Blood & Sand: The First Book of Rue – review

Author: Aisling Wilder

First Published: 2020

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Ancient vampire Rue keeps to herself. It makes it easier to fight the constant hunger that plagues her. That is, until the night she catches Grace-a not very good vampire hunter-stalking her through the streets of Dublin. Something about Grace is achingly familiar. And strangely irresistible.

Rue soon learns that Grace is herself being hunted, and is thrown into a battle she never wanted, to save a woman who wants her dead. As Rue unravels the horrifying and treacherous plot, she also uncovers a secret about Grace that could change everything. Along the way, Rue finds herself drawn to the girl, and is forced to choose: Continue her solitary life of safety, or risk it all for love?

Through it all, Rue recalls her creation and formative nights in an ancient world far from the rainy streets of Dublin, a world where she learned to live, love, hunt and kill.

The review: This book by Aisling Wilder is a book of two halves, intertwined together, with one chapter set in modern Dublin followed by one in ancient Ur and then Babylon. Rue, the vampire, was Asharru, a temple priestess in Ur who is chosen by Lilitu (whose name, of course, is thought to have been linked to the later Lilith figure) and turned when the city is sacked. The book then follows her development as a vampire in ancient times and, through this thread, we discover the source of vampirism in this mythology, which is similar to that employed by Anne Rice in the Vampire Chronicles, though the story is unique to this volume and the vampires quite different to that older series.

In the modern day we follow Rue as she becomes entwined with Grace. Though primarily a story of vampires, demons and Nephilim in this volume, we do get an interaction with the fae and, through them, another form of vampirism in the shape of the drinking of dreams. We discover that whilst the more advanced fae can control their feeding, more primitive fae, like sprites, will go too far, drinking a person’s dreams dry and leaving them an “aimless shell”.

The setting of modern Dublin is well realised and gives an evocative setting – we also travel into the dimension the fae inhabit, with realities layered on top of each other. The modern story thread is urban fantasy in style and works nicely, contrasting well with the ancient thread. The characters are nicely drawn, with Rue shown as a vampire trying to eschew feeding on people and struggling with the bagged diet (when we meet her in modern days she has awakened after a black out period that saw her pouring her blood stock literally down the drain). Vampire blood is addictive and will make the mortal drinker slavishly devoted to the vampire, turning is much more involved than simply blood exchange and I liked the idea that damage to the individual whilst mortal will impact the turn – for instance a wound may spend eternity opening, healing and opening again, and mental health damage might cause the turned vampire to lose their mind. We also get information on Nephilim blood, that will allow a vampire to daywalk temporarily, causes much quicker healing but is addictive for the vampire. Blood generally will heal the vampire though more slowly than angelic blood, and the vampire can be damaged quite badly (a substantial fall is going to break bones, for instance), but the vampire cannot heal during daylight hours no matter the amount of blood they imbibe. So, despite her great age, Rue can be vulnerable to danger.

I enjoyed this – it was a well envisioned story, the past and present mapping well together not only in tone and plot reveal but in story impact, but mostly because Rue was a great character, not perfect, she had issues but was rounded well and came across all the better for that. 7.5 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Peacocks, Pedestals, and Prayers – review

Author: Dina Rae

First Published: 2021

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: A chain of advertising agencies, a new breed of humans, and a fallen angel to worship... Andel Talistokov is a fallen angel who uses advertising as a form of propaganda for Satan. His growing power emboldens him to break Hell's Commandments by soliciting worship from an ancient angel religion. He changes their rituals forever. Furious with his arrogance and betrayal, Satan commands Armaros to return to Hell after finding his replacement.

Eve Easterhouse, a recovering drug addict, steps out of prison shortly after her mother's fatal accident. She and her sister, Julia, unravel their mother's secretive past. Intrigued, they learn their bloodline is part of a celestial legacy.

The review: Dina Rae, who has been a Guest blogger on TMtV, sent me her novel for review. The book concerns itself with a Biblical source (although there is an aspect to this that I will have to address later) for the vampirism within it and features Fallen Angels, who are primarily vampiric but can pass the vampirism to human acolytes and father Nephilim – offspring of (fallen) angels and humans. This leads to an interesting take on the lore and, of course, it means that religious symbolism is a particularly potent part of warding from and destroying a (human) vampire. As for the fallen angels – they are a different beast altogether but they can be fought. The vampiric connection to animals in this is to birds and both human vampires and fallen can control them.

The part I wanted to address was the fact that, in the book, the leader of the fallen (Satan himself) is also called Malak Tawas and his symbol is a peacock. Melek Taûs is actually believed to be an angelic being and is central to the Yazidi religion. In this book the religion is drawn as Satanists but the religion in reality is not a Satanic religion and, for the Yazidi, Melek Taûs is not a fallen angel within their theology but the leader of archangels commanded by God to take care of this world. The demonisation of the theology of another religion by the Abrahamic religions is not unusual (see the demonisation of pagan deities by Christians) but in this case said demonisation (primarily, but not only, perpetrated by adherents of the Muslim faith) has led to religious persecution of the Yazidi. Personally, I wish the author had invented a Satanic sect but when reading the book please bear in mind that the religion portrayed is a fictional version (taken over by Western characters and twisted to their own goal) and the figure they worship is not Satan in the real-world equivalent.

So, having got that out of my system, let’s get back to the book itself. The writing, at the start of the book, displayed some idiosyncrasies in the turn of phrase used – though I recognised that was the author’s style. I quickly got used to the style and it was not distracting, rather it was the author’s voice. The primary characters are pretty well drawn – with Bell, the 6-year-old daughter of protagonist Julia, being particularly fun, with a balance struck in the drawing of the character between her age and the arcane knowledge she possesses, though the adults almost dismissed her inputs to their peril, which felt right also. The book has a moderate pace, with occasional flashes of action/horror, but picks up a terrific pace towards the finale. I liked the angelic lore interfacing with the vampire myth, as well as the fact that certainly the fallen angels were simply evil and irredeemable, and, with the caveat about the real-world Yazidi religion aside plus a warning that there are themes of rape and incest, it is a book I would recommend reading. 7 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Guest Blog: Cain as Vampire

Today on TMtV we welcome author Dina Rae to the blog. Cain, the biblical figure, has been a source of artistic speculation. Whilst association with vampirism would seem to date to the Vampire the Masquerade game, artistic use of the figure goes back much further (Byron writing a play based on the character where his murderous act is encouraged through mystical visions provided by Lucifer). Like the figure of Lilith, the association of Cain with the vampire is now cemented into popular consciousness and, to mark the novel Peacocks, Pedestals, and Prayers being globally free on September 30th 2021 through to October 4th 2021, Dina Rae offers us a theory for that association.

Vampires have been around since the beginning of time. Cain was the first recorded account of vampirism. Cain's biography began in Genesis as Adam's first son. He and his brother Abel gave God their offerings. Abel was a shepherd, and he gave God a sheep. Cain was a farmer, and he offered God the fruits of his crop. God made it known that He favored Abel's offering. Cain took his brother to a field, and then killed him. Some believed Cain killed him with a rock, while others claimed he killed him with a knife that was used for disembowelling animals. Regardless of the "how", Cain lied to God when asked about Abel's whereabouts. The famous quote "Am I my brother's keeper?" came from this story.

Most believed Cain's motive was jealousy. Cain did not like how God seemed to favor Abel. But in the Muslim faith, Cain and Abel were in love with the same woman, Aclima. She was also Adam's daughter which made her at the very least their half-sister, maybe even their full sister. The offering to God was not about God, but rather using God's favorite gift as a way to determine who would get the girl as a wife.

Furthermore, Ancient Jewish philosophers claimed that Cain was not Adam's son, but Sammael's son, suggesting that Eve was an adulteress. Sammael was an angel who was linked with Satan, or even Satan himself. This made Abel his half-brother. This also meant that Cain was a Nephilim.

But Cain's biography continued. God sentenced Cain to a life of wandering, and he wandered for over seven hundred years. Cain fathered six children, 2 daughters and 4 sons. He was possibly killed by stones when his house collapsed on top of him (Jubilees), a neat and convenient poetic justice from those who believed he killed his brother with a stone. He could have also been killed by Lamech, his great-grandson, who mistook him for a wild beast, which adds further ammunition to the vampire theory.

Somewhere before Cain's death and after he murdered his brother, God put a mark on Cain that cursed him indefinitely. Part of the curse involved an immunity from death. It was written that anyone who tried to kill Cain would suffer a sevenfold vengeance. The type of mark was unknown. Ancient scholar Rav stated that Cain was cursed with horns that protruded from his head. Rashi, another ancient scholar, believed the letter of God was etched into Cain's skull.

Cain wandered away from his family and eventually met Lillith, the first wife of Adam, his father. They had an affair, and she seduced him with ancient witchcraft. She held a ceremony and cut herself open for blood which was collected into a bowl. Cain drank it. This story echoed a pre-anti-Christ Last Supper with the unholy grail.

At some point during Cain's wanderings, three angels independently visited him and offered a chance to repent for his brother's murder. He refused all of them. They further cursed him with a weakness to fire, aversion to sunlight, and an insatiable desire for blood (Talmud, Book of Adam and Eve, and historiolas).

Cain eventually left Lillith and wandered off to Ubar. In the Bible, Cain settled somewhere in the land of Nod which was east of Eden. Cain received fame and respect in his village, gaining power and control. Legend stated that Cain was fascinated by two lovers and changed them into creatures like him. They were given immortality, but chose to walk in sunlight and die after finding out their new kind of life would not grant them children.

Cain was devastated and wanted other beings to be like him. His son Enoch begged Cain to change him into Cain's likeness, and eventually got his wish. Soon the village name of Ubar was changed to Enoch. Enoch eventually learned how to change others to be like him and his father such as heads of state, military, lands, and other high posts. This theory overlapped with other secret society theories connected with vampire dynasties.

Peacocks, Pedestals, and Prayers is a new release about a fallen angel/vampire who hijacks an ancient religion. Biblical lore, ancient cults, Nephilim, vampire allusions, occult, Enoch, exorcism, and mind control are elements of the story.

In Kindle format @ Amazon US

In Kindle format @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: Epitaph: Bread and Salt

Nathyn Masters had a vision and to create that vision he made a comic book. As well as a comic book he made this low budget (big ambition) prequel movie, which was released in 2013. Whilst you can buy the movie he has made it free to watch on YouTube.

Now, to be fair, it is the fact that it is free to watch that has led to me covering it as an ‘Honourable Mention’ rather than reviewing it and I will say from the outset that the film is flawed. However it is inexperience and low budget that has primarily flawed it and Masters has done much with little.

death by confetti

It begins with a woman, known as Fist of God AKA Sarah (Marissa Joy) and her brother Rabbi Adam Hassan (Vahan Artin), as they fight a group of vampires using guns (silenced) and melee weapons. The vampires, as they die, explode in what can only be described as a flurry of confetti. Its not the best effect but bear in mind the budget. We then see a character called Victor (Nathyn Masters) getting ready for work.

Victor at work

Nathan works as a clerk of some sort in an office and does church volunteer work but, also, he can detect supernatural creatures with a spidey-sense type ability. He hunts them too and is a foretold warrior called the Avatar. What being the Avatar means is not exactly explained but all sorts of people either want a piece of him or want him on side. The Jewish vampire hunters want to work with him but a group of Lilith worshipping women also want him to side with them.

zombie (& unfortunate makeup)

We get genetic engineering conglomerates, demons, vampires and psi-enhancing drugs. We get Nephilim (or their off-spring), wizards and we get a woman, Cassie (Jenna Ambien Halvorson), turned into a zombie – or so it would seem, though the green makeup used is unfortunate, to say the least. So there is a rich cornucopia of storyline but all is not good with it unfortunately.

a gaggle of vampires

I cringed when the rabbi suggested that the descent of civilisation into evil was due to various things including promiscuity and homosexuality. As these were the views of the good guys it suggested a bigotry that was unpleasant. Beyond that, the story itself was too complicated in places, with many aspects hanging unresolved and frustratingly underexplored. The story has little in the way of resolution – though as a prequel I suppose that the themes are continued and explored further in the comics.

vampire

The directing needed tightening, the film could do with a strong edit and, you know what, I’m feeling mean because, as I say, the very weakness of the convoluted story is also the film’s strength. Masters clearly has a set of stories he wants to tell. Inexperience is probably the key (though he has other directing credits) and that old bugbear budget. But he has done something most of us won’t and has done so with vision if not perfect execution.

The imdb page is here.

The Stress of her Regard – review

Author: Tim Power

First Published: 1989

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Lake Geneva, 1816

As Byron and Shelley row on the peaceful waters of Lake Geneva, a sudden squall threatens to capsize them. But this is no natural event - something has risen from the lake itself to attack them.

Kent, 1816

Michael Crawford's wife is brutally murdered on their wedding night as he sleeps peacefully beside her - and a vengeful ghost claims Crawford as her own husband.

Crawford's quest to escape his supernatural bride takes him to the edges of Europe: a journey shared by other victims of the ghost’s embrace. The greatest poets of the day – Byron, Keats, and Shelley – embark with Crawford on a desperate Grand Tour through Europe, seeking to outrun the demonic presence who takes her pleasure in their ravaged bodies and imperilled souls.

Telling a secret history of passion and terror, Tim Powers recasts the tragic lives of the Romantics in a gripping and Gothic feat of imagination.

The review: Regular readers will recall that I have already reviewed Tim Powers’ novel Hide me Amongst the Graves. Set amongst the Pre-Raphaelites it was a stunning novel that spun an interesting and unusual take on vampirism – where the vampires were the Nephilim. I explained in that review that it was actually the sequel to this book. The main points of connection between the volumes being the Nephilim themselves, that the character Michael Crawford of this book is the father of one of the primary characters of the next and, of course, that Polidori is a living person as this volume begins, whose ghost becomes the integrated mask of a Nephilim and who becomes the primary vampire of Hide me Amongst the Graves.

I was so impressed with the second book that I ordered the Stress of Her Regard as I read it and it jumped to the top of my “to read” pile. This proved to be... not a mistake so much, but had I read the books in the correct order I don’t think I’d been as quick to read the second book.

Don’t get me wrong this is a finely written book, Powers is a consummate word-smith, and should actually draw me in more as I have always had an interest in Byron, to a lesser degree Shelley and, of course, Polidori is the English prose source of vampirism in literature. Perhaps this was part of the problem – they were personalities that I have already read about in many forms, and yet I wasn’t as drawn into the story as I was by Hide me Amongst the Graves. Perhaps it was because the sequel was so well written that this volume was always in danger of struggling in comparison? I didn’t feel that Powers had rounded his mythology as well as he later did – note that another name for the Nephilim in this is Lamia, by the way, and they can take the form of winged serpents.

Part of me was disappointed that Polidori’s role was so small in many respects (of course he and Byron did part company and the book was more interested in Byron and Shelley). The fact that he would be such a major part of the subsequent novel was likely unknown or embryonic for Powers as he wrote this, but the impact that Polidori ultimately had on the vampire genre is known and the Vampyre; a tale does not feature enough for me.

Not a bad volume, by any stretch, but not as good as the sequel and, for me, a slog in places. 7 out of 10.

Hide me Amongst the Graves – review

Author: Tim Powers

First Published: 2012

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: London, 1862

A city of over three-million souls, of stinking fog and winding streets.

Through these streets walks the poet Christina Rossetti, haunted and tormented by the ghost of her uncle, John Polidori. Without him, she cannot write, but her relationship with him threatens to shake London itself to the ground.

This fascinating, clever novel vividly recreates the stews and slums of Victorian London – a city of dreadful delight. But it is the history of a hidden city, where nursery rhymes lead the adventurer through haunted tunnels and inverted spires. And where the price of poetic inspiration is blood.

Telling a secret history of passion and terror, Tim Powers recasts the tragic lives of the Romantics in a gripping and Gothic feat of imagination.

The Review: Having placed this on my wish list, Hide me Amongst the Graves was a birthday present from my better half. What I hadn’t realised was that this is actually a sequel (of sorts), the earlier novel (The Stress of Her Regard) concentrating on Byron, Shelley and Keats. Worry not, however, for this book is absolutely able to stand alone and I enjoyed it so much that I ordered the earlier book as I devoured this one.

The vampirism is very unusual – though Powers does interesting things with standard lore. The vampires are Nephilim – the stone people. There are two primary vampires in this, both of which wear the ghosts of the dead. One wears Queen Boudicca and the other John Polidori. There is also a distinction made between ghosts and souls. The vampires are possessively jealous of anyone they class as theirs and will kill any they feel are close to those they have claimed. They can make lesser vampires and the adventurer Edward John Trelawny is a bridge between the species (as he puts it) as a fragment of a Nephilim statue (the Nephilim are physically small statues) is lodged in his neck and growing within him.

I mentioned playing with traditional lore and the vampires are repelled by garlic and can be injured by silver and iron. They avoid mirrors but if they catch their reflection they can become fascinated and reduced – this can be used to imprison them. Drowning can save a person from the vampires (or prevent them turning) and whilst this may seem extreme near drowning is used effectively during the novel and the river Thames is used to escape vampiric attention. However those who are under vampiric attention become great artists.

The book is a fantastic exploration of the Romantics, the Rossetti family being a core group of characters under the baleful gaze of Polidori. The writing is strong and the atmosphere palpable, the story drags you in and makes you stay. This book comes very highly recommended. 9 out of 10.

Honourable mentions: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

I was not really aware of the Mortal Instruments series of young adult books, they had simply passed me by with barely a flicker on the radar. The same went with this 2013 film directed by Harald Zwart. Then a friend told me it had vampires in it and it was straight onto the radar.

The story follows Clary (Lily Collins, Priest) a young girl who starts subconsciously drawing a rune and seeing things that others cannot see, including what looks like the murder of a man in a club by a young man she later discovers is called Jayce (Jamie Campbell Bower, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 1 & part 2).

the rune

Her drawing of the rune is a sign that a magical block her mother, Jocelyn (Lena Headey, The Cave & the Brothers Grimm), has had warlock Magnus Bane (Godfrey Gao) put on her memories and powers is weakening. You see Jocelyn was a Shadowhunter, a band of warriors who have drunk the blood of the Angel Raziel and are known as Nephilim (half angel) or are born of a shadowhunter (like Clary). Jocelyn had stolen the Mortal Cup (the grail that the blood of the angel is consumed from) from her lover and rogue shadowhunter Valentine (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and hid both it and their daughter (Clary) from him – this latest blossoming of Clary's powers has revealed them and Valentine’s men manage to get hold of Jocelyn, who induces a magical coma on herself.

fangs on show

The Shadowhunters fight demons, using runes etched into their bodies to give them powers, and have an accord with other creatures such as werewolves (Being Human’s Aidan Turner makes a transition from playing vampire to playing werewolf) and vampires. However, when visiting Magnus, Clary’s mundane (ie human) friend Simon (Robert Sheehan) is kidnaped by vampires (who put something that remains unexplained in a drink, this chokes him and they run off with him). Thereafter Jayce, Clary and the brother and sister shadowhunters Alec (Kevin Zegers, Vampire (2011)) and Isabelle (Jemima West) go to rescue him from an abandoned hotel that is the vampire’s hideout. They get to him ok, battered and hanging above a lift shaft but he reveals it is a trap to capture Clary and a major fight ensues with lots of vampires.

vampire gun

Eventually interference from the werewolves, storming the hotel and attacking the vampires, allows them to escape the building and the rising sun, which burns vampires, enables their getaway. Simon finds out, when he eventually comes around, that he no longer needs glasses and Clary notices he has been bitten. This is not followed up in the film but – if the films follow the books – he will be turned in the next film. That might mean there is enough vampiric activity in the next film to warrant a review, but for this film the single section was a side-line rather than a main plot point. The only other vampire related thing to mention is the vampire gun that pneumatically pushes a stake from the barrel and has rotating barbs at the end – designed to pierce and destroy the heart.

The film itself wasn’t too bad, essentially a young adult adventure story with a supernatural focus, if you like that sort of thing. The imdb page is here.