Book # 4.
For Christmas Tino got me a new book. He is forever searching for books that I might find interesting and haven't read before. Considering that I have spent a lifetime devouring books like they are going out of style (which, woefully, they are) this task is harder than it might seem. However, with this novel, he finally struck gold. Citizen Vampire by Les Daniels is a book that may have been popular when it came out (24 years ago) but has since lapsed out of print. Even the library that had the copy that I now own had discarded it. While the population of a little town in Michigan may not have been interested in it, I found it a good read.
Citizen Vampire is the story of a spanish vampire who cruelly finds himself pulled back into this mortal coil in France at the cusp of the Revolution. It was perfect timing to get this book when I did, having just re-re-rewatched The Scarlet Pimpernel, one of my favorite BBC classics. (I love it when all the French are British... and also discovered that a very young Ian McKellen plays the antagonistic and black clad tool of The Revolution that I so loved to hate.)
Our anti-hero Don Sabastian de Villanueva is brought from the ether into a preternatural body by a beautiful Countess Juliette and her mad magician. The magician does not survive the first encounter, however the Countess and Don Sabastian become lovers, as she is attracted to his power, and he needs someone to show him the ropes in this unfamiliar place and time. There is little talk of love between them, just a mutual need for each other. She is a character very much like him, and she is willing to do anything to survive. They are not together long before the Revolution is in full swing, but they do meet a few interesting people along the way. Most notably the ever mad Marquis de Sade.
While Daniels is cultivating the relationship between Juliette and Sabastian he also focuses on many of the other things that are happening around France at the same time. Juliette has a maid.... who's name I can't remember... for the sake of this we will just call her Justine. Justine is one of the women (and Brains) behind one of the higher bit players of the Revolution. She is fueled more by a lust for revenge than by any lofty notions of liberty. This, of course, is her undoing.
Daniels also tells the stories of Dr. Guillotin, the unwilling namesake of the guillotine, and Justine's lover Andre. Neither of these men, though they were principle starters of the Revolution turn out to have stomachs for what it became.
So, through out the novel these two terribly strong women; Justine and Juliette, on either side of the revolution, revolve around the only strong male character: the blood sucking Don Sabastian. The women pull him in two different directions while he tries to survive in this strange and deadly time. All the while they talk about not much more than the other woman and how much they long for revenge for what ever wrongs were thrust upon them. Justine finds that she is unsatisfied with the Revolution, it is not bloody enough for her, it is not moving in the right direction. She finds herself just as miserable and poor as she was when she was a maid. She longs for more destruction. Juliette is made into a vampire to be saved from the guillotine, yet, instead of being grateful that she still has her life, she spends the rest of it trying to destroy Justine.
In the search for revenge both the women finally face off, Justine stakes Juliette, but not before Juliette has made Andre into a vampire. Andre and Sabastian have it out, and both of them die. The circle of revenge is completed when Justine loses her mind at being witness to all of this, and spends the rest of her life mute in a mental institution.
The moral of the story: Lust for revenge will kill you.
When all was said and done, it was an enjoyable read, and quite a bit more cerebral than the trash I have been reading lately. I think if I came across another one of Les Daniel's books, I would buy it, but I don't know about seeking them out.
In other news; I am on vacation in Colorado. And it is lovely.
Citizen Vampire is the story of a spanish vampire who cruelly finds himself pulled back into this mortal coil in France at the cusp of the Revolution. It was perfect timing to get this book when I did, having just re-re-rewatched The Scarlet Pimpernel, one of my favorite BBC classics. (I love it when all the French are British... and also discovered that a very young Ian McKellen plays the antagonistic and black clad tool of The Revolution that I so loved to hate.)
Our anti-hero Don Sabastian de Villanueva is brought from the ether into a preternatural body by a beautiful Countess Juliette and her mad magician. The magician does not survive the first encounter, however the Countess and Don Sabastian become lovers, as she is attracted to his power, and he needs someone to show him the ropes in this unfamiliar place and time. There is little talk of love between them, just a mutual need for each other. She is a character very much like him, and she is willing to do anything to survive. They are not together long before the Revolution is in full swing, but they do meet a few interesting people along the way. Most notably the ever mad Marquis de Sade.
While Daniels is cultivating the relationship between Juliette and Sabastian he also focuses on many of the other things that are happening around France at the same time. Juliette has a maid.... who's name I can't remember... for the sake of this we will just call her Justine. Justine is one of the women (and Brains) behind one of the higher bit players of the Revolution. She is fueled more by a lust for revenge than by any lofty notions of liberty. This, of course, is her undoing.
Daniels also tells the stories of Dr. Guillotin, the unwilling namesake of the guillotine, and Justine's lover Andre. Neither of these men, though they were principle starters of the Revolution turn out to have stomachs for what it became.
So, through out the novel these two terribly strong women; Justine and Juliette, on either side of the revolution, revolve around the only strong male character: the blood sucking Don Sabastian. The women pull him in two different directions while he tries to survive in this strange and deadly time. All the while they talk about not much more than the other woman and how much they long for revenge for what ever wrongs were thrust upon them. Justine finds that she is unsatisfied with the Revolution, it is not bloody enough for her, it is not moving in the right direction. She finds herself just as miserable and poor as she was when she was a maid. She longs for more destruction. Juliette is made into a vampire to be saved from the guillotine, yet, instead of being grateful that she still has her life, she spends the rest of it trying to destroy Justine.
In the search for revenge both the women finally face off, Justine stakes Juliette, but not before Juliette has made Andre into a vampire. Andre and Sabastian have it out, and both of them die. The circle of revenge is completed when Justine loses her mind at being witness to all of this, and spends the rest of her life mute in a mental institution.
The moral of the story: Lust for revenge will kill you.
When all was said and done, it was an enjoyable read, and quite a bit more cerebral than the trash I have been reading lately. I think if I came across another one of Les Daniel's books, I would buy it, but I don't know about seeking them out.
In other news; I am on vacation in Colorado. And it is lovely.