Born on this date in 1943 was
Les Daniels, the creator of the vampire Don
Sebastian de Villanueva, who found his evil was often outshone by
humanity's historical horrors, in a series of novels published from the late '70s to the early '90s. He was
also a horror and comix expert of some note (Daniels, not Don
Sebastian). Daniels died in 2011. I read
No Blood Spilled several years ago and really dug it
and look forward to reading these other titles.
If you haven't read the others, you are in for a treat. Les Daniels' Don Sebastian novels are the most unassuming and unheralded vampire books ever. They brilliantly balance making a vampire into a protagonist while keeping him a legitimate threat under most circumstances; kind of like what would happen if the Christopher Lee version of Dracula battled Nazis.
ReplyDelete"The Black Castle" in particular is excellent. There's great depictions of vampire powers, especially one scene involving a suit of plate mail armor that I am surprised hasn't been "borrowed" by filmmakers.
That these books aren't better known, especially in these undead-crazy times, is a war crime against vampire fiction.
And such histories as LIVIMG IN FEAR (which is also an anthology of short fiction and comics--DYING OF FRIGHT, its sequel of sorts, more purely so) and COMIX aren't impeccable, but are fine and were hugely influential on me as a kid, particularly the first. And, yes the novels average very well indeed.
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