A heartfelt bravo and a cap tip to Danny Simmons for breathing fresh air into the crowded, stale world of the vampire. Overall I am giving this one a solid 4 stars, but there are aspects here that are easily 5 star (or even 6 star) worthy making this a must read for fans of "classic" vampire fiction. The basic plot involves an American research team that travels to post-Ceaucescu Romania to investigate AIDS cases in orphanages and discovers a child whose unique blood chemistry may hold the cure for both AIDS and cancer. While I'm not someone who consumes a steady diet of vampire fiction, I have read quite a bit of fang banger fare over the years, including a number of the classics. Now, for purposes of discussing "classic" vampire stories, I am discounting for purposes of this review (1) YA books like the Twilight series and (2) the very popular paranormal romance/urban fantasy novels that may have vampires as characters. Instead, I am referring to stories that explore the origin and evolution of vampires or provide a new/fresh insight into the vampire mythos. With the above in mind, coming into this book I had 4 books/series that I referred to as the “benchmark books” for quality vampire fiction for the reasons mentioned below:1. Dracula by Bram Stoker: The first (and arguably the best) vampire story ever written. 2. Agyar by Steven Brust: Arguably the most unique vampire story I have ever read and the only one in which the word vampire is never used. This book shows the vampire as a tragic, lonely figure in a contemporary setting and is truly an exceptional work.3. Complete Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice: I read these books when they first came out and while I would not rate them as highly today, they were undoubtedly revolutionary in creating the popular image of vampires as “sex symbols” while maintaing a dark, violent and very unique mythos regarding their origin and behavior. I would say that these books were the blueprint from which the watered down and commercialized Twilightish stories come from.4. The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro: I know a lot of people didn’t like this book but this novel was unique in that it was the very first time I ever came across a vampire story that showed the “transformation” from normal to vampire through the tragic eyes of the newly turned vampire as he/she struggled against the compulsion to kill their loved ones in order to satisfy their bloodlust. I thought these scenes were incredibly compelling and brought a brand new perspective to the vampire mythos. Honorable mention to I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (see my recent review), Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon, DRACULAS and Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons (which may actually need to become a benchmark book at some point as it is certainly a one of a kind vampire tale). Children of the Night now joins this pantheon of benchmarks for classic vampire novels for two big reasons. First, is the treatment of the vampire virus as a scientifically explained phenomenon that actually makes sense. The description of everything from how one becomes a vampire to why they must drink blood to why they live so long and have “unique” abilities are all dealt with from a medical/biological viewpoint that I found unique and compelling. Second, and my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PART OF THE BOOK, are the interlude sections told from the viewpoint of Vlad Tepes (historical basis for Dracula). I thought this was the most viciously seductive and brutaltastic portrayal of Dracula that I have ever seen (and yes, that includes the original by Bram Stoker). The “voice” of Vlad is just oozing with power and sadism and his casual manner of explaining his life and his actions (often filled with atrocities that stagger the mind) is both disturbing and riveting. In addition, Vlad, while exploring his past spends significant time discounting the “fairly tales” told by Stoker and Michael Beheim (who wrote in the 15th century a poem called “Story of a Bloodthirsty Madman Called Dracula of Wallachia”) which had a big impact on creating the legend of Vlad. These sections are easily the best part of this novel and had there been more of them, this book would have easily garnered 5 stars from me. As it is these sections, and this amazing depiction of Vlad Tepes, are enough to make an otherwise good novel “very” good.So why “only” 4 stars? Well, there are a few gripe worthy offenses in the book, The plot, while fairly interesting, is not as compelling as I would have liked and drags a bit under its own weight. Having counted several of Dan Simmons novels among my all time favorites (most notably, the Hyperion series), I was expecting to be blown away by his take on the vampire. While I certainly felt the hurricane with regards to the two aspects mentioned above, there were large sections of the plot that were just too plodding with nary a gust of wind to move me from momma Earth. Plus, except for Vlad Tepes, the rest of the characters were fairly two dimensional and so I wasn’t as invested in their fate as I would have liked. That lack of deep connection with characters always kills some of the dramatic tension and thus reduces enjoyment. Still, this is a novel that I highly recommend. The book is certainly a good read and the sections dealing with Dracula are stuffed full of amazing. 4.0 HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDNominee: Bram Stoker Award for Best NovelWinner: Locus Award for Best Dark Fantasy/Horror novel.P.S. I listened to the audio version of this book read by “George Ralph” and I thought he did a good job overall and thought his reading of the “Vlad” sections were truly inspired.
Here's a book about vampires, in fact, Dracula himself is wandering around, 500 years old and tired of life. It's only third vampire book I can remember reading and it's old enough to have been written before vampire literature had been reduced to a joke by Meyer et al. Like one of the other vampire books I've read, My Name is Legion, vampirism is treated as a disease - in this case a rare genetic disease - not contagious at all. The details are carefully worked out and plausible to this not overly knowledgable-of-biology reader. Hence shelve under SF as well as horror. Most of that horror comes from the reminiscences of Dracula who is treated as being the real historical Vlad Dracula. These memories come from the known facts of his life and are sickening in away that made up horrors aren't - because real people suffered in their thousands.The book is a competent story, if a little predictable (I guessed most of the twists and revelations) but was slightly disappointing in that I am used to Simmons being much more ambitious. This tale is of the scope of A Winter Haunting rather than Hyperion Cantos, Ilium-Olympos, Drood or The Terror.Bonus plus point: no spell-breaking lit.crit. essays!
What do You think about Children Of The Night (1993)?
Not a bad read for an old school horror novel. An American doctor adopts a sick baby boy from an appalling Romanian orphanage, and discovers that a) he has an odd medical condition that may contribute to a cure for AIDS and cancer, and b) evil forces in Romania want the baby back.I liked the protagonists: the doctor teams up with a resourceful priest and they spend a lot of time traveling around Europe, which was surprisingly interesting. I was disappointed by the vampire bad guys, who were mostly just evil for the sake of being evil. There were some gory flashbacks to Vlad Tepes’s glory days, and Simmons put some effort into the historical background. The scientific explanation for vampirism was fairly good. The action-movie ending was highly improbable.I chose this because I like Dan Simmons, but horror isn’t one of my favorite genres and this would probably work better for fans. It’s not one of Simmons’s better novels, but his writing is always above the average.
—Jamie
Competently narrated. Entertaining. Possibly somewhat educational -- set in just-post-Ceausescu Romania; the historical details and sense of place seem plausible. The historical details about the career of Vlad the Impaler seem less plausible but an afterword insists they are meticulously researched and true. Hm. Vampire theme of the "vampirism is due to virus/genetic condition" variety. I wasn't crazy about the author's habit of deliberately pre-describing key plot details. ("Little did she know that a week from now she would have...")
—Stef
REVIEW SUMMARY: A technically well-written story about vampires and the quest to stop AIDS, but over-description and a disappointing plot twist stole interest.BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A doctor adopts a Romanian orphan baby and discovers a secret that makes her enemy number one for a Mafioso band of vampires.MY RATING: 2.5 stars MY REVIEW:PROS: Well-researched in science, location, and vampire lore; visceral action.CONS: Technical jargon slowed the story; weak characters; the turn halfway through removed almost all interest in finishing the story.BOTTOM LINE: Probably looked good as an outline, but the execution failed to keep interest, especially after a midpoint twist threw most of it out the window.Read the rest of the review at SF Signal.
—Timothy Ward
