Space Vampires AKA(Lifeforce) By Colin Wilson 216 pagesOut of printThis science fiction horror crossover is remembered mostly from the Cannon films adaptation of the novel. The film while produced by Cannon films the schlock studio behind the cinematic ascension of Chuck Norris and the Sho Kosugi Ninja trilogy is not that bad. They certainly hired excellent cast and crew. Directed by Texas chainsaw massacre director Tobe Hooper, adapted by Alien Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon and scored by Harry Mancini. Lead by an impressive bat shit crazy performance by Steve Railsbeck, a small role by the future enterprise captain Patrick Stewart and of course the naked space vampire who excited overly hormonal horror fans by walking around London naked played by Mathilda May. It was sci-fi and horror so I have seen a few times over the years. Recently I saw a tie-in paperback on the shelf at powells and thought I would give the book a shot and re-watch the movie. The first 80 or so pages of the book I was impressed thought it was much better than my memory of the film. First off I think the novel takes place a little further in the future. The discovery of the “stranger” spaceship and the discovery of the vampires is handled excellently. The creepy-ness of finding a old dead space ship in space is well done and I felt the charcters nervous-ness come through the text.“The stranger ship” in the novel has a very cosmic horror, lovecraftian-ness that exists in the novel but it is deeper in the book. One of the blurbs on the cover called it fast paced. Yes at times it was fast paced too fast paced, some times scenes and action transitioned so fast and I to go back and re-read sections. Wilson just skipped ahead if the part of the story bored him at least it seemed to me.Any of my friends on Good reads might notice that I started this book in July and finished in October. I am a fast reader generally. But once this book hits the wall. For 20 or 30 thirty mind numbinging pages the main character Carlsen gets a history lesson on vampires. This is meant to connect traditional vampires to the three energy sucking space vampires. The major difference between the movie and the book is O'Bannon didn't use any of this material. Good on him, it is boring ireallavent and just straight ruined the main work of the first 80 pages.The movie turned out a little better. Yep it's one of those rare cases like Children of Men or the English Patient where the film is much better than the book. While the movie comes off now as campy, and little over the top most of that is due to being out of date. Perhaps it seemed less cheezy in 1985,certainly when I watched it in the 80's it looked better to me.
First off, if you're looking for the book that the insanely awesome Life Force movie was based on, this is it. No wonder they changed the name for the movie, haha. Anyway, the first 50 pages or so of this book was just rocking as hard as a pirate ship in a hurricane. Some space explorers come across a 50km derelict ship floating around, with insanely huge fixtures, stairs, badass gothic cathedral architecture, weird artwork involving Lovecraftian squiddy things, and some naked people in suspended animation behind glass walls that open telepathically. And they are space vampires. And in the ship there is a map of ancient Greece. Holy shit, the stage is set for some badassery. Unfortunately, that's about all the badassery we're going to get. As another reviewer has said on this sight, it's mostly talking heads, scientists, cops, politicians, all talking about vampirism, parasitism, then a couple of nicely-placed scenes that follow, to give examples of what everyone was just talking about. I won't give away the ending, even though it's not that awesome, but just want to say that if Colin Wilson had handed in the first 50 pages to the publisher and said, "Ok, here's the rest of the story, blah blah blah," then had the publishers pull in, like, Dan Simmons or someone like that to finish it up, would have been the best sci-horror novel ever. But, he fucked it up.
What do You think about The Space Vampires (1977)?
I read this book years, years ago. Colin Wilson was one of those seminal sci-fiction writers that had a big effect on me as young man. I'm primarily reading it now because I was cleaning under the bed and found a 1977 Pocket Book edition. I reread it years ago because of the movie version, "LifeForce," which aside from the full-frontal nude shots of the beautiful space vampire, was rather disappointing.Actually,the movie was good for what it was intended to be, a good British Sci-fi B-movie, a genre which I contend no one can do quite as well as the Brits.But the movie wasn't faithful to the book, whose premise is that we are all energy vampires to some degree. Still the basic theme is there. A huge, miles-long spaceship is found in space, apparently millennium old, but with perfectly preserved humans in crystal caskets. The Earth space ship bring the preserved humans back to Earth where all hell breaks loose as a vampire plague is released. After that, the book and the movie diverge. More on this divergence later.
—R. Burns
This is one of those rare occasions where I liked the movie (LIFEFORECE) more than I liked the book the movie was based upon. But then I don't think that the printed word could ever compete with actress Mathilda May's spectacular assets. The movie LIFEFORCE is not great classic. It plays like a failed Quatermass movie but one of its most exciting ideas was vampires ravaging London which is not in the book at all. Beyond that, the movie is exceptionally faithful to the book which does have some great concepts.
—David Pollison
5/10 I read this book because I enjoy the schlocky 1985 movie Lifeforce based on it. Whereas the film is overloaded with twists and turns (and boobs), the book is all about discussing things. They have a discussion about vampires, a discussion with the vampire, a discussion after they defeat the vampire, and a discussion after all is done. It's not a horrible book, but it's not that good. For being published in 1976, it has a feel of pulp scifi written decades earlier - perhaps when the author was in his 20's?Side notes related to the Lifeforce movie: Reading this book makes me I appreciate Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby for making the Lifeforce screenplay out of it. Dan O'Bannon also wrote screenplays for films such as Alien, Total Recall, and Return of the Living Dead. By the way, return of the Living Dead was the first film in which zombies spoke the word "brains!", making Dan O'Bannon the inventor of that zombie catchphrase.
—J
