PATH OF THE ECLIPSE

Fourth in the Count de Saint-Germain series of historical sex/blood/horror novels--as the immortal vampire now resists Jenghis Khan and his Mongol hordes in their conquest of the Far East. Warlord T'en Chih-Yu, daughter of a dead general, is in the capital city Lo-Yang to beg aid in fighting Temujin (Jenghis), whose men leave pyramids of severed heads throughout her district. But official help is unavailable. She turns at last to 3000-year-old Saint-Germain, known in this period of his interminable life as Shih Ghieh-Man. He closes up his home, rides out to Chih-Yu's fortress, orders a moat dug, stakes sharpened, a drawbridge built. Battles ensue. So do carnal doings between S-G and Chih-Yu--oral, manual, vampirical. And after she dies in battle, he goes to a Tibetan lamasery, meets its very Great Master (a nine-year-old Buddhist) and the beauteous rajah's daughter Tamasrajasi; and all ends in an apocalyptic masturbation fantasy as naked and blood-drenched Tamasrajasi dances at a death-orgy for goddess Kali, castrating twelve willing lovers and slitting their throats. . . . No chills, just verbose would-be eroticism; this series has run out of steam.