Book Review: When True Night Falls by C.S. Friedman

When True Night Falls by C.S. Friedman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Following the events in the Rahklands, the three survivors of the previous book head to the mysterious East to find the power behind their defeated opponent only to discover things are more complicated than they could have imagined. When True Night Falls is the middle installment of C.S. Friedman’s Coldfire trilogy as a priest, a native rakh, and an antihero sorcerer find a continent on the verge of a secret war.

After harrowing journey to the East, Damien Vryce, Gerald Tarrant, and Hesseth find the descendants of a few of colonizing expeditions along with the Church that Vryce serves though it’s structure with female leadership that Vryce isn’t bothered with. However, Tarrant and Hesseth ruin Vryce brief bout with happiness when they figure out the truth of the very unchurch like things this eastern version of the Church does as well as the fact that the women in charge are undercover Rakh manipulating humanity. These undercover Rakh are the tip of an invasion that’s second phase is taking on the guises of political leaders, including the father of Jenseny who can use the Rakh magical system thus showing that Erna is beginning to ‘evolve’ humans instead of being evolved by humans. Eventually the four meet up and journey to the south of the eastern continent where the Undying Prince reigns over a realm of humans and Rakh. Yet it turns out that there is a bigger game being played out that is only discovered after the climax of the book and the horrific fallout is witnessed. While the last hundred pages of the book, the climax, were excellent writing but the almost 500 pages to get there got to be a bit tiring with another travelogue though Friedman tried to liven things up by showing the all the undercover Rakh action. Though it’s hard to really write a good child character, but Jenseny came out well on paper and especially given how she figures into the book’s endgame.

When True Night Falls is an interesting middle installment of a trilogy, though by the end it reveals the larger game going on it does suffer from ‘middle book syndrome’ a tad. C.S. Friedman’s blend of science fiction and fantasy continues to be engaging and the ending of the book makes the reader want to see how the trilogy concludes.

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