This turned into quest fiction after a hundred pages or so, much to my chagrin. I stuck with it for a while longer since the beginning showed such promise, but I have zero tolerance for a book length journey. I really dislike plot for the sake of showing off world-building, and oh man, that was this. Extended triptych, no thanks. ( )

I love science fantasy, but this is actually old school (just) fantasy in disguise.
Too many and too extensive descriptions for my taste.
Not great, not terrible, but quite dated. ( )

It has interesting world building however the writing is disjointed. I had to backtrack repeatedly to try and see what was going on. The early section of the book was very choppy.
The setting was neat the main characters were meh. ( )

Near the galactic center humans must adapt to life on an alien planet, but it turns out that the planet and its life adapts quickly to humans as well. Black Sun Rising is the first book in C.S. Friedman’s Coldfire trilogy follows a band of humans journey to the lands of the native rahk to hunt down demons that have stolen memories from one of their number and pose a different threat to another of their number.

Twelve hundred years before the time of the novel, a colony vessel arrived on the earthlike Erna only for humanity to find the fauna not only alien but fantastical. The mix of science fiction and fantasy instantly makes an interesting environment to set a story, but Friedman adds to it by having humans upset the balance of Erna that must account for and adapt to the presence of humanity especially when human minds and emotion resulting in physical change of the world. Throughout the book this background is slowly revealed to set up new twists of the story that the five significant characters of the novel must deal with, along with their attitudes with one another. The main two characters of the book, Priest Damien Vryce and Gerald Tarrant are uneasy allies as they venture to the protected area in which Erna’s native inhabitants live for their own particular reasons to face the same antagonist; what makes things more interesting is that Damien is a part of the order that Gerald founded as the Prophet of the Church before turning heretic and becoming near immortal by joining with the dark side of Erna’s magical forces. The unique world and the uneasy alliance between the two main characters makes this a fascinating read.

Black Sun Rising is a well-written very interesting science fiction-fantasy opening installment of a trilogy. C.S. Friedman not only creating an amazing world that the reader explores, but fascinating characters as well. ( )

I not sure why but I really struggled to get into this book. It seemed to take for ever to get to the end. ( )