Necroscope (originale 1986; edizione 1994)

Yay! A new to me series that's awesome! Loved this, will definitely continue. ( )

Nokkuð þekkt sería frá seinni hluta 20. aldar. Harry Keogh er gæddur þeim fágæta eiginleika að geta átt í samskiptum við látna, rætt við þá að fyrra bragði, lært af þeim og orðið stöðugt færari afburðamaður.
Á sama tíma kemst annar einstaklingur undir áhrifavald fornar vampíru sem reynir að nýta sér hann til að komast aftur á kreik.
Sagan gerist á tímum Kalda stríðsins þar sem öll stórveldin búa yfir deildum sem reyna stöðugt að nýta sér eiginleika dulspekinnar og herja á hvert annað.
Nokkuð sérstök skýring á orsökum vampírisma sem er nýstárleg og framhaldsbækurnar vinna frekar út frá henni. ( )

‘Necroscope’ and its many sequels are books I was definitely aware of as a teenager, but never got around to reading. I had a copy of one of them for ages, but like many of my books it never got read. That’s a shame, because I’m pretty sure the novel’s heady mix of horror, sex, espionage and coming of age story would have appealed to teenage me. As it was, adult me, reading it 30 years too late, still had a lot of fun with it.
The format borrows from the kind of multi-generational blockbuster sagas that were big in the 70s and 80s. The story follows two characters, one Russian, one English, who have completely separate storylines, until their psychic powers bring them together. Both have the ability to communicate with the dead, and both ultimately use this to serve their respective countries as spies. The cold war espionage angle takes up as many pages as the horror, but fortunately it’s entertainingly written and quite gripping for all its silliness. There are some solid action set pieces that feel a bit like Robert Ludlum (the king of fat 70s thrillers) and, on the Soviet side at least, lots of double crosses.
The horror is woven around this story. The opening, which sees the Russian necroscope mutilating a corpse to obtain its secrets, is very graphic indeed. After that the book is a fair bit tamer, but Brian Lumley does throw in some chills along the way. There’s an ancient vampire with an extended (and sexually explicit) back story, and a memorable scene that echoes the end of Peter Straub’s ‘Ghost Story’.
What I enjoyed most was the British character, Harry Keogh’s, story. He starts the book as a schoolboy and uses his abilities to absorb the knowledge and abilities of the dead, allowing him to ace his exams. As an adult, he taps into the brains of dead writers and enjoys a successful career as an author, publishing the books they didn’t have time to write before they died. Harry’s coming of age story is a satisfying twist on psychic horror and a lot of fun to read. The 70s school scenes brought back a few memories, and Lumley’s depiction of Britain at the time felt accurate (excepting the vampires and psychic spies).
At 500 odd pages, ‘Necroscope’ is the longest book I’ve read so far for ‘Carry on Screaming’ and it could definitely have done with a more ruthless editor. The pacing can be a bit off, and I enjoyed parts of it more than others. Whilst not typical of British horror at the time, its format and preoccupations (the Soviet threat, weird sex, spy shenanigans) are pretty representative of popular fiction of the 70s and 80s. Overall it’s a satisfying and entertaining read, packed with incident and a suitably twisted imagination.
( )

I don't know if I've ever read anything in quite this genre before. It's basically urban fantasy, except set during the Cold War (which makes some sense, given this book was released in 1986) and with an extra helping of espionage (ESPionage) thrown in. It's an interesting change and the two styles complement one another.

I don't know if I've read many books where the first two chapters go quite so strongly back and forth between this is cool and that's gross. It evened out a bit over the course of the book, but there was still a good amount of each.

The basic world building takes our own world and adds a bunch of ESPers on top; with ESPers being a general term for all sorts of supernatural power. We see people that can read minds, ones that can see far away events, and those that can speak with the dead (in two different flavors). It's an interesting sort of world and somehow manages not actually to feel too kitchen-sinky, which is a general problem in urban fantasy. Also, there are vampires. I have a feeling we'll be learning a bit more about them later, but so far I'm cautiously intrigued by this particular interpretation. They're weird and alien, which is neat.

One oddity with the book comes with the main character's abilities--that of a Necroscope. The basic idea is that he can speak with the dead and learn from / gain their abilities. It's a cool power, although in the last ten percent of the story it gets insanely powerful. I'm not sure how there can be a sequel, let alone a dozen of them. I'm curious to find out though.

Structurally, there's a framing story taking place in the present, telling the story that actually takes place throughout the past many years. In addition, we follow a few different viewpoints (following at least two main characters). It's a bit confusing at first, but started to gel for me about a quarter of the way through the story. There is at least one interesting twist that the frame allows, so I appreciate that.

Occasionally, the phrasing and especially the punctuation that interrupted my reading. I don't know if I've read a novel with quite so many ellipses and exclamation points. It's not a deal breaker, but it's weird.

Overall, worth the read and I'll check out the sequels. At the very least, I want to know how in the world their going to deal with such radical events for both main characters during the ending... ( )

Saving lives with MATH!
Silly read for Halloween
scary as a fart. ( )