The Vampire Tapestry
Review by Alex, submitted on 19-Jun-1991

I just read _The Vampire Tapestry_ by Suzy McKee Charnas. It was published by Tor books for the the first time in October of 1986. The Copyright is for 1980.

I have been told by a book store owner that this book "started vampire thing". I hadn't really heard much about it.

I recommend it. It is reasonably well written, and is an interesting view of the isolation, or lack thereof, of a predator. It also deals a lot with the isolation and need to adapt caused by immortality.

It follows the story of several people's lives as they intersect the Vampire's. Although he is indisputably the main character, each person that he contacts is the center of attention of the story and he acts as the common theme connecting them all. It is set in the United States in modern times.

It is light reading, and is only 294 pages long. I will describe some of the plot elements after the spoiler alert.

**SPOILER ALERT***

*** ABOUT TO REVEAL PLOT ELEMENTS***

The main character is a scientific vampire of the type that is a separate species that preys on humans. He has been around since before Neolithic times! He has a stinger in his tongue instead of fangs. When things get difficult he goes to sleep for a LONG time, wakes up, and learns to adjust.

The story is about his trying to adjust to the twentieth century, and about his trying to come to grips with new feelings of attachment to people and to their lives. He is a real uncaring bastard, who slowly begins to have feelings for humans, and then copes with it.

The book's only flaws is that it tends to get preachy and too self-explanatory (he gives a lecture on Vampires, etc.); and it tends not to have a terribly cohesive story line. That isn't really a flaw, but that turns some people off.

A Pretty Cool Book overall- I give it 4 Fangs