Nightborn: Coldfire Rising by C.S. Friedman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I may be in the minority to say that this one is NOT a perfect entry point in the Coldfire Trilogy, but I won't deny that it is still an excellent companion novel.

A little backstory: This trilogy is one of the few truly excellent crossover Fantasy/SF/Horror novels that are equal in every portion. The worldbuilding is very well thought-out and very memorable, even after decades of reading so many other SF and Fantasy.

The surprise really did it for me. The slow build-up and reveal, the inherent complexity and coherence. *chef's kiss*

This short prequel of a novel really lays ALL those secrets out and if you already know the story, it's great... especially since we get to follow the big bad's beginnings and progress. Muahahahaha

Oh yeah, it's great. I may have a few quibbles about the poor preparedness of the original colony, but streamlined like this? It's still pretty great.


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