Grave Reviews #1

Welcome to my new column GRAVE REVIEWS where I review fictional works in the Horror Genre. Please be aware that in reviewing these works I may offer possible spoilers from the story.

Concilium Sanguinarius is Andrew M. Boylan's first full-length novel, and a great novel at that. Entirely about the dark, secretive and destructive world of vampires, this first book in a future series of novels tells the tale of two vampires: Ymochel of the Uriel Bloodline, a Nubian vampire granted the Velvet Kiss circa CE74 Pompeii, and Danaan, a vampire of the Shangi-Di bloodline brought across in 1067. In this work vampires are known among their kind as The Velvet, and the act of transforming a human to the vampire as the Velvet Kiss.

These two vampires fates become crossed when Danaan in her role as the Concilium's Praetorian (vampire enforcer) she is ordered to kill Ymochel's Fledgling Radu Tepes in 1819, for crimes against the vampires. Ymochel swears vengeance on Danaan and spends 160 years plotting his revenge while he is held captive to Qutrub of the Flesh, a vampire who oversees torture, and prepares future Praetorians mentally and physically for their tasks ahead.

Both vampires are tortured, yet powerful creatures. Danaan feels a great sadness due to her estrangement from her Sponsor Adrianne due to childish and arrogant actions, that almost across a period of a century cost both of them their unlives on several occasions. In an effort to make amends, Danaan takes the sash of a Praetorian to enforce the law of the Concilium, but for Danaan it may be a too little too late.

So Danaan walks through the centuries, taking different guises in wondrous lands such as Kirkless, the Forest of Robin Hood in the 14th Century, and as Erzebet Bathory's cousin in 16th Century Transylvania at the haunting Castle Csejthe. This was the period where the insane Countess committed her most foul deeds of bathing in the blood of 600 women, a situation that Danaan feels responsible for.

It's not until in the depths of loneliness and despair that Danaan crosses paths with Beatrice in 21st Century New York, and she seeks her as an eternal companion to bring comfort to her endless days. Ymochel stalking Danaan since his release from the Flesh sees this as a perfect opportunity to exact revenge of the injustice of destroying his Fledgling and interferring with his grand plan of revenge and dominance.

Danaan is a vampire of the Shang-Di bloodline, vampires who are mentalists, can read and affect people's thoughts and influence their dreams. The enzyme in their bite also produces a pleasurable effect in mortals.

Ymochel is a Nubian vampire that was brought into the Velvet by Uriel the Leech before the final days of Pompeii. As a member of the Uriel Bloodline, their blood contains an enzyme that produces lactic acid in the victim's bloodstream causing pain and discomfort similar to an ant's bite as they feed. They are more sensitive to the presence of other vampires and can sense them up to a mile away (with notable exceptions such as those from the Undjit Bloodline that can hide their presence in plain sight).


In his service the Leech taught his servant many secrets, such as gorging oneself on blood so they may fight off the effects of stupor that causes a vampire to surrender to sleep as the sun rises above the horizon. In this Ymochel becomes guardian over his Sponsor's villa and sleeping body during the daylight hours.

Ymochel despises his slavehood, and as a creature of the Velvet desires the same freedom and power that the Ancients' possess, and it isn't until the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in CE79 that Ymochel has his chance for escape and learns several hidden secrets of his kind.

When the Mt Vesuvius has its initial eruption, he discovers after he attacks the annoying slave Augustus that drinking a vampire's blood takes a portion of their power and increases his own, and also forces a psychological servitude onto the attacked vampire. In the final day of Pompeii, Ymochel takes a risk to drain his Sponsor to the point of death while fleeing the villa, and casts his body into the incoming lava, losing an arm to the molten stone in the process. He gains vast powers from this act, not only absorbing greater strength, but the traits and powers of the vampire he had consumed. When an Ancient dies their psychic death is felt for miles around, and other Ancients can detect the death of their kin no matter where they are in the world.

Ymochel is rescued by Praetorians, and as the only vampiric survivor of Pompeii relates the story to the Concillium and to Uriel's oldest Fledgling Remus, who becomes the new Ancient of the Bloodline. When questioned by The Morning Star, a vampire who can detect untruths, he discovers he can pass off lies as truth with the power he stole from his Sponsor, thus obtaining the freedom he always desired.

With newfound power, freedom and the secret of power absorption, Ymochel sets a plan in motion to conquer the vampiric world. As a hero of Pompeii, he is granted permission to sponsor Vlad Tepes' brother Radu, keep his mortal name* and secretly they plot the downfall of the Concilium. Only when Radu's crimes are revealed is he executed by Danaan, and Ymochel is sentenced to a century or more of torture at the hands of The Flesh to atone for his Fledgling's own crimes, which unknown to all are of his own making.

We meet further interesting characters such as Fenrir, a vampire of the Undjit bloodline who can become 'insignificant', and walk among mortals and immortal alike undetected. I became quite fond of Fenrir, and hope to see more of him in the sequels, and in regards to Qutrub the Flesh, not only the torturer of vampires but the instigator of World wars, I look forward to seeing him get his just desserts, possibly at the hands of Ymochel or perhaps someone else we least expect.

The story ends on a cliffhanger as Ymochel is denied his vengeance of Danaan momentarily, but his schemes and crimes are now brought to light to the Concilium. Will Danaan and Fenrir be able to stop the near-invincible Ymochel, and will Danaan make amends with her Sponsor? In the Epilogue we meet a mysterious creature named 'The Watcher' who may or may not be influencing the events of our vampires like pieces on a chessboard. I look forward to the sequel.

Andrew is the creator of the quality vampire genre review blog known as Taliesin Meets the Vampires. As a great lover of the vampire genre, it seems only natural that with his depth of knowledge of the genre from the amount of vampire movies/books he has reviewed that his first book is a well written labour of love. What I loved about this story was the incremental flashbacks of the characters that showed the progression of Ymochel and Danaan, and how through their actions, mostly selfish and arrogant, lead them down a path that will surely lead to one (or perhaps both) of their destruction(s).

Flashbacks set across centuries are always gold in my eyes, which is why TV shows such as Forever Knight and Highlander are still amongst my favourite TV shows. The grand scale of an immortal characters' background can make for fascinating storytelling if done right as it is done here, and gives the reader time to sympathise with these tragic creatures.

Another positive aspect of Andrew's story is the flow. The book was so easy to read. the story wasn't overly descriptive nor pompous in its delivery, there was a great balance of scene setting and dialogue, which was realistic and engaging.

If I could point out one or two minor weaknesses in the story it's Andrew's love of the Gothic Aesthetic, and use of different clans of the vampires. Like most authors I assume Andrew wrote a story he wanted to read and himself enjoyed reading, but I believe he may limit the story's readership by setting it in the subculture of the Gothic world, if only partially. The use of a Latin title for the story was a bit strange, and I wondered why Andrew just didn't call the story The Vampire Council or the Council of Blood for example.

The use of many clans/bloodlines may be not as confusing to seasoned vampire genre fans as myself who have played Vampire roleplaying games, but some readers may find the use of so many bloodlines confusing, even though their use is to describe different vampires powers, political viewpoints and philosophies.

I recommended read for Vampire Genre fans and new fans looking for an intelligent, yet enjoyable vampire tale. My Grade is B.

You can purchase Andrew's novel here.

Andrew's Vampire genre review blog can be found here.

* When a vampire is granted the Velvet Kiss they are given a new name by their Sponsor that will see them throughout eternity. This is so they can find it easier to leave their old life behind, and also adjust easier to their new one in the process of cutting mortal ties and adhering to the laws and ways of the Concilium.

The Warlock's Library #2

Supernatural Guides: Vampires, Werewolves & Demons.

Published in July 1979 by Usbourne Pocketbooks, this little guide by Lynn Myring was the first book I ever read on the subject of vampires. I believe I was twelve at the time, and I read it down the Gold Coast down south while attending a party at someone's mansion for a 40th.

The family had one daughter who was a year or so older than me, and when the strip-o-gram arrived and the children had to vacate the room the girl whose name I cannot recall took me to her parent's opulent library, placed this book in my hands and asked me if I believed in vampires.

This innocent act was the beginning of a lifelong obsession with vampires and the occult, and although I saw the original Salem's Lot on TV four years previously the obsession never stuck, or did it? I am certain the image of the vampire boy floating out of the mists, scratching on his friend's window begging for entry was stuck in my mind ever since, and would be to this day.

This book explains the myths behind Vampires, Werewolves and Demons, and provides a pop-cultureless explanation of these groups. Sure Hammer Horror, Franco and Rollin had been making vampire films for years by then, but this was before vampires were cool ala The Lost Boys, and decades before they become a pop-culture phenomenon.

What was explained in this book stuck in my mind what vampires and their hellish ilk should be like in stories, albiet of the classical/traditional kind: No reflections, shunned by garlic and crosses, refused entry unless invited and could take the form of bats, wolves and mist. The vampires either lived in eerie castles or returned to their graves early in the morning after their blood feasts before the sun's rays destroyed them utterly.

Like most books on vampire lore this book explained the origins of vampires around the world, but what made is special was the comic-like art of the interior that resembles the cover art you see above. My favourite pages are the vampire rising from beyond the grave in a swirl of supernatural mist (page 6)*, and the page of a pious man watching over a coffin, with a legend pointing to the different ways of preventing the birth of a vampire such as:

1. Illuminating the room with candles and a fireplace, because as creatures of the night, vampires feared the light.

2. Placing garlic cloves over door frames. In medieval times anyone who didn't like garlic was viewed with suspicion.

3. Sun and Moonlight were once seen as strong sources of life-giving energy, which might reactivate a corpse. Therefore curtains and windows must remain shut till the body is buried.

4. Animals were a great danger to an unburied corpse, and if one such as a cat jumped over the coffin, the body inside was sure to become one of the blood-sucking undead!

5. Lastly mirrors were thought to reflect the soul and were taken down or turned to face the wall near the corpse. This was to prevent the soul becoming trapped in the mirror and returning later to animate the body! (Page 11)*.

The book explains how vampires were buried and destroyed, such as nailed down in their coffins through the joints so it couldn't rise at night, to stuffing its mouth with garlic and staking it upside down. The book explains the vampire myth in correlation to the Black Death, and also relates medieval vampires stories such as Arnold Paole, with some pages on Eastern and Jungle vampires.

The Werewolf section goes into the myth originating from Norse Berserkers to its further growth in Germany and France. Pacts with Satan and night-time rituals with bonfires and magic salves are presented as a means to become a werewolf. Jean Grenier, the Wolf Boy who claims the Lord of the Forest gave him a magic wolf skin and ointment so he could eat men, was dismissed by a judge at the time as ludicrous and sentenced the boy to spend the rest of his life in a monastery.

The Demon section is short and sweet, detailing medieval demons and their correlation to vampires and werewolves, and how Demons were blamed for the misfortune of man for some time in the Middle Ages.

The guide ends with a summary of real monsters such as Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Bathory, and the short history (back then) of Supernatural Cinema such as Bela Legosi and Christopher Lee's Dracula and the original Nosferatu.

At only 64 pages, this little treasure is better than most vampire/monster guides released today, and compared to the state of the Vampire genre to back then, with this book we can clearly view what is sorely lacking into this wonderful genre today.

I got my copy off eBay years ago, but you can also find it on Amazon for an average price of US$60. As a memento this book is worth far more than that to me, but at 64 pages I suggest you do a good search to compare prices.

* Alas the scanner on my printer is not operating for some reason, so I cannot show you the pages in this wonderful little book.

Requiem Chevalier Vampire: Tome 8

Written by French writer Pat Mills (Slaine - 2000 AD) and artist Olivier Ledroit, this darkly fascinating and very twisted comic series is translated into English and published by Heavy Metal magazine about once a year in their monthly issues. The comic itself is normally split into 'parts' within the issue.

For readers not familiar with the comic, you can read about the background to the story and characters here: Requiem Chevalier Vampire

In this issue, we see a Hellfire Club meeting in Greenwich Village hosted by Aleister Crowley and his latest Scarlet Woman, Leah Hirsig (featured above) aka The Ape of Thoth. The purpose of this event is to consecrate Leah to Aiwass, the Dark Mysterious God who helped Crowley scribe THE BOOK OF THE LAW.

In attendance is Journalist Horatio Burton of Union Jack Magazine who recently described Crowley as “The Wickedest Man in the World.” After declining a glass of menstrual blood from the ‘Ape of Thoth’, Crowley shows Burton his latest painting of the Ape, which is a demonic visage of Leah painted as the “Queen of Dead Souls.”

Crowley dedicates Leah to Aiwass as Alostrael – The Womb of God, where she will become his vessel to give birth to a ‘Moonchild’. Vowing to write about this blasphemy in his paper, Crowley beckons him to the painting once more where the spirit of Aiwass in the spirit form of a mandrill tears him limb from limb, cursing him to limbo for all eternity.

In Resurrection now, we meet the vampire selves of Crowley and Leah, where Crowley is now known as Black Sabbath and Leah as Aiwass in her/his Mandrill form where they consummate their forbidden love with the taboo of different species. Requiem has just destroyed The Convent of Blood, trying to rescue his Earthly beloved Rebecca who is now a Lamia. Requiem is battling Otto, his vampire advocate who was responsible for Rebecca’s earthly demise. If a Lamia can kill her murderer in Resurrection they will be set free. (see comic page above).

Otto gets the upper hand on Requiem, who in his astral body returns to his proper vampire form to then face off an Inquisitor who has slain an army of zombies and in his spare time feeds off orgasmic energies, thus denying any party he targets any lustful satisfaction.

Taking her vampire form once more at the request of Black Sabbath, Leah seduces Requiem to subdue him and release his mind from his endless desire of Rebecca, only to have their orgasms stolen. Requiem expresses his utter dissatisfaction in Leah’s seduction, and in a final, desperate attempt to please him, she takes her mandrill form once more while riding him, asking him if her mandrill form is gross (exhilarating) enough for him. The story continues….
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I have followed this comic for several years now, and it’s only published in Heavy Metal Magazine once or twice a year. To be honest I get it for the superior, twisted art of Ledroit than the story, but on this occasion Mills has outdone himself with his penmanship.

I’ve always admired Aleister Crowley from afar. I’ve read the BOOK OF THE LAW and seen a documentary about his life, but haven’t had the chance to read any of his works or investigate his life fully. After reading this issue, I am quite keen to pursue knowledge of this enigma of a man, and must say I am intrigued by these Scarlet Women and why he referred to Leah as “The Ape Of Thoth”. So I am beginning my investigation on Crowley, The Scarlet Woman and Thelema.

If this story interests you, you can find the current tome split across two sections in the March 2010 issue of Heavy Metal magazine. You can find a preview of the issue, and what the cover art looks like here.