later we learn that the prevailing opinion is that
the Earth is shaped like a ball and that only a small
minority believe that it is actually flat.
The crew is restless so far from land, and
Columbus has promised to turn about if there is no
indication of land ahead by the end of the day.
During the morning birds are sighted, but they are
strange creatures with no legs, as if they spent their
entire lives in the sky never coming to earth. Later
that day they come to the end of the world, which
is indeed flat and which is now the instrument of
their doom. Farmer leads the reader to expect one
resolution, then offers the most unlikely of them
all, and makes it convincing.
Saint Germain Series Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
(1978– )
Although other writers have taken advantage of
the fact that vampires are supposed to be immortal
to use a recurring character in differing historical
situations, most notably Anne RICE and Les
DANIELS, Chelsea Quinn YARBROis the author of
the longest and most historically interesting exam-
ple. She introduced the character of Saint Ger-
main in Hotel Transylvania(1978), set during the
French Revolution. Although her vampire protag-
onist is not without his faults, he usually manages
to secure the blood he requires without killing his
victims, often by seducing women and essentially
purchasing their blood with safe and rewarding
sexual fulfillment, always described in romantic
terms. The human villains are a good deal more re-
pulsive, and Saint German eventually intervenes,
gets into trouble, and flees, turning up next in The
Palace(1978), this time set in 15th-century Flo-
rence, where he mingles with the nobility as part of
his perpetual quest for knowledge and the acquisi-
tion of fine artwork.
It was obvious after the first two books ap-
peared that this was going to be a popular series, al-
though they are not horror novels in any real sense
despite the vampirism. Rather, they are historical
adventure stories with a touch of the fantastic,
sometimes so subsidiary to the plot that it might
easily have been left out altogether. Blood Games
(1980), which moves the scene further back to an-
cient Rome, introduces the character of Olivia,
who also becomes a vampire and who had her own
short-lived spin-off series of novels. The Mongol
hordes of Genghis Khan in 13th-century China
provide the stage for Path of the Eclipse(1981), one
of the very best of the early titles in the series. As
usual, Saint Germain is relatively powerless to af-
fect the course of history. Tempting Fate(1982)
moves forward to World War II, but Saint Ger-
main’s adventures in Nazi-dominated Europe are
not nearly as entertaining as in the previous books.
Yarbro left the series for several years at that
point, and when she returned it was to follow
Olivia’s adventures in Constantinople in A Flame for
Byzantium(1987) and then back to Rome during the
Crusades in Crusader’s Torch(1988). After A Candle
for D’Artagnan(1989), however, Yarbro reverted to
Saint Germain and has stayed with him ever since.
In Out of the House of Life(1990) we learn a great
deal more about his past, particularly that period
during which he lived in Egypt at the height of that
country’s ancient glory. Most of the previous novels
had been set among the nobility, but he finds himself
stranded in a very small and constrained society in
Better in the Dark(1993), this time in 10th-century
Germany. He returns to high society in Darker Jewels
(1993) as an accredited envoy for Poland during the
time of Ivan the Terrible.
In Mansions of Darkness(1996) Saint Germain
decides to escape the threat of the Inquisition by
traveling to the New World, where he becomes in-
volved with the Spanish suppression of the Aztecs
in one of the best of the later novels. He is an
envoy again in Writ in Blood(1997), this time serv-
ing the czar of Russia in 1910, and is nearly killed
for political reasons rather than because of his
unique nature. Blood Roses(1998) is one of his
weakest adventures and is set during the plague in
14th-century France. Olivia does not return in
Communion Blood (1999), but Saint Germain
crosses paths with one of her progeny when he vis-
its Rome during the 17th century. Come Twilight
(2000) is also one of the better titles. Fooled by his
own emotions, Saint Germain turns a 7th-century
Spanish woman into a vampire, but she is so
changed by the transition that she becomes a
threat to both of them.
Saint Germain returns to the land of the Mon-
gols and has his secret exposed in A Feast in Exile302 Saint Germain Series