Jewish Vampires and Interdimensional Weirdness
Review: Transmentation|Transcience by Darkly Lem
Darkly Lem is a pen name used for collaborations between no less than five authors - Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, Cadwell Turnbull, and M. Darusha Wehm.
It doesn't show. The collaboration is seamless, although I suspect if I analyzed individual styles I could work out who wrote each chapter.
This is an interdimensional travel book, with the variant trope that only your consciousness moves between universes...and when you arrive, the consciousness of the universe plops you into a body that has a backstory and everything. It's called the Simulacra...maybe this is a simulation?
It doesn't matter, because the story wrapped in this worldbuilding is a tale of espionage and politics, oh, so much politics. We are introduced to various factions capable of traveling between universes. Each traveler has their own "mechanism" - which might include singing, kissing somebody, in one case, uh, going to the bathroom. Every time they do that they travel. Some travelers can take other people with them (those are called movers).
But of the factions, the story centers around the dystopia of Burel Hird, a collectivist society run by bureaucrats who are taken from their families for training at five. It's not traditional communism and it certainly doesn't look like a dystopia to those in it. The closest thing to a protagonist is the Burel Hild spy Malculm Kilkaneade, who is burned, flees, and is trying to solve an assassination plot with the help of a couple of mercenaries in powered armor (clear Mandalorian homage). What ensues is a complex story that crosses multiple realities...and has a reasonably satisfying ending, although the story is clearly not finished. No, it appears that Lem has more planned.
It's a debut for the collaboration, although not for all of the individuals, and a bit rough around the edges but I see a lot of promise here and am curious what comes next.
Review: Immortal Gifts by Katherine Villyard
Apparently, there's a way to make me like a vampire novel in the Ricean tradition: Make it Jewish.
Make it very Jewish.
Abraham is a Jewish vampire. He's married to a mortal witch (Wiccan) named Destiny. The author clearly knows both religions...I suspect Villyard is a Jewitch cat lady. She's certainly a cat lady...the book is dedicated to four of her cats!
(CW: Cat death. And child death. This book pulls no punches on reality).
Vampires in this book work on the Ricean plan, but they are explicitly not demonic or inherently evil. They aren't repelled by holy symbols, holy ground, or garlic. They are destroyed by sunlight or decapacitation (stakes aren't mentioned). They keep their souls and are very much the people they were in life. Also, a talent they had in life becomes a supernatural ability. Ludwig, Abraham's sire, can track other vampires, for example.
Abraham is our good guy. Our bad guy is also a vampire, but he's a Christian fanatic, hugely antisemitic, and willing to do whatever it takes, including kill kids, to destroy his enemies. Who typically did nothing to him. In Abraham's case, Thomas, our bad guy, simply can't handle a Jewish vampire.
But this book also explores something deep: Pets and death. When we should let go. When we should keep trying. "We are not your pets."
(Also, Abraham has one flaw: His brain stopped developing when he was turned. He was nineteen. So, he can be, shall we say, a bit impetuous. I remember myself at nineteen...)
This is one of the most fun vampire books I've ever read and I hope to get my hands on the sequel...and I don't like vampire books of this type.
Which is the biggest compliment I can give to Villyard.
Recommended.