is the best of Dee’s novels, featuring Scarlett Shade,
who writes vampire stories with an air of expertise,
not surprising since she is herself one of the un-
dead. Blind Hunger(1993) involves a woman whose
husband returns from the grave as a kind of vam-
pire, but her subsequent reaction is not entirely
plausible. Horrorshow(1994) rather predictably de-
scribes the carnage that follows the re-creation of a
set of horrible murders, and Last Rites(1996) de-
tails the unfortunate and inevitable consequences
of dabbling in black magic. Dee’s gritty depiction of
existence within the vampire community is proba-
bly his strongest asset, and the current popularity of
vampire fiction has generated continued interest in
his work, even though he has published no new
material in nearly a decade.
Deitz, Tom(1952– )
Tom Deitz is a southern writer who has trans-
planted Celtic mythology to his native Georgia and
blended it with Native American folklore to create
the background of many of his novels. His work is
normally filled with fairly straightforward conflict,
and his plots are often advanced by the use of un-
likely coincidences. Most of his protagonists are
teenagers, although his work is marketed for
adults, and there is a good deal of repetition from
one book to the next. At the same time, he does
an excellent job of creating his setting, a snapshot
of idealized Americana frozen in time but not en-
tirely familiar, as though he had distilled out the el-
ements of our world that might have complicated
his stories.
His debut novel was Windmaster’s Bane(1986),
the first of the David Sullivan series. David has sec-
ond sight and can see the “Sidhe” as they pass
through our world. He learns of the existence of a
sorcerer from the other world who wants to extend
his control into ours and eventually thwarts the vil-
lain. Sullivan returned for seven more adventures,
ending at present with Warstalker’s Track(1999).
The best in the series is Stoneskin’s Revenge(1991),
in which a soul-drinking entity from another reality
slips into our world to claim his victims. In the
other volumes Sullivan has adventures in our world
and in Faerie, struggles to end a war in the other
world and to defeat thoughtless land developers in
ours, and averts a supernatural flood that could in-
undate the entire state of Georgia.
Deitz’s second series consists of Soulsmith
(1991), Dreambuilder(1992), and Wordwright(1993).
The series, which owes its inspiration to the AMBER
SERIESby Roger ZELAZNY, focuses on a Georgia fam-
ily all of whom possess the magical ability to move
from one universe to another, although use of that
power is supposedly reserved for the current family
head. The protagonist, a teenager in the opening
volume and a college student by the third, becomes
involved in family politics despite his intention to ig-
nore the family secret.
The Eron series includes Bloodwinter(1999),
Springwar (2000), Summerblood (2001), and Wa -
rautumn(2002). The setting is an imagined world
with two kingdoms poised on the brink of war.
Overpopulation and the ravages of a plague
threaten the stability of both peoples, and a newly
seated king lacks the experience to control either
internal problems or the international crisis. A war
breaks out, but the greater threat proves to be the
priests of a secretive cult who have their own ideas
about the manner in which the kingdom should be
governed. The series is much better written than
Deitz’s previous work but is disappointing because
of its predictable plot.
Deitz also wrote three nonseries novels. The
Gryphon King(1989) is quite rewarding, the story of
a college play that inadvertently summons Satan,
much to the consternation of one of the students. A
selkie interacts with humans in Above the Lower Sky
(1994), and in The Demons in the Green(1996) the
entire world is in peril as sea borne spirits seek to
supplant the human race. Deitz has proven himself
capable of writing dramatic and convincing fiction,
sometimes introducing quite original concepts, but
he has yet to establish a clear enough voice to dis-
tinguish himself from his contemporaries.De Lint, Charles(1951– )
The Canadian writer Charles De Lint began pub-
lishing short fantasy stories in the late 1970s, some
of them released as chapbooks and others appearing
in anthologies, but did not turn to novels until the
middle of the 1980s. By the end of that decade 11
novels and a collection had appeared, and De LintDe Lint, Charles 83