The Vampire's Apprentice
Review by E. Bathory (and a cast of thousands), submitted on 24-May-1992

The Vampire's Apprentice
Richard Lee Byers
Zebra Books, 1992 ISBN 0-8217-3632-9

David Brent is, simply put, a nerd. He lives more in the world of fantasy and wishes than reality. And David's found what he thinks is the ultimate fantasy come true. Carter, a charming, debonair vampire, has promised to make David as handsome and powerful as he is.

So, David is quite surprised when he wakes up in his coffin, six feet under, to find that he's been embalmed and abandoned. In pain and beset by a horrible thirst, he kills an old woman in a Laundromat.

David seeks out Carter - only to find out everything he's been told is untrue. He's not handsome - Carter, in fact, is a hideous mummy-like creature. All else is an illusion that is part of the vampire's power.

It seems that Carter is very old and very bored - and his greatest pleasure is finding someone innocent with a frail grasp on reality and turning them into vampires - after filling them with illusions about the grand and glorious life of the vampire.

Without going into exhaustive detail, the book follows David as he tries to cope with what has happened to him. Byers' vampires continue to decay; their bite is instantly contagious - to not kill a victim is to make another vampire, so David MUST kill his victims.

David struggles to retain his humanity. He chooses the terminally ill as his victims, hoping to ameliorate the evil he does by killing only those who would die anyway. He regains contact with his old friends and his family under an assumed identity - only to discover that Carter is still involved with them and plotting to destroy them.

The book covers David's discoveries of his powers and his limitations, and his desperate struggle to gain the upper hand over his one-time mentor.

Overall the book is not badly written. Since I read it after _Night Beat_ (a truly BAD book) that may have inclined me to be more generous.

Still, Byers takes a thorough and uncommon approach, and follows through well.

It's worth reading, but I don't believe I'd call it a great novel either. Certainly the ideas are worthwhile, and have in turn given me a new perspective on the undead.

Three fangs out of five.