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The Renquist Quartet #3
More Than Mortal
Victor Renquist, centuries-old nosferatu leader, is called to England. Some archaeologists are excavating a burial mound, but what they will uncover is no Saxon warrior but the being once known as the Merlin. And he's not the kindly old duffer of The Sword in the Stone.
432 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 11, 2001
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68 people want to read
About the author
Mick Farren
67 books81 followersFarren was the singer with the proto-punk English band The Deviants between 1967 and 1969, releasing three albums. In 1970 he released the solo album Mona – The Carnivorous Circus which also featured Steve Peregrin Took, John Gustafson and Paul Buckmaster, before leaving the music business to concentrate on his writing.
In the mid-1970s, he briefly returned to music releasing the EP Screwed Up, album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and single "Broken Statue". The album featured fellow NME journalist Chrissie Hynde and Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson.
He has sporadically returned to music, collaborating with Wayne Kramer on Who Shot You Dutch? and Death Tongue, Jack Lancaster on The Deathray Tapes and Andy Colquhoun on The Deviants albums Eating Jello With a Heated Fork and Dr. Crow.
Aside from his own work, he has provided lyrics for various musician friends over the years. He has collaborated with Lemmy, co-writing "Lost Johnny" for Hawkwind, and "Keep Us on the Road" and "Damage Case" for Motörhead. With Larry Wallis, he co-wrote "When's the Fun Begin?" for the Pink Fairies and several tracks on Wallis' solo album Death in a Guitar Afternoon. He provided lyrics for the Wayne Kramer single "Get Some" in the mid-1970s, and continued to work with and for him during the 1990s.
In the early 1970s he contributed to the UK Underground press such as the International Times, also establishing Nasty Tales which he successfully defended from an obscenity charge. He went on to write for the main stream New Musical Express, where he wrote the article The Titanic Sails At Dawn, an analysis of what he saw as the malaise afflicting then-contemporary rock music which described the conditions that subsequently gave rise to punk.
To date he has written 23 novels, including the Victor Renquist novels and the DNA Cowboys sequence. His prophetic 1989 novel The Armageddon Crazy deals with a post-2000 United States which is dominated by fundamentalists who dismantle the Constitution.
Farren has written 11 works of non-fiction, a number of biographical (including four on Elvis Presley), autobiographical and culture books (such as The Black Leather Jacket) and a plethora of poetry.
Since 2003, he has been a columnist for the weekly Los Angeles CityBeat.
Farren died at the age of 69 in 2013, after collapsing onstage while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London.
In the mid-1970s, he briefly returned to music releasing the EP Screwed Up, album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and single "Broken Statue". The album featured fellow NME journalist Chrissie Hynde and Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson.
He has sporadically returned to music, collaborating with Wayne Kramer on Who Shot You Dutch? and Death Tongue, Jack Lancaster on The Deathray Tapes and Andy Colquhoun on The Deviants albums Eating Jello With a Heated Fork and Dr. Crow.
Aside from his own work, he has provided lyrics for various musician friends over the years. He has collaborated with Lemmy, co-writing "Lost Johnny" for Hawkwind, and "Keep Us on the Road" and "Damage Case" for Motörhead. With Larry Wallis, he co-wrote "When's the Fun Begin?" for the Pink Fairies and several tracks on Wallis' solo album Death in a Guitar Afternoon. He provided lyrics for the Wayne Kramer single "Get Some" in the mid-1970s, and continued to work with and for him during the 1990s.
In the early 1970s he contributed to the UK Underground press such as the International Times, also establishing Nasty Tales which he successfully defended from an obscenity charge. He went on to write for the main stream New Musical Express, where he wrote the article The Titanic Sails At Dawn, an analysis of what he saw as the malaise afflicting then-contemporary rock music which described the conditions that subsequently gave rise to punk.
To date he has written 23 novels, including the Victor Renquist novels and the DNA Cowboys sequence. His prophetic 1989 novel The Armageddon Crazy deals with a post-2000 United States which is dominated by fundamentalists who dismantle the Constitution.
Farren has written 11 works of non-fiction, a number of biographical (including four on Elvis Presley), autobiographical and culture books (such as The Black Leather Jacket) and a plethora of poetry.
Since 2003, he has been a columnist for the weekly Los Angeles CityBeat.
Farren died at the age of 69 in 2013, after collapsing onstage while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 29, 2019
It was a struggle to finish, and it was ABSOLUTELY NOT WORTH READING. There's not enough of a premise here to build a bad novel on, let alone a good one. It doesn't feel like the plot built up to the conclusion or that the conclusion was the inevitable outcome of everything that passed before it.
The characters are not consistent throughout the book, behaving first one way, then another, whatever seemed to suit the author's purpose for the scenes he wanted to set up. In one very early scene we learn that spilled nosferatu blood is a powerful draw to other nosferatu to engage in a fighting frenzy to attack the bleeding nosferatu with "tooth and claw," but in scenes later in the book, the shedding of nosferatu blood has no effect whatsoever on the other nosferatu present. It simply wouldn't have served the author's purpose.
There are no character arcs and no real development of any kind for any of the characters, no plot development. Most of the book is comprised of massive information dumps which are not only unnecessary, they stall the plot rather than move it along. The author also seems obsessed with name-dropping, trying to connect his main character, Victor Renquist, with every major historical figure from every culture around the world that he could find a Wikipedia article about.
I read another reader's review that complained about the author's use of big, fancy words, which I had noticed too from the start of the novel. At first I liked it because it helped create a gothic feel to the book. But apparently the author couldn't keep it up, and there are whole chapters written in a different style before we return to the gothic, erudite language. It's too inconsistent to be effective on any level. In fact, the writing changes so drastically at a couple of points in the book that I wonder if the author had a ghost writer (or a couple of ghost writers) to try and salvage this book. Even if that was the case, it obviously didn't work. The author loves the construction "all but," as in "he all but smiled" or "they were all but beside themselves." He not only abuses this phrase by using it constantly, but he misuses it, resulting in awkward constructions, and he overuses it. Farren needs to learn how to self-edit.
There are point-of-view issues in almost every scene. The author constantly flips between a tight, third person point of view to an omniscient one or another character's point of view for a sentence or two, then back again.
The editing is terrible. The book could benefit greatly from the attention of even the lowliest proofreader, though I can understand why TOR Books didn't want to sink any money into this project. Shame on the publisher for taking on so many books by such an obviously incompetent writer!
It is best to think of this book as a spoof of vampire novels in general. As such, it's still a really bad book, but that's the best light you can cast it in, as if the author's intention is to buck the trend to depict vampires as killers with hearts of gold, angst-ridden creatures who hate their own nature, sexy and sensual, both attractive and repulsive, etc. etc. The nosferatu in Farren's books are supposedly asexual because they cannot experience sexual pleasure (just as they can't get drunk or be affected by the drugs that affect humans), yet the female vampires very carefully dress up and apply makeup to greet the male vampire, and there are references to male vampires taking on a female consort (or seven). There may have been potential there to play on the differences between sensual and sexual -- may have -- but it gets lost in the author's misogynistic attitude toward women, his constant objectifying of women, and his insistence on portraying "powerful" women-nosferatu as scheming, petty bitches.
Not worth reading.
~bintarab
The characters are not consistent throughout the book, behaving first one way, then another, whatever seemed to suit the author's purpose for the scenes he wanted to set up. In one very early scene we learn that spilled nosferatu blood is a powerful draw to other nosferatu to engage in a fighting frenzy to attack the bleeding nosferatu with "tooth and claw," but in scenes later in the book, the shedding of nosferatu blood has no effect whatsoever on the other nosferatu present. It simply wouldn't have served the author's purpose.
There are no character arcs and no real development of any kind for any of the characters, no plot development. Most of the book is comprised of massive information dumps which are not only unnecessary, they stall the plot rather than move it along. The author also seems obsessed with name-dropping, trying to connect his main character, Victor Renquist, with every major historical figure from every culture around the world that he could find a Wikipedia article about.
I read another reader's review that complained about the author's use of big, fancy words, which I had noticed too from the start of the novel. At first I liked it because it helped create a gothic feel to the book. But apparently the author couldn't keep it up, and there are whole chapters written in a different style before we return to the gothic, erudite language. It's too inconsistent to be effective on any level. In fact, the writing changes so drastically at a couple of points in the book that I wonder if the author had a ghost writer (or a couple of ghost writers) to try and salvage this book. Even if that was the case, it obviously didn't work. The author loves the construction "all but," as in "he all but smiled" or "they were all but beside themselves." He not only abuses this phrase by using it constantly, but he misuses it, resulting in awkward constructions, and he overuses it. Farren needs to learn how to self-edit.
There are point-of-view issues in almost every scene. The author constantly flips between a tight, third person point of view to an omniscient one or another character's point of view for a sentence or two, then back again.
The editing is terrible. The book could benefit greatly from the attention of even the lowliest proofreader, though I can understand why TOR Books didn't want to sink any money into this project. Shame on the publisher for taking on so many books by such an obviously incompetent writer!
It is best to think of this book as a spoof of vampire novels in general. As such, it's still a really bad book, but that's the best light you can cast it in, as if the author's intention is to buck the trend to depict vampires as killers with hearts of gold, angst-ridden creatures who hate their own nature, sexy and sensual, both attractive and repulsive, etc. etc. The nosferatu in Farren's books are supposedly asexual because they cannot experience sexual pleasure (just as they can't get drunk or be affected by the drugs that affect humans), yet the female vampires very carefully dress up and apply makeup to greet the male vampire, and there are references to male vampires taking on a female consort (or seven). There may have been potential there to play on the differences between sensual and sexual -- may have -- but it gets lost in the author's misogynistic attitude toward women, his constant objectifying of women, and his insistence on portraying "powerful" women-nosferatu as scheming, petty bitches.
Not worth reading.
~bintarab
August 6, 2011
OK, this one wavered between two and three stars as I read it. And I have to say it is a bad indictment for a book when I am thinking about it’s rating while reading it rather than being totally absorbed in the book itself.
This book is about a powerful vampire (though they call themselves nosferatu) who is induced by three vampire females to become involved in an excavation which unearths a very old, prototype creature of a similar creation to their own ‘race’.
This book is a bit of a victim of the serial novel, many of the recommendations on the cover are not about this book at all; they are about previous books by the same author, which contain (we assume) the same main character. The author does do a very good characterisation of this leading character; Victor. Too often ‘serial’ books do not bother to introduce the characters properly and they leave no impression this does not happen here, the characterisation in this book is in general very good. I also liked the hints about nosferatu society, the Scottish contingent and many of the location descriptions were vivid and memorable.
I did not like the ‘serial’ way in which constant references to books I had not read kept cropping up. In one point there is a mention to the main character confronting cuthulu. “interesting’ I thought and waited for more – it was not forthcoming and left me wondering why it was ever mentioned; as a sop to long term readers? As an enticement to read more of his books? Unimpressed. The constant name dropping and roll call about how everyone who ever achieved anything in human society was actually nosferatu (except apparently Einstein) was a major yawn.
The plot in general flowed nicely however there were also long sections where the characters/ plot were patchy, as though it was a part that had to be written/read to bring the plot along but which I imagine did not engage the author. They certainly did not engage me and that was when I debated the ratings.
This book is about a powerful vampire (though they call themselves nosferatu) who is induced by three vampire females to become involved in an excavation which unearths a very old, prototype creature of a similar creation to their own ‘race’.
This book is a bit of a victim of the serial novel, many of the recommendations on the cover are not about this book at all; they are about previous books by the same author, which contain (we assume) the same main character. The author does do a very good characterisation of this leading character; Victor. Too often ‘serial’ books do not bother to introduce the characters properly and they leave no impression this does not happen here, the characterisation in this book is in general very good. I also liked the hints about nosferatu society, the Scottish contingent and many of the location descriptions were vivid and memorable.
I did not like the ‘serial’ way in which constant references to books I had not read kept cropping up. In one point there is a mention to the main character confronting cuthulu. “interesting’ I thought and waited for more – it was not forthcoming and left me wondering why it was ever mentioned; as a sop to long term readers? As an enticement to read more of his books? Unimpressed. The constant name dropping and roll call about how everyone who ever achieved anything in human society was actually nosferatu (except apparently Einstein) was a major yawn.
The plot in general flowed nicely however there were also long sections where the characters/ plot were patchy, as though it was a part that had to be written/read to bring the plot along but which I imagine did not engage the author. They certainly did not engage me and that was when I debated the ratings.
February 1, 2013
Real Rating 1.5 Stars
This merging of sci-fi paranormal horror fantasy just didn't work for me. The author seemed to self-indulge in using a plethora of "big words" that left a rather ostentatious feel. Seriously though, the amount of large words per paragraph was completely not necessary. There could have been about 100 pages worth of wordage edited out of this book that would have merited a full star more in rating for me. Lengthy descriptions and too much back story lead to not enough of the steak that I wanted to desperately eat. I don't think the story really gave anything worth chewing on until around page 200. I didn't hate it, but I certainly did not like this book either.
This merging of sci-fi paranormal horror fantasy just didn't work for me. The author seemed to self-indulge in using a plethora of "big words" that left a rather ostentatious feel. Seriously though, the amount of large words per paragraph was completely not necessary. There could have been about 100 pages worth of wordage edited out of this book that would have merited a full star more in rating for me. Lengthy descriptions and too much back story lead to not enough of the steak that I wanted to desperately eat. I don't think the story really gave anything worth chewing on until around page 200. I didn't hate it, but I certainly did not like this book either.
July 28, 2009
Not bad, but I have one complaint: LAZY AUTHORSHIP. On THREE separate occasions in this book, Farren takes wholesale blocks of text from DARKLOST and recycles them into this book. Even though the scenes are Renquist flashing back to a DNA memory he experienced in DARKLOST, to simply copy ENTER BLOCKS OF THE TEST WORD FOR WORD, without making any attempt to identify that you have previously used that text, is laziness, pure and simple.
October 22, 2022
Not great literature, but an enjoyably pulpy read. Farren has built the lore of his world around a pastiche of fringe, weird fiction, and paranormal tropes which I thought were a lot of fun-- ancient aliens, Cthulhu, ley lines, etc. Book is pretty dated when it comes to sexuality, and he has a bad case of "men writing women badly". It also has some serious pacing issues.
Worth picking up if you, like me, enjoy a schlocky horror novel.
Worth picking up if you, like me, enjoy a schlocky horror novel.
June 12, 2024
Full review here:
https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...
While essentially a "bottle episode", the final part is a lot of fun as a legendary figure more or less does a 70's car chase through the Nosferatu fruit stand.
https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...
While essentially a "bottle episode", the final part is a lot of fun as a legendary figure more or less does a 70's car chase through the Nosferatu fruit stand.
August 6, 2014
While I remain firm in my belief in that Mick Farren's Renquist novels are vampire stories for those who don't like vampires (of the Anne Rice and Twilight variety) this entry in the series suffers from one significant drawback (well maybe two).
This book really could have used an editor. Someone who would have told Farren to either speed up the pace of the story or to end the numerous exposition dumps (some of which seemed repetitious). A novel does not have to speed along at the pace of Raiders of the Lost Ark to be enjoyable but the pacing and combination of exposition dumps slowed it down to a snail's pace at times.
On the plus side there was further exploration of Farren's vampire mythos. If you enjoy a vampire tale that is mash up of blood suckers, sex and science fiction then yes I do believe you will enjoy this and the other Renquist books (I have read three of the four so far). I still enjoy the concept that vampires are an offshoot of experiment gone wrong performed by ancient astronauts visiting Earth.
This book really could have used an editor. Someone who would have told Farren to either speed up the pace of the story or to end the numerous exposition dumps (some of which seemed repetitious). A novel does not have to speed along at the pace of Raiders of the Lost Ark to be enjoyable but the pacing and combination of exposition dumps slowed it down to a snail's pace at times.
On the plus side there was further exploration of Farren's vampire mythos. If you enjoy a vampire tale that is mash up of blood suckers, sex and science fiction then yes I do believe you will enjoy this and the other Renquist books (I have read three of the four so far). I still enjoy the concept that vampires are an offshoot of experiment gone wrong performed by ancient astronauts visiting Earth.
September 23, 2010
Excellent continuation of the series... As usual Farren spends too much of the beginning of the book on back story... but that slight complaint aside this was another success for Fareen. He, again, manages to combine fantasy and reality into an entertaining story embellished with sex, violence, and humor. I can't wait to start the fourth book.
November 27, 2012
As with others, I wavered between two and three stars. The plot is is interesting, characters are fairly well developed ANSI enjoyed reading about them. The problem is the detail. Way too detailed. Every page is a tangent. I easily skimmed the majority of the book. Still, as it ends with a cliffhanger, I will check out the next one in the series.
October 5, 2007
I love this series! Farren has proved that you can have a vampire for a main character without defanging him first; if you're a monster fan who likes to read about MONSTERS, not whiny little balls of angst, then Victor Renquist is the vampire for you.
January 10, 2008
Original take on vampire lore and what they're capable of. Quite a protagonist in Victor Renquist and does he have formidable foes. Bloody and sensual.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews