up neatly; life doesn't work that way, and it's good when fiction occasionally acknowledges that. But on the other hand, one of the reasons that we read fiction is to escape from the untidiness of reality, and I find myself torn between recognizing that Yarbro has grown as a writer since she began this series, and missing the more satisfying, if unrealistic plots of the earlier novels.

In any case, this book at least avoided the tendancy that Yarbro has of failing to proofread her work adequately; unlike some of the books in the series, there are not an excessive number of typos in the finished product. Come to think of it, I'm not sure that there were any. Whatever editing process she used here, I hope she keeps it.

I've read several vampire books. This novel offers an authentic, believable vampire character solving a mystery during Peter the Great's building of St. Petersburg. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Yarbro's vampire mystery and would love adding it to my collection.

Fans of Yarbro/St Germaine will not be disappointed with this newest installement set at the time St. Petersburg is being built. St Germaine gets himself into a bit of a pickle (as usual) and we get to revisit an old friend, Niklos, who comes to the rescue. It is fass paced and full of intrigue, and I can't wait for her newest release.!

I am a long time fan of this series. The historical background was impecable as always. Yarbro did not disappoint.

Reading a "Dangerous Climate" is like taking a trip back in time. This time, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro pulls readers back to Sankt Petersburgh in 1704.

St Germain has taken the place of Count Arpad Arco-Tolvay, husband to the Ksienza, and Polish delegate to Czar Piotyr Romanovs' beloved city. As his nature decrees, and the small population of the growing city necessitates his careful behaviour, the coupling of that with the deep political intrigue in the Foreign quarter combine to make his mission from a foreign leader difficult. Acting as husband to Zozia, the illusion they must portray to the citizens of St Petersburg must be strong. For St Germain, his coachman, Gronigen, and later, Saaria, his body guard make his existence more safe.

Little does he know that an imposter is playing a game to claim his estates, and when he finds out, Lacozi is determined to force the whole quarter against him. It is only through the substitution of another to act as the ancient one that the plan is foiled.

The research she has done is reflected in the book. You almost feel as if you truly live in the time period and can see the surroundings if you close your eyes. Historians should take note-and lessons from the master of historical setting fiction.

One of the appeals of this book is the interesting approach that Yarbro takes in her exploration of the vampire mystique. Saint Germain is not a monster, yet in the past he was, and with 3700 years of perspective, his acceptance of who he is determines his future. Monster? Or master statesman? Healer? or Killer? Lover? Or Cursed?

This is an amazing book that is truly a must read.

I'm very pleased with the prompt shipment and perfect condition of the book. I bought two, actually, one for me and one for a friend. We are both delighted with the book. Love the Chelsea Quinn Yarbro series.