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148. Laymon, Richard. The Stake. New York: St. Martin's, 1991. Hardcover. (Paperback. New York: Zebra, 1995.) |
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Larry, a writer of horror stories, goes on an outing with some friends to an old, deserted town in the desert. While exploring the ghost town's hotel, they come across a hidden room with a mummified corpse in an open coffin. It is the body of a woman with a stake through her heart. Alternately horrified and fascinated, Larry feels compelled to remove the stake and allow the vampire to awaken. |
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149. Lee, Earl. Drakulya. Tucson, AZ: Sharp Press, 1994. Paperback and hardcover. |
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In this literate retelling of the Dracula story, the Prince of Darkness is Mircea Drakulya, elder brother of Vlad and Radu. He has taken his brother Vlad's identity because of his fearsome reputation as the Impaler. The terror this engenders offers protection from the superstitious local peasants. Dr. Van Helsing knows vampires exist and hunts them in order to learn the secrets of eternal life. He is particularly interested in a certain Wallachian noble. Much of the story is told from Drakulya's point of view, but the tale is supplemented with letters and diary entries of Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker, Mina and others. This novel holds some neat psychological twists. |
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150. Lee, Tanith. Blood Opera Sequence series. |
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These novels should be read in order of publication. |
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The Scarabae are an ancient family of vampires who live like much of the rest of humanity, but differ in that their lives can extend for centuries, and they have an occasional need for human blood. The three novels of this series center on Rachaela and her daughters Ruth and Anna. From the time she was a child, Rachaela's mother had warned her to stay away from her father's family the Scarabae. They were evil, she had said. But the pull of the family is irresistible. Rachaela tries to hide, but they find her, and she goes to live with them in the family mansion. Here, she becomes pregnant with her first Scarabae child, Ruth. Some twelve years later, Rachaela has a love affair which produces another Scarabae daughter, Anna. Although each girl has a different father, in many ways they are chillingly the same. The Scarabae world holds many secrets, including a history that reaches back to biblical times. Tanith Lee's lyrical writing style adds to the surreal quality of this offbeat vampire saga. |
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