What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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Black Sun Rising
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
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SOLVED. Sci Fi / Fantasy book with immortal hunter/vampire who become what he is by sacrifice to dark powers and demons based on people's emotions or desires. [s]
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This sounds like C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy https://www.goodreads.com/series/4035...The Wikipedia summary reads:
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The entire surface of Erna is wrapped in a powerful energy field known as the Fae. The Fae is a type of energy that comes up to the surface from the core of the planet via the plethora of volcanoes and earthquakes that rock the planet's surface. This is an energy that the native animals of Erna sense, and utilize to a small extent to help them survive (i.e. the Fae is often able to tell a Sensitive individual when an earthquake is coming, or if the tides are about to shift).
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The energy is also sensitive to the human psyche, as the colonists discovered to their dismay. The Fae reacts to human cerebral activity, bringing to life dreams and manifesting fears. In fact, many of the first colonists were killed by Fae-constructs, demons and beasts that fed off of their human progenitors, both physically and mentally. It was only by a Great Sacrifice, the loss of all the technology and knowledge the colonists had brought with them, that humanity came to terms with the Fae, at least enough to learn a rudimentary level of control over the power.
Judy wrote: "This sounds like C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy https://www.goodreads.com/series/4035...The Wikipedia summary reads:
...
The entire surface of Erna is wrapped in a powerful en..."
Thank you! That's it!
Mod
Could potentially also be considered Fantasy, as while the story takes place on a different planet, the world exists at a lower technological level due to a calamity (similar to Pern series). This is not directly spelled out for some time however, though there are many clues.
I originally read the book in either the late 90's or early 00's; it seemed old to me, but then again it was well-loved shall we say.
**Spoilers Below**
The hunter became his current form by sacrificing most of his family in a dark ritual. One son was left alive, and his descendants were stalked by the hunter - essentially, trying to see how his legacy was doing and pushing them to be better.
The other main character was more like a priest or adventurer. He may have even been originally hired to find/capture/stop the hunter, before a worse "big bad" was discovered. He was a flawed hero, but also meant to balance out the darkness of the Hunter.
The calamity that caused the lack of technology was along the lines of an original colonist sacrificing many of his fellow colonists, as he discovered sacrifices have power on this world. His "deal" was to allow the demons/magic of the world to be bound by rules and laws so that people would end up surviving better.
Due to this calamity, guns/gunpowder would not work, so people more often used crossbows. Guns were as likely to blow up in your hand as fire a bullet.
One major standout was there was no Terran livestock, but genetically modified copies. Again, this is inferred from the whole story, but it stood out early on as instead of horses they had "unhorses" and so on.
Ultimately, the "big bad" ended up being a demon - possibly created by or inspired by the fear of the Hunter. He could only be stopped by the opposite emotion - which I remember strongly as not being the "obvious choice". The Hunter is the one who figures out the opposite and makes a sacrifice for that emotion; this stops the bad guy and also either removes his immortality or outright kills him. Vague memory of an epilogue/final paragraph describing a new creature/demon that is the hunter's dark powers given their own life (but bound by the Hunter's original rules/honor system).