Lifeforce

When alien vampires terrorize London, it’s up to a determined police inspector and an astronaut to stop them. American and British space travelers discover humanoids while exploring near Halley’s Comet. The astronauts bring three of these aliens aboard their spaceship and head back to earth. However, their guests turn out to be evil vampires who kill all but one of the astronauts — Carlsen. After the ship arrives in London, the monsters — led by a beautiful female — escape and wreak havoc throughout the city, transforming humans into zombies. Meanwhile, the surviving astronaut and Caine, a determined police inspector, frantically try to track down the creatures, and destroy them. But the “Space Girl” has a strange hold over Carlsen, and he has trouble fighting the urge to join her.

This movie used to play on TV all the time and I’m pretty sure I rented it at last once on video tape (yes video tape). The things I recall most about the movie are Patrick Stewart as the scientist and the naked “space girl” vampire.

What I did not know until tonight, this B-movie is based on a book, called you guessed it: The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson.

LOL! I had a tone of trouble trying to find a picture for this post that didn’t show off Mathilda May‘s breasts, or other more revealing lady bits…

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House of Comarre Series by Kristen Painter

For whatever reason I’ve begun to read vampire novels…

I had seen these books in Barnes & Noble – the covers were rather striking. Though, I felt a bit guilty about entertaining the notion of reading paranormal-romance. Let me tell you, glad that I did.

These books remind me a bit of Hellboy. There are all sort of interesting Fea, as well as other creatures which go bump in the night, not just vampires. I’m pleased by the near-future setting, which has allowed for the introduction of bits of technology as well as sword and stake to be employed.

Got to tell you, I read all three books in a sweep, they are that good. However, by book 3 Chrysabelle Lapointe hard-headed stubbornness had begun to become tedious. I get it, you’re your own woman. Now bang  Malkolm, have some vampire children, or some sort of new angelic kind and go live happily ever after. But, I know, dramatic tension!

I’ll even give this series this bit of praise. There is something of a DUNE like sense to them. Probably because the Comarre remind me of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood.

Tatiana is insane! Evil, and yet by book three I’ve started to feel sorry for her.

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Vampires As Natural Beings?

Related to my last post. We accept as a matter of course that vampires are supernatural creatures, demons, cast out from the glory of God. But I don’t think they are presented very often as creatures of nature, in a scientific context.

As a few of you know I plan on introducing vampires into my Falcanian Legacy ‘Verse, in truth I can tell you that I already have, you can even see their moment of creation in this FREE READ. Though rationalizing vampires means tackling the many, many myths and religious notions which seem at first to be par for the course.

My vampires are almost Borg like in nature, though they are individuals and do have their own purposes as well. How this bug into my head was the movie Bloodsuckers (Vampire Wars), yes its cheesy, though sort of fun and it treated vampire life more as exotic alien, than supernatural.

Now my vampires have interesting superhuman powers, many of which you might be familiar with. They can influence lower animals, even humans, drain victims without even taking any blood. Blood in fact is not even a primary dietary requirement, just raw flesh. Though I can’t think of a reason why they’d be afraid of the crucifix, or Lord’s Prayer, or communion wafers. They are nocturnal, and yes the sun does bother them, so they try to avoid a star’s light as best they can, it does not however turn them to ash. It helps that in space, it always nighttime…

The issue I have not yet tackled is: Do my vampires have reflections? Like I  said, they do have superhuman powers. Would this cause a mirror, or a camera to not register a vampire? Perhaps its something of a side effect?

I also am toying with the notion that my Nosferatu can, by way of a blood plague (and in another story I implied my Budjah Monks are dealing with this blood plague…) cause regular humans to be altered into a minor form of vampire, a mere shadow of the true vampire which are themselves reflections of more glorious beings, and as it turns out, that is what Vlad Tepes – Dracula actually was, he encountered one of these Nosferatu on the battlefield and ended up immortal, but not exactly sane upon being transformed.

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Anno Dracula… ?

Geneviève, from the cover of The Vampire Genevieve. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Been on a bit of vampire kick, and so I completed reading Anno Dracula by Kim Newman. A pretty enjoyable book. I really liked Geneviève Dieudonné, once again, because I could see a reflection of one of my own characters in her. It sort surprised me that Geneviève began life (ha!) as a Warhammer characters, which is almost… almost at odds with this novels replete literary call backs.

I’ll not summarize the story, as the wiki link handles the job well enough. However a question arose when I had completed reading this book. What do authors think of… um., “borrowing” characters from other writer’s works and using them within their own canon? Nearly every figure within the pages of Anno Dracula started out as another authors creation. What do you all think of that? There were a few moments when I near expected Dr. Helen Magnus to walk into the room to take charge of matters, which might be a symptom of the genre, alternate history/steampunk and in a way a compliment to it.

There was, I’ll admit a point in time when I almost used Ruritania, in place of Saxe-Coburg in my own work, as I wanted to drive home the point that the world I had created was not “our world” but an alternate Earth with different nations upon it. Oh and it’s in the public domain, but an author friend persuaded me not to.

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Did I Mention Vampires… ?

 

A long time ago I blogged on another blog, “The Phoenix Rises” that I wanted to write a vampire story. Until now, I didn’t really have a home for it. though I knew the title: “Planet Of The Vampires” (it has a nice pulp ring doesn’t it?) and I wanted to set it in The Falcanian Legacy ‘Verse, but I couldn’t figure out how I could do that in the mainline storylines.

That is, until I thought up my spin-off series: Imogen Drake! Once I knew it would be her confronting this dark threat I needed to think out these vampires. I knew there would be a science fiction angle, and I wanted them to contrast with the shiny fairy vampires from Twilight.

The Nosferatu and Count Orlok route’s the way to go. But as the universe I’ve established is heavily rooted in the Sumerian and Ancient Alien mythos I needed for these vampires to make sense against that fabric of reality. I did some research on Sumerians and vampires…

In that vein (I slay myself LOL!) I came across a word, Utukku, which I’ll be spelling: Utuk-ku, actually two words, the other being Edimmu or Ekimmu, but I don’t want to confuse things just yet as I’m only now delving further into the mythology which I’m establishing for my vampires.

Here’s the deal, these vampires are killers, forces of nature. Not only do they suck your blood, they also can steal your lifeforce simply by being near you. They’re somewhat ugly, yet regal in an animalistic sort of way. They are the result of a failed experiment.

They’re also ruled over by a queen, you’ve heard her name before: Lilith, yes that Lilith. You might even get to meet her in my upcoming Merlin story… These vampires are not  the “undead” they are in truth very much alive, yet blood thirsty and sexual creatures.

I’ll leave you with Imogen Drake’s thoughts about it:  ”Everything has a reflection, and a SHADOW. The Annunaki are reflected in the Vril, and shadowed by the Utuk-ku…”

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