Blood Alone
Review by The Mad Bibliographer, submitted on 9-Oct-2001

Review by Cathy Krusberg

Elaine Bergstrom. _Blood Alone_ (Jove, 1990).

_Blood Alone_ virtually defies summary; it is best thought of as a prequel to _Shattered Glass_. How did Paul Stoddard meet the Austras? What did Charles (and other Austras) do during World War II? What is Bergstrom's answer to Rice's *Ur*-vampires? (His name is Francis/Frn'cs.) How many plotlines and adventures can fit in a vampire novel without resulting in structural chaos? (Answer: a surprising number, but I'd prefer that someone else do the counting.) Stephen Austra is there, too, of course: making his incredible glass windows; saving lives, taking lives, caring for himself and his own as only an Austra can. And we meet another member of the clan, Laurence Austra, who was raised in a manner more humane than befits his species and who finds himself raw material for Nazi super-men as a result. Although his experience forms the climax of the book, it is not the focus but merely a particularly powerful thread in a rich Austra tapestry.

For a work so multifaceted, _Blood Alone_ is startlingly and pleasantly cohesive; not only a good read but important as background information for the Austra novels that follow (_Blood Rites_, _Daughter of the Night_).