Less Than Human
Review by Dimitroff, submitted on 1-Jan-1993

Warning: This is a book review with some spoilers.

Title: _Less Than Human_
Author: Gary Raison
Publisher: Diamond, July 1992
ISBN: 1-55773-739-8

Quotation on front cover: " A unique twist on the traditional Vampire Myth" - Nancy A. Collins, bestselling author of _Sunglasses After Dark_.

Blurb on back cover: The town of Carruthers, Texas, has seen its share of drifters and lowlifes. But never anyone like Steven and Earl..... They move from town to town. Hustling pool halls. Raising a little hell. Drinking a little blood. They sleep by day and hunt by night - the ultimate preditors. The perfect life. Until now. A barrom brawl ends in disaster. The soil from Steven's grave has been stolen. And a young boy's death sparks an all-out ware between vampires and mortals that will turn the local Frontier Day celecration into a bloodbath.....

IT'S TIME TO PAINT THE TOWN RED.

This book mixes American and Mexican Indian folklore, dimestore western stories styled action with blood and guts horror in a modern setting. Confusing? Good. 'Cause it is.

Basic Premise:

The story is based around two vampires drifters who travel from town to town, *draining* blood and playing pool. Yep. Pocket billards. Problems begin when one of the vampire's pool cue (made from human bone) is stolen during a bar fight by another drifter who recieves psychic visions from it. The fun (confusion) begins as the vampire drifters chase the psychic drifter to his hometown.

My basic review:

Jumpy! Lots of things happen and people are introduced without notice. Most loose ends are tied up at the end, but I found it irritating trying to figure out what certain flashbacks/visions/characters had to do with the plotline. One stripper vampire shows up in the middle of the story, transfers into another character, who is a serial killer, then is "absorbed" by one of the vampire drifters, who, we then find, had infected the stripper. The serial killer is also from the psychic drifter's hometown. A little too convenient and very confusing. Another problem I had was the vampires tormenting a victim, then say "we aren't going to kill you". They would leave but the victim would turn up dead two chapters later (killed in some horrible way). The plotline was like falling down the stairs and landing on your feet.

About the vampires:

They don't really drink blood, they basically just kill by draining the blood. They can infect others, then pull the "infection" back to themselves, along with memories. They can also completely transfer themselves into their victim. When someone is infected, all blood leaves their body (and quickly! Blood shower!). Their saliva also causes hallucinations in the victims. This makes it confusing to the reader. I had problems determining if what was occuring was flashback, hallucination, psychic vision or a combination of all three! The vampires don't heal (at least, not quickly) and apparently just move to another body when they need to. This causes a bit of "who-am-I?" problems with the vampire's mind (a la _Angel Heart_).

The story is fairly original (at least, to me). Out of a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, I'd give it a 6. Maybe a 7. It's not a long book and is much easier to read then, say, H.P. Lovecraft. Plus, the good guy rides off into the *sunrise*! Gotta love it.