The Source

By: chickangell on 8:58:00 AM

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Guest post by Heidi Angell, author of Creative Exercises to Inspire, Royal Prince Vince, blogger for An Angell's Life, a blog for writers, and National Foot Soldiers For a Brighter America, her latest pet project.

Genre:  Horror
Review: The Source is an interesting and exciting book about vampires from another dimension and how Russian scientists manage to develop a gate which ends up connecting our world to theirs and dragging some of them here.  When British spy Jazz Simmons gets caught investigating the research facility, a cruel KGB officer decides to use him as a test subject to see what happens when humans go to the vampire world.

In the meantime a man whose own scientific experiments have given him access the Mobius continuum, a sort of teleportation process allowing him to slip through time and space, becomes involved as the only person who can save Jazz. Harry Keogh's psychic ability to communicate with the dead will not help him in this world where nothing dies, but instead becomes servant to the Vhampyri.

I loved this book! Honestly, when I was reading it I had no idea that it was supposed to be horror. It rides a fine and exciting line between action/adventure, courtesy of the great spy novels of the 1980's; while dabbling in science fiction and fantasy along the way! I will admit that for the more timid reader, this is kind of a scary story, particularly because Lumley's use of description is masterful to the point that you can picture everything in your mind without ever getting bored with too many words. The concept of vampires existing in alternate dimensions is absolutely fascinating and far more scary to me than even the traditional Stoker version of vampires. (Though for most of us, these vampires are safely locked away in another dimension!)

Author: Brian Lumley is a retired soldier of the British military and is an avid fan of H.P Lovecraft. Early in his writing career, he followed Lovecraft's style of writing. His first love was science fiction, but he was attracted to the macabre. While still in the British military, he had several short-stories published and a handful of novels published, but did not consider himself a professional writer until his retirement from the military. The Source is the third book in a five-part series that spawned a massive following in the 1980's and 1990's and led to several other series about the vampires, a comic series, graphic novels, figurines and even a role playing game. I had no idea of any of this, but am excited to have a whole new series to buy and to read! To learn more about this brilliant writer, check out his website.


Review: **** Four out of Five Stars