“Deadspeak” was one of my favorite Necroscope stories. I’ve been reading the books in chronological order, so I’ve spent the last few months read about all of Harry’s adventures during the Los Years. Pirates, alien forest monsters, the plague bearer, the Mobius murders, etc. I’ve been dying to get back to the present following Harry Keogh’s experience on Sunside/Starside. And Lumley didn’t disappoint. “Deadspeak” contained all the story elements I was hoping for, including a strong showing by members of E-Branch, the return of either Feather or Thibor Ferenczy, and basically Harry kicking vampire ass.I had forgotten that at the end of The Source Harry is stripped of his dead speak and his access to the Mobius Continuum by his son, Harry Jr. So it was cool to see Harry still fighting the good fight without his powers for most of the book. Part I of the book involving the return of Janos Ferenczy was thrilling. I had a feeling the Szgany Zirra would show up again after their appearance during the Lost Years and Radu Lykan’s history. Dumitru’s death was particularly awful:“Spikes! Needle-sharp fangs of rusted iron, filling that final gap side to side and end to end. Three dozen of them at least - and Dumitru knew their meaning, and the Ferenczy’s terrible purpose in an instant….Opposite the spiked pit, the ledge and entire section of wall that backed it - an “L” of hewn stone - tilted through ninety degrees, and tossed Dumitru onto the spikes. His single shriek, of realization and the horror it brought combined, was cut off short as he was pierced through skull and spine and most of his vital organs - but not his heart. Still beating, his heart continued to pump his blood - to pump it out through the many lacerations to his impales, writhing body. Blood coursed down the V-shaped channel, spurted from the spout, splashed down into the mouth of the urn to wet whatever was inside. Ancient ashes, salts - the chemicals of a man, of a monster - soaked it up, bubbled and bulked out, smoked and smoldered. Such was the chemical reaction that the obscene lips of the urn seemed almost to belch."And later when the three Americans traveled to Romania, and the Texan Seth Armstrong was killed and made a thrall to Janos Ferenczy. Particularly painful:“The Texas put up a hand and slapped at the finger on his cheek, clawed at it. It climbed higher, with a life of its own, and gouged at the corner of his right eye. Armstrong howled as it dug in, dislodged the eyeball, and entered the socket. With his eyeball hanging on his cheek, he danced and screamed and clutched at his face, but he couldn’t dislodge the thing, which burrowed like an alien worm into his head. ‘Jesus God!’ he screamed, falling to his knees and tearing at the rim of the empty orbit. And: ‘J-J-Jesus G-G-God!’ he gurgled again as he ripped the flopping eye loose and vampire flesh put out exploratory tendrils into his brain."My least favorite part of the book was when E-Branch heroes and all around badasses Ken Layard and Trevor Jordan were attacked by Janos Ferenczy and the thrall Seth Armstrong. I got quite attached to these characters in the first two Necroscope books, especially in book 2 and the battle against Yulien Boduscu. I can honestly say I was pissed when Janos caused Trevor to blow his brains out in front of Harry and Darcy Clark. Trevor was my favorite E-Branch character, and I liked Ken a lot, too. Sad to see those two gents destroyed by Janos. But it was cool seeing them trying to get through to Harry in his dreams by having the dead spell our letters in his garden in Bonnyrig. Speaking of Janos, Lumley demonstrates his master craft in writing terrifying vampires. Despite all that Thibor did to Boris Dragosani, and all the dreadful things both Feather and Radu Lykan did, they weren’t as horrifying as Janos Ferenczy. His vampire was written as far darker, unrelentingly evil and sadistic. He enjoyed the pain he caused, and showed no fear. For example, before Janos leaves the port at Rhodes, he “enjoys” the company of a local prostitute in the shadows:“She inhaled air massively, but before she could scream, his chasm of a mouth had clamped itself over the entire lower half of her face. And his tongue also surged, into and down her convulsing throat. While in her mind: Ah, I see you do know the legend! Well, and now you know the reality. So be it! Inside her body his vampire photo-flesh spread into every cavity, putting out filament rootlets which burrowed in her veins and arteries like worms in soil, without damaging the structure. And even before she had lost full consciousness, Janos was feeding."Harry describes vampires perfectly mid-way through the book:“They’re devious beyond the imagination of human beings. They’re liars each and every one, who on almost every occasion would rather lie than tell the truth - unless there’s something of substantial value in it for them. They’re experts in confusing any argument, adept at ambiguous and frustrating riddles, word games, puzzles and paradoxes, false similes and parallels. They’re insanely jealous, secretive, proud, possessive. And as for their grip on life - or undeath - they are the most tenacious creation in or out of Creation! Their source lies in the vampire swamps east and west of the central mountain range that divides Starside from Sunside. The legend is that at times they emerge as monstrous slugs or leeches to fasten on men and beasts. As to what degree of intelligence they possess at that stage: who can say? But their tenacity is there from square one. They live on the blood of the host and form a horrific symbiosis with him. The host is changed, materially and mentally. Sexless, the vampire adopts the sex of its host, and it fosters in him - or her - that lust for blood which eventually will sustain both of them."Harry Keogh just can’t catch a break. You truly gotta feel sympathy for this guy. He loses his wife and son and spends years looking for them. He has his memory scrambled both by E-Branch and by B.J. Mirlu, who is killed by Radu. Then Sandra, the new woman in his life, she turns out to be an E-Branch planted agent, and eventually she is vampirized by Janos, and Harry is forced to kill her. Seriously, he’s got no one in his life. I don’t know how he functions. He has the dead as friends and companions, but what about love? What about a family. Does he ever see his wife and son again? Harry’s raw emotions come out in a conversation with Manolis:“Manolis.” Harry stopped him. “No man has lost more than I have. No, I’m not being a martyr, I’m just stating a fact. It started when I was a kid and it hasn;t stopped yet. I’ve lost just about every person I ever loved. I’ve even lost my son in another world, to another creed: this same damned creed, vampirism! And the more you lose, the more hardened you get to it. Ask any habitual gambler. They don’t play to win but to lose. (A reference to Dead Eddy?) They used to play to win, but now when they win, they just go right on back to the tables…You want me to cry over Sandra? Maybe I will, later. You want me to go to pieces, to show that I’m a good guy? But what good will I be in all of this if I go to pieces? I loved Sandra, yes, I think. But already it’s too late to do anything about it. She’s just one more thing that I’ve lost. it’s the only way I can look at it and still go on. Except now I may be starting to win again. We may be starting to win again. Not Sandra, no, for she’s dead. And if she isn’t, then she’d be better off. I know this Janos Ferenczy now, and I know what I’ talking about. You call me cold, but you don’t know how I’m burning up inside. Now I’ll ask you to do me a favor: stop worrying about how you see things. Stop worrying about Sandra. It’s too late. This is a war and she was a casualty. What we have to do now is start hitting back, while we still have a chance!"You can see Harry’s fighting spirit here, despite all he’s lost. He’s cold and calculating, out for revenge. He’s lost everything yet still he has the resolve to stick to the plan and take there fight to Janos. Brilliant character development here.The best part of the book was when the full team comes together - Harry, Darcy Clark, Jazz Simmons, Zek Foener, and the Greek policeman, Manolis, plus some other E-Branch agents. Was very cool to see them work together to put down all these vampires. Because the stakes are the highest they’ve ever been. If Janos gets complete access to Harry’s mind, as a necromancer he’ll take not only Harry’s deadspeak but also his control over the Mobius Continuum. Janos could truly destroy the universe with such power. Harry says:“I have strange talents; there are secrets locked up in my head that Janos wants to get at. Oh, he can talk to some of the dead - poor bastards - in that monstrous. necromantic way of his, but he can’t command their respect like I do. He’d like to, though, for he’s as vain as the rest of them, but he still doesn’t feel that he’s true Wamphyri. So…he probably won’t be satisfied until he’s made himself the most powerful vampire the world’s ever seen. And to that end, if he can find some way to steal my skills from me…"The most fascinating aspect of the book, was, of course, Harry’s time spent at Faethor’s resting place. Faethor’s story was riveting, and you really had sympathy for this vampire, who accidentally killed his own wife due to his son, Janos’ betrayal. Lumley did a fantastic job here with Faethor’s backstory, and in his interactions with Harry. We see Feather give Harry back his dead speak ability, yet vampires can’t be trusted. Especially Feather, who Harry refers to as “the father of vampires.” The epitaph on his tombstone read: “This Creature was Death! His very existence was a refutation of Life; wherefore he now lies Here, where Life itself refuses to Acknowledge him."As Feather describes how he spied on his wife Marilena, and the man she was cheating on him with, Lumley again demonstrates his skill at description:“I went out onto the balcony, formed my hands and forearms into webbed discs like the suckers of some grotesque octopus, and made my way to Marilena’s window. The window was large, arched, and cut through a wall six feet thick. Inside, across the opening in the inner wall, curtains had been drawn. I climbed in and inched to the curtains, which I drew fractionally apart to form a crack."Oh, and did you catch Faethor’s reference to Elizabeth Bathory? How he slept with several Bathory women in the 16th century and “my evil was made manifest in the Bathorys down all the centuries.” Wow!And yet, Harry invites Feather into his mind to assist him in destroying Janos. But of course, we know there’s an ulterior motive here, and that Farther has some yet unrevealed design for Harry.As Harry faces his final showdown with Janos, we see August Ferdinand Mobius and the likes of Aristotle and Pythagorus working to break down the complex equations blocking Harry from accessing the Mobius Continuum. It’s really quite mesmerizing watching Harry work with confidence without his powers. So Darcy, Manolis, Jazz, Zek, and several others attack the Greek island where Janos’ vampire thralls are digging for his buried treasure. Awesome to see those things killed with that massive explosion on the Lazardies boat and in the cave.One of the most touching parts of the book was when Harry speaks to the dead Trevor Jordan on page 369. These two have been through so much together, that for Harry to tell someone this is no small matter:“I…I want to make sure you’re cremated. And then, if everything works out, I think I’d like to keep your ashes.” Harry, said Jordan in a little while, did anyone ever tell you you’re morbid? Then he actually laughed, however shakily. Hell, I don’t care what happens to my ashes! Though I suppose I’d get to talk to you more often, right? I mean, from your mantlepiece? Harry had to grin to keep from crying. ‘I suppose you would,’ he said…"Harry’s final confrontation with Janos was awesome. Just as Harry is about to be killed, August Ferdinand Mobius and his contemporaries solve the mystery Harry Jr. put on Harry’s mind, and restore his access to the Mobius Continuum. And then:“Janos had seen him disappear, and in that moment had known that Harry Keogh was invincible. The Necroscope had gone…where? And he’d be back…when? And what awesome powers would be bring with him? Janos dared not wait to find out."And then Harry calls up all the dead from their jars and urns in Janos vaults and crypts to confront Janos. Despite Janos’ magic words that turned the undead Thracians to dust, he can’t conjure up his words fast enough to kill all those of the Great Majority Harry calls up:“But their list for vengeance would be entirely in keeping, Janos knew it, too. He careened through their stumbling, groaning ranks as they shattered their jars and grew up like mushrooms out of nothing; but as fast as he could target a group and put them down again, so the Necroscope called them up! There was no way the vampire could win. He couldn’t bellow his words fast enough, and the ranks of resurrected warriors were rapidly closing on him."Janos knows he’s beaten and tries to flee, but it wasn’t meant to be:“There was nowhere left to run. Janos looked outwards to the night and his crimson eyes gazed on empire space. In all his life there’d been only one Wamphyri art he’d never mastered or counterfeited, and now he must. He held up his arms and willed the change, and his clothing tore as his body wrenched itself into a great blanket, an airfoil of flesh. And like a bat in the night, he launched himself from the cliffside path. He succeeded! He flew - with the tatters of his ripped clothing fluttering about him like strange wings. He flew…until Bodrogk;s hurled battle axe buried itself in his spine!"And then Harry called out the incantation that dissolved Janos into so much dust on the wind. At the end of the book we get two components of a prophecy about Harry that are quite chilling. First, right before Harry confronts Janos he has a vision of himself:“And at his feet…a cluster of small black mushrooms or puffballs, releasing their scarlet spores even as he stepped amongst them. Whose grave is it, he wondered, out of which these fungi siphoned their putrid nourishment? The legend carved in the slab where the oozing quag gurgled from its grooves was hardly unfamiliar. It said, quite simply: HARRY KEOGH: NECROSCOPE. Then - the mound of the burial plot burst open, hurling great clods of earth in all directions! And lying there in that open grave, like some morbid parasite in a wound, a semblance or grotesque caricature of Harry himself…but festooned in all its parts with ripening, spore-bearing mushrooms!"Second, at the very end after Janos has been defeated, Harry must expel Feather, he seeks to cling to Harry’s mind forever. Feather shows Harry that his life thread is tinged red because of him, and claims he’ll be part of Harry forever. But Harry assumes that’s a lie, and that he can go back and change his life thread. But when Feather is finally ejected (or so we think)…"“But Harry closed the door and shut him off. Always. Except that before the door slammed shut, he looked again at the blue thread unwinding out of him. And saw that it was still tinged red. Men should never try to read the future. For it’s a devious thing…"So after a spectacular novel, one of the most in the series, Lumley leaves us with a huge cliffhanger. Harry’s life thread is tinged red. It’s not really so surprising. After all the sex with B.J. Mirlu during the Lost Years, surely some spore of her got into him. But to allow Feather into your mind, I’m sure the vampire found a way to leave something of himself behind. Looks like we haven’t seen the last of Feather, or so I hope. If I were to be killed by any vampire and turned into a thrall, I’d want it to be Feather Ferenczy who did it.
It's been a while that Harry's powers have been dormant. The new head of E-Branch (really a Russian spy) sets up Sandra to keep tabs on him, She becomes Harry's girlfriend in the process. During this dormant time, Harry has his mind overtaken by the dead while he sleeps. These increasingly horrific dreams start to show a sign of reason for him and he figures out that the dead are sending him a message to go to the Mediterranean Sea are and track down vampires. Sandra's intentions are revealed after she suspects he is regaining his powers and her boss attempts to kill him. This leads to an interesting time of Harry being around someone he doesn't like for her betrayal, but understanding she does have feelings for him as well. They head to the Mediterranean and find that two E-Branch spies have been tortured by Janos Ferenczy, whose come back from the soil of his mountain palace that has been reduced to rubble over the centuries. Janos also has strong telepathic powers that make him Harry's most formidable adversary yet! So Harry goes to Faethor Ferenzy's grave to talk to the dead in his sleep. There he makes a deal with a mapire and Faethor restores part of his abilities that his son stripped away. But he also gets into other areas of Harry's mind and does some bad things. Now that Harry has his deadspeak he seeks to restore everything by talking to the dead and heads to battle with Janos. During this time Sandra has been taken by Janos and turned to a vampire. So Harry has to battle both Janos and his new minions, including Sandra. If you like Necroscope, each book after it in the series is just as good. And true to form, Lumley creates a vampire that chills your bones with it's savage acts.
What do You think about Necroscope IV: Deadspeak (1992)?
Necroscope Series by Brian LumleyReview by Andy Strutt author of “The Afflicted”I first discovered this series by receiving “Necroscope III : The Source” as a Christmas present. I had never heard of Brian Lumley but I was instantly infatuated with his work as soon as I had read the first few pages. Obviously, the first thing I did was go out and find the rest of the Necroscope series.Harry Keogh is a very strange character with morbid supernatural powers that allow him to speak to the dead. That is enough to make you want to read the series on its own but it is only the start. The Necroscope is the first in the series of a totally unique and fantastical vampire mythology, and definitely my favourite out of all of them. His writing his dark and exciting and is not for the faint hearted. These are books for true fans of horror and I challenge any new reader to predict what is going to happen next. I pride myself on being able to predict the storyline and I was pleasantly surprised, there was no way I could have guessed where the story would lead. For me it is impossible to review a single novel in isolation (or necessary) because I feel that anyone who reads the first will very quickly read the other 14 novels eagerly.Highly recommended and I guarantee these books deserve horror classic status. The writing and characterisations are timeless and will be enjoyed by true horror fans for centuries to come.
—Andy Strutt
Ray wrote: "This is one of my favorite book series. I like the human mind powers and really love the fresh and different take on vampires."Wish I could say the same. There are parts I enjoy but overall they are too long for the content for me. I bought the whole series before I started to read them and now I feel I must finish!
—Vicky
4.5 - 5 stars this is the first of the necroscope series that I read and have since collected and read them all... maybe a few of the very end I might have missed, but after all the "sparkly" vampire and silly movies and novels i needed to re-read a true vampire lets bleed and no remorse creature book and the creatures in this series do just that, not only are they a race totally different from humans but they live there life as such. The best parts of these novels (for me ) are when the story-line takes you back in history and tells the tale of one or another creature, then takes off with one of the first novels I read that brought in a esp branch of government that is so popular today. It was nice jumping back 20 years or so and remember reading this for the first time' again this is #4 but every novel gives a back story to help reader enter the world , and the "mind rape" that the creatures apply has always fascinated me esp, controlling thoughts of another ect. this will be on my fav. list and the following novels in the series still hold there own after all these years. Reminds me of another fav' novel not action packed but kept me in dreams for many months / years is by Dan Simmons Carrion Comfort' for me one of the novels when you finish it you realize you have one world to rejoin another. Possibly this review or statement ... or personal reference should have been on Carrion comfort novel "mind vampire's" controlling others, like the chess game played with humans under your mind control as the pieces... but novels that has let Me control the story add my own chapter's , my own novel within the pages of this book or another. These come every so often and maybe not even the ones I mention here but starting this review this is what comes to mind. If anyone reading this has any novels that bring this feeling ( reading your own story as well as the authors) Please feel free to recommend the author and novel, as finishing this I am feeling a little depressed as I am no longer in a world I enjoy as much as some of these stories and novels's that have given me the opportunity to explore and escape. This same feeling that we put a mark next to a sequel of a favorite book we just finished , that desire to lose our guide as we walk through landscape's created but not limited by a certain author and we find it easy to ... even in our waking moments to live in some small way in this world of our making and wait for the chance to dream and enter more fully explore.... and back to the check mark next to the name of an author and a title of a bunch of simple words strung together that somehow are like a magic spell that allow's this escape. Hrmmm.... this one is Defiantly more for myself than any review on a novel, I really need to have a vacation with no stress!!
—Jack
