Showing posts with label Vampire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vampire. Show all posts
Monday, June 29, 2009
Not Quite Super-Powered Fiction: Blood Groove
Alex Bledsoe does exactly what any new author wishes to do in a debut novel: he engrosses the reader in his world. Blood Groove takes an almost stale concept (vampires) and reinvigorates it by changing the setting to somewhere you would never suspect (1975 Memphis). In the process we are introduced to supernatural creatures not unlike a superhero.
The story’s lead is Baron Rodolfo Zginski, a nineteenth century vampire poorly staked and awoken again in 1975. As he explores his strange new surroundings, he quickly begins interacting with both the young vampires and the humans of modern day Memphis.
These vampires take a little bit after their Twilight brethren, but without the love and angst or the sparkles. But they do walk during the day (although severely weakened) and one even holds down a job. This creates a freeing range of motion for the characters as they interact in an ever tightening web.
Blood Groove takes its setting of Seventies-era Memphis and runs with it. Bledsoe does a perfect job of keeping the tone pitch perfect for the time period, but never lets it stomp over telling a good story.
A solid story, a great setting, and fascinating characters... Blood Groove is a great story for vampire and super-powered fiction fans alike. Check it out. Recommended.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Super-Powered Prose: The Web of Arachnos
The Web of Arachnos is the first of (at least) 2 City of Heroes novels produced in 2005-2006. I picked it up back when it first came out not because of its status as super-powered fiction, nor its pretty George Perez cover, but because it was by one of my favorite authors: Robert Weinberg. Weinberg produced both an excellent Vampire the Masquerade trilogy over a decade back and quite possible the best run of Cable ever, issues 79 through 96 (just prior to the Quesada/Morrison revamp). Both excellent works, both fine examples of the field they were written in.
I didn’t get anything quite as exciting with The Web of Arachnos, but I did get a solid work of fiction with a unique origin to a heroic universe. I don’t really know how much of this back story is from Cryptic Studios (the game’s creators) and how much is from Weinberg, but we get an interesting story that ties the roguish heroes of the pulps with the super-powered heroes of the first comics. He sets the story in the late twenties, where an American version of Arsene Lupin (a famous French thief/hero) named Marcus Cole finds his throat cancer cured when he and his friend Stefan Richter find what is basically a Fountain of Youth. It imbues them with great power, but the two also open Pandora’s Box, a kind of energy force that flashes across the world and instantly creates the conditions for super-powers. Cole and Richter are separated. Cole returns to their hometown of Paragon City and sets out to fight corruption. Richter works his way in to the criminal organization Arachnos and eventually takes control.
A lot more happens over the course of the novel. The three Furies/Fates/Kindly Ones make repeated appearances, half a dozen other superheroes appear, a steampunk-style pulp villain named Nemesis falls, all before the final confrontation between Marcus Cole, now the Statesman, with his monstrously transformed ex-friend. All in all it is an exciting action adventure saga that serves to introduce the original members of the Freedom Phalanx, City of Heroes’ greatest team. I would definitely recommend it, but maybe you should check out that run of Cable first. You won’t be disappointed.
I have the next book in the franchise: Robin D. Laws’ Freedom Phalanx sittting in my read pile, so expect a review of that soon. I am not sure the third novel listed in the inside front cover, The Rikti War by Paul S. Kemp was ever published. Anyone with any information on that one would be appreciated.
I didn’t get anything quite as exciting with The Web of Arachnos, but I did get a solid work of fiction with a unique origin to a heroic universe. I don’t really know how much of this back story is from Cryptic Studios (the game’s creators) and how much is from Weinberg, but we get an interesting story that ties the roguish heroes of the pulps with the super-powered heroes of the first comics. He sets the story in the late twenties, where an American version of Arsene Lupin (a famous French thief/hero) named Marcus Cole finds his throat cancer cured when he and his friend Stefan Richter find what is basically a Fountain of Youth. It imbues them with great power, but the two also open Pandora’s Box, a kind of energy force that flashes across the world and instantly creates the conditions for super-powers. Cole and Richter are separated. Cole returns to their hometown of Paragon City and sets out to fight corruption. Richter works his way in to the criminal organization Arachnos and eventually takes control.
A lot more happens over the course of the novel. The three Furies/Fates/Kindly Ones make repeated appearances, half a dozen other superheroes appear, a steampunk-style pulp villain named Nemesis falls, all before the final confrontation between Marcus Cole, now the Statesman, with his monstrously transformed ex-friend. All in all it is an exciting action adventure saga that serves to introduce the original members of the Freedom Phalanx, City of Heroes’ greatest team. I would definitely recommend it, but maybe you should check out that run of Cable first. You won’t be disappointed.
I have the next book in the franchise: Robin D. Laws’ Freedom Phalanx sittting in my read pile, so expect a review of that soon. I am not sure the third novel listed in the inside front cover, The Rikti War by Paul S. Kemp was ever published. Anyone with any information on that one would be appreciated.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)