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Saint-Germain #13
Come Twilight
Come Twilight begins in eastern Spain in the early 600s, when Saint-Germain makes a vampire of the headstrong Csimenae. In the next 140 years, as Spain is controlled first by the the Visigoths and then by Moors, Csimenae becomes a mother of vampires. Though he will regret it for centuries to come, Saint-Germain must act against her.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
484 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2000
7 people are currently reading
322 people want to read
About the author
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
262 books477 followersA professional writer for more than forty years, Yarbro has sold over eighty books, more than seventy works of short fiction, and more than three dozen essays, introductions, and reviews. She also composes serious music. Her first professional writing - in 1961-1962 - was as a playwright for a now long-defunct children's theater company. By the mid-60s she had switched to writing stories and hasn't stopped yet.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 6, 2017
I'm getting reacquainted with my favorite vampire, Saint-Germain. While I love Ms. Yarbro's vast historical research and her deft weaving of documented events with a fictional hero, it is the vampire himself that keeps bringing me back to the work. He's centuries old, has endured many trials and pains--both physical and emotional--and has reinvented himself thousands of times by now, but he manages to retain his goodness and generosity. He loves with his whole heart. He was born a prince and is still princely through all the trials and triumphs of his long life.
If you are familiar with Saint-Germain you will know that Come Twilight is one in a series, and that Ms. Yarbro's writing has a formula that serves the series well. I tend to prefer the stories set in old times (Blood Games is still my favorite of all of them), but this volume will not disappoint fans. It has everything you expect from a Saint-Germain novel, with some twists you might not see coming.
It was a pleasure to read another adventure of my vampire hero, whose angst is hard-won, whose love is genuine (as is his rage, when provoked), and for whom no sparkle whatsoever is needed to make him beautiful.
If you are familiar with Saint-Germain you will know that Come Twilight is one in a series, and that Ms. Yarbro's writing has a formula that serves the series well. I tend to prefer the stories set in old times (Blood Games is still my favorite of all of them), but this volume will not disappoint fans. It has everything you expect from a Saint-Germain novel, with some twists you might not see coming.
It was a pleasure to read another adventure of my vampire hero, whose angst is hard-won, whose love is genuine (as is his rage, when provoked), and for whom no sparkle whatsoever is needed to make him beautiful.
August 21, 2008
I found Come Twilight by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro while browsing the library shelves. It looked interesting enough and I took it home with me.
I started reading it 2 weeks ago. Some days I didn't read and worked on the afghan instead and some days I couldn't bear to bring myself to read it. It was tedious and infuriating. The main character, a vampire named Sanct Germain, meets this dying pregnant woman in a deserted village. He helps her get better, delivers her baby and helps defend her claim on the village against those who would deny her claim. And the whole time, she treats him like a dog, never once says thank you and insists that he owes her his life instead of the other way around. Then, in a skirmish with those against her, she gets whacked in the head and to prevent her from dying and her son being killed too, he transforms her. And then he is surprised when she continues to act the same way before, not listen to his instruction on how to survive, and threatens to kill him if he doesn't leave. She reigns in holy terror for the next 500 years. They come in contact every once in a while and those meetings make up the book.
I had a bad attitude from the get go b/c he couldn't see what was so obvious to me from the very first meeting. And then, he rescued her from the True Death b/c he couldn't bear to lose one of his own blood. Nevermind the hundreds of years she and her vampire clan mercilessly killed and transformed others without a thought.
I started reading it 2 weeks ago. Some days I didn't read and worked on the afghan instead and some days I couldn't bear to bring myself to read it. It was tedious and infuriating. The main character, a vampire named Sanct Germain, meets this dying pregnant woman in a deserted village. He helps her get better, delivers her baby and helps defend her claim on the village against those who would deny her claim. And the whole time, she treats him like a dog, never once says thank you and insists that he owes her his life instead of the other way around. Then, in a skirmish with those against her, she gets whacked in the head and to prevent her from dying and her son being killed too, he transforms her. And then he is surprised when she continues to act the same way before, not listen to his instruction on how to survive, and threatens to kill him if he doesn't leave. She reigns in holy terror for the next 500 years. They come in contact every once in a while and those meetings make up the book.
I had a bad attitude from the get go b/c he couldn't see what was so obvious to me from the very first meeting. And then, he rescued her from the True Death b/c he couldn't bear to lose one of his own blood. Nevermind the hundreds of years she and her vampire clan mercilessly killed and transformed others without a thought.
October 9, 2009
I had been looking forward to reading the story of the infamous Csimenae, the woman Saint-Germain saved by turning her into a vampire; she who rejected her maker's advice and his ethics and proceeded to create her own vampire army. But her story is rather pathetic, as is Saint-Germain's response to her actions. He grieves, but does nothing to stop her. His compassion is admirable but his passiveness gets really annoying sometimes.
This book breaks the series pattern by showing more than a glimpse of Saint-Germain's life: it covers several hundred years. But the background history is weak, and I was annoyed when one particular period of his life, one of the few times that Roger and Saint-Germain are separated, is merely skimmed over.
Saint-Germain has remarkable patience with humanity considering that he always seems to encounter the very worst sort of people. Nearly everyone he deals with is suspicious, greedy, jealous, or downright hostile.
As usual, I enjoyed Olivia's letters.
This book breaks the series pattern by showing more than a glimpse of Saint-Germain's life: it covers several hundred years. But the background history is weak, and I was annoyed when one particular period of his life, one of the few times that Roger and Saint-Germain are separated, is merely skimmed over.
Saint-Germain has remarkable patience with humanity considering that he always seems to encounter the very worst sort of people. Nearly everyone he deals with is suspicious, greedy, jealous, or downright hostile.
As usual, I enjoyed Olivia's letters.
May 30, 2022
I found this book in the series to have a bit of a different formula to the others.In this book St Germain travels to Spain to help his servant try and find his descendants and comes across a woman thats ill and pregnant and helps her.One of the things i liked about this book is for a change,St Germain is not involved in a relationship with a woman that was refreshing.I think sometimes the relationships can get a bit tedious after a while.The other is it moved in different time periods i thought it was both good and bad we get to see the changing of the people and the culture in spain,but the down side is at times it jumped a bit much in chapters the book takes place over about six hundred years and maybe could had been told in two books insted of one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 18, 2024
Sssooo much repetitive dialogue
January 30, 2026
Not a bad book, but I think I'm done with the series. Just not enjoying it that much anymore and plenty else to read.
April 21, 2007
People interested in Spain during the Moorish occupation might get more out of this book than anyone. In the story, Yarbro attempts to explain how and why the idea of vampires spreading as an uncontrollable plague on society might have come about, if there really were vampires. This is a case where Saint-Germain's kind heart causes him no end of grief.
I'm not certain the plot of this book was entirely Yarbro's idea; more likely it was her attempt to explain to a new publisher the difference between her vampires and the ones in the movies, and may have been written at his behest to try to reconcile the two. Bad idea.
Yarbro makes the idea work, but the writing is strained and lacks her usual ability to draw the reader in, to feel as if he or she is really there, watching events unfold.
I'm not certain the plot of this book was entirely Yarbro's idea; more likely it was her attempt to explain to a new publisher the difference between her vampires and the ones in the movies, and may have been written at his behest to try to reconcile the two. Bad idea.
Yarbro makes the idea work, but the writing is strained and lacks her usual ability to draw the reader in, to feel as if he or she is really there, watching events unfold.
February 22, 2009
In many ways, this isn't Yarbro's best. The biggest flaw is the lack of any real showdown which ties into the feeling that the Count is too passive here. What saves the book is the debate whether or not the Count has truly accepted who he is, perhaps this book works better as a character(s) study than a strict novel.
Read
August 23, 2008isbn,original
January 5, 2010
Not hard to get through. But not sending any letters home about it either. Still, it's Saint Germaine.
November 24, 2015
My least favorite in the series although St. Germain's compassion was probably one of the things that attracted me to the series in the first place. I didn't care for the Csimenae character at all.
August 5, 2011
It was this book that knocked me out of my Yarbro habit. The story was just so repetitive. Decades of time would pass, but the characters were doing and saying the same things over and over.
Want to read
November 10, 2012page 114
Read
September 1, 2013St. Germain (Spain, 620-) Book 14
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews