Necroscope
Brian Lumley | 1992-01-15 00:00:00 | Tor Books | 512 | Horror
Except to Harry Keogh, Necroscope. And what they tell him is horrifying.
In the Balkan 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 super-secret Soviet spy agency. Dragosani 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 Koegh, champion of the dead and the living.
To protect Harry, the dead will do anything--even rise from their graves!
Reviews
This book is (as the title says) lame. As simple as that.
I bought first 4 books of the series via Amazon because I really love vampire stories and the books had an average of over 4 stars - what could possibly go wrong?
After reading the first one I am so much glad that number 5 could not be bought :D
Let's go to the pros and cons
Pros:
- to my liking, vampirism as a disease is described in "realistic" way
- the part of the book concerning Dragosani is rather good
Cons:
- this is NOT A VAMPIRE STORY
- this is '80s spy novel
- story turns out to be lame
- characters are more than lame (ALL of them)
- the "science" used in the book is (did I use this word already?) lame - I was practically offended by mocking of the mathematics (or was it mocking the British school system)
- the writing style is childish - but really (even though the guy was about 50 when he wrote it!)
Conclusion:
If you really NEED to read it - get it from the library
2 stars - I am ready to forgive him turning the good idea to a lame book because of the time the book was written and give 2 stars instead of 0 :D. The cold war WAS the thing back in those days (however it is not good enough excuse for low quality spy novel we have here)
Reviews
I loved this book. Havent read anymore of the series, just finished the first book and intend on going to buy the second after school. I'm hooked. It did have quite a few characters so at times I had to stop and think of who it was when they hadn't been mentioned for a while. One of the better "vampire" books out there. I put vampire in perenthesies because its SO much more than that.
Reviews
I've read the entire first trilogy at this point and have moved on to the second and haven't stopped being wow'd. This book is the one that started it all and it's truly unique to horror. It's very well written by a masterful author. I couldn't put this book down because of the way it explains the true evil of this vampire and other character it develops around it. And let's not forget about our main character and all the espers. Crazy, crazy. It's so engrossingly fantastic and as brutal and amazing as it is (you won't think it can get better), it's all uphill from here! Brian Lumley is a genius. If you like horror and you like the true evil vampires are supposed to be (not ann rice!), this is where you want to be. This is the best of the best in vampire horror.
Reviews
Brian Lumley treats the topic of the Vampire completely... Completely differently. Unless you've read the cliff notes version, you will (absolutely) have no clue of what is in store for you.
And this particular book of his "NecroScope" actually stands alone.
It is unique even, within his own universe of stories.
But more on that at the end.
First, about his Vampires.
The Wamphir
In every movie.
every book (and YES I do like Anne Rices, version of the Vampire)
every darn story about a Vampire I have ever ever read. They are actually
ALL THE SAME. every one of them.
Lumley does engineer an entirely new approach to Vampires.
In order to submerge yourself into a fictional story, there is an important concept. The concept is known as "suspended belief". In other words, in order for the story to work, you must let go of all "normal" daily assumptions and temporarily allow an alternate set of rules to govern "reality".
And this one is Good.
So suspend your beliefs... and read this book, and you will find an extremely different KIND of Vampire story. Then try more of his books in the series. Like 'King... Lumley tends to write a very big book. I found some of his later books too wordy and very long on a scene by scene basis... again... Like 'King.
But THIS particular one ... is definitely NOT boring.
And if you become hooked on Lumley, then the others in the series are ok or very good also. But I know is later books of the series will not be for everyone.
How well the story is written or filmed, is what determines the LEVEL of commitment you can have to the story. If it is good. You are able to let yourself lose your sense of "now"... And you BELIEVE the story line. Then it is a good story line.
Trust me on this. Brian Lumley does Vampires in a way NO ONE on this earth has.
It's virtually entirely different. Yet there is a faint... very faint. similarity to the 'Classic' Vampire. He creates an ENTIRE New UNIVERSE based on this.
There are many many books in the series.
NecroScope actually does not have a confrontation with a full Vampire until the very very end. It's because he was still human throughout the entire story but becoming increasingly under the influence of his "Vampire"
It's mostly about a boy named Harry Keogh, who can talk to dead people. And then, the mystically gifted man that he becomes.
The dead talk to him and they say "Harry, you are a LIGHT to us..."
And there is more... much more, in the story to grab you.
This is a truly ORIGINAL approach to Vampires.
Try it and see if you want more.
Reviews
Brian Lumley's "Necroscope" and its sequels are equal parts Tom Clancy and Anne Rice. Super-secret ESP agencies are being employed by both sides of the Cold War in an attempt to gain the upper hand. The USSR's chief physic tool is a Romanian who can read the minds of the recently dead by touching, smelling, and even tasting their remains. The British enlist the aid of Harry Keogh, a man who learns all of the secrets of the dead- by entering their realm and speaking to them personally. When a dark vampire threatens to play the Soviet agent in his quest to dominate the Earth, Keogh must use the powers of the deceased to combat him. Thoroughly entertaining and at times genuinely chilling, "Necroscope" is a fun horror novel that doesn't disappoint.
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