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Post by dem bones on Oct 6, 2008 9:00:14 GMT
Ok, it's a relatively recent NEL which will have half the board shrieking "that doesn't count!", but it's tops and fully deserving it's place so stop yer moaning! Simon Clark - Vampyrrhic (Nel. 1998) Not far from the coastal town of Whitby, nestling in the purple hills of the North Yorkshire Moors, is Leppington. Quiet. Unassuming. A forgotten backwater.
Yet beneath Leppington's streets terrifying creatures stir. Driven by an ancient passion that has become an obsession. United in their burning hunger. They share an unending craving. They are Nosferatu. And they have the power to drain your will to resist. To drain it so utterly that you will cheerfully, gladly, eagerly surrender yourself to their sharp, brutal teeth.
IN LEPPINGTON DEATH ISN'T ALWAYS FOREVER ...Young Berenice Mochardi, leech farmer, is boarding in room 406 at Leppington's gloomy Station Hotel, "a four-storey monstrosity with pointed towers at each corner in some kind of mock Gothic style". Berenice is as imaginative as she is inquisitive and enjoys nothing better than rummaging in the room under the stairs set aside for lost property. It seems that, dating back over a century, an inordinate number of people have left "Dracula's Castle" without bothering to collect their belongings. Most recently, a young American tourist left behind a camcorder and the cassette containing his video diary. Having availed herself of both, night after night, Berenice finds herself compelled to rerun the video nasty in her bedroom. Mike Stroud, it seems, caught evidence of the supernatural on film in her very room, but who or what is the eyeless creature seen dragging the terrified young man down to the shunned basement? Twenty-something Dr. David Leppington, recently divorced, is returning to his home town for the first time since childhood, having been offered the position of local GP. He's uneasy about the whole business. Before he set off, he'd recieved another of her spiteful letters, and the train journey from Liverpool was marred by an ugly scene when a pensioner ordered a shaven-headed lout to put out his cigarette. David feared he'd have to step in and he really didn't fancy taking on the clearly vicious young thug. He's not to know it, but David will be seeing plenty more of this troubled young fellow, fresh from prison, over the coming days. Right from the first, David gets the feeling he's being watched and he's initially quite amused when the nosey old man he'd met on the train turns tail and scarpers when he mentions his surname. Nope, he really can't see himself spending a fortnight here, but he'd better book himself a room at the hotel, at least for a few days. He perks up some when he claps eyes on the proprietor, Electra Charnwood, an attractive, intelligent thirty-five year old who'd abandoned a promising TV career to take over the running of the place on her parents' deaths. Maybe his short return to the land of his ancestors' will be bearable after all! But then the construction worker gets his hand caught down a manhole and insists something is biting his fingers ..... to be continued ...
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Post by jkdunham on Oct 6, 2008 10:01:44 GMT
I couldn't help noticing that this is a relatively recent NEL and therefore doesn't count, Dem, you scrawny get.
Actually it looks pretty good. And that Electra Charnwood sounds like a bit of alright.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 6, 2008 10:23:58 GMT
Unlike some! Yeah, it's a good 'un alright. How do I know? 'cause when I all but gave up on horror in the 'nineties, I couldn't help notice they had three novels by this Simon Clark Fellow in the library so I borrowed - and thoroughly enjoyed - this, Nailed By The Heart and King Blood one after the other. Vampyrrhic is far longer (400 pages plus) than the 'seventies stuff we're used to but it belts along like a Laymon and, you know, recognisable remote English setting, ancient evil, gory death, plenty of youth cult and pop culture references (Kula Shaker on the jukebox) - the undead aren't your usually soppy old Count's either. Anyhow, quit interrupting, can't you see i'm trying to read?
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Post by jkdunham on Oct 6, 2008 10:53:23 GMT
It's me glands, Dem. I've got a genetic predisposition to trifle. I wouldn't expect you to understand. You just enjoy yourself. You can poke me with a stick if you like.
Anyway, 400 pages! Bugger me, I've read shorter trilogies. Kula Shaker, you say? Somebody once dragged me along to a pub, kicking and screaming I was, where Kula Shaker were supposed to be playing but they never turned up. What a relief that was, I'll tell you.
Will it disturb you if I read over your shoulder? I'll only be there until about page 125 then I'll probably lose interest and go looking for somebody with a Confessions book. Sorry, you carry on. Don't mind me...
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Post by dem bones on Oct 6, 2008 11:02:03 GMT
Be my guest, read over my shoulder by all means, but can you PLEASE KEEP THE NOISE DOWN while you're doing so? You've made me lose my place!
Shame you'll be leaving us on p125 though as I don't think Electra's bra comes off until about p.270 but, you know, mustn't let us detain you .....
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Post by jkdunham on Oct 6, 2008 11:47:15 GMT
can you PLEASE KEEP THE NOISE DOWN Have you tried eating a packet of crisps quietly? It wasn't my idea to put them in a foil bag to preserve that just cooked taste. Blame Walkers! Perhaps you could photocopy p.270 for me, could you? Then I could come back to it later at my leisure. When I've finished me crisps.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Oct 6, 2008 12:55:36 GMT
What's that you're reading Dem? Oh, it's a relatively recent NEL. That doesn't really count. Wait a minute! Simon Clark? Isn't that the really nice bloke we met at The Old Cock that you attacked in the Gents? I've met another NEL author? X, spare us a crisp, I've gone all wobbly!
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Post by dem bones on Oct 6, 2008 13:10:45 GMT
It is the very same Simon Clark, FM, and therefore - i'm sure you'll agree - Vampyrrhic qualifies as an authentic if slightly late 'seventies NEL! I'm not sure that i "attacked" him in the bogs - i thought i collared him out front while taking a fag break - but i'll take your word for it. Truth be told, much of that day's a bit of a mystery to me Anyway, help X finish his beastly crisps and give me some breathing space will ya? Look at my nice review! all ruined!
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Post by jkdunham on Oct 6, 2008 13:11:53 GMT
Isn't that the really nice bloke we met at The Old Cock that you attacked in the Gents? Is Dem still accosting NEL authors in gents toilets? It's no wonder this board's got the reputation it has. I've heard that James Herbert always waits until he gets home now after that last bit of unpleasantness. Look at my nice review! all ruined! Not to worry, Dem - I may bugger up the odd perfectly good thread now and again but at least you know I'll be deleting all my posts tomorrow.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Oct 6, 2008 13:18:16 GMT
It's a vocation with him, X. Mr Clark even came and spoke to the rest of us after. Oops, I've finished the packet. Anyone for Wasabi flavour?
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Oct 6, 2008 14:04:10 GMT
I am sure anyone who still drinks and God forbid, smokes, is capable of the most despicable forms of outrage and breaches of courtesy... sips Guinness while lighting woodbine
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Post by carolinec on Oct 6, 2008 15:45:09 GMT
Wait a minute! Simon Clark? Isn't that the really nice bloke we met at The Old Cock that you attacked in the Gents? That reminds me of the time I bumped into ex-Doctor Who actor, Peter Davison, in the ladies loo. Did I ever tell you guys about that one ....?
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Post by dem bones on Oct 6, 2008 15:46:33 GMT
No, but it sounds positively scandalous so, please, do tell!
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Post by carolinec on Oct 7, 2008 11:24:30 GMT
No, but it sounds positively scandalous so, please, do tell! Aw, sorry Dem, you've made me feel guilty now for deliberately continuing the trend to disrupt your reading of Vampyrrhic. It's nothing scandalous - just that, at a Doctor Who convention earlier in the year, the taps in the gents weren't working, so the delightful Mr D came dashing into the ladies to wash his hands and ran straight into me as I was walking out. Needless to say I didn't take that particular opportunity to get his autograph - not before he'd washed his hands anyway! Now I reckon I deserve another spanking for trying to disrupt your thread - but not until you've thoroughly spanked "Mr X" and put the pics on the board! So, back to Simon Clark. I've read a few of his shorts, and he's an excellent writer of some really creepy stuff ..
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Post by dem bones on Oct 8, 2008 12:16:31 GMT
I have so lost my place thanks to you horrid fiends! If I find out i've missed Berenice taking a shower or something equally important, it will not go well with you, I can assure you of that!
We've now learned a little about the mystery woman in David Leppington's life, Katrina West, his first girlfriend and the woman he loves, but their relationship is doomed on account of her developing paranoid schizophrenia. Katrina is convinced that David is a vampire and to her frequent, rambling letters, she is always careful to sellotape a squashed spider, give him something to suck on. Depressed as he is, at least for one evening he can enjoy himself as a guest of Electra and Berenice (moonlighting as their private barmaid), both of whom seem to be very taken with him. Electra has dolled herself up in screaming red silk blouse and black leather pants for the occasion which suggests possible interest, although she's given him the room next to Berenice to spice things up! Jack Black, the savage skinhead with psychic powers we met way back on the thread (ho hum), has also arrived at the hotel, offering to work in exchange for board. Much to Berenice's horror, Electra accepts and immediately sets him to lugging barrel's around in the spooky cellar!
Then there's Jason Morrow, whose grandfather topped himself in what is now Berenice's room. Jason is a pig-slaughterer by profession who, literally, goes about his work with a religious fervour. But he's been keeping a guilty secret, from his wife, from his colleagues. It's not that he's gay - perish the thought! - just that, every so often he crawls the local public conveniences after dark until he chances upon a likeminded fellow who'll give him some stress relief. Unfortunately, there's a very mean-minded monster abroad this night and by the time Morrow realises this he's already in the fellow's face .....
I'm still only about quarter of the way through!
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