I recently bought this book at Lulu.com. This is not the typical and tiresome blood-and-gore vampire novel, of an over-mined genre. Rather, this is a classically and well crafted metaphysical work about the ancient and ongoing war between Good and Evil.
The protagonist is a Russian Orthodox prince of the nobility, who elects to become a vampire so that he can live forever and be young forever--but he didn't read all the fine print to the deal and, indeed, would not have cared about it, even if he had.
The book is the first of this type to feature Orthodoxy in a rather detailed and postive light. Usually, such books, if they involve Christianity at all, focus on Roman Rite Catholicism.
The novel also features a journey into Hell. As far as I know, no one has written a journey-into-hell narrative, since Dante. In this book, the protagonist, Vladimir, takes a trip to Hell, in the company of his Guardian Angel.
Angels pop up again and again in the book--from Chapter I, to the journey into Hell--to the chapter in which Angels assist a priest-exorcist, who is also a vampire hunter.
And, though Vladimir is the main character, his vampire-maker, Dmitri, is so nefarious that he threatens to steal the show whenever he makes an appearance--like the Devil, in Paradise Lost.
Dmitri is evil, but he has a very interesting perspective on the nature of evil. Being on our side of the fence, we see Evil, of course, in the most negative light and colors possible. Yet, those who embrace Evil do not sit around thinking how terrible they are and how difficult it is for them to stand themselves. Evil sees itself as the one that is Good. Dmitri is an artiulate advocate for those on his side of the fence. And, indeed, you can see his equation for Good and Evil repeated in the world every day--all you have to do is to read a few news stories in the daily news.
Links to the book, now at Lulu.com, include
www.lulu.com/content/1368866 [
lulu.com], for the book, itself--and then
www.lulu.com/content/1383922 [
lulu.com] for the free sampler based on the book. You don't have to make a purchase to preview the book.
