Customer Reviews

SAINT-GERMAIN: MEMOIRS

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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Unlike most of the Saint-Germain stories, these stories are similar to small snapshots of his life, from Ancient Greece to present-day Canada. The first story The Harpy is a small but excellently-turned story about family members who suffer in a famous man's shadow. The next story, Lost Epiphany, was more choppy, I thought it needed a bit of lengthening, and it seemed to be a fragment rather than a complete story. The third story, Tales Out of School, was more in the fashion of CQY's longer works, and I found the descriptions of the embryonic University of Padua very interesting. The next story, Intercession, was chilling, especially when you realized how important the legal concept of Habeus Corpus has come to be for us. The final story, A Gentleman of the Old School wasn't one of my favorites, although it was interesting to see that Saint-Germain has survived to the modern day. There just wasn't a lot of plot, I felt.

I did have a few nitpicks with this book. The production values were a bit sloppy, but the press isn't Tor but some smaller independent one so I guess that is to be allowed for. I was confused by some of the dates given in Intercession; I think that they were mistakes uncaught before printing. I would also think that several of these stories would do better if we had a bit more information to flesh out the plot, so to speak.

If you like the Saint-Germain series this is definitely a book to get. If you are new to the series, start with Hotel Transylvania: A Novel of Forbidden Love and become acquanted with the series before reaching for this one

I've read nearly all of the Saint-Germain novels, so I can't gauge how a reader with no previous experience of Yarbro's character would experience the stories in *The Saint-Germain Memoirs.* However, as I read them, I sensed that I was picking up on a lot of subtle hints and details that required extensive background information to appreciate.

"Harpy" is a good example of a story that is full of meaning for those who already know Saint-Germain, but may be puzzling to new readers. Although the story presents an interesting character study of a historical person rarely given much thought--I can't say who without spoiling the twist ending--it took me a while to pin down the time period based on the descriptions. I also remained uncertain, by the story's end, as to why Saint-Germain picked out this woman for assistance.

"A Gentleman of the Old School" is one of the very rare Saint-Germain tales set in the present-day. This story concentrates much more on its mortal characters, with Saint-Germain appearing as a wealthy man of mystery who feeds an eager female reporter some clues in a serial murder case. As in the other modern-day Saint-Germain stories, however, Yarbro's hero doesn't quite seem to fit in the post-Y2K world.

I found the novelette "Intercession" to be the weakest of the five pieces in this collection. It consists of a series of letters written by Saint-Germain's manservant, Rogerio, attempting to free his master from imprisonment in the 17th century Spanish New World. The point--that in such historical times even a wealthy person could be unjustly imprisoned indefinitely without hope of redress--is made long before the story ends. "Intercession" demands that the reader imagine how Saint-Germain must be feeling, without ever hearing his voice. This can be an effective device, but in "Intercession," it simply doesn't work for me.

The novelette, "Lost Epiphany," doesn't actually tell a story, but it delivers a highly entertaining account of how Saint-Germain maneuvers his way among several groups of colorful and hostile antagonists. Despite his vampiric state, Saint-Germain possesses few supernatural powers. He survives primarily through his own resourcefulness and his long knowledge of the human psyche. Set on a pirate ship in the early first millennium A.D., "Lost Epiphany" is an ingenious object lesson in how an immortal might survive a crisis without any of the deus-ex-machina tricks that are usually associated with vampires.

The central novella, "Tales Out of School," set in 14th century Padua, is rich with historical detail, colorful and interesting characters, and true human drama. Containing all the core elements of the novels, it is complete as is: any longer, and it would be over-stuffed and lose its strong narrative threads. It is worth the price of the book alone.

I'd recommend *The Saint-Germain Memoirs* to readers who already are familiar with the character and the series. Readers who are completely new to the character might want to "catch up" on Saint-Germain's history at Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's website. For those who have wondered: this is *not* a reprint of the 1983 collection *The Saint-Germain Chronicles*. Three of the stories in *The Saint Germain Memoirs* were published in anthologies in 2003 or later. "Tales Out of School" and "Lost Epiphany" are new for this collection.

This group of stories covers the range from short story to novella. I've been reading Yarbro's Saint Germain series so long, it seems like catching up on old times. I love her attention to historical detail. Although, it may put some off, I find her use of correspondence to advance the story intriguing. I doubt this book would appeal to those that aren't familiar with the series.

One of the short stories regarding a destitute widow in ancient Greece I had read in another anthology. I still find it an interesting tale. We are all familiar with the great historical figures, but this story highlights those that aren't in the spotlight.

One of the longer pieces involved a series of letters as Rogerio tries to locate his master. Although, the exchange was a little tedious towards the end, the letters really gave an interesting background as to how difficult information was to find.

The novella in the center was an interesting tale set in Padua during the Renaissance. It highlights the difficulty of reconcilling the views of the church with the emerging studies in science.

In another tale you see how Saint Germain has learned to blend into contemporary times. It's interesting to see how someone with centuries of experience deals with the modern day media.

This is just a sampling of the entries in this anthology.

Or twenty first, if you don't count the spinoff novels about Atta Olivia Clemens and Madeline de Montalia, two women who came into the vampiric life through their connections with Saint Germain.

This collection is an interesting concept; a collection of five short works, centered by a novella, with the second and fourth stories being mid-length between a short story and a novella, and the opening and closing stories being proper short stories. For longstanding fans of the series like myself, any new insight into the character of Saint Germain is welcome, but as has happened all too often in the later stories in the series, they concentrate on the DISADVANTAGES of being a vampire, without devoting any real plot time to the advantages, so Saint Germaine has become purely a romantic character, with very little if any of the dashing adventurer that we saw in the early novels. Because I enjoy the character as much as I do, I can forgive the author this lack, but I do miss the derring-do that spiced the earlier works in the series much more heavily than the later entries.

What I have difficulty forgiving is the periodic sloppiness of her writing; Ms. Yarbro REALLY needs to have a competent proofreader. She as much as admits in her afterword that her stories are essentially first drafts. She finds rewrites difficult; I would not ask her to rewrite any of her plot or character development, but if she can't bring herself to proofread her own work, she really needs to find somebody who can. (If she has a proofreader currently, she needs to fire them and find a competent one.) As in any mass-market paperback type of book, most of her books have a typo or two; that's fine and I don't harp on that. But this one, like "Communion Blood" and "A Candle For d'Artagnan", is just rife with sloppy errors, starting with two on the last page of the intro by Sharon Russell, who apparently has taken a page from her subject's style; there's a missing colon ("...another concept developed by Yarbro that of Saint Germain's wisdom...") and the word "breath" instead of "breadth" when referring to character development. Those may not be Ms. Yarbro's responsibility, but the errors just keep right on coming: "mot generous" rather than "most generous", "adverse to going ashore" rather than "averse", a sentence break where there should be a comma ("...and he made good progress going upward. In Spite of the slight dizziness the running water imparted.", an "is" when all of the rest of the story is told in past tense and should be "was" "There is a great deal of low-lying brush but no tall trees...", the mangled syntax of "the...Universita will rescinded their license..." and "He was into the second loaf when the door open and San-Germanus...came into the book-room.", a missing word ("But there as much medicine in optimism as there is in ointments..."), "smilling" instead of "smiling", "an foreigner" rather than "a foreigner", a missing period ("The greens they have brought to market do wither quickly The soap-makers' barn has been ordered closed..."), a missing "the" ("...he touched front of his purpoint,..."), "all you injuries are hidden", rather than "your injuries", and a few others. Now, as I've said, one or two of these is to be, lamentably, expected in a modern book; the art of proofreading seems to have died out even more thoroughly than the chivalry that Saint Germain displays. But this is just too many to overlook; a professional writer's final work should not be allowed to look like a high school creative writing project. Especially not a writer who produces such marvellous stories and characters as Ms. Yarbro does; if she is too much the "big picture" type to bother herself with such trivialities, she REALLY needs to find herself an assistant who can and will; it's a crime to see such good concepts marred by such sloppy execution.

For fans of St Germaine, this book provides the back story to a number of his adventures, and for those who aren't familiar with his story, it provides a nice entry point to the series.
While it's more a companion piece than a stand alone, it was a great read.

I have been a fan of the Saint Germain series for more than a decade. I finally got around to buying Saint Germain memoirs and I have to say it was pretty good entry to the series

I am wondering if this is a reprint of the earlier short story book she did some years ago?