Black Sun Rising

core novel 1991 The Coldfire Trilogy

Record

First published	1991
Original language	EN
Work type	novel
Canon status	core
Reader rating	3.93 (19,775 ratings, collected 2026-09-14)
Page count	497
First-edition ISBN	9780756403140
Internal chronology	1

Synopsis

Black Sun Rising opens the Coldfire Trilogy on the colony world of Erna, where a mysterious natural force called the Fae, capable of reshaping reality around human fear and belief, has given rise to monstrous horrors over centuries of settlement. The story centers on the city of Jaggonath, a hub of both pagan and monotheistic faiths, where Damien Vryce, a priest of the Church of Human Unification, arrives to teach sorcery grounded in the Fae. There he meets Ciani, a gifted Adept whose shop is destroyed in a Fae-related catastrophe that leaves her stripped of her memories and magical abilities by mysterious beings called Soul Eaters. Vowing to help restore what she has lost, Damien joins Ciani, her assistant Senzei "Zen" Reese, and the enigmatic, centuries-old traveler Gerald Tarrant on a perilous journey into Erna's dangerous, Fae-shaped wilderness.

Where it sits

• Universe: The Coldfire Trilogy
• Series: The Coldfire Trilogy core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
• Author: C.S. Friedman

Notes

• From the series record (The Coldfire Trilogy): Core = all 3 novels of the trilogy; no companion or expanded material found.

Neighbouring works

Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.

• Reading order, within the series The Coldfire Trilogy: position 1 of 3: next When True Night Falls (1993)

Sources

• C.S. Friedman official site -- The Coldfire Trilogy
• Wikipedia -- Coldfire Trilogy
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sun_Rising

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