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MIDNIGHT HARVEST
by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Warner Books, September 2003
434 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0446532401


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

It's been years since I read a book featuring Saint-Germain. I think the fact that I'm a very non-romantic person did me in. I remember Hotel Transylvania in part because I don't think I'd ever read anything like it before. 

The advantages of a vampire-hero are that he's had centuries to learn how to survive in the world; how to spot wars coming, evil lurking in the corners, those signs that life is about to change and not for the better. The disadvantages might be that even with all that, or because of all that knowledge, he's a tad smug. Saint-Germain is too perfect for me. I can see, without a doubt, the attraction of the character and the series. Reading this one - book 16 (wow, I feel old) in the series - brought back the same sense of the first one; the wealth of detail, the intelligence of the protagonist in dealing with the massive limitations of his lifestyle in the face of a world which works during the day, eats in public, sleeps at night, the usual. 

This is a book that I'll recommend but it was not for me. While it's not that I need fistfights and hard-boiled action (what, no car chases?) in my kind of book, I just found that the details of clothing and upholstery, and cars and food overdone. The pace was way too slow, with long conversations about everything, including details that I found boring. I remember this sense of detail from the earlier books and remember enjoying them, so clearly my tastes have changed. The pace seemed entirely appropriate for the story being told, but I got impatient. I don't really remember liking Saint-Germain too much; he was a bit stuffy for me, and while he might have righted some wrongs, in this book he's a wealthy industrialist and there's no way for me to warm to such a character who owns aircraft plants and fuel processing plants and chemical plants. (I'd like to think, maybe, if I were granted eternal life, I'd lead what I think is a more creative one.) And while the bad guys certainly are bad - rapacious, intolerant, blood-thirsty (if you will pardon the expression), I couldn't warm to the good guys here either.

One attraction here is the time of the book; in the 1930s and Saint-Germain is in Spain, which is gearing up for war. There is paranoia everywhere, there are arrogant government officials, corrupt workers, gunfire in the streets and eventually, as often happens, the vampire must flee the country. Going to America might not be the safest move, since the U.S. is suffering a different crisis, but it sure is an interesting time. In recent months, I've read more than one book of fiction set in a historic period of crisis - Russia at the dawn of the revolution, China in the early 20th century - and I admire the writers of all these books. Writing is hard enough, writing about a changing world is even tougher. Again, I found the descriptions here too exhaustive, with lots of references to what it was like "before" but that's unavoidable, isn't it, when you're writing of people who have lived forever?

Reviewed by Andi Shechter, August 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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