Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires [Hardcover]

Brian Stableford (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Wellsian scientific romance gets a vigorous retooling in this captivating mix of fantasy, science fiction and metaphysics from Stableford (The Carnival of Destruction, 1994). It is 1895, and in a London salon a group that includes, among others, Oscar Wilde, H.G. Wells, "The Great Detective" (aka Sherlock Holmes) and Dr. Watson, as well as secretive narrator Count Lugard, listens spellbound as scientist Edward Copplestone prophesies a future he glimpsed during three drug-induced trances that revealed to him a humanity that will have degenerated into a race of satyrs ruled by vampiric overmen. While Wells frets that his host has "scooped" the idea for his gestating novel, The Time Machine, and the others debate whether the foreseen era can be averted, a mystery with far-reaching ramifications for the human species unfolds before their unseeing eyes. Stableford conjures believable reactions from his historical celebrities. He also peppers the reader with more provocative ideas than many writers cram into a trilogy, the most mind-boggling of which is that ancient shamans may have taken drug trips similar to Copplestone's and translated their visions of the future into the vampire superstitions of yore that inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. From its portentous opening on a fog-shrouded dueling field to the clever twist at its end, this novel offers a nonstop challenge to readers' expectations. (June) FYI: A shorter version of this novel appeared in the magazine Interzone in 1995.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In 1895 Professor Edward Copplestone takes a concoction of shamanistic drugs and transports his timeshadow three times into the future?10,000, 20,000, and then 30,000 years. He tells his tale to a roomful of open-minded and intelligent men, including Oscar Wilde, H.G. Wells, Nikolas Tesla, and the narrator, Count Lugard, who is suspected of being a vampire. Copplestone's future is populated by vampiric "overmen" who herd and milk humans for blood before evolving beyond that need. Lugard determines to protect the future for vampires in this cleverly written fantasy. Recommended.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 207 pages
• Publisher: Mark V. Ziesing; First Trade Ed edition (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0929480805
• ISBN-13: 978-0929480800
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,282,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Professor Copplestone delivers a "strange report", September 5, 2007

By 

Henry W. Wagner (Rockaway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires (Hardcover)

London, January 12, 1895. Several notable personages are summoned to Professor Edward Copplestone's residence to hear a "strange report". Among the group are H. G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, Nikola Tesla, Sir William Crookes, and M. P. Shiel. Wilde brings along a newly acquired friend, a mysterious East European nobleman named Count Lugard. The sessions are also attended by the professor's doctor ("a stout and solid man who had served in India") and his associate, a grey-eyed consulting detective famous throughout England.

The group listens, awestruck, as the professor relates a fantastic tale of drug induced time travel and mankind's ultimate fate. The professor tells his story over three nights, describing the downfall of the human race and its subjugation by vampire "Overlords". Each member of the group reacts differently to the story. Wells is furious over perceived plagiarism, Wilde revels in the sheer outrageousness of the story, and Tesla and Sir William's scientific curiosity is piqued. The doctor's concern is only for his patient; his detective friend is consumed by the mystery of the theft of the wonder drug which made the professor's trip possible. The Count sees the means of his salvation, a chance to live out the rest of his days among his own kind.

I read and enjoyed Stableford's excellent The Empire of Fear a couple of years back and was looking forward to more of the same. This book, however, reads more like a literary hybrid of treatise and novel. At times, I could almost feel Stableford flexing his mental muscles, using fiction to present his thoughts on time, evolution, science and science fiction (Stableford confirms this more clinical approach in his afterword, referring to his characters as "narrative devices").

If you haven't read Stableford, this will provide a taste of the style and intelligence he brings to his writing. If you're intrigued, there's plenty more where that came from--the aforementioned The Empire of Fear, and its companions, The Carnival of Destruction, The Werewolves of London and The Angel of Pain. If you enjoy these alternative histories, you may also like Kim Newmans Anno-Dracula or The Bloody Red Baron . In a similar vein, you may also want to sample Roger Zelazny's whimsical A Night in the Lonesome October. I'm not wealthy enough to offer a money back guarantee, but I'm pretty sure these will appeal to most.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Loquaciousness and Somnabulence of Vampires, August 4, 2000

By 

Patrick Burnett "penngos" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires (Hardcover)

Having just come down off a Kim Newman "Anno Dracula" high, I was hungry for another fix and Stableford's "Hunger & Ecstacy" seemed just the thing - a vampire novel balanced in the dimension between history and fiction, featuring H. G. Wells, Count Dracula, Nikolai Tesla, Holmes & Watson (albeit incognito).

What a letdown. I cannot imagine how any writer could come up with a great idea, a great cast of characters and what may be the richest period of history in...well, history...and still write a big, flopping catfish of a novel like this one. There is no action here - everyone sits around a table and yacks it up with the fictional Dr. Copplestone, an apparent drug-abuser, who manages to hallucinate the future of mankind through the judicious ingestion of a few magic mushrooms.

Rather than dismiss the old coot for the lunatic he is, the round-table of genius contemporaries actually sit and ruminate and philosophize and generally enable the good doctor. What eventually unspools is one of the dullest narratives since Silas Marner.