It sometimes seems lately as if urban fantasy is overtaking the popularity of traditional epic fantasy and any sort of science fiction. Walk into a bookstore and you will see many more new releases of urban fantasy (and the closely related PNR (paranormal romance) genre) than you will of more traditional fantasy or science fiction. In urban fantasy and PNR, the stories are set firmly in our world - but with the additional of a variety of traditional horror (werewolves, vampires, etc.) and/or mythical creatures (such as the fae). In the hands of some of the better writers, such as Jim Butcher or Ilona Andrews or Kim Harrison or Charles de Lint, urban fantasy shines. Some of the rest...well, someone on Amazon christened an entire subset of PNR/urban fantasy as whorrror, as it features badly written Mary Sues and their harems of supernatural studs.
The less said about whorror the better.
Long before urban fantasy became popular with such authors as Butcher and Harrison, Stephen R. Donaldson wrote this little vampyr (vampire story).
Placed in a setting that reminds me of Europe in perhaps the Reformation period, when secular leaders were challenging the Church, and the Church was fighting back with monstrous measures like the Spanish Inquisition, it tells the story of Scriven, a lost and lonely soul.
While Scriven is a vampyr and should be a master predator specializing on humans, he truly acts more like prey through much of the story.
At night he skulks and sneaks out from the beseiged city to feed upon the dying soldiers left upon the field.
Scriven only takes the life force of the dying - and sometimes uses it to transfer to others, to bring them in turn back from near death.
Scriven once lived in a church in a bad neighborhood, when he began an interest in the church and the congregation. He began to feel a sort of fellowship with the attendees, and eventually fell in love with a lovely young girl who belonged to the church named Irradia. He learned love and acceptance from Irradia and from the little priest at that church (the priest was the one to tell him to only feed from the dying). Shortly before his offical conversion and baptism, he and Iradia are taken by a cruek and zealous cardinal, who tortures the inncoent and good Irradia nearly to death in front of Scriven, just to add to his torment. Scriven does manage to get away, but not in time to save poor Irradia, whose life force he ends up taking to spare her any more torture.
He eventually ends up in the service to a Duke who is at war with the Cardinal who tortured Irradia.
Now then, vampyrs were considered damned by their very nature and existence. The Duke used Scriven to heal himself, his sons, and his important followers. Rumors did get out, even though the Duke did try to keep Scriven's nature a secret.
So the Duke decided to openly display Scriven, have him tell his story, and prove that he is not evil...
I really enjoy this story, though I thought perhaps Scriven is accepted a bit too easily in he end, given how zealous some of the church guys were earlier in the same scene...
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