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Post by andydecker on May 7, 2020 8:29:52 GMT
Brian Lumley – Necroscope (Tor Books, 1988, Original Grafton, 1986, 505 p.) DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES
Except to Harry Keogh, Necroscope. And what they tell him is horrifying.
In the Balkon mountains of Rumania, a terrible evil is growing. Long buried in hallowed ground, bound by earth and silver, the master vampire schemes and plots. Trapped in unlife, neither dead nor living, Thibor Ferenczy hungers for freedom and revenge.
The vampire's human tool is Boris Dragosani, part of a supersecret Soviet spy agency. Dargosani is an avid pupil, eager to plumb the depthless evil of the vampire's mind. Ferenczy teaches Dragosani the awful skills of the necromancer, gives him the ability to rip secrets from the mind and bodies of the dead.
Dragosani works not for Ferenczy's freedom but world domination. He will rule the world with knowledge raped from the dead.
His only opponent: Harry Keogh, champion of the dead and the living.
To protect Harry, the dead will do anything – even rise from their graves!It is easy to forget that Lumley's master opus originated in the UK. The big success came in America when Tor published this with the distinct artwork of Bob Eggleton. (Page 2 of the cover is done by Dennis Nolan.) It is still in print 30+ years later, and Lumley developed this into a series of 17 novels. The back text is rather spoilerish, the vampire doesn't appear before the middle of the novel. The concept is a kitchen sink approach, using elements of Cold War spy stuff – it begins with E-Branch in the 70s, the small paranormal department of British intelligence – the everlasting battle with the ruthless KGB and its pet necromancer Dragosani, followed by a typical coming-of-age story starting at a British boys school introducing young Harry, which is pure SF and Fantasy with its teleportation and later dimension hopping through the Moebius Continuum (and Harry basically becoming a superhero), while finally combining this with adult Harry and vampires. Who come from another dimension and are basically a kind of shape changing Aliens parasites. And this is only the beginning. No wonder this need 500 pages. The first trilogy clocks at 1500 pages. Bloated as this may be, it is quite entertaining in its rambling way. A horror action movie and a family saga, which doesn't shirk on the gore. The scene where Dragosani and his art is introduced right after the prologue is truly revolting, and as this is Lumley, there is no real subtlety in characterisation. The villains are Evil with a capital E, the heroes Heroic. In retrospect this series was truly one of a kind and highly original, regardless if you love or hate it. And considering Lumley started this being 49 years old, long before the advent of word processing, it is quite a feat. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 7, 2020 10:34:37 GMT
NECROSCOPE is quite inspired. About that cover, I have told this story before on another board, but it may prove instructive also for Vault members. About 30 years ago I stayed for two weeks in a hotel in Palo Alto, California. The housekeeping staff consisted of Hispanic ladies who did not speak English. I was reading that very edition of NECROSCOPE at the time, and I suppose I left it lying around the room. One day I noticed the number of Gideon bibles had doubled; there were now two. Some time later there was a total of three. One afternoon I came back to my room before they had had time to supply fresh towels. There was a knock on the door. When I opened it, a hand holding the new towels was stretched out toward me from beside the door, where the housekeeping lady was hiding with her face averted, presumably to avoid my evil eye. And throughout the rest of my stay the atmosphere was a bit strained.
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Post by johnnymains on May 7, 2020 14:32:15 GMT
the housekeeping lady was hiding with her face averted, presumably to avoid my evil eye. Why did you go to the door naked?  |
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Post by helrunar on May 7, 2020 15:22:28 GMT
Hilarious, Johnny! The Evil One-Eyed Monster.
JoJo, maybe the staff were convinced you were really the Demon Necromancer Malygris in disguise. No wonder they were terrified.
H.
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Post by andydecker on May 7, 2020 18:37:07 GMT
What would have happened if you had Wheatley's The Devil and all his Works with you?  |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 7, 2020 19:11:01 GMT
What would have happened if you had Wheatley's The Devil and all his Works with you? What do you think would have happened? |
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Post by andydecker on May 8, 2020 7:48:12 GMT
What would have happened if you had Wheatley's The Devil and all his Works with you? What do you think would have happened? I shudder at the thought. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 8, 2024 18:59:29 GMT
NECROSCOPE is quite inspired. About that cover, I have told this story before on another board, but it may prove instructive also for Vault members. About 30 years ago I stayed for two weeks in a hotel in Palo Alto, California. The housekeeping staff consisted of Hispanic ladies who did not speak English. I was reading that very edition of NECROSCOPE at the time, and I suppose I left it lying around the room. One day I noticed the number of Gideon bibles had doubled; there were now two. Some time later there was a total of three. One afternoon I came back to my room before they had had time to supply fresh towels. There was a knock on the door. When I opened it, a hand holding the new towels was stretched out toward me from beside the door, where the housekeeping lady was hiding with her face averted, presumably to avoid my evil eye. And throughout the rest of my stay the atmosphere was a bit strained. In THE BRIAN LUMLEY COMPANION, Bob Eggleton relates a story about that cover causing consternation on a plane. I feel mine is better, though, so, Bob, if you see this, feel free to use it next time. |
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Post by andydecker on Feb 9, 2024 8:46:57 GMT
NECROSCOPE is quite inspired. About that cover, I have told this story before on another board, but it may prove instructive also for Vault members. About 30 years ago I stayed for two weeks in a hotel in Palo Alto, California. The housekeeping staff consisted of Hispanic ladies who did not speak English. I was reading that very edition of NECROSCOPE at the time, and I suppose I left it lying around the room. One day I noticed the number of Gideon bibles had doubled; there were now two. Some time later there was a total of three. One afternoon I came back to my room before they had had time to supply fresh towels. There was a knock on the door. When I opened it, a hand holding the new towels was stretched out toward me from beside the door, where the housekeeping lady was hiding with her face averted, presumably to avoid my evil eye. And throughout the rest of my stay the atmosphere was a bit strained. In THE BRIAN LUMLEY COMPANION, Bob Eggleton relates a story about that cover causing consternation on a plane. I feel mine is better, though, so, Bob, if you see this, feel free to use it next time. You are right. Your story is better. You were like a protagonist in a Ramsey Campbell story :-) |
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