Review: The Vampire Fred by Vaughn R Demont

[erastes]

Sorry for being a bit spammy today!

http://www.torquerepress.com/fiction/vampirefred.html

I’m reviewing this here, as obviously it’s not a gay historical.  I rarely read anything else these days as I wade my way through The List, but I saw the blurb for this book and RW bought me a copy.

Fred is not terribly pleased to be a vampire, and he doesn’t, as the title suggests, fit the stereotype.  Involved in a "fatal” car accident-and his life was “saved” by Daniel, a mysterious and hugely annoying—to Fred—vampire sire who alls him “Fledge” and who has promptly moved in with him and hogs the TV.

It starts in an amusing vein, (excurse the pun) Fred’s pissed off with his undead life and with Daniel, his job and the fact that he’s not Brad Pitt and rolling in dough, but the story soon develops a life of its own as Demont layers this vampire mythology with touches of his own.  Vampires can be seen in mirrors, they don’t get rabid when hungry, simply weak, becoming a sire is a serious thing, while keeping some other vampire mythology in amusing way—there’s a great part where he chucks sunflower seeds at a rival vampire and he has to pick them all up.

It might be because I am not used to reading vampire stoires but I found the first section a little confusing, where Daniel explains (and doesn’t do a good job – why he doens’t just tell Fred what he needs to know rather than talking in riddles) about the society they live in. Felt as confused as Fred, if not more so. If I was Fred I’d be demanding explanations. It took me a couple of readings to get the gist of what was going on, but once I was sorted out, I was back on track, but it did pull me out of the story a little bit.

Pickiness-wise, it annoys me when vampires don’t breathe.  OK – I know they are dead, but if they are going to smell, (as if smell things, not stink) smoke cigarettes, sigh, gasp, get an erection – TALK – etc, then they need to breathe. This isn’t a poke at this book, btw, just a general “I don’t get it” rant about vampire books in general.  Considering that blood is the essence of a vampire’s life, then the circulation system would be pretty damned important, I’d think - (ok, yes, I’m a geek) – and breathing is central to that. Without circulation we’d look like ticks and that’s not pretty.  And erections don’t happen from dormant blood, I’m sorry. And it would coagulate. And. yes. I’ve squicked myself now.

I got a little confused with some of the shifts in time and perception, too, but then my attention span isn't great reading books on the PC. But I like the world that Demont has set up, and I assume that, as the books is called The Vampire Fred: Wicked Game, that there are more to come with this character. I like the humour, the self-deprecating manner Fred talks in, and I was rooting for him throughout.

So, overall - I did enjoy The Vampire Fred. Demont shows that he can really write because Fred (in a way I can’t explain without spoiling) speaks in at least two different voices, one in a hard-bitten, Harry Dresden way, and the other in a more high-fantasy manner and both of them work well.

Personally, I don’t think that—and I know I generally always say this with novellas—120 or so pages was enough time to pull the whole thing together, there’s a lot of backstory here, a whole new world, as they say, it’s not Earth as we know it and as I have said with books like Ginn Hale’s Wicked Gentlemen, there’s enough material in The Vampire Thread to make a saga, let alone a full novel, so I for one hope that Demont considers perhaps, when the digital rights are up, expanding it into a full-sized novel and selling it to the print press, because I would buy it again like that, and I’m sure others would.

Comments

[angrboda]

And it would coagulate. And. yes. I’ve squicked myself now.

And not just you.

On the other hand, that could be VASTLY amusing.

"Well, how do we un-coagulate it?"

"Oh here, I stole this from the local hospital. They use it for people with blood clots."

"Okay, pour me a shot of that!"

"Erm, it says here it should be injected..."

"Get away from me!"

"Okay. Call me when you need me to hold it out of the way when you want to zip your jeans."

I'm just saying, someone really ought to write that. Seriously.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

And you say you are "mediocre"

:)

[angrboda]

I am. I just have small moments of brilliantness now and then. :)

[lusiology.livejournal.com]

At times I was confused but I was in good company with Fred, so in way it was like being in his shoes. I really enjoyed the humour and the quirks of the other vamps. The world Vaughn created certainly has plenty of detail so I'm looking forward to the next book.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, he's a good character - I'll probably get another of the books - although bloody torquere need to sort out their buying process - can we say Paypal, Torquere???

[beckyblack]

Oddly enough I was talking about vampires and erections with a friend of mine on LJ yesterday. As you do. :D

We started out talking about how Jack Harkness can have babies (well, cause pregnancies, I'm still not convinced he wasn't joking about being pregnant) and somehow ended up discussing the fact that Anne Rice's vampires can't get it up.

Don't ya just love rambling conversations on LJ?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

yes, this is exactly the sort of conversations I have ith people too!

:)

[beckyblack]

Oh and on the breathing I'm usually just happy with some kind of "they do breathe to do all the smoking and talking and stuff, but they don't have to breathe in order to live." Which is why they can sleep in a sealed coffin and get up raring to go, I suppose

[jenre.livejournal.com]

I thought the not breathing thing was one of the funnier aspects of the book, especially when Fred gets into trouble after 'forgetting' to breathe. I can understand the whole circulation/erection problem though :).

[jl_merrow]

I was quite startled to see you reviewing this, as I was sure I'd seen you post somewhere about hardly ever reading anything but historicals *begins to wonder if she has been hallucinating*

Mmm, I like the way Vaughn writes, but having dashed out and bought this the minute it came out, I've been languishing in the school-hols doldrums with no time to read ever since. :(

Vampires are tricky little buggers, aren't they? Along with the breath question, which I have to say doesn't bother me personally (they're dead, right?) there's the business of how much blood they need, which seems to vary greatly author to author. I think it was Mary-Janice Davidson who had two vampires subsisting off blood they drank from each other, which just seems wrong. Surely the point is that they need fresh stuff?

Hmm. Not sure where I stand on the True Blood "V" issue...
*gets distracted by daydreaming about the delightfully thick Jason*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not strictly true that i only read gay historicals, because I read a hell of a lot of other stuff - fantasy, sci-fi, re-reads of Dresden, Pratchett, classics, blah blah blah - constantly reading - but I do rarely read anything contemporary, or gay vampirey.

I am getting some alcohol for tonight's True Blood and will have one every time Jason gets his shirt off.

:)

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

*adores the vamps*

Gay vamps are even better ;)

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Coagulation bit...yes, they'd have to have heparin parties, hehe.