shorter fiction. Mrs. God(1990), a novella, is par-
ticularly good.
Strieber, Whitley (1945– )
Although Whitley Strieber has become a more
polished writer during the course of his career, his
two most interesting works are his first two novels,
particularly the first, WOLFEN(1978). The premise
of the novel, not revealed until after the two pro-
tagonists investigate a series of mysterious deaths
and find themselves running for their own lives, is
that a race of canine creatures with an intelligence
at least equal to that of humans and with physical
prowess superior to any ordinary wolf, has been liv-
ing hidden on the fringes of human society since
prehistory. The wolfen prey on those who will not
be missed, the homeless, the lost, and the insane,
which requires that they live in cities rather than
in the country. When the two human detectives
learn the truth, they are marked for death by the
pack, whose primary motivation is to survive, and
they only manage to avoid their fate by coming to
an accommodation with the creatures. The novel
is extremely suspenseful, involves an interesting
pair of characters, and was an original and radi-
cally new interpretation of the werewolf legend.
Strieber followed up with The Hunger(1981),
which would eventually be his first novel about
Miriam Blaylock, a charming but deadly vampire.
Although Strieber used some of the traditional
trappings of the vampire story, he created a dra-
matically different mythos. Only the female vam-
pires are ageless and unchanging. The males
gradually wither over time, and although they
never truly die, they become ghostlike, powerless,
and relegated to a perpetual tortured inactivity. To
avoid loneliness Blaylock must periodically seek a
new human male to transform into a partner, al-
though the eventual fate of each is inevitable.
Both The Hungerand Wolfenwere turned into sur-
prisingly good horror movies.
Strieber’s next novel, Black Magic(1982), was
marketed as horror but is actually a technothriller
with no fantastic content. The Night Church
(1983) has another interesting premise, a cult that
plans to use modern breeding techniques to create
a race uniquely suited to worship Satan, but de-
spite some individual sequences that are quite ex-
citing, the pace of the novel is erratic. Catmagic
(1986) is technically more successful, a story of
modern witchcraft. Amanda Walker is surprised to
discover that she is potentially a powerful magic
wielder and then horrified to learn that her abili-
ties have made her the target for secretive groups
who wish to use her powers to advance their own
agendas. Despite her misgivings, she learns to
master the art of witchcraft in order to defend
herself in this tightly plotted, effective story of the
supernatural.
Strieber abandoned horror fiction for several
years, returning with The Wild(1991), a short and
unpredictable story about a man transformed into
a werewolf. Unholy Fire(1992) followed, which is
less inventive but handled very skillfully. The pro-
tagonist is a priest who has had recent doubts
about his vocation and whose worldview is shat-
tered when one of his parishioners dies in a horri-
ble way, after which he discovers that she led a life
of remarkable depravity. Having decided that he
should have done something to save her, he begins
to investigate her death and learns of the existence
of a serial killer. He eventually discovers that the
murderer has been possessed by an entity that lit-
erally escaped from hell. The Forbidden Zone(1993)
is about a bad place, an area subject to some evil
force that manifests itself in various ways, some of
them apparently violating the laws of nature. An
unlikely hero solves the mystery and finds a way to
neutralize the area before its influence can spread
throughout the world.
Except for a short story or two, Strieber pro-
duced no new supernatural fiction after 1993 until- That lapse ended with The Last Vampire
(2001) and Lilith’s Dream(2002), both vampire
novels, the first a further adventure of Miriam
Blaylock. She is caught up in a duel of wits with a
wily Interpol agent who eventually tracks her
down, although not with the results he expected.
In Lilith’s Dreaman ancient vampire who has not
walked the Earth in hundreds of years finally rises
and has considerable difficulty adjusting to the
dramatic changes that have taken place.
Strieber is a talented, inventive horror writer
whose work is always interesting, although he
seems to have grown less ambitious with the pas-
Strieber, Whitley 341