castle dominates the scene, and every effort that
Gerard makes to escape leads him inevitably back
toward it. When he finally enters he is greeted by
the Sieur de Malinbois, a cadaverous man who
Gerard instinctively distrusts. Malinbois tells him
to leave his staff outside, but the troubadour re-
fuses to relinquish it.
Fleurette and her servants have been similarly
trapped, and some restraining magic compels
them to cooperate with their host. During the
night they discover the truth. Malinbois and his
wife are vampires, and their attack on Fleurette’s
servants leaves them both weak and terrified. Ger-
ard sharpens the end of his staff into a stake, and
during the daylight hours he and one of the ser-
vants search the castle until they find the one part
of it that is not an illusion, an elaborate burial
vault containing the unliving bodies of Malinbois
and his wife. He dispatches them both, at which
point the illusiory castle promptly disappears, set-
ting them all free.
Smith is often identified as an author of weird
fiction rather than fantasy or horror, because a
large number of his short stories straddle both
fields, as is the case with this, one of his finest
works, which mixes a common horror theme, vam-
pirism, into a medieval landscape in a story that is,
despite its subject matter, light and witty rather
than morbid and suspenseful.
The Renquist SeriesMick Farren
(1996–2002)
Much of the work of H. P. LOVECRAFTfell into the
Cthulhu Mythos series, which straddled the genres
of science fiction and horror because its monsters
were actually alien beings from the far past who
still lived in a kind of alternate universe from
which they were constantly attempting to escape.
Many other writers have set stories within the
framework originated by Lovecraft, some adding
details, others exploring it from an entirely new di-
rection, as is the case with William Browning
Spencer in Resume with Monsters(1994) and Irra-
tional Fears (1998) and Paul Di Filippo in The
Steampunk Trilogy(1994). Mick Farren’s previous
novels had all been science fiction, although one,
Necron (1991), included rationalized demons,
when he decided to develop his own take on Love-
craft starting with The Time of Feasting(1996).
Vampires traditionally have been evil, al-
though the trend in recent years is to make them
romantic heroes or misunderstood and troubled
victims. Farren created a small tribe of vampires
for this novel led by Renquist, named for the mad-
man in DRACULA (1897) by Bram STOKER,al-
though it is not clear whether this is meant to be
anything more than coincidental. Renquist and his
followers are neither good nor evil. They protect
their own existence, even if that means killing hu-
mans. For most of them it is a necessity rather than
a sport, and the need to conceal their existence
limits their predation. Farren’s vampires have some
clearly supernatural powers, including a useful im-
munity to surveillance cameras, although as the se-
ries progressed he made desultory attempts to
rationalize things.
The opening volume serves primarily to intro-
duce the characters and situation and show us
Renquist dealing with a rebellion among his own
people. As such, it is an above average but other-
wise unremarkable vampire novel. The sequels
move the story in a new and surprising direction.
In Darklost (2000) Renquist discovers that the
head of a major commercial enterprise is secretly
attempting to open a gateway between universes so
that Cthulhu and his minions can return and rule
the Earth. Since vampires have no place in that
power structure, it is in their best interests to inter-
fere, which they do successfully after a series of
well-conceived adventures. We learn more about
Cthulhu, actually one of a race of space travelers
that Farren describes in far more detail than Love-
craft ever attempted, and there are further revela-
tions in More Than Mortal (2001), in which
Renquist travels to Scotland after hearing rumors
that a coven of witches have wakened Merlin, who
is also linked to the aliens.
Farren brought the series to an apparent close
with Underland(2002), with Renquist recruited by
the U.S. government to help defeat the menace of
a secret Nazi base beneath the surface of Earth
whose inhabitants have allied themselves with an
antediluvian reptilian race with super-scientific
powers. The Renquist novels are written with
tongue firmly in cheek, poking fun at various genre288 The Renquist Series