Stableford, Brian Empire of Fear ISBN 13: 9780345377579

Empire of Fear - Softcover

9780345377579: Empire of Fear
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"Terrific vampire fiction."
THE KIRKUS REVIEWS
Since the sixteentj century, England has been a land ruled by the Undead. Vampires rule with terror and the darkly-seductive promise of life eternal for the lucky few. Edmund Cordery, member of the cabal pledged to penetrate the mysteries of the vampires and destroy them, strike the first blow. But it will fall to his son. Noell, to carry on the crusade of human against inhuman. And it will fall to those who come after Noell to keep the struggle alive for over three centuries--from England to Malta to modern-day America, where destiny will decide finally whether the forces of horror or humanity will hold sway over all....

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From Kirkus Reviews:
Alternative-history vampire science/fantasy by Stableford (The Third Millennium, 1985), a novelist with degrees in biology and sociology. Stableford details the sociobiology of vampires with a fineness that puts top vampirist Anne Rice in the shade as a cultural chronicler. His story largely is laid three centuries ago in England when the civilized world, led out of the Dark Ages by the rise of vampires, is governed by an aristocracy of vampires who rule by fear. Vampires seemingly cannot love or feel pain; females are barren, and males have a low sex drive. They feed on--and draw their number from--common men. But how do the vampires reproduce from the commoners? This question haunts Edmund Cordery, courtier to Richard the Lion-Hearted (a vampire, of course), who has just devised a microscope that reveals the small world of microbes that he thinks can help overthrow vampire rule if the spermatic base of vampirism can be found. When Edmund kills a lady vampire by purposefully inoculating himself with the black plague before she drinks his blood, his son Neil--a budding social revolutionary- -flees England, seeking the microbial code. Neil knows vampires don't pass on their ``emortality'' by magic--it's something to do with their blood. He joins a pirate band and goes to Africa, fabled homeland of vampires, and in the wonderfully described Uruba tribe finds himself in vampire paradise where the biology of vampirism is at last revealed. An asteroid ages ago struck here, carrying on it ``the breath of life''--emortality microbes, which are now carried in vampire semen, which in turn must be applied to an open wound to be effective.... After the huge vampire battle of the Spanish Armada, the story leaps three centuries ahead for a brief look into modern worldwide emortality as analyzed by microbiologist Michael Southerne, who has Cordery's Syndrome (he must die, never emortal, because his blood resists vampire microbes). Terrific vampire fiction, with well-humanized puppet characters. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From Publishers Weekly:
The year is 1623. Attila the Hun is a vampire and so are Richard the Lionhearted and the Pope. Such is the alarming premise of this richly detailed "alternative history" in which the era ia dominated by a minority race of vampires. Edmund Cordery, scientist and courtier to the king, has long sought the means by which vampires are made (a bite on the neck is not the answer) and by which they can be destroyed. When he murders Richard's vampire mistress with his own plague-tainted blood, he is put to death for treason, and his son, Noell, must flee England for his life. Continuing his father's detective work, Noell journeys to the African kingdom of Adamawara where the first vampires are believed to have evolved thousands of years before. There, along with loyal monk Quintus, the pirate Langoisse and his mistress Leilah, Noell must endure hardship, warfare and pestilence in his continuing quest for the secrets of immortality. This latest effort by British scientist, novelist and nonfiction writer Stableford ( The Walking Shadow ; Future Man ) falls somewhere between horror novel and historical saga; while it does not quite deliver the frissons of a conventional horror tale, its informed speculation, the result of Stableford's wide-ranging research, is sure to fascinate history buffs--alternative and otherwise.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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  • PublisherBallantine Books
  • Publication date1993
  • ISBN 10 0345377575
  • ISBN 13 9780345377579
  • BindingMass Market Paperback
  • Edition number1
  • Rating

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