Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
I finished Better in the Dark at lunch yesterday.
Like the previous of Yarbro’s books that I read, this could have been a very interesting historical novel. Instead, it’s a historical novel made mediocre by the introduction of a besotted and lachrymose vampire named St. Germain. He’s different than most vampires you see in literature and movies — he doesn’t seem to drink blood much, he can cross running water and he can even go out in the day with impunity. He says that some of these things make him feel uncomfortable, but it never seems to stop him from doing anything. Anyways.
The story begins in the middle of the 9th century, deep in the dark ages. St Germain arrives in a remote German fort when his boat crashes and is nursed back to health by the woman in charge of the fortress. Due to a rather contrived accident, he ends up drinking some of her blood, and this somehow causes him to become deeply in love with her, so he decides to stay there for a time. He helps the locals out in various ways — turning moldy bread into penicillin, adding counterweights to their gates, making stronger steel, etc. He faces opposition on a few fronts — the local monastery and the resident priest make a fair number of unreasonable demands on the fort, there are bands of starving peasants, outlaws and Danish raiders who attach them from time to time, and the demands of the King overtax the town and fort. None of these things directly affect St Germain; they more affect the life of the fortress itself, and he tries to help out with them.
I was going to write a whole thing about how this book did well describing the effects of either unaccountable leadership (the King) or leadership chosen for the wrong reasons (the Church), but then I changed my mind.
Anyways now I am reading Dinosaur Empire, the 5th dinosaur book, by Stephen Leigh and John J Miller. It’s ok.