"Sanct' Germain gives a scintillating look at Spain between the 17th and 12th centuries"
Early in the seventh century, a religious upheaval in his
part of Hispania compels Sanct' Germain (Saint-Germain),
accompanied by his loyal servant Rogerian, to flee to the
nearby mountains. The nasty wintry weather forces the two
undead to take shelter in Mont Calcius, a village with one
occupant. Apparently, the villagers abandoned their homes
leaving behind a pregnant Csimenae. Feeling sorry for the
young woman, Sanct' Germain helps her give birth to a son.
When a boar fatally injures Csimenae, he ignores his
instincts and ironically saves her life by converting her
into a vampire. Over the ensuing centuries, Sanct' Germain learns one of
history's more painful lessons that no good deed goes
unpunished. Defying all of Sanct' Germain's warnings on
survival, Csimenae becomes a mother to a vampire horde that
heeds her every word as if she were a goddess. Realizing
the danger to his kind, Sanct' Germain knows he must stop
Csimenae before she exposes the existence of vampires to
the fundamentally religious right and the supernaturally
fearful masses. COME TWILIGHT, the latest Germain tale, is quite insightful
when it provides a rapid but scintillating look at Spain
between the seventh and twelfth centuries. Sanct' Germain
retains his charm when he enables the audience to focus on
the upheavals in Spain. Csimenae is a spry character who
enhances Sanct' Germain's personality during their mentor-
student relationship. However, when conflict enters the
story line, the tale seems to lose some of its momentum.
Sanct' Germain fans will bite into this well written novel
in one sitting, but other readers will believe that long
running vampire series seem to need some blood donations. Harriet Klausner Copyright © October 2000
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted April 18, 2002
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Yarbro's latest tale of the vampire Saint-Germain is full,
as usual, of more of his loves, adventures, and tragedies,
and this time spans some five centuries of the history of
the Iberian Peninsula. In the seventh century, Saint-
Germain makes a vampire of Csimenae, a young noblewoman
trying to save her infant son's inheritance. Despite his
forbidding it, she creates other vampires. Thereafter,
under the Moors and during the early years of the
Reconquisita, "the demons of the mountains" are dreaded,
and when Saint-Germain returns he is in personal danger of
true death. Should he destroy Csimenae as a cautionary
lesson? In the historical panorama Yarbro unfolds lie the
book's real pleasures, thanks to thorough research and the
admirable avoidance of giving historical characters
twentieth-century psychological motives Roland Green
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