Subject: "The Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires" by Brian N. Stableford

From: "Evelyn C Leeper" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 23:38:11 GMT

[I sent this a while ago but it never appeared here.]

      "The Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires" by Brian N. Stableford
           Interzone #91/#92, January/February 1995, novella
                 A novella review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		   Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper

     Normally I don't review short fiction from magazines, but I'm
willing to make an exception in this case.  If I don't, you might not
realize you should be nominating this for a Hugo next year.

     This is part of what appears to be a new trend in British science
fiction involving Victorian vampires.  Perhaps the best-known example
on the American side of the Pond is Kim Newman's ANNO DRACULA, but
Stableford has also written a relatively well-known novel in this
milieu, THE EMPIRE OF FEAR (an expansion of "The Man Who Loved the
Vampire Lady," which I recently reviewed as part of the anthology
TOMORROW SUCKS).

     "The Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires" starts in 1895 with the
gathering of eight Victorian gentlemen to hear the story of Edward
Copplestone, who has traveled into the far future with the help of a
drug he developed.  (It is obvious from how they are introduced that
these gentlemen are people who should be known to the reader, but who
am I to spoil your fun in guessing who they are?)  In the future
Copplestone has discovered the result of the conflict between humans
and vampires, and much more.  At times Stableford evokes H. G. Wells's
TIME MACHINE--thoroughly consciously and intentionally, I might add.
At other times, his writing is more in the sweeping style of Olaf
Stapledon's galactic epics.  One might think either is an odd style for
a vampire novel, but Stableford proves that it's the author who
ultimately determines what works and what doesn't--and he makes it work
beautifully.

     In addition to his other feats here, Stableford manages to writea
story with Oscar Wilde as a major character without resorting to
filling his dialogue with every famous thing Wilde ever said, while
still making Wilde seem like Wilde.  If this doesn't impress you,
you've obviously never read the various Sherlock Holmes pastiches in
which Holmes meets Wilde apparently for the sole purpose of providing
Wilde with an opportunity to say all his most famous lines.

     In short, this is a Hugo-class novella, full of lyrical
descriptions, a conflict in which both sides have their strengths and
their weaknesses (both in their powers and in their philosophies), and
interesting, three-dimensional characters.  I know it will be hard to
find this in the United States (unless some far-seeing company decides
to market it as a stand-alone novella--hint, hint), so look for it in
Glasgow at Intersection if you're there.  I've just started subscribing
to INTERZONE, but I can see why it keeps making the ballot for semi-
prozine when it publishes this stories of this quality.

%T      "The Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires"
%A      Brian N. Stableford
%C      London
%D      January/February 1995
%I      Interzone
%N      91, 92

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked]
"I don't think adversity necessarily builds character, but it certainly gives
you an opportunity to display it."  --Gary Bean (Open Systems Today, 1/9/95)

--
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