Black Sun Rising

 
 
Black Sun Rising

by CS Friedman
DAW

1991

 

 

It feels like I spent forever reading Black Sun Rising, but I think it's mostly that I've been busier at home and at work, and I've had less time to read. Also, at about 500 pages, while not especially long by fantasy-novel standards, it is longer than most of the books I've been reading lately.

 
Black Sun Rising is a science-fantasy novel set on the distant planet Erna, where the human colonists live in a pseudo-medieval society, 1000 years after arriving from Earth. Erna is home to a new fundamental force, like light or magnetism or gravity, that doesn't exist on Earth. Called 'fae,' it's a kind of energy that responds to thought, both conscious and unconscious, making it work quite a bit like magic. There are several varieties of fae with different sources, that remind me of the colors of mana in Magic: the Gathering. (Since "Black Sun" was published in 1991, and Magic first appeared in 93, it's possible that one influenced the other, though I have no idea if it actually did.)
 

The fae respond to the human subconscious at least as much as to conscious thought, giving humans a healthy fear of the night, when the dark-fae might manifest their nightmares. Anyone can learn to 'Work' the earth-fae, usually to gain knowledge, although perhaps in the same way that anyone can learn to play music or do math. 'Adepts' are able to see and wield the fae easily, almost without trying. A strong human Church exists to try to help people order their thoughts in a way that won't activate the fae, although its best days are behind it.

 
Also there's another sentient species on the planet, called Rahk, who are kind of alien lion people. When humans first arrived on Erna, a scientist identified a cat-like species, and claimed that if humans had never arrived, they would eventually evolve to be like us. The hopes and fears of the entire human society then caused the fae to cause that to happen in only a few generations. Humans tried to exterminate the new sentients, who fled across the ocean to another continent and erected a magic barrier, and since then, the two species have rarely interacted.

 
There's a lot of worldbuilding at the beginning of the book, which gives way to more action and subtextual romance as the book continues. Damien is a priest of the human Church. He's arrived in a new city on a holy mission that he'll drop for something more important, so nevermind. He meets Ciani, a local Adept, and the only person to ever live among the Rahk and return to tell about it. Ciani gets attacked by some kind of nightmare demons who steal her memories and her Adept ability. Damien vows to help her, Ciani and her apprentice determine that the demon came from the Rahk lands, and they set off on a quest to try to kill the demon before it boats home.

 
Along the way, the meet Tarrant, the Hunter, the lord of the dark Forest, who, as one of my friends has pointed out, is basically Dracula. He used to be the Prophet who helped found the human Church, then sacrificed his family to gain immortality, and has spent the past 1000 years kidnapping women and chasing them to death so he can 'eat' their fear. Friedman is obviously enamored with this guy, and she obviously ships Damien / Tarrant, though this remains just short of being explicitly acknowledged. This has a huge effect on the course of the narrative!

 
As a man of the Church, Damien is basically sworn to kill Tarrant, but he decides that this mission to get Ciani her magic back is more important, (a decision that is clearly influenced by his huge crush on the guy,) so he agrees to a temporary alliance. Tarrant considers it a matter of honor that he help Ciani, (and seems to have a crush on Damien too,) so off we go! In the Rahk lands, they are joined by Hesseth, a Rahk woman who knows the human language, and also wants to kill the memory-stealing demons, because they've been a much bigger menace over here than on the human continent.

 
It takes about half the book to get to this point, and then the quest story finally begins in earnest. As interesting as I found the worldbuilding, the second half is probably better written, more engaging, and faster reading. The group suffers some pretty serious hardships during their journey, and we learn more about the Rahk, who are pretty interesting. 

 
Eventually the group reaches the insane human sorcerer who commands the memory-stealing demons, and I actually wish we'd gotten to see more of that person before they're defeated. It seems there's an even greater evil on yet another continent farther away, so after their victory, they set sail for the next two books of Friedman's trilogy. (Will Damien and Tarrant ever declare their manly love for one another? Will they ever kiss? I, for one, will probably never find out.)

 
I read this one because I was interested in the concept of the fae, and the scientific-sounding explanation for a world animated by magic, and I liked the aliens and the evil wizard at the end. The ideal reader is probably someone who likes Reylo-style enemies-to-lovers subtext, and doesn't mind that it will probably never be acknowledged as actual romance.