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Shadow Saga #4
The Gathering Dark
The Gospel of Shadows has been destroyed, leaving the barriers between the human world and paranormal realms wide open. Only Peter Octavian, a powerful mage-and former vampire-can save mankind.
373 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 24, 2003
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506 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Golden
802 books2,987 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 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 2, 2018
Christopher Golden will always have a soft spot in my heart. Why? Because when I read the first two books of this Shadow Saga back in the nineties, they pretty much blew me the f*** away. I thought the characters were delightfully historical, especially because it was real historical and interesting characters being pulled through time because they're now vampires, and also because this was on the forefront of the UF movement making an enormous splash and paving the way for the TRULY super popular ones that came later.
Only, this one never QUITE took off the way those others did. And that's a real shame. Why? Because of the freaking AWESOME SCOPE. It began with vampires pitted against the evil Catholic magician army who kept opening gateways to actual HELL, the subjugation of vampires who aren't exactly evil, just bound by magic to seem that way, and then there was the whole soul thing. Vampires have souls.
Sound like a common enough UF? I mean, besides an army of Catholic magicians opening up city-large gateways to hell to fight the menace of the vampires that they, themselves, made?
Okay, skip that for a moment. Those were the older books. The characters were pretty much larger than life and delightful but sometimes they were somewhat TOO much drawn with a broad-tip pen if you know what I mean. Very little subtlety. But who cares, especially when you have our modern world overrun with city-block-sized demons and good vampires learning to fight and transform in the daylight, or Peter being locked away in hell for a little real-time but for him it's a thousand years, him coming back as one of the most powerful magicians EVER, and battling it out in some of the hugest OVERPOWERED battles I've ever seen in any modern fantasy. In any UF, even.
So why isn't this more popular, again? Why isn't he revered as a god?
HELL IF I KNOW.
So then the third book came around and tons of my favorite characters died and a very unsatisfying end happened and I got BUMMED OUT. Enough that I didn't bother looking to see if he wrote any sequels.
Hint: He did. Four more.
Guess who got embarrassed and ashamed? That's right! ME!
I didn't do any re-reads. I just jumped in with book 4 after a LONG hiatus. How did it go?
Good. I was pretty much WOWed all over again with the magic, the baddies, the enormous scope transforming our modern world as the big bad demon transported whole towns to hell. En-masse. With lots of blood and gobbling of poor people. And armies stepping in to get stepped on. And even the super OP Peter getting his a** handed to him.
Cool. So cool. It's the scope, the descriptions, the HUGE magic on par with Feist or a number of regular big-magic fantasy authors, only it's ripping apart our modern world. :)
And then there's the conflict and harmony of Peter's infernal magic with the Gaia magic. And the love story with the actual magical whirlwind ripping apart waves after waves of demons.
Was I wowed? I was wowed.
Christopher Golden may not have a lot of subtlety, but his hold on grand ideas, gratuitous satisfaction with big magic and bigger gore, and the whole ball of yarn that is his world-building more than makes up for any shortcomings.
Think BIG SCALE COMIC BOOKS with an independent story that shakes the hell out of you. Doing what only novels can do. There's a reason why he's well known as a comic author now. And it's generally because people loved the hell out of what he did in his early novels. :) I assume.
I know he never lost his knack. Whatever issues I had with book 3 is wiped away with the cool bits in book 4. :)
Only, this one never QUITE took off the way those others did. And that's a real shame. Why? Because of the freaking AWESOME SCOPE. It began with vampires pitted against the evil Catholic magician army who kept opening gateways to actual HELL, the subjugation of vampires who aren't exactly evil, just bound by magic to seem that way, and then there was the whole soul thing. Vampires have souls.
Sound like a common enough UF? I mean, besides an army of Catholic magicians opening up city-large gateways to hell to fight the menace of the vampires that they, themselves, made?
Okay, skip that for a moment. Those were the older books. The characters were pretty much larger than life and delightful but sometimes they were somewhat TOO much drawn with a broad-tip pen if you know what I mean. Very little subtlety. But who cares, especially when you have our modern world overrun with city-block-sized demons and good vampires learning to fight and transform in the daylight, or Peter being locked away in hell for a little real-time but for him it's a thousand years, him coming back as one of the most powerful magicians EVER, and battling it out in some of the hugest OVERPOWERED battles I've ever seen in any modern fantasy. In any UF, even.
So why isn't this more popular, again? Why isn't he revered as a god?
HELL IF I KNOW.
So then the third book came around and tons of my favorite characters died and a very unsatisfying end happened and I got BUMMED OUT. Enough that I didn't bother looking to see if he wrote any sequels.
Hint: He did. Four more.
Guess who got embarrassed and ashamed? That's right! ME!
I didn't do any re-reads. I just jumped in with book 4 after a LONG hiatus. How did it go?
Good. I was pretty much WOWed all over again with the magic, the baddies, the enormous scope transforming our modern world as the big bad demon transported whole towns to hell. En-masse. With lots of blood and gobbling of poor people. And armies stepping in to get stepped on. And even the super OP Peter getting his a** handed to him.
Cool. So cool. It's the scope, the descriptions, the HUGE magic on par with Feist or a number of regular big-magic fantasy authors, only it's ripping apart our modern world. :)
And then there's the conflict and harmony of Peter's infernal magic with the Gaia magic. And the love story with the actual magical whirlwind ripping apart waves after waves of demons.
Was I wowed? I was wowed.
Christopher Golden may not have a lot of subtlety, but his hold on grand ideas, gratuitous satisfaction with big magic and bigger gore, and the whole ball of yarn that is his world-building more than makes up for any shortcomings.
Think BIG SCALE COMIC BOOKS with an independent story that shakes the hell out of you. Doing what only novels can do. There's a reason why he's well known as a comic author now. And it's generally because people loved the hell out of what he did in his early novels. :) I assume.
I know he never lost his knack. Whatever issues I had with book 3 is wiped away with the cool bits in book 4. :)
February 10, 2025
With this book, the series starts shifting from horror to urban fantasy while remaining very dark, Dark Urban Fantasy/Horror if you'd like. Pretty much going from Necroscope to Dresden.
3.5/5
3.5/5
June 18, 2021
I love Golden. I hope this book was just a product of it's time because it was a mess.
The plot surrounds "hell" stealing parts of Earth, so Octavian and crew has to save it while avoiding corrupt priests that want to kill them.
There were some really cool ideas, but it felt like the wasn't a focus and the rotational deaths of point of view characters felt unnatural and crazy to track.
I already know that some of his series just aren't for me and I don't think this one is, but there is only two books left so I'm very torn about this whole thing. Also it's out of print, so I'll have to buy it. 🤔🤷
The plot surrounds "hell" stealing parts of Earth, so Octavian and crew has to save it while avoiding corrupt priests that want to kill them.
There were some really cool ideas, but it felt like the wasn't a focus and the rotational deaths of point of view characters felt unnatural and crazy to track.
I already know that some of his series just aren't for me and I don't think this one is, but there is only two books left so I'm very torn about this whole thing. Also it's out of print, so I'll have to buy it. 🤔🤷
August 2, 2018
I love the conflicted characters. I only wish there was a little humor.
September 2, 2018
Went in with lessened expectations, came out actually interested in the series.
April 22, 2019
mildly entertaining
September 23, 2018
It’s hard to rate this book. I enjoyed it while actually reading it, but did not feel the urge to pick it up otherwise. I liked the characters, especially Keomany the Earthwitch. The way the cities were stolen by the demons was very imaginative. There were some references to other books in the series but this can be read as a standalone. Lots of violence and people in authority acting like jerks.
July 26, 2011
Phenomenal! Why it's a 4 star and not a 5 star will be explained momentarily, but first, let's understand my mindset when I picked up this book:
Though I have read some other Christopher Golden books, I essentially dropped in on this series with this book. I'd never read any of the other Shadow Saga books and was intending on reading them in proper order, but I'd been in a book funk for too long and wanted to read something that I was fairly certain would be a good read.
And it was. I am a fan of Christopher Golden, because I loved The Lost Ones trilogy so much that I read more of his work. I think he has a talent for sketching believably human characters and placing them in awesome, fantastical situations without losing sight of the reality of his fantasy. Does that make sense? For instance, in a number of his books, I had to take a breather because I was certain that someone would get raped or that there would be an excessive, bloody, gory death, because that's just what would happen if that fantastical situation were real. And I admire that about him. He does not pull any punches.
That being said, this book was a great, believable, and original variation on a common fantasy equation. Like Harry Dresden, Anita Blake, and countless others, Peter Octavian is a sort of magic troubleshooter, private investigator, and a wizard/mage/vampire with a fucked up personal life. However, he lacks the gratuitous sex and the tiresome wit that is usually a marker of those kinds of books. Peter Octavian appeared genuinely reluctant and mysterious, hovering on the edge of the mortal world. That may have made a lot of sense to people who've read the first three books, but I found him intriguing and as the story unfolds, very believable. The evil force in this book was appropriately vicious and unexplainable, these two factors, I find, are key in getting the reader to suspend their disbelief and just become so immersed in the horror that it doesn't really matter what is ripping apart the world, or why, the reader just wants the good guys to get rid of it! Golden cleverly sketches the good guy characters so distinctively, with each character having their own sort of plotline, that it was very easy to tie the narrative together and helped to illuminate certain aspects/weaknesses of the heroes in context with each other as well as the opposing force. For instance, the crazy commander of the U.N. task force and the insane Bishop(or whatever, I've never been too keen on the religious hierarchy) come from two differing plotlines, but when put together are believable as the deluded(and I really have to say it, typically American) people who can only see the small picture and have lost their very essence of humanity. Yet, they bring out the exceedingly wonderful morality of the vampires or monsters who are trying to save the very same people who are trying to extinguish them.
Octavian and Kuromaku(sp?) are wonderful characters, who seem almost too heroic. Though each are battling their own philosophies on life and death, complete with insecurities about various relationships, they tread the line between ruthlessness and practicality in battle so believably that you really can't help but fall in love with them. Even the secondary characters- Keomany Shaw, Nikki Wydra, Father Jack, Sophie,- are compelling and complex in their own right, and are truly supportive to the main characters and conflict. It just all works together so well to form this sense of EPIC. The pacing is great and provides a great deal of urgency. The only reason that it's a 4 star and not a 5 star is because it is one of those books where the reveal is a little disappointing and the resolution is just too neat(although it's not really a resolution since there are more to come in the series... so I suppose I can forgive that). I'm definitely ready to read the rest of the series.
Though I have read some other Christopher Golden books, I essentially dropped in on this series with this book. I'd never read any of the other Shadow Saga books and was intending on reading them in proper order, but I'd been in a book funk for too long and wanted to read something that I was fairly certain would be a good read.
And it was. I am a fan of Christopher Golden, because I loved The Lost Ones trilogy so much that I read more of his work. I think he has a talent for sketching believably human characters and placing them in awesome, fantastical situations without losing sight of the reality of his fantasy. Does that make sense? For instance, in a number of his books, I had to take a breather because I was certain that someone would get raped or that there would be an excessive, bloody, gory death, because that's just what would happen if that fantastical situation were real. And I admire that about him. He does not pull any punches.
That being said, this book was a great, believable, and original variation on a common fantasy equation. Like Harry Dresden, Anita Blake, and countless others, Peter Octavian is a sort of magic troubleshooter, private investigator, and a wizard/mage/vampire with a fucked up personal life. However, he lacks the gratuitous sex and the tiresome wit that is usually a marker of those kinds of books. Peter Octavian appeared genuinely reluctant and mysterious, hovering on the edge of the mortal world. That may have made a lot of sense to people who've read the first three books, but I found him intriguing and as the story unfolds, very believable. The evil force in this book was appropriately vicious and unexplainable, these two factors, I find, are key in getting the reader to suspend their disbelief and just become so immersed in the horror that it doesn't really matter what is ripping apart the world, or why, the reader just wants the good guys to get rid of it! Golden cleverly sketches the good guy characters so distinctively, with each character having their own sort of plotline, that it was very easy to tie the narrative together and helped to illuminate certain aspects/weaknesses of the heroes in context with each other as well as the opposing force. For instance, the crazy commander of the U.N. task force and the insane Bishop(or whatever, I've never been too keen on the religious hierarchy) come from two differing plotlines, but when put together are believable as the deluded(and I really have to say it, typically American) people who can only see the small picture and have lost their very essence of humanity. Yet, they bring out the exceedingly wonderful morality of the vampires or monsters who are trying to save the very same people who are trying to extinguish them.
Octavian and Kuromaku(sp?) are wonderful characters, who seem almost too heroic. Though each are battling their own philosophies on life and death, complete with insecurities about various relationships, they tread the line between ruthlessness and practicality in battle so believably that you really can't help but fall in love with them. Even the secondary characters- Keomany Shaw, Nikki Wydra, Father Jack, Sophie,- are compelling and complex in their own right, and are truly supportive to the main characters and conflict. It just all works together so well to form this sense of EPIC. The pacing is great and provides a great deal of urgency. The only reason that it's a 4 star and not a 5 star is because it is one of those books where the reveal is a little disappointing and the resolution is just too neat(although it's not really a resolution since there are more to come in the series... so I suppose I can forgive that). I'm definitely ready to read the rest of the series.
July 16, 2009
I must admit to being pretty excited that Golden added a fourth installment to the Shadow Saga, as I loved the first two and enjoyed the third. Unfortunately, The Gathering Dark turned out to be a rough book to come across. I am unsure if it is out of print, a limited print, or what. All I know is that the price tag I was finding on used copies was as high as 140 dollars. Ouch! Luckilly, I came across a copy for 15 bucks. Steep for a paperback, but better than what I had been seeing.
To the book... I finished it this morning. I had a rough time getting into it at first and thought that vampires might not show up at all. This changed after some time, but only on a limited basis. I suppose the third book cut back on the population of vampires, but I still expected a bit more that this book had.
Regardless, once I started to get into it, I stayed into it.
The fabrics of earth begin to open to demonic interference. A former vampire and powerful mage returns from the first three novels to attempt to stop the invasion of demonic entitities and save the world.
I will say that this could be read by itself, butis probably better after reading the rest of the series. I hope another is written in the future.
To the book... I finished it this morning. I had a rough time getting into it at first and thought that vampires might not show up at all. This changed after some time, but only on a limited basis. I suppose the third book cut back on the population of vampires, but I still expected a bit more that this book had.
Regardless, once I started to get into it, I stayed into it.
The fabrics of earth begin to open to demonic interference. A former vampire and powerful mage returns from the first three novels to attempt to stop the invasion of demonic entitities and save the world.
I will say that this could be read by itself, butis probably better after reading the rest of the series. I hope another is written in the future.
May 28, 2011
Okay, no idea what's up with this but I have a different cover to this book, and it appears to be a re-issue of the series to commemorate the 5th book.
Another excellent read. I don't know why it took me so long to actually get through it, but it was on par with his previous books and thoroughly enjoyable! Can't wait to dive into the 5th now!
Another excellent read. I don't know why it took me so long to actually get through it, but it was on par with his previous books and thoroughly enjoyable! Can't wait to dive into the 5th now!
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October 17, 2013Why does golden start each subsequent book by killing off the characters or relationships of the previous book? Alex, Rolf, and within 17 pages has Nikki sleeping with another love interest.... It was a tough ending to 'of masques and martyrs', but at least peter and nikki got to be together. Guess not. Lost all interest in this book after page 21
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 16, 2008
Book four, and quite possibly the best of the Shadow Saga. And ya know..it doesn't get any cooler than a former Samurai vampire who pulls a katana out of the aether and kicks ass.
(little kid grin)
(little kid grin)
October 15, 2015
This book would have made more sense if I had read the beginning of the series first. Not a bad book on its on however it wasn't my favourite. I love Christopher Golden's other series. However this one unfortunately did not live up to my expectations. :(
September 12, 2016
Read this after a few years away from the series, but I didn't like it as much.
mt-tbr
December 10, 2015I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11837342
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11837342
June 28, 2014
Ok I was not terrified but finally a horror book without all the sexy vamps!!
February 10, 2017
great book loved it as much at dne ti ees ot das eb lliw nets the others well wr
June 13, 2007
Simply one of the best novels ever written.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews