Vampire Winter
Review by Beverley Richardson, submitted on 29-Mar-2002

Vampire Winter: by Lois Tilton. 1990. This is one of the best vampire books I've read in a long time. The scene is post nuclear war USA. Blaine, the vampire protagonist emerges from his vault in Chicago within hours of its destruction in a nuclear war. As he moves to the countryside, Blaine finds that night now lasts 24 hours a day, so he can hunt and move around unhindered.

Society has been reduced to a brutal struggle for existence in which bands of radiation contaminated marauders wander around attacking farmhouses and small towns occupied by people hoping to keep their dwindling supplies of food while avoiding contamination.

The comparison of this ruthless vampire with the equally ruthless people around him makes one think. Eventually, realizing that the uncontaminated people must be preserved if he is to survive, Blaine gathers some people together, providing food for them in exchange for blood and protection from the marauders. He eventually ends up in a similar mutually beneficial relationship with some of the nearby towns. The uncontaminated townsdwellers are his food source, and he with his immunity to radiation, is able to roam freely and help protect them against marauders.

A most unusual book showing a fascinating symbiotic relationship of human and vampire.