Borne in Blood

Saint-Germain #20

by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

The year is 1817. In Switzerland, the Count Saint-Germain leads a comfortable life with his paramour Hero whose husband died fighting Napoleon. Saint-Germain's loving kindness cannot keep Hero from missing her children who are being raised by their hard-hearted grandfather. The Count has become intrigued by the work of an Austrian noble investigating the properties of blood, a subject always of key interest to a vampire. But when the noble's beautiful ward fixates sexually on the Count, the vampire fears for himself and his gentle lover. With Borne in Blood , Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's saga of Count Saint-Germain, reaches a milestone--the twentieth volume of the vampire's adventures. The Saint-Germain cycle is one of our age's most compelling bodies of work of dark fantasy and horror, and the longest running series of vampire novels. Historically accurate, these deeply emotional novels have a devoted readership. Recognizing her impact on the genre, the International Horror Guild named Chelsea Quinn Yarbro a Living Legend at the World Fantasy Convention in 2006.

Genres: Vampires, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Historical, Fantasy

368 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2007

About the author

A professional writer for more than forty years, Yarbro has sold over eighty books, more than seventy works of short fiction, and more than three dozen essays, introductions, and reviews. She also composes serious music. Her first professional writing - in 1961-1962 - was as a playwright for a now long-defunct children's theater company. By the mid-60s she had switched to writing stories and hasn't stopped yet.

After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.

She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.

In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.

A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.

She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.

Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.

Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.

Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.

Reviews

[Jammies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boy meets girl.

Boy gives girl best sex of her life.

Boy does not drink...wine.

Boy does drink girl's blood.

Subplot with horrible, sociopathic villain.

Boy is falsely accused of something.

More subplot with HSV.

Girl is attacked because of boy.

Big finish to subplot.

Boy rescues girl.

Bad Thing happens to HSV.

Girl doesn't want to be with boy anymore.

Boy is sad and alone.

[Jamie Collins]

Found this on the cut-out table today so I went ahead and bought it, although I still have several unread in this series. They aren't really in any sort of order - they're all over the place in terms of historical period and geographical location - but I'm trying to read them mostly in publication order anyway.

[Jenny Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. I almost made it through, but never really got into it. Perhaps if I had read earlier books in the series, I might have cared about the characters, but then there were the tedious conversations (particularly between the fickle widow Scharfensee and the ever-courteous Comte), the exposition via tedious letters, and the lack of explanation about the unique aspects of this supernatural universe. The author's note on Interesting Historical Facts in the beginning of the book was the most interesting part.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incest, pedophilia, and insanity are the human-inflicted horrors that Ms. Yarbro emphasizes in this installment of the saga of the Count Saint-Germain.

[Kristen Gurri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the vampire Ragoczy more than I liked the book itself. It was nice to have a subtle yet powerful (and socially responsible) vampire. I wish all republicans could be like Ragoczy - then society would benefit from their immortality.

Hero was kind of vapid and gratuitous. Unless she was mad or upset, she was Ragoczy's little Pete Repeat doll.

The letters at the beginning and ends of the chapters advanced the plot and helped keep all the strings straight but reading late at night with tired eyes I found them a bit of a drag.

[Patty Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Count Saint Germaine continues his life as a vampire 4000 years old. He is living between France and Austria in 1817 after the Napolean has been defeated for the final time. He is accused of aiding robbers because he is a foreigner and goes out of his way to aid in their capture. Meanwhile, he aids a young widow whose father-in-law took her children to live with him because her husband did not leave a will. The widow, Hero, and St. Germain are attacked by a jealous young woman who had been abused by her guardian and subsequently went mad and killed her fiance.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adore all of Yarbro's Saint Germain novels and have been reading them since the early 80's. Although considered to be horror by many bookstores due to the main character being a 4000 year old vampire but in actuality the novels are more historical than anything else. Some of my favorites are, Out of the House of Life, Tempting Fate, Blood Games, and The Palace to name just a few. There are over 16 novels to choose from most are out of print but all well worth the search.

[Mo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is really more of a historical novel than a horror novel. You barely even get the gist that he's a vampire. Unfortunately, I found Hero to be annoying and somewhat whiny and demanding. Definitely not a Hero. More like a puppet. Lots of attention to detail, especially to food. I was starving by the time I finished it. It was like watching the 19th century Food Network, with vampires as a strange afterthought/side plot.

[Dawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a vampire book I thought this was very dull - minimal action until the last quarter of the book. I wasn't expecting horror and gore, but this was as unexciting as it gets. It was mostly written correspondence between people and some narrative of who traveled where. At the time I started this book, I didn't realize this was a part of a series. I like the premise of the book and I think I might read the first in the series to give it a fair shot.

[Kay]

This was yet another good read by chelsea quinn yarbro. I have been with this series since the start and am always amazed by the depth of her writing. Her research into historical people and times makes these book doubly worth reading.

[Lorretta · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so mad that I wasted time reading this; if I start a book, I finish it. Bleh...

This book was so clunky and the addition of letter excerpts certainly did not help.

I had a very clear feeling of pomposity from the author; we should be honored that she has deigned to write for us peons.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The character of Hero is well done. She quickly becomes one of the Count's more memorable loves. In fact, it seems slightly more her book than his.

[Wiley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freelance Internet Marketing campaign.

[Nancy Raines]

St. Germain (1817) Book 21

[Joshua Friesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though the plot is not an entirely original one, the author still managed to draw me in.

[Drew]

Borne in Blood: A Novel of the Count Saint-Germain (St. Germain) by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (2008)