Saint-Germain Series by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Saint-Germain #2
The Palace
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Since 1978, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has produced about two dozen novels and numerous short stories detailing the life of a character first introduced to the reading world as Le Comte de Saint‑Germain. We first meet him in Paris during the reign of Louis XV when he is, apparently, a wealthy, worldly, charismatic aristocrat, envied and desired by many but fully known to none. In fact, he is a vampire, born in the Carpathian Mountains in 2119 BCE, turned in his late thirties in 2080 BCE and destined to roam the world forever, watching and participating in history and, through the author, giving us an amazing perspective on the time tapestry of human civilization.In The Palace, Renaissance Florence provides the background for this story of the collapse of the artistic and literary life of the city after the death of San Germano’s friend, Lorenzo the Magnificent, followed by the rise of the fanatical Savonarola.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Saint-Germain #3
Blood Games
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Since 1978, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has produced about two dozen novels and numerous short stories detailing the life of a character first introduced to the reading world as Le Comte de Saint‑Germain. We first meet him in Paris during the reign of Louis XV when he is, apparently, a wealthy, worldly, charismatic aristocrat, envied and desired by many but fully known to none. In fact, he is a vampire, born in the Carpathian Mountains in 2119 BCE, turned in his late thirties in 2080 BCE, and destined to roam the world forever, watching and participating in history and, through the author, giving us an amazing perspective on the time tapestry of human civilization. In Blood Games, beginning during the reign of Nero, Saint‑Germain finds his way through the political turmoil of the time and becomes the lover of the incomparable Atta Olivia Clemens.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Saint-Germain #6
The Saint-Germain Chronicles
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Blending the dark eroticism of the vampire with high adventure in history\'s most compelling locales, the story of Saint-Germain is the enduring drama of a lonely hero who walks the earth throughout time, battling for honor...and love. To escape the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, Saint-Germain travels to San Francisco, where he reunites with Rowena Saxon, a past lover whose beauty and wisdom have matured with time. There he offers Rowena a choice: a natural death-or immortality as a vampire. But unknown to the noble exile, an assassin has followed him from Spain, torturing his friends and his associates at every step. The next target will be Rowena, unless the vampire recognizes the peril that both he and his lover face. Will his ignorance achieve what time itself cannot-the death of Saint-Germain?
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Saint-Germain #13
Come Twilight
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Beginning in the 600s, Spain\'s old blood rituals of animal sacrifice were replaced by the new gods of Christianity and Islam, who demanded no less obedience and allegiance. Saint-Germain becomes trapped in this cauldron of blood, fear, and faith when, he makes a vampire of the beautiful, haughty, tempestuous Csimenae. Csimenae kills without mercy. She makes vampires without a second thought; and they, For five hundred years, as waves of war and religion sweep over Spain, Csimenae hunts until her marauding, willful ways expose her vampiric nature. Saint-Germain\'s centuries of life have taught him that to fall out of step with history is to risk the True Death, a fate Saint-Germain wishes for none of his kind. He must try to save Csimenae-and her clan-but at what price?
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Saint-Germain #14
A Feast In Exile
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
A Feast in Exile draws readers back to the time when the Mongol hordes of Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane) swept across fourteenth-century India and Asia. Delhi\'s civilized veneer crumbles along with its walls. Foreigners, which the vampire Saint-Germain-here called Sanat Ji Mani-surely is, lose their positions, homes, wealth, and sometimes their lives, if they cannot escape the falling city. Before he can flee Delhi, Sanat Ji Mani must ensure the safety of Avasa Dani, his beautiful ward, who has been abandoned by her husband. Sanat Ji Mani\'s love has awakened Avasa Dani\'s every sense; even she will become a vampire upon her death, but she finds no terror in this fate. Avasa Dani and Rojire, Sanat Ji Mani\'s servant, successfully make their way out of Delhi, but Sanat Ji Mani himself is trapped. His life is bought by his skills with medicine, but, at Timur\'s command, he must travel-by day, and exposed to the sun-with the conqueror\'s army. Crippled and unable to escape, he knows that his vampire nature will soon be revealed, and then... Avasa Dani, with a worried Rojire at her side, considers her options as a woman without a visible male protector in a land and time ruled by men. While one of Sanat Ji Mani\'s allies searches desperately for the missing vampire, Saint-Germain and a young acrobat, with whom he has escaped from Timur\'s forces, make their slow and painful way to freedom. The journey changes them both forever.
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Saint-Germain #17
Dark of the Sun
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
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.
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Saint-Germain #18
States of Grace
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
It is the time of the Reformation. Henry VIII\'s England moves toward schism; Luther\'s precepts spread through Europe even as the Inquisition strives to wipe out any hint of heresy. Franzicco Ragoczy di Santo-Germano-the vampire Saint-Germain-is a successful merchant based in Venice. His lavish lifestyle and rumored cache of magnificent jewels have attracted the wrong sort of attention, and without Santo-Germano\'s noble-and papal-connections, he might be imprisoned, his property confiscated. Also under surveillance is his mistress, the lovely and talented musician Pier-Ariana Salier. In the Spanish Netherlands, Ragoczy\'s publishing business is being investigated by the Inquisition. Coming to the aid of his employees, Ragoczy becomes tarred with the brush of heresy, as does Erneste van Amsteljaxter, a writer whose intelligence Ragoczy finds attractive. Ragoczy does what he can to help her, but must return to Venice when he learns that his fortune there has been embezzled away and that Pier-Ariana has disappeared. In Venice, things are worse than Santo-Germano expected. Not only has his money disappeared, so has a young man who had been spying on the vampire and his mistress. Santo-Germano is accused of kidnapping and perhaps murder. Another spy has discovered Santo-Germano\'s true nature and intends to kill him before he can feast on all of Venice!
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Saint-Germain #18
Saint-Germain 18: Dark of the Sun: A Novel of the Count Saint-Germain
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
From Publishers WeeklyYarbro's 17th entry in her historical-horror series (_Path of the Eclipse_, etc.) adroitly uses the ever-metaphoric vampire to portray the human dimensions of a cataclysm that changed the course of history. Vampire Saint-Germain and his faithful companion, Roger, who go under the names Zangi-Ragozh and Ro-shei in this solid installment, are merchants in sixth-century A.D. Yang-Chau, as Shanghai was called during this period. Forced by political necessity to journey westward to Chang'an (aka Xian) during winter, the pair soon realize that this is a winter like no other. Never in his more than 3,500 years of existence has the well-traveled vampire experienced anything similar—a sun with "no warmth or strength," strange yellow snowfall and an "invisible cloud" distorting the sky. Unbeknownst to most of the world, an eruption of the volcano Krakatau (aka Krakatoa) is to blame. Agricultural and economic disruption result, illness spreads, social unrest and collapse follow. The Dark Ages begin. Faced with a multitude of hardships, Saint-Germain determines to travel across Asia to his native soil in the Carpathian Mountains. The romantic and supernatural play second fiddle to history in this well-told story that deals with the meaning of being human. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review"Will entertain lovers of all genres. Fascinating."_--Midwest Book Review_ on M_idnight Harvest_
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Saint-Germain #19
Roman Dusk
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Rome is crumbling. The child-emperor, Heliogabalus, diverts the Roman populace with parties, circuses, and celebrations, while his mother and grandmother jockey for power behind the scenes. The government is riddled with scandal and no business is conducted without bribes which grow ever larger. Religions joust for prominence, with factions of Christians seeking to overthrow the ancient Roman pantheon. Courtesans, once honored for their skills and protected by special guards, have become targets of opprobrium. The vampire Ragoczy Germanius Sanct\' Franciscus, already subject to extra taxes and regulations because he is a foreigner, falls under the maleficent eye of Telemachus Batsho, a minor functionary who dreams of power and wealth. When Franciscus thwarts his attempts to extort ever-increasing sums from a young Roman of good birth, Batsho swears revenge. Franciscus finds his activities closely monitored and is accused of treason and conspiracy. His friends, threatened with similar scrutiny, abandon him to Batsho\'s mercies or urge him to leave the Eternal City.But Franciscus has many ties to Rome. He has taken under his protection a beautiful courtesan who was brutally beaten by the very men who should have been protecting her. She has been the vampire\'s sustenance for many months. Franciscus is also held in the city by the plight of the family Laelius. The Domina\'s health is failing despite the vampire\'s great medical skills; her son has converted to Christianity and rails against his mother\'s beliefs; her daughter Ignatia, who has sacrified her own life to care for her mother, realizes that when her mother dies, her fate will rest in the hands of her increasingly fanatical brother. Determined to claim pleasure for herself, Ignatia invites Franciscus\'s attentions, inflaming him with the power of her untapped sexuality. Unfortunately, they are not unobserved, and their simple yet powerful act of love sparks a conflagration that destroys Ignatia\'s family and nearly brings about the vampire\'s True Death.
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Saint-Germain #19
Saint-Germain 19: States of Grace: A Novel of the Count Saint-Germain
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
From Publishers WeeklyIn Yarbro's rewarding 18th Saint-Germain novel (after 2004's Dark of the Sun), religious conflict makes life dangerous for almost everyone in 1530 Europe, but publishing is a particularly hazardous undertaking. The agents of the doge are spying on Conte di Santo-Germano (as he's known in Venezia), due to his foreignness and role as a publisher. When the count travels from Italy to the Spanish Netherlands to protect his interests there, he leaves behind his lover, Pier-Ariana Salier, a talented musician and composer, confident that his vast wealth will provide for her; however, an embezzler, a clever spy who discovers Saint-Germain's true nature, has other ideas. Subtle intrigue plus details of daily life, publishing and music will keep fans turning the pages. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review"Rewarding. Subtle intrigue plus details of daily life, publishing and music will keep fans turning the pages."--_Publishers Weekly_ on States of Grace "Among the best vampire tales around. Saint-Germain is no ordinary bloodsucker, and his adventures across history are compelling Yarbro's impeccable research brings Reformation Europe vividly to life.Yarbro skillfully builds plot and character through the interpretations of minor characters, both friends and enemies. Fans of historical fiction and vampire tales alike should be enthralled."--_Romantic Times BookClub Magazine_ Top Pick, 4 ½ stars on _States of Grace_
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Saint-Germain #20
Borne in Blood
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
The year is 1817. In Switzerland, the Count Saint-Germain leads a comfortable life with his paramour Hero whose husband died fighting Napoleon. Saint-Germain\'s loving kindness cannot keep Hero from missing her children who are being raised by their hard-hearted grandfather.
The Count has become intrigued by the work of an Austrian noble investigating the properties of blood, a subject always of key interest to a vampire. But when the noble\'s beautiful ward fixates sexually on the Count, the vampire fears for himself and his gentle lover.
With Borne in Blood, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro\'s saga of Count Saint-Germain, reaches a milestone--the twentieth volume of the vampire\'s adventures. The Saint-Germain cycle is one of our age\'s most compelling bodies of work of dark fantasy and horror, and the longest running series of vampire novels. Historically accurate, these deeply emotional novels have a devoted readership. Recognizing her impact on the genre, the International Horror Guild named Chelsea Quinn Yarbro a Living Legend at the World Fantasy Convention in 2006.
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Saint-Germain #20
Saint-Germain 20: Roman Dusk: A Novel of the Count Saint-Germain
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Set in decadent third-century C.E. Rome, Yarbro's 19th volume in her majestic fantasy series (after 2005's Dark of the Sun) is one of her finest yet to feature heroic vampire Saint-Germain, here known as Ragoczy Germainus Sanct-Franciscus. Despite his wealth, discretion and careful observance of the social niceties, Sanct-Franciscus must be careful as a foreigner. All his precautions, however, can't prevent an official from placing a spy in his household and targeting him for tax evasion and worse. Even as Sanct-Franciscus shelters and aids an abused courtesan, doctors a dying noblewoman and befriends her virginal daughter, he must contend with a fanatical young follower of one of the many religions of the day, Christianity. Sensuous scenes are lush with language ("her sumptuous body still quivering in apolaustic abandon") rather than the explicitly erotic. Meticulous attention to historic detail and vivid writing bring an ancient era to life. Unlike most generic vampiric novels that can be quaffed in a quick if entertaining gulp, this book should be savored like a fine wine. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThe new Saint-Germain yarn unfolds in the Decadence--the second-century period of Roman boy-emperor Heliogabalus' reign. Saint-Germain comes to Rome as, ostensibly, a learned, wealthy merchant. His riches attract a particularly corrupt tax collector, and when he attempts to help an ailing noblewoman, he is accused of corrupting her daughter, whose zealous Christian-convert brother threatens to destroy Saint-Germain with fire. All accounts are settled before the vampire leaves Rome. Yarbro's interpretation of the period is extremely plausible, ensuring that this installment of the long, long series appeals equally to vampire, history, and romance fans. Frieda MurrayCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Saint-Germain #21
Saint-Germain 21: Borne in Blood: A Novel of the Count Saint-Germain
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
From Publishers WeeklyIf Anne Rice is the celebrity journalist of vampires, Yarbro is their domestic chronicler. The meticulous 20th entry in her Count Saint-Germain saga (after 2006's Roman Dusk) finds her 4,000-year-old hero in the Swiss countryside of 1817, helping the struggling locals recover from the Napoleonic wars and severe winters. By this period, Saint-Germain is a cultured and compassionate figure, occupied with the spread of knowledge through publishing and the child custody struggles of his lover, Hero Corvosaggio. His greatest threats come from discharged soldiers turned bandits and an abused debutante turned murderer, whose blood-obsessed guardian he lectures on the difference between heredity and destiny. Monsters are made, he knows, not born. Yarbro piles on the historical detail, giving an intimate look at the households of early 19th-century Europe and the commerce and travels of its inhabitants. Letters, with headnotes on their delivery methods and times, litter the text, adding to the period feel. Intimate, too, describes Saint-Germain and Hero, whose relationship is explored in fine-grained emotional as well as physical terms. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review“Saint-Germain is a compelling figure, more appealing than the modern vampires of Anne Rice and Laurell K. Hamilton.”--_Romantic Times BOOKreviews_“Saint-Germain is a cultured and compassionate figure, occupied with the spread of knowledge through publishing and the child custody struggles of his lover, Hero Corvosaggio. [The relationship between] Saint-Germain and Hero is explored in fine-grained emotional as well as physical details.”--_Publishers Weekly_ on Borne in Blood“One of her finest. Sensuous scenes are lush with language. Meticulous attention to historic detail and vivid writing bring an ancient era to life. Unlike most generic vampire novels that can be quaffed in a quick if entertaining gulp, this book should be savored like fine wine.”--_Publishers Weekly_ (starred review) on Roman Dusk
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Saint-Germain #22
A Dangerous Climate
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
The vampire Count Saint-Germain, disguised as a missing Hungarian nobleman, is on a spy mission in the heart of Czarist Russia. Almost by the power of his will alone, it seems, Peter the Great is wrestling the city that will one day be St. Petersburg out of swampland. Representatives of the heads of all European states are living in tiny, frigid, wooden homes as they jockey for power and influence over the Czar. When a man shows up claiming to be the Count Saint-Germain, the vampire must figure out how to protect his title and wealth without revealing either his true identity or his True Nature.
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Saint-Germain #23
Burning Shadows
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Two decades strong, the Saint-Germain cycle is one of the most compelling works of dark fantasy and horror of our age. Historically accurate, these deeply emotional novels have a devoted readership. In Burning Shadows, Yarbro looks at the legendary Huns from the perspective of the people who faced the brunt of their attacks. The vampire Saint-Germain seeks sanctuary at an isolated monastery, unwilling to abandon the hundreds of terrified villagers he has led in flight from the Huns. A few Roman soldiers and some village Watchmen are the monastery’s defense force—and they are undermined by the religious fervor of some of the monks, who argue that since everyone’s fate is in God’s hands, it is foolish to defend themselves. In the hothouse atmosphere of the high-walled monastery, Saint-Germain must take special care when slaking his vampire thirst, for discovery of his True Nature will result in his True Death.
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Saint-Germain #24
An Embarrassment of Riches
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
More than two decades strong, the Saint-Germain cycle is one of the most compelling works of dark fantasy and horror of our age. Historically accurate, often involving key events or figures from throughout world history, these deeply emotional novels have a devoted readership. Each novel is written as a stand-alone and they are not chronologically consecutive, so readers may enter the saga with any book and move backward or forward in time as they choose, from Pharaonic Egypt to Paris in the 1700s, from the fall of the Roman Empire to World War II Europe.In An Embarrassment of Riches, the vampire Count finds himself a virtual prisoner in the Court of Kunigunde in Bohemia in the 1200s. Rakoczy Ferncsi, as Saint-Germain is known, passes his days making jewels to delight Queen Kunigunde and trying not to become involved in the Court\'s intrigues. In this, the vampire fails. Handsome, apparently wealthy, and obviously unmarried, he soon finds himself being sexually blackmailed by Rozsa, an ambitious lady-in-waiting. If he does not satisfy her, she will denounce him to the priests and he\'ll be burned at the stake, resulting in his True Death. Despite his care, the vampire makes more than one enemy at the Bohemian Court, and by the end of An Embarrassment of Riches, the Count can see only one road to freedom...through death.
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Saint-Germain #24
Saint-Germain 24: An Embarrassment of Riches: A Novel of the Count Saint-Germain
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
From Publishers WeeklyYarbro's long-running series featuring the millennia-old vampire Saint-Germain continues to mix rich historical detail and erudite eroticism, though the horror element has become nearly invisible. Known now as Rakoczy Ferancsi, Comes of Santu-Germaniu, Saint-Germain has been exiled from his ancient lands and now resides at the court of the melancholy Queen Kunigunde of Bohemia in 13th-century Prague. He is regarded with suspicion by the local church hierarchy and with intense personal interest by three ladies of the court: the scheming Rozsa of Borsod, the passionate teenager Imbolya of Heves (a particularly unlikely match for 3,200-year-old Saint-Germain), and the determined Iliska of Szousa. Though the intensity of the storytelling has lessened substantially over the course of the series, Yarbro's compelling prose and meticulously researched setting still combine effectively for a vivid historical tale that will please series fans. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. From BooklistCount Saint-Germain is a vampire, though this is not the bloodthirsty vampire with which people are so familiar. Rather, the count does his best to live as humans do, and gets into as much, if not more, trouble than his mortal compatriots. This tale is set in the 1600s in Bohemia. The characters are richly described, and the way of life for the nobility and court are brought to life through the narration. Set in a location unfamiliar to most readers, the book's attention to details and development of characters make it a must-read. The fact that the main character is a vampire is really just a literary device to allow the author to explore a wide variety of time periods. Even if the reader has not enjoyed any other books in the Count Saint-Germain series, this one stands on its own merits, with very little to indicate that other stories of this character exist. For those who are interested in learning about times and periods outside of the typical English or French courts, this book will be a pleasure to read. --Rebecca Gerber
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Saint-Germain #26
