Young Blood

by Brian M. Stableford

A vampire who calls himself Maldureve comes out of the shadowy borderlands of existence in response to the unvoiced desires of philosophy student Anne Charet. By choosing to see him she gives him substance; after feeding him, she too begins to hunger for blood. Maldureve becomes Anne's lover and mentor but he cannot protect her against his own enemies, mysterious creatures of light who call themselves owls because they believe that theirs is the highest wisdom of all. Anne's boyfriend, psychologist Gil Molari, worries about her health and state of mind, although he knows nothing about his supernatural rival. His anxiety is magnified when he becomes convinced that one of the mind-altering viruses with which he works has escaped from the laboratory. Gil refuses to believe in Maldureve but his refusal to believe cannot save him from becoming the victim of a fierce hunger that he cannot satisfy, which drives him in the end to an unendurable extreme. Anne believes that her experiences are entirely real; Gil believes that his are the products of an infectious madness. Whichever of them is right, they are both in deadly danger, and so is everyone around them. Once they have started on their strange journey, there is no way back. But what can possibly lie ahead of them, when death itself no longer seems to be an end?

Genres: Horror, Vampires

Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Brian Michael Stableford was a British science fiction writer who published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for a couple of very early works, and again for a few more recent works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work.

Reviews

[Gary Jaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stableford returns to the theme of the Vampire in a very unique vision.
His first vampire novel was more traditional in a sense, it was The Empire of Fear, 1988. This novel was written in 1992. It turns the whole concept of the vampire inside out in a masterful manner. It is an exploration of consciousness and the unconscious, The Light and The Dark in mythos and symbols, the self and the body, and lastly, the immune system and viruses.
I will leave you with the remarks of Ian Braidwood, another reviewer on the Stableford website: "Young Blood is not a salacious horror story, but a psychological science fiction tale with a strong philosophical thread running through it. It excites with you with its ideas, involves you with its characters and shocks you, even when you spot what's coming. It epitomises what I read fiction for: to enrich, inform and entertain. Don't let the cover put you off."

[Philip Challinor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like The Empire of Fear and the Werewolves of London trilogy, it starts well and contains some intriguing ideas, but falls away badly. About two-thirds of the way through the narrative tone acquires an irritating aura of smugness, and it finally lost all my sympathy with a 25-page epilogue of sophomoric platitude.