Customer Reviews

This Is My Blood

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

David Niall Wilson creates a new gospel (The Book of Judas), turns one of the pivotal characters in the Bible into a vampire, and puts an entirely new spin on the life of Christ, all with a stylistic flair that leads one to believe that maybe the author knows something we don't, but that we should. With vampire tales being a dime a dozen, and few of them worth the dime, THIS IS MY BLOOD stands out as one of the most thoughtful and creative takes on the legend one might hope to find. I suspect that even devout Christians will hardly find much to quibble with in regard to Wilson's interpretation of Biblical history and the existing gospels. The book explores personal faith with real thoughtfulness, wrapped in a witty and exciting package. Highest recommendation.

This is My Blood is a sneaky, beautifully written Christian horror tale of supernatural damnation and love. In this hard-to-put-down book a vampire turned by Lucifer himself to punish humanity becomes enamored with the mythos of The Christ and finds the love and power radiating from the man himself to be more than she expected. Taking on the role of Mary Magdalene she finds herself drawn to him, despite Lucifer's promise that she's bound to damn him.
Wilson's tale is enchanting, deeply religious without being judgmental or hypocritical. Beautifully written it's definitely worth the cost and the time to read. Highly recommended for budding digital collections.
Contains: violence, religious themes

With his first novel - David dives right into one of the oldest and most divisive topics in literature, and pulls off a cleverly retold version of the last days of Christ, as seen through Mary of Magdalene.

With a strict retelling of the gospels that strays only in the admixing of Mary's twist on the tale: that she is a fallen angel recast as a Vampire, the story shifts the allegory of the redemption of man through faith onto Mary's ultimate sacrifice and willingness to believe and to show faith, as well as that of her closest ally, Judas.

The madness and hunger that overtakes Mary each night matches the more traditional evils of pride and avarice as displayed by the growing number who want to stop Jesus spreading his gospel, and by turns her guilt, renewed faith and love for the Redeemer each day reflects the basic honesty and hope of man that must be nurtured and protected in order to keep evil at bay and stay within the light.

An interesting and faithful retelling, you would scarecely believe that this was David's first novel, such is the simple and smooth power with which his story is conveyed - This Is My Blood is well worth a read.

Another good title from this author (apparently his first, although you'd never know it from reading it). Very original idea, had be glued from start to finish. Being a lapsed Catholic, I can imagine what some people might say about the contents of the book, but I found it inoffensive and interesting to say the least. The author has a nice smooth writing style, and this one moves quickly from start to finish -- you really don't want to put it down, even though some portions of the "story" are familar -- he just puts an imaginative twist on the circumstances and outcome of certain events in the latter days of the Christ's life.

For anyone that might get offended with this idea, I say it's just a work of fiction, and it's a good story. Give it a chance!

I first heard about "This is My Blood" when a fellow member of a local Science Fiction Book Club mentioned it in an on-line post. The description intrigued me and I hunted down a used copy of this 1999 novel, long out of print, for a reasonable price. The short novel (251 pages) was expanded in 1990 (but not published for nearly a decade) from an earlier short story called "A Candle in the Sun" that was published and republished a couple of times in Horror/SF anthologies. The novel re-tells the basic story of the New Testament from the standpoint of Mary Madgalene, who turns out to be one of the fallen angels, transformed by Lucifer into a vampire-like blood sucking creature of the night, for the express purpose of interfering with and destroying Christ's mission on earth, i.e., death and resurrection to "save the world".

The novel is written in two formats, the first consisting of excerpts from the long-ago burned and never recreated "Gospel of Judas" (who turns out to be a good guy), and the second, a standard first person narrative by Mary. There are some interesting and novel elements here (the "true"stories of Adam, Lillith, Eve, Cain and Abel stand out) and both the Gospel excerpts and Mary's narrative have the feel of authentic New Testament verbiage and style.

But in the end, there was so much plot potential left untapped and so much left unsaid that ultimately the book proved unsatisfying. After reading the book jacket, I was looking forward to explanations of how and why the first vampire was created, and the origins (or repudiation as pure myth) of the effects of silver, garlic, crosses, holy water etc on vampires, the "rules" for the life and death of vampires (wooden stake??), creating new vampires that I assumed would contain a tie-in to the 3-day latency period betwen the death and resurrection of Christ, and most of all, the origin of the central tenet of the Catholic church, the unbelievably gory and grisly miracle of transubstantiation whereby the wafers and wine are actually converted into the real blood and body of Christ, then eaten by the congregation. That in itself is fodder for vampiric horror fiction of the highest order.

But none of this was to be. None of these mysteries was addressed, and so much left unexplained. It was pretty much just a straight re-telling of the New Testament Gospels with the hook that Mary was a kind of vampire. There was plenty of places where some eroticism and sex would have upped the ante, but, perhaps due to his earlier career as a student of the ministry and/or a reluctance to offend any true believers, the novel is at most completely G- or perhaps light PG-rated. "This is My Blood" was still a worthwhile read, but somebody, somewhere either already has or probably will do a much better job of fulfilling the potential of the author's brilliant premise.

JMT

I was enchanted by this imaginative and beautifully told story. 'This is My Blood' is a vibrant, strong and sensual novel, written with passion and artistry.

I loved that the story was from the perspective of Mary Magdalene. I felt her sorrow and despair and her strength, love and hope. The combination of Mary's dark vampiric nature and her love of the Christ is breathtaking.

Perhaps this is a novel that is experienced differently according to the reader's religious beliefs, but for me, as an Atheist, it is a story about love and how it provides strength and can transform us. Memorable. Beautiful.

This is an audacious, gorgeously crafted and gratifying first novel, an alternate history of Christianity. It is a story of sacrifice, devotion, faith and redemption, a truly beautiful allegory that lies beneath a horrific concept: What if Mary Magdelene were a vampire? Religious passion and vampiric bloodlust clash as Mary Magdelene seeks redemption through Christ even as her nature compels her to kill in order to survive. In this story, it is Judas who is the loyal Christian, and Peter who has been possessed by evil. Together, Judas and Mary Magdelene join forces to insure Christ's resurrection after his betrayal by Peter. This very powerful and, yes, very controversial novel is one of the most stirring and original concepts I have ever encountered, written with a grace and insight rarely found in a first novel. It is one of those extraordinary stories that lingers in the mind long after the last page has been turned. It is seamless, terrifying, mystical, compelling, masterful and wondrous.