Les Daniels - Citizen Vampire

Les Daniels - Citizen Vampire (Ace, 1981)



Third in the only vampire series I can be bothered to keep up with this side of Vampirella and Dracula Returns. I'm not sure if there was even a UK edition of this one?

Don Sebastian is resurrected in Paris by the magician Raoul Rolin, just as the Revolution is building up momentum. The Vampire is less than grateful. As the guillotine claims the heads of thousands and mobs riot in the streets, even the undead is appalled at the senseless brutality. Given his behaviour in previous novel The Silver Skull (ripping open his victims' chests and devouring their still warm hearts), it seems the centuries floating among the stars have mellowed his misanthrope a touch.

This time around, his allies include a sympathetically drawn de Sade, the Countess de Corville (on whom the Divine Marquis bases his monstrous Juliette), and Madeleine Benet, a former servant and sworn enemy of the Countess and her husband for whom the Revolution has been a tame disappointment.

There are some truly horrific scenes. The resurrection of one vampire - who has been buried in a pit of decapitated aristocrats and is obliged to fight her way to the surface - is particularly harrowing, as is the sheer relentless grind of the guillotine's blade, the backdrop to the bloody vendetta of a plot. As with the Revolution itself, by the end of the story there are no winners, just some who survive to fight another day.

I'd give this one the dreaded demonik priority recommendation, but I'd advise you to begin with the first in the series, The Black Castle (Spanish Inquisition setting).

Daniels also wrote Living In Fear: A History Of Horror In The Mass Media which is worthy of your time. The original was published in 1975, my edition being a later, undated over-sized paperback reprint by da capo, sometime around 1990?.