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Shadow Saga #6
The Graves of Saints
For centuries, Vatican sorcerers kept demons and monsters out of our world with the magic found in a grimoire called The Gospel of Shadows. Years ago, to save his people from madmen, Peter Octavian defeated those sorcerers and the Gospel of Shadows itself was banished from the Earth. Ever since, the evils and monstrosities lurking in parallel worlds have been waking to the realization that our magical defences are down - the barriers keeping them out of our world are crumbling.
With massive demonic incursions in locations around the world, Octavian should be focused on using his own sorcery to drive the evil out and rebuild our defences. But a renegade vampire named Cortez has murdered the person Octavian loves the most and, even with his friends and allies around him, he is so lost in grief that he can think of nothing but revenge. There are others who can fight the darkness - mages and Shadows, witches and Reapers and vampire samurai - but only the warrior-mage, Peter Octavian, can defeat it. If he will answer the call.
With massive demonic incursions in locations around the world, Octavian should be focused on using his own sorcery to drive the evil out and rebuild our defences. But a renegade vampire named Cortez has murdered the person Octavian loves the most and, even with his friends and allies around him, he is so lost in grief that he can think of nothing but revenge. There are others who can fight the darkness - mages and Shadows, witches and Reapers and vampire samurai - but only the warrior-mage, Peter Octavian, can defeat it. If he will answer the call.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
10 people are currently reading
313 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Golden
800 books2,978 followersCHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of such novels as Road of Bones, Ararat, Snowblind, Of Saints and Shadows, and Red Hands. With Mike Mignola, he is the co-creator of the Outerverse comic book universe, including such series as Baltimore, Joe Golem: Occult Detective, and Lady Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Seize the Night, Dark Cities, and The New Dead, among others, and he has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, and a network television pilot. Golden co-hosts the podcast Defenders Dialogue with horror author Brian Keene. In 2015 he founded the popular Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His work has been nominated for the British Fantasy Award, the Eisner Award, and multiple Shirley Jackson Awards. For the Bram Stoker Awards, Golden has been nominated ten times in eight different categories. His original novels have been published in more than fifteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 24, 2018
Caveat: I'm rating this on pure, bloody-minded awe at the epic action. Golden writes great comics, too, and one especially grand Hellboy, not to mention X-men, but long before I read him in those, this series was synonymous with OMG THIS IS AMAZING, with unlimited special effects included.
Does it match the original Final Battle between the forces of the Mages in the Vatican VS the unbound Vampires who were enslaved by the Catholic Church in the distant past? Uh, maybe? I mean, we're opening up the sites of saints in the catacombs of the most famous churches to gateways to hell and hoards pouring out of them. Peter, a vampire turned human and becoming an OVERPOWERED mage thanks to his 1000 years trapped and tortured in hell, stands between massive multiple incursions into our world. Not just hell, but all kinds of nasty pantheons and multiple dimensional nasties who now see the Earth as fresh meat. :) The corrupt and evil Vatican powers HAD been the last bulwark against that, but after they brought demons to rampage across the Earth to fight the vampires, their cred was blown. :)
And now? This is a ramped-up mop-up action with coalitions and mages of both infernal land Gaia magic doing all they can to stem the tide of hungry monsters.
This is NOT your average UF. This is a UF on speed and PCP and cocaine with a budget of a billion and a half dollars, adding truly horrific and nasty elements in upon the ultimate heroism and tragedies playing out all over the place.
Can I say wow?
Now the bad bits. The good bits WAY OUTWEIGH the bad. But the bad is the neverending dead girls, the slightly one-dimensional portrayals lost in the huge and delightful action, and the use of the dead girls to pull off more Refrigerator scenes. They work, and I was affected by this one, but damn... in that respect, it's just like a comic, too. And in a bad way.
That being said, I'm still IN LOVE with this series. :)
Does it match the original Final Battle between the forces of the Mages in the Vatican VS the unbound Vampires who were enslaved by the Catholic Church in the distant past? Uh, maybe? I mean, we're opening up the sites of saints in the catacombs of the most famous churches to gateways to hell and hoards pouring out of them. Peter, a vampire turned human and becoming an OVERPOWERED mage thanks to his 1000 years trapped and tortured in hell, stands between massive multiple incursions into our world. Not just hell, but all kinds of nasty pantheons and multiple dimensional nasties who now see the Earth as fresh meat. :) The corrupt and evil Vatican powers HAD been the last bulwark against that, but after they brought demons to rampage across the Earth to fight the vampires, their cred was blown. :)
And now? This is a ramped-up mop-up action with coalitions and mages of both infernal land Gaia magic doing all they can to stem the tide of hungry monsters.
This is NOT your average UF. This is a UF on speed and PCP and cocaine with a budget of a billion and a half dollars, adding truly horrific and nasty elements in upon the ultimate heroism and tragedies playing out all over the place.
Can I say wow?
Now the bad bits. The good bits WAY OUTWEIGH the bad. But the bad is the neverending dead girls, the slightly one-dimensional portrayals lost in the huge and delightful action, and the use of the dead girls to pull off more Refrigerator scenes. They work, and I was affected by this one, but damn... in that respect, it's just like a comic, too. And in a bad way.
That being said, I'm still IN LOVE with this series. :)
May 22, 2013
Rating books 2-6 of the Peter Octavian series. Sort of like watching the television series "24." Action never stops and there is always another cataclysmic event on the horizon that can only be conquered by Octavian's unique set of skills. Exhausting!
April 16, 2013
Now that's how it's done! Mr. Golden is back in the saddle and riding tall! I wasn't overly enthused about the last Octavian book, but this is the real stuff. It's time once again for Octavian to rise up and save the world and Mr. Golden does a very good job of selling it to the reader. This one had all the excitement of an epic comic, say Crisis on Infinite Earths, although no weeping Superman. I can't wait for the next installment.
May 15, 2017
One of the great vamp series ever written. Super creative
August 11, 2021
Love what is happening with Keomany. Each book has such a good cliffhanger that I immediately read the next one. This cliffhanger was even better!
July 28, 2025
3.75/5
A solidly entertaining buildup to the series' final novel.
A solidly entertaining buildup to the series' final novel.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews