The Vampire Tapestry

From the author of superior science fiction (Motherlines, 1978) - a superior, grandly detailed vampire story that takes the torment of its monstrous hero very seriously indeed. He is Dr. Edward Lewis Weyland, or at least that's the human persona the vampire (the only one in the world) has so studiously assembled: he's professor of anthropology at the Cayslin Center (with its famed dream-research lab), where he maintains a bland, remote exterior so he can "feed" without fuss. But, in the first of the novel's four tapestry-like mythic episodes, middle-aged Katya de Groot (a South African hunter) sees right through the vampire's facade: she knows he is feeding on his dream subjects. And when Weyland, blood-lusting against his better judgment, makes a vampiric play for hearty Katya herself, she shoots him - and wounded Weyland jumps into his Mercedes Benz, driving off to Manhattan to recuperate. Section two: a nutty but terribly earnest occultist imprisons the ailing vampire and plans to throw an occult world-festival with Weyland as centerpiece. So the vampire must escape, and, in the third (and best) episode, he desperately tries to save his identity through psychoanalysis with Dr. Floria Landauer. But Weyland finds himself falling in love with Floria (which would spell utter doom for a vampire) - and despite all his efforts to protect himself, this weakness becomes even more pronounced when he takes up residence at a New Mexico college in the novel's final sequence. Can vampire Weyland ultimately make a great human sacrifice to save Floria? What are the limits of the monster's ability to overcome his unfeeling nature? Like all the very best monster-fiction writers in the Frankenstein tradition, Charnas uses the inhuman condition to explore the specialness of humankind - and the result is both a gripping psychological portrait and smashingly deft entertainment. (Kirkus Reviews)