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The Renquist Quartet #1
The Time of Feasting
A colony of vampires lives unrevealed in New York City. But now the Time of Feasting is at hand, when they must make the warm kill and drink living blood. Renquist, the centuries-old colony Master is beset from within by the young ones who, contemptuous of humanity, are tired of living in hiding, and from without by a drunken ex-priest and a tenacious city cop, who are beginning to suspect the truth.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 1996
5 people are currently reading
312 people want to read
About the author
Mick Farren
67 books80 followersFarren was the singer with the proto-punk English band The Deviants between 1967 and 1969, releasing three albums. In 1970 he released the solo album Mona – The Carnivorous Circus which also featured Steve Peregrin Took, John Gustafson and Paul Buckmaster, before leaving the music business to concentrate on his writing.
In the mid-1970s, he briefly returned to music releasing the EP Screwed Up, album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and single "Broken Statue". The album featured fellow NME journalist Chrissie Hynde and Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson.
He has sporadically returned to music, collaborating with Wayne Kramer on Who Shot You Dutch? and Death Tongue, Jack Lancaster on The Deathray Tapes and Andy Colquhoun on The Deviants albums Eating Jello With a Heated Fork and Dr. Crow.
Aside from his own work, he has provided lyrics for various musician friends over the years. He has collaborated with Lemmy, co-writing "Lost Johnny" for Hawkwind, and "Keep Us on the Road" and "Damage Case" for Motörhead. With Larry Wallis, he co-wrote "When's the Fun Begin?" for the Pink Fairies and several tracks on Wallis' solo album Death in a Guitar Afternoon. He provided lyrics for the Wayne Kramer single "Get Some" in the mid-1970s, and continued to work with and for him during the 1990s.
In the early 1970s he contributed to the UK Underground press such as the International Times, also establishing Nasty Tales which he successfully defended from an obscenity charge. He went on to write for the main stream New Musical Express, where he wrote the article The Titanic Sails At Dawn, an analysis of what he saw as the malaise afflicting then-contemporary rock music which described the conditions that subsequently gave rise to punk.
To date he has written 23 novels, including the Victor Renquist novels and the DNA Cowboys sequence. His prophetic 1989 novel The Armageddon Crazy deals with a post-2000 United States which is dominated by fundamentalists who dismantle the Constitution.
Farren has written 11 works of non-fiction, a number of biographical (including four on Elvis Presley), autobiographical and culture books (such as The Black Leather Jacket) and a plethora of poetry.
Since 2003, he has been a columnist for the weekly Los Angeles CityBeat.
Farren died at the age of 69 in 2013, after collapsing onstage while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London.
In the mid-1970s, he briefly returned to music releasing the EP Screwed Up, album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and single "Broken Statue". The album featured fellow NME journalist Chrissie Hynde and Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson.
He has sporadically returned to music, collaborating with Wayne Kramer on Who Shot You Dutch? and Death Tongue, Jack Lancaster on The Deathray Tapes and Andy Colquhoun on The Deviants albums Eating Jello With a Heated Fork and Dr. Crow.
Aside from his own work, he has provided lyrics for various musician friends over the years. He has collaborated with Lemmy, co-writing "Lost Johnny" for Hawkwind, and "Keep Us on the Road" and "Damage Case" for Motörhead. With Larry Wallis, he co-wrote "When's the Fun Begin?" for the Pink Fairies and several tracks on Wallis' solo album Death in a Guitar Afternoon. He provided lyrics for the Wayne Kramer single "Get Some" in the mid-1970s, and continued to work with and for him during the 1990s.
In the early 1970s he contributed to the UK Underground press such as the International Times, also establishing Nasty Tales which he successfully defended from an obscenity charge. He went on to write for the main stream New Musical Express, where he wrote the article The Titanic Sails At Dawn, an analysis of what he saw as the malaise afflicting then-contemporary rock music which described the conditions that subsequently gave rise to punk.
To date he has written 23 novels, including the Victor Renquist novels and the DNA Cowboys sequence. His prophetic 1989 novel The Armageddon Crazy deals with a post-2000 United States which is dominated by fundamentalists who dismantle the Constitution.
Farren has written 11 works of non-fiction, a number of biographical (including four on Elvis Presley), autobiographical and culture books (such as The Black Leather Jacket) and a plethora of poetry.
Since 2003, he has been a columnist for the weekly Los Angeles CityBeat.
Farren died at the age of 69 in 2013, after collapsing onstage while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 1, 2020
Just your usual gothic vampire story. No real surprises or fresh ideas. The pacing seemed extremely slow for me, especially toward the end where everything almost seemed to grind to a halt, and it was a little bit of a chore to get through this one. The characters however were very lush and described very well in their appearances and their back stories and I appreciated that.
August 6, 2014
When I worked at The Other Change of Hobbit bookstore years ago, Bill, a co-worker, was adamant in his belief that Joss Whedon took much of his lore of vampires from Nancy Collins and cult figure and author (my terms) Mick Farren. Happening upon a copy of the first Renqusit book at a used bookstore I decided why not try it?
Two upfront confessions. I have yet to read Stoker’s Dracula or Rice’s Interview arguably the two classic takes on vampires. Most of my vampire exposure has been movies and television. With that in mind Farren’s Renquist is a more engaging anti-hero than Collins’ Sonja Blue. Renquist is a bit angsty, but after a 1,000 years I guess he is allowed to brood over whether he is running his colony of vampires well in late 1990s Manhattan.
Unfortunately for Renquist a younger vampire, former rock singer Carfax, has issues with how Renquist is running the colony. Where Renquist preaches and practices caution, even to the point of the nosferatu getting their blood from banks, Carfax wants to rule the world, because as he sees it to quote Whedon’s Spike humans are little happy meals on wheels. The feasting is upon the colony though which when their biology dictates that they must hunt and drink blood from humans. Carfax elects to go on a killing spree placing the colony’s existence at risk, whereas Renquist and the rest pick at society’s outliers such as potentials suicides and the homeless.
Farren’s vampire mythology is interesting. His twist is that aliens came to Earth 1,000s of years ago and created the vamps as weapons, weapons that they ended up being unable to control. Millennia of interbreeding with the human stock they were grown from resulted in some of the vampire weaknesses, the main one being death by exposure to sunlight.
Later in the series Farren tosses in Merlin, Cthulhu, Nazis, and the hollow Earth theory. If nothing else he seems to revel in throwing the kitchen sink into the book having some fun with it.
Two upfront confessions. I have yet to read Stoker’s Dracula or Rice’s Interview arguably the two classic takes on vampires. Most of my vampire exposure has been movies and television. With that in mind Farren’s Renquist is a more engaging anti-hero than Collins’ Sonja Blue. Renquist is a bit angsty, but after a 1,000 years I guess he is allowed to brood over whether he is running his colony of vampires well in late 1990s Manhattan.
Unfortunately for Renquist a younger vampire, former rock singer Carfax, has issues with how Renquist is running the colony. Where Renquist preaches and practices caution, even to the point of the nosferatu getting their blood from banks, Carfax wants to rule the world, because as he sees it to quote Whedon’s Spike humans are little happy meals on wheels. The feasting is upon the colony though which when their biology dictates that they must hunt and drink blood from humans. Carfax elects to go on a killing spree placing the colony’s existence at risk, whereas Renquist and the rest pick at society’s outliers such as potentials suicides and the homeless.
Farren’s vampire mythology is interesting. His twist is that aliens came to Earth 1,000s of years ago and created the vamps as weapons, weapons that they ended up being unable to control. Millennia of interbreeding with the human stock they were grown from resulted in some of the vampire weaknesses, the main one being death by exposure to sunlight.
Later in the series Farren tosses in Merlin, Cthulhu, Nazis, and the hollow Earth theory. If nothing else he seems to revel in throwing the kitchen sink into the book having some fun with it.
June 28, 2012
This ranks up there as one of my favorite takes on the vampire mythos. It's up there with "Sunglasses After Dark," by Nancy Collins and "Blood Legacy: The House of Alexander" by Kerri Hawkins.
It takes a lot to be snarky, self-aware and a good horror series. And like them, this was written back before vampires were all the rage (either in the horror world or as paranormal romance.)
First book in a series - which I read them all probably 8 years ago.
(I'm culling my collection of horror, and while this is a good series, I don't think I'll need to read it again. )
It takes a lot to be snarky, self-aware and a good horror series. And like them, this was written back before vampires were all the rage (either in the horror world or as paranormal romance.)
First book in a series - which I read them all probably 8 years ago.
(I'm culling my collection of horror, and while this is a good series, I don't think I'll need to read it again. )
August 13, 2009
Just started reading it, I've enjoyed everything I've ever read by Mick Farren, and if I like this I'll continue on with the series, review will be completed once I'm done.
June 15, 2009
I love Mick Farren. This was pretty good for a pseudo-horror vampire novel... any time you can tie the creation of vampires to C'Thulhu and the Great Old Ones is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
July 29, 2017
It had the 90's goth kid feel. I did really enjoy much of the book, but about 100 pages from the end the pacing got really dull. I don't want to spoil anything so I will be vague. The "priest" Kelly is introduced about 1/3rd of the way through the book. His story just kinda comes out of nowhere. He becomes central to the plot but I feel we don't get a good grasp of who he is for the parts he is in the story. When we get closer to the end of the book, we are shifting from our main character Renquist to Kelly. I really lose interest because I didn't feel like he was that important and became rather bored because no emotional investment in the character had been built. This is why I gave it a 3 star rating because that structural choice really made it a slog to get through.
Having said that I did love the take on vampires being aliens, and Renquist's dreams about his origins. That was amazing and the vampires seemed very well fleshed out (pardon my pun) as our protagonists. The internal conflict alone between the colony and Carfax is pretty thrilling. I just wish the other characters were as well developed. That would have made the end sequences more thrilling for me.
I will read the next one in the series. I cannot pass up 90's LA vampires and Cthulhu summoning cults.
Worth the read but some structural things made the read rather boring toward the end.
Having said that I did love the take on vampires being aliens, and Renquist's dreams about his origins. That was amazing and the vampires seemed very well fleshed out (pardon my pun) as our protagonists. The internal conflict alone between the colony and Carfax is pretty thrilling. I just wish the other characters were as well developed. That would have made the end sequences more thrilling for me.
I will read the next one in the series. I cannot pass up 90's LA vampires and Cthulhu summoning cults.
Worth the read but some structural things made the read rather boring toward the end.
March 21, 2024
Full review here:
https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...
Occasionally self aware, still highly recommended.
https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...
Occasionally self aware, still highly recommended.
April 13, 2010
I didn't expect much from this book when I started reading it. It was recommended to me by this scruffy looking Nerf-herder I work with.
As I got further into it became obvious that Farren can actually write. I turned to the back of the book to look at his mini-bio and it turns out he spent some time teaching writing courses at UCLA.
Then, as I got further into the book I realized that Farren had some interesting ideas about how to break from the traditional Vampire lore and still being respectful of the genre. There are sparkling day-glo angsty douches in this book. They are vampires. They don't tell you they are bad... They seduce you, violate you, and then throw you away.
The contemporary setting ('80's New York) was cool. The book's acceptance and respect for superhuman paranormal was cool (the vampires are threatened with destruction by a Zombie army if they don't get out of town).
I would recommend this book to just about anyone, and I can't wait to read the sequel. It's not the best book... Probably not as good as Fevre Dream by Martin... But it's worthy way to spend a weekend.
As I got further into it became obvious that Farren can actually write. I turned to the back of the book to look at his mini-bio and it turns out he spent some time teaching writing courses at UCLA.
Then, as I got further into the book I realized that Farren had some interesting ideas about how to break from the traditional Vampire lore and still being respectful of the genre. There are sparkling day-glo angsty douches in this book. They are vampires. They don't tell you they are bad... They seduce you, violate you, and then throw you away.
The contemporary setting ('80's New York) was cool. The book's acceptance and respect for superhuman paranormal was cool (the vampires are threatened with destruction by a Zombie army if they don't get out of town).
I would recommend this book to just about anyone, and I can't wait to read the sequel. It's not the best book... Probably not as good as Fevre Dream by Martin... But it's worthy way to spend a weekend.
October 29, 2010
Meh. It started out very promising, with a relatively fresh take on vampires and their creation - very sci-fi, rather than standard fantasy - and with some intriguing characters and character relationships. I've always loved the Machiavellian take on vampires, and so the political machinations of the colony seemed quite promising.
And then it devolved into shoddily written semi-erotic prose, bad proofreading, and inane posturing. I found that I couldn't care for any of the main characters - only Dahlia and Lupo held my interest or loyalty, and they were barely touched upon. The prose got increasingly overwrought, the characters increasingly self-centered and annoyingly capricious (and while that could've been justified by the "madness" brought on by the Feasting, it seems that the Feasting was introduced and then...promptly ignored unless absolutely convenient. Potential interesting plot point that was tossed away to be little more than a MacGuffin - disappointing).
All in all, a promising concept that really didn't live up to its potential. Pity.
And then it devolved into shoddily written semi-erotic prose, bad proofreading, and inane posturing. I found that I couldn't care for any of the main characters - only Dahlia and Lupo held my interest or loyalty, and they were barely touched upon. The prose got increasingly overwrought, the characters increasingly self-centered and annoyingly capricious (and while that could've been justified by the "madness" brought on by the Feasting, it seems that the Feasting was introduced and then...promptly ignored unless absolutely convenient. Potential interesting plot point that was tossed away to be little more than a MacGuffin - disappointing).
All in all, a promising concept that really didn't live up to its potential. Pity.
August 11, 2009
Mick Farren's book is about a colony of modern day vampires living in a large town house in New York. The vampires have curbed their natural instincts to kill to feed and now use I.V.. Every seven years the urge gets too much and they are compelled to feast for real. The colony is split into two factions: the old vampires wanting to keep a low profile and the younger vampires lead by a young hothead who thinks they should be true to their natures and go back to killing for good.
November 2, 2017
Not bad and an interesting spin on the vampire legend, but (1) is obviously a Mick Farren novel - if you've read his stuff, you know what I mean -, and (2) not his best stuff either. Even though it's not, The Time of Feasting still has a vague cyberpunk/multiversal feel. If you've never read Farren before, I'd recommend Vickers, Mars: the Red Planet, The Armageddon Crazy, or Necrom instead unless you are specifically looking for something in the vampire genre.
April 17, 2014
The Time of Feasting introduces us to Victor Renquist, the 1,000-year-old Master of a vampire colony in modern day New York City. Feasting is a brilliant kickoff to one of my favorite vampire series ever. At times the prose can be a little stiff and the pacing does drag in the middle but Farren’s take on such a trite supernatural baddie is so fun and so original, it burns with rocket-fuel grade pulp genius and you don’t really care.
March 19, 2012
Got this book on a random ocassion, mainly due to its cover of a skull and im totally glad i did! An excellent book with a good story of current times vampires. Really exciting book to read and well written. there is 4 parts to this series entitled The Reinquist Series. must get a hold of the rest!!
September 28, 2012
I'm giving it three stars, because some parts were really fun to read. Yet other parts were so dull. I liked the crime, stalking, danger part, the vampire politics parts as well.
But a lot of the vampire relationship stuff and scenery was a little over cooked for my taste.
I would recommend this to my girl friends who dig Charlaine Harris and the like.
But a lot of the vampire relationship stuff and scenery was a little over cooked for my taste.
I would recommend this to my girl friends who dig Charlaine Harris and the like.
October 27, 2008
I enjoyed this book very much and plan to read the rest of the Renquist quartet....It was easy to read, and a good story line, a little bit predictible but sometimes you just need something easy, brain candy.
August 2, 2011
it was little different from the male point of view but I do want to know what happens....
April 14, 2012
Book for horror genre. It started out pretty good and rather fright inducing but the middle was meh the end wrapped up ok with some lingering questions
November 24, 2012
really not worth your time
February 8, 2016
The author does a great job of showing the human side of Vampires with out going cheesey.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews