The Vampire Tapestry (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Unputdownable. --Stephen King

The best vampire novel I've ever read. --Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn

On one level Charnas has created a marvelous and compelling page turner of a what-if tale, about a believable and wholly natural vampire. She has asked, what would a successful predator of the human herd be like physically and mentally? On another level she takes a cool fascinating look at prey-predator relations as a focus for what goes on between men and women, between those with power and those without, between the outlaw and the society that at once feeds and hunts him. She has stripped the vampire tale of its Gothic and sado-masochistic elements. As her clever and ironic vampire remarks, it does not do to confuse sex and feeding, and Charnas never does, in a book that is witty and frightening at once. --Marge Piercy

A superb work of the imagination, a rich, deep and intelligent study of a being who looks quite human but is nothing of the sort. --Richard Bradford

... one of the most original and highly regarded vampire novels of all time.... Although there have been numerous attempts to write stories from the vampire's point of view in recent years, most notably by Anne Rice, none rival The Vampire Tapestry's straightforward, intelligent treatment. --Don D'Ammassa

Among the genre's few modern classics. --New York Times Book Review

The Vampire Tapestry seems as fresh and arresting as it was at the time of its first publication, and it remains the most original addition to the field since Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (1954). --Fantasy Review

. . . probably the best vampire novel ever written . . . --Oxford Times

Don't let the title fool you. This is not another weary novel about Dracula, his imitators, or his heirs. [The Vampire Tapestry] works on many levels, as pure adventure, as social descript --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Review

Praise for The Vampire Tapestry:
 
“The best vampire novel I've ever read.”
—Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn

“Among the genre's few modern classics.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Devastatingly powerful.… Savage and intense and brilliantly satisfying.… rich and impressive.… a serious, startling, and revolutionary work.”
—The Washington Post

“Probably the best vampire novel ever written.”
—Oxford Times

"A consensus classic, so recognized when first published in 1980.... It's a fascinating conception, handled with masterly skill. Nothing better has been done in this, er, vein since Bram Stoker's legendary Dracula in 1897. And, as a pure piece of writing, Charnas' deeply intelligent, disturbing novel may actually be the superior book."
—USA Today

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Orb Books; 1st edition (August 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765320827
• ISBN-13: 978-0765320827
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #199,562 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the genre's best., July 24, 2003

By	Kellyannl (Bronx, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Vampire Tapestry: A Novel (Paperback)

Humans are cattle. There is no other reality for vampire Edward Weyland. That is, until two wounding bullets at the hands of vampire huntress Katje de Groot leave him vulnerable to a greedy third-rate Satanist named Reese, and his existence is changed forever by a frantic, knee-jerk act of compassion by a sensitive teenager named Mark. Further affected by the love of a disturbed psychiatrist named Floria and the friendship of a kindly but troubled professor named Irv, Weyland must discover if these three humans have given him a great gift - or a terrible curse...

This is a novel that doesn't allow you to leave your brain at the door. Charnas is delightfully subtle - there's no one big moment where you can point out that Weyland has changed, and it is sometimes a whole chapter later before you find out what effect the human "guest stars" have had on him, all of them affecting him in very different ways. And she never lets you forget what he is - this is not someone you would ever want to have a cup of tea with. This is probably the best depiction of the vampire as a predator, neither good nor evil. We remain rather detached from Weyland as he almost clinically self-examines himself.

Weyland's relationships with the humans he encounters are so different that each chapter varies wildly in tone. I personally found Mark's chapter the most powerful, with a wonderful picture of the terror and aching conscience of a truly good boy, and Floria's curiously anticlimatic considering her obvious significance. Everyone will have a favorite.

Though not quite perfect, a welcome addition to any vampire fiction collection.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unusual, but readable., December 9, 1999

By	"pzcortez" (Albuquerque, New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Vampire Tapestry: A Novel (Paperback)

The premise of _The Vampire Tapestry_ is interesting enough, and makes the book worth reading - a presentation of the vampire not as a supernatural creature but instead some high-order product of evolution. I also appreciated the doing-away-with on Charnas' part of some the genre's more tired cliches such as nocturnalism and the self-pitying introspection that plagues certain other popular vampire characters.

The book apparently grew out of a short story once published in _Omni_ magazine. Unfortunately, the work doesn't seem to shake of that feeling. The five chapters are rather disjointed in segue from one to the next. It feels less like a cohesive novel and more like an anthology centered around a single character.

Our vampire protagonist, Dr. Weyland, starts off as an intriguing enigma, but towards the climax of the book, it seems Weyland is more bored than anything. However, this malaise may have been intentional, and it does serve to explain his actions at the end of the story.

In the course of plot development, Weyland's confidence and amorality are slowly replaced with suggestions of human-like frailty and compassion. These characteristics are brought about by a series of encounters between Weyland and a psychiatrist. Having read this 1979 work for the first time in 1999, I found the author's underlying implication that psychotherapy can take care of any emotional problem to be a bit dated.

One final note; As a citizen of Albuquerque, I was initially drawn to this book because the back cover indicated that it was a vampire story set in New Mexico. In actuality, three of the five chapters take place in New York. If you're looking at purchasing this book for the southwestern setting, consider yourself warned.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vampire Tapestry, December 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Vampire Tapestry: A Novel (Paperback)

By far one of the very best books I have ever read. I think Stephen King puts it best with the comment of "Unputdownable". It took me a little time to get into the story, the first 20 or 30 pages are a little slow, in my opinion. After that I had a hard time stoping. It was easy to read the 285 pages in a night. Suzy writes a revolutionary vampire novel, I found myself thinking 'Weyland' could be a real person some place in the world, vampire and all.The ending gives me a very satisfied feeling, and the entire book is a pleasure.