Necroscope III: The Source (1989) - Plot & Excerpts
HEADS UP READERS: For a 3 star rating, this rant review contain's a higher concentration of I'm so pissed than you might expect. The reason: there's a 250 to 300 page 5 star gem in here just begging on its paper knees to sparkle but it’s being rooster-blocked big time by another 250 pages of mind- anesthetizing:(i) rehash and rehash and rehash of the first two books,(ii) pace-murdering plot set ups, (iii) loooooooooooooong-winded expositions leading to cries of “show don’t tell,” and(iv) clunky, ham-fisted info dumps. All of the above turn this potential "it's amazing" read into a long game of “Where’s Waldo” that's made all the more frustrating by the fact that the good parts are really spectacular. Now, because of my respect for this series and Brian Lumley as an author, I am going to put the rage on simmer and begin by focusing on the good aspects of the story as well as provide a brief plot summary.(DID YOU HEAR THAT LUMLEY?…BRIEF SUMMARY…OPPOSITE OF EPOCH-WINDED!!). Sorry, that got away from me, sort of LIKE LUMLEY’S STORY CONTINUALLY GETTING AWAY FROM HIM AND MEANDERING INTO FILLERVILLE).Okay, I’ll stop for now, but I do have issues to deal with…PLOT SUMMARY AND THE WALDOThe Source is the 3rd installment of the Necroscope series which is a unique blend of cold war spy thriller with a paranormal component and an excellent take on vampires (of the nasty, nasty "non emo" variety). Taking place in the 1980’s when the U.S. and U.S.S.R. were still playing their global game of “who has the biggest johnson” with one another, you have your typical collection cold war spy characters, except that most of the players belong to a specialized department and possess paranormal skills (telepathy, prognostication, telekinesis, etc.). Over the course of the first two novels, the main enemy (besides the customary spy vs. spy antics) has been some very nasty fang-bangers. The vampires in this series are basically a large parasite/symbiote that enters into a host and grows until it fuses the two personalities into one nasty MoFo. When the host is a human (which it doesn’t have to be), the result is a Wamphyri. The main character of the series is the most powerful of the paranormals, Harry Keogh, the titular Necroscope. Harry head's the British “E-branch" and is your basic paranormal Superman, including the unique ability to speak to the dead. By using this ability, Harry can learn and absorb the knowledge of any of the formerly living, thus enhancing his own physical or mental skills (e.g., learning quantum physics from Einstein or martial arts from Bruce Lee). Harry never forgets what he learns and becomes a badder and badder ass as the series progresses.Anyway, after defeating the bloodoholics in the first two installments, the source of the fang-bangers is finally discovered…another world. Whoa, whoa, whoa…before you go all “jumping the shark” on me, let me say that this plot/series development is not one of my gripes because the basis/science/explanation behind it is well laid out and doesn’t cause unnecessary eye-rolling. I am someone who will let an author take me where he wants as long as he doesn’t insult my intelligence in the process.I won’t go into details from here other than to say that the “source” world is truly impressive, the societal structure of the vamps and the non-vamps is excellent and well laid out and Lumley gets an "A" for taking the vampire mythos into a unique and well thought out direction. I told you there was a 5 star read in here. THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD OF RANTAll the above in 250 to 300 pages and I would have been swaying with a lighter above my head begging Lumley for an encore. But NOOOOOOOOOO, that would be too easy. Instead, Brian decides to write over 500 pages and include the following:** The first 3 chapters (almost 60 pages) describing the secret Soviet base where the “source” will be discovered and giving background information on the project. All of this, and I mean all of this, could have been condensed (without loss of any pertinent detail) into probably 15 pages. Note to Brian: find your point and get the fuck there. PLEEEEEEAASEE. ** Approximately 50 to 75 pages TOO MANY dealing with useless background and ancillary information about new character, British spy Jazz Simmons. Worst part is, the useless info isn’t even interesting. I just wanted to drop Lumley’s nuts in a blender and chop ice for plodding up the story with this. ** Once on the source world, WAY, WAY too much walking, ass scratching and finger twirling. It was like Lord of the Rings walking and I half expected Gollum to show up looking for his precious. Wake up the editor and tell him to put on some coffee...there's work to do. ** The story of the source world history and society structure is told in a series of conversations between a character named Zek and Jazz Simmons. This covers about 4 chapters (80 to 100 pages). The history is awesome and fascinating and I had no issue with the amount of detail. What I did develop major “hurry the fuckupitis” about was that at least half of those 80 to 100 pages are preambles and segues between the various parts of the history narrative. For example, Zek tells part of her story. It gets late and they go to sleep. Then we have 20 pages of get up, wash, eat, walk, walk, walk before she continues her story. C’mon Brain, let’s move this thing along. This isn’t the 1950’s and I can’t imagine you are being paid by the word. ** MAJOR CRIME ALERT After the slow, plodding pace and extensive set up, the climactic battle takes place over a single 20 page chapter. So we get 60 pages of Soviet base intro and then less than 20 pages of “settle all scores once and for all for the fate of the planet” battle. Lumley’s priorities here made me want to send him out on the lake "fredo style" so I could watch from the window as Rocko put a bullet in the back of his head…HE BROKE MY HEART!!So cut away all the fat and hose away the chum and you have an intelligent, original, well-imagined story that adds something unique to the crowded vampire genre. Alas, all of the superfluous flotsam left me unable to give the book higher than 3.0 stars despite how tasty the meat was. P.S. The covers for this series are among the worst ever created in the history of literature. I am convinced they were created without Lumley’s knowledge by someone with a vendetta against him. DO NOT LET THEM KEEP YOU FROM TRYING OUT THE SERIES…at least the first two.
It’s a very odd thing to come to terms with, but there’s something very cosy about Lumley’s work. Maybe it’s a nostalgia for simpler times when there were good people and bad people (on both sides of the Iron Curtain) and there was an Iron Curtain.Maybe it’s because one knows it’s all going to be all right at the end of the novel – at least until the next one – or maybe it’s because Lumley’s world harks back to an era earlier than the Nineteen Eighties. There’s something very quaintly dated about E-Branch which is more Bletchley Park than a Secret Intelligence Department of the Nineteen Eighties.E-Branch is of course the British Government’s ESPer division, a group of people with paranormal powers set up to counter the USSR’s own paranormal division.Michael ‘Jazz’ Simmons is a non-ESP member of British Intelligence and in Perchorsk, Russia, investigating a ravine, the bottom of which has been coated with lead.Simmons is captured and taken into the base below the lead shielding where he discovers the truth. A botched attempt by the USSR to employ Star Wars laser technology resulted in a malfunction which caused the pent up laser energy to create a ‘grey hole’, a gleaming sphere suspended within a cavern which permits a one-way trip for organic beings from our Earth to a parallel world, or from there to here. The other world is the world of the Wamphyri, and some specimens have already traveled through to our world.Now Khuv, the security chief in charge of Perchorsk, is going to send Jazz Simmons through. Harry Keogh is back after five years in the wilderness searching for his wife and young son. They do not appear to be in the world of the living or the dead. Darcy Clarke, now in charge of E-Branch, finds Jazz Simmons’ disappearance equally baffling as jazz was being monitored by an E-Branch sensitive, and connects it to the disappearances of Harry’s family. The narrative then alternates between events here and in the world of the Wamphyri. It’s a much stronger novel than Necroscope II – Wamphyri and allows Lumley to examine what Wamphyri life might be like if these lone predators had to live and share resources with each other. If nothing else this series is a wonderful reinvention of pulp fiction, and one gets the impression (by some kind of literary osmosis) that Lumley loved writing this stuff just as much enjoyed reading it. It was never going to win any Hugo awards but to be honest, given the choice of reading one or two of their less justifiable nominations and these, I’d go for the Wamphyri every time.
What do You think about Necroscope III: The Source (1989)?
This starts out with Harry's son vanishing and Harry trying to track him down. In the process he helps the E-Branch track down a missing agent on a mission in or near Russia which ends up being Romania. Harry tracks him down to a Russian base that has had an explosion which opens a path to the land of the vampires. This is a unique conceptual spin on the origins of the vampire coming from another dimension. Harry enters the vampire world where he sees vampire lords that have regions of control and prey upon traveling bands of humans. They have flying beasts and minions as well and are much more brutal than those Harry has come up against in our world. Harry soon discovers that his son has fled to this region through the timeline Mobius Continuum and that he is now infected and turning into a vampire. He also meets up with Lady Karen, a vampire lord who has more of her humanity left than most. He starves the vampire organism out of her and kills it. This is also interesting because it shows that there is an ability to beat the vampire without killing the human host. But Lady Karen suffers depression at her mortality and commits suicide rather than live a normal life. Also an interesting spin. The end culminates with Harry and son fighting a war with the lords and winning. But his son sends him back to our world and also scrambles his brain a little so he is unable to use his abilities to travel and speak with the dead. This was done so Harry didn't have to see his son once he became a true wamphyri.
—Jason Gusman
Although I liked the book as I enjoyed the previous ones, I had an issue with it. The issue is that it was basically a history book of the Wamphyri with small bursts of action in it. Some of it was silly and not everything got wrapped up. Harry Sr. Wanted to try removing the vampire egg from Harry Jr. But that's where the book ended. Although not a deus ex moment, the fact that Harry Sr. Just happened to have dreamed of the way to remove an egg from the host was a little too convenient. I think this may be the last Necroscope novel for this boy!
—Brian
Nice story here! Incredibly well-imagined. Very good series! Imagine any knowledge that you needed at the ready for your asking. Enter Harry. Very well designed story, with a main character that is easily identified with, Harry Koegh. The imagination that came up with these characters must have experienced some truly awful things. Lumley, being an ex SAS officer, surely did. The vampires in this series are not nice. They are not warm and fuzzy. They're not cute (well, the women can be) and they know one primal rule: Anything to remain alive... so to speak. They are the epitome of ruthlessness, guile, viciousness, and outright cruelty. Lumley is good at this, and the stories get more and more gripping as the series carries on. We eventually even learn of the vampire's origins (The Source). Brutal and scary as hell at times. Always imaginative and truly entertaining.
—Michael Daniel
