(Found) Book Search: A fantasy world where magic reacts to the id? Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman

Phourc

New Member
Joined
May 22, 2020
Messages
3
So in last week's session of DnD, I was trying to explain how a literary character handled a certain situation, only to realize I didn't remember sh*t about the book I was trying to describe. A bit of failed google-fu and I land upon this forum as perhaps my best bet for identifying this trilogy I barely remember. So, without further ado, here's the deets:

Media: It was a trilogy of novels in paperback, of that much I'm certain.

When I read it: I was introduced to it in highschool, where me and my friend both read it at the local library. So somewhere between 2002 and 2006, I suppose.

Major Themes: No idea, sorry, other than the Id magic which I'll get to in a sec.

Plot: The main character was some sort of traveling wizard-for-hire that I'm not remembering much about. The character I do remember was something of an antihero, a vampire-ish servant of nebulous dark powers who turned out to be a rather chill guy. For whatever reason they had to team up to stop the nebulous forces of darkness, though whether that was the first book or all three I honestly don't remember.

Characters: The vampire was apparently the character I really liked - I remember him doing stuff like visiting civilization pretending to be a lowly servant of himself, identified by I believe a pendant, using his reputation to ensure that no one would dare to mess with him.
He could also go out into the sun, saying "If you can survive starlight, you can survive sunlight. It's simply a matter of degree."

Setting: Actually a pretty cool one. I believe it was a planet with it's own established magical ecosystem that was colonized by humans. There was some kind of... I don't remember if it was a substance or a magical energy that reacted to desires, but I remember it explaining that on that planet, giraffes would be born with longer necks as the trees grew taller without the need for all those pesky middle steps we have here on earth. The friend who introduced me to it did a whole, senior-level book report on how "it's like the id!" but again, I don't really remember the specifics. At the end of the trilogy, they get a critical mass of people believing in a christian-style God to render the id-juice inert, which was kind of a bummer.

Language: English.

Cover: I really don't remember, sorry. Maybe a panther?

Ideas that you have already ruled out: None. Searches for variations on "vampire" are predictably glutted, and google sees "id" and thinks "ID card". Bleh. Hope that was enough information, any help is appreciated! ^^
 
Black Sun Rising. by C S Friedman book one of the Coldfire Trilogy

Also Recommend Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen
Liege Killer by Christoper Heinz.
Bloodstone By Karl Edward Wagner
The Dark World by Henry Kuttner
Black Gods Kiss. by C L Moore
The Ship of Ishtar by Abraham Merritt
The City of the Singing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith

The first one is the one you looking for. but , You'll find others listed to be worth checking out, They're terrific too.:cool:
 
Nicely done, kind internet stranger! And within ten minutes, too. >__>

Awfully cruel to give me a reading list when the local library is still - I think - closed but I'm definitely bookmarking this for later perusal.

Thanks again!
 
Nicely done, kind internet stranger! And within ten minutes, too. >__>

Awfully cruel to give me a reading list when the local library is still - I think - closed but I'm definitely bookmarking this for later perusal.

Thanks again!

Im always Glad to recommend . If I may offer a suggestion . Stick around . You'll find this to be a good site,, Some of the members here are established published writers. We have lot of aspiring writers too and regular average fans fans We're also fans who like to talk about and recommend books , tv show movie comic ect. and we got lost of silly fun threads too and sincere and History topic too.. :)

Everyone here is cool. :)
 
Last edited:
Well, despite me having an unprecedented amount of free time due to the ongoing global pandemic, I'm also at an unprecedented stage of inability to do anything useful with said time. So I'll pencil that in as a "maybe" and we'll see how it goes. :p
 
Welcome
And also compliments on a very detailed question, that's how we like querents to do it (y)
 

Similar threads


Back
Top