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Vampyrrhic #2
Vampyrrhic Rites
Lazarus Deep is a lake that sits like a blot of darkness in the valley. Eighteen-year-old Dylan Adams is on the verge of leaving his hometown for a life in the city, but his plans are dramatically changed when his old school friend Luke Spencer goes missing. A search finds nothing. All anyone knows is that he was last seen at Lazarus Deep. Then, in the dead of night, Dylan's old friend comes calling. But he's not the same boy that everyone once knew.Once more David Leppington, Bernice Mochardi and Electra Charnwood are drawn together to face the vampiric creatures that are the undead. The desolate North Yorkshire Moors have held their secret for more than a thousand years. Now it is the turn of Lazarus Deep.
512 pages, Hardcover
First published July 7, 2003
20 people are currently reading
342 people want to read
About the author
Simon Clark
215 books300 followersBorn, 20th April, 1958, Simon Clark is the author of such highly regarded horror novels as Nailed By The Heart, Blood Crazy, Darker, Vampyrrhic and The Fall, while his short stories have been collected in Blood & Grit and Salt Snake & Other Bloody Cuts. He has also written prose material for the internationally famous rock band U2.
Raised in a family of storytellers – family legend told of a stolen human skull buried beneath the Clark garage – he sold his first ghost story to a radio station in his teens. Before becoming a full-time writer he held a variety of day jobs, that have involved strawberry picking, supermarket shelf stacking, office work, and scripting video promos.
He lives with his wife and two children in mystical territory that lies on the border of Robin Hood country in England.
Raised in a family of storytellers – family legend told of a stolen human skull buried beneath the Clark garage – he sold his first ghost story to a radio station in his teens. Before becoming a full-time writer he held a variety of day jobs, that have involved strawberry picking, supermarket shelf stacking, office work, and scripting video promos.
He lives with his wife and two children in mystical territory that lies on the border of Robin Hood country in England.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 23, 2012
When last we left David Leppington, he had seemingly overcome his destiny to lead a vampyrrhic army and their desire to rid the world of Christianity and restore the glory of the Viking gods. Of course he had a little help last time, it's really tough to do this stuff on your own.
All of the the main characters are back, including the owner of The Station Hotel, Electra Charnwood, the lovely and shy Bernice Mochardi and the, left for dead, Jack Black.
The undead, Viking army, are no longer residing under the town of Leppington. You'll now find them living, or not living, in a lake called Lazarus Deep. Through a series of unfortunate events, everyone ends up trapped, at a house by the Lake where we meet David's half-brother. It seems David's Father wasn't exactly faithful. This means David is no longer the last of the Leppington blood-line and not the only person who can lead the vampyrrhic army in their quest to destroy the world.
I know, this all sounds rather preposterous and it may seem like I'm making fun, but somehow it works. Simon Clark is a very talented writer and in his capable hands this is a very entertaining sequel to Vampyrrhic, which I felt was somewhat better.
Although, these vampires are not 100% in line with Dracula, at least they don't "sparkle".
All of the the main characters are back, including the owner of The Station Hotel, Electra Charnwood, the lovely and shy Bernice Mochardi and the, left for dead, Jack Black.
The undead, Viking army, are no longer residing under the town of Leppington. You'll now find them living, or not living, in a lake called Lazarus Deep. Through a series of unfortunate events, everyone ends up trapped, at a house by the Lake where we meet David's half-brother. It seems David's Father wasn't exactly faithful. This means David is no longer the last of the Leppington blood-line and not the only person who can lead the vampyrrhic army in their quest to destroy the world.
I know, this all sounds rather preposterous and it may seem like I'm making fun, but somehow it works. Simon Clark is a very talented writer and in his capable hands this is a very entertaining sequel to Vampyrrhic, which I felt was somewhat better.
Although, these vampires are not 100% in line with Dracula, at least they don't "sparkle".
May 6, 2016
Review: VAMPYRRHIC RITES by Simon Clark
This is one scary novel, and the frights never let up. Although the evil is vampiric, they aren't so in the ordinary sense. Lost in the midst of antiquity, a Viking settlement in what eventually became North Yorkshire flooded; the inhabitants went willingly, charged by their god and enabled to become undead. So they drowned, and inhabited the bottom of Lazarus Deep, as the lake came to be called. Eventually they await a descendant of the Viking chieftain, to lead them as an undead army, to conquer.
Accomplished author Simon Clark delivers multiple layers of frights and terrors, developing his characters in detailed depth while he virtually turns readers' hair white with terror.
This is one scary novel, and the frights never let up. Although the evil is vampiric, they aren't so in the ordinary sense. Lost in the midst of antiquity, a Viking settlement in what eventually became North Yorkshire flooded; the inhabitants went willingly, charged by their god and enabled to become undead. So they drowned, and inhabited the bottom of Lazarus Deep, as the lake came to be called. Eventually they await a descendant of the Viking chieftain, to lead them as an undead army, to conquer.
Accomplished author Simon Clark delivers multiple layers of frights and terrors, developing his characters in detailed depth while he virtually turns readers' hair white with terror.
October 29, 2018
At times a really engaging plot.
At times a truly fine language, even verging on the poetic.
All in all unfortunately too much of T. S. Eliot’s verdict as delivered in “The Hollow Men”:
“Between the idea
And the reality […]
Between the conception
And the creation […]
Falls the shadow.”
At times a truly fine language, even verging on the poetic.
All in all unfortunately too much of T. S. Eliot’s verdict as delivered in “The Hollow Men”:
“Between the idea
And the reality […]
Between the conception
And the creation […]
Falls the shadow.”
November 13, 2016
Vampyrrhic Rites
An astonishingly wonderful story, with action and adventure on each page. Even though this book is over 500 pages it keeps you interested all the way to the end.
An astonishingly wonderful story, with action and adventure on each page. Even though this book is over 500 pages it keeps you interested all the way to the end.
June 30, 2018
I really wanted to give this 5 stars.. The book is superbly written..The story moves on at the right pace,, The characters are wonderful.. It ended well- not rushed..
What spoiled it for me were the typos and breaks in the kindle edition I read..
I'll definitely read more of this mans work..
What spoiled it for me were the typos and breaks in the kindle edition I read..
I'll definitely read more of this mans work..
November 5, 2022
This is the book that began my love for reading. I didn't know when I picked it up that it was part 2 in the series (I went back to read the first after finding this out). But I adore this book, the different points of view l, the non-sparkling vampires and just the way Simon writes.
August 1, 2019
Usually I don't prefer to start with books that have less than 4 ratings. But I started with this one because of vampires. You see, good old vampires are always alluring, and seldom does the twists made to their actual nature, works well. In the case of this novel, they were not, at least for me. I still believe that true vampires aren't suppose to come out in sunlight. The ones in this were somehow not satisfying. A lot of originality was missing.
I have not read the first book of this series(seemingly), but I got a gist of what it was all about in the first few pages. In this part, Lazarus Deep takes the center role. Its a deep and dark lake that is home to The Undead. But the town folks are unaware of this and odd dissapearences of people, accidents, as they call them, keep happening, and all the bites and cuts on the victims are thought to be made by some giant, man-eater fishes.
When Dylan's friend Luke disappears without any notice, Dylan gets worried. But a phone call from Luke suggests that something is very very wrong with his childhood friend. Along with his girlfriend and other friends, he leaves in search for him to Lazarus Wake-the house near the lake, where he meets three people, Electra, David and Bernice, who are well aware of whats happening. What happens in the next 2 days and nights fills the second half of the book.
The plot was engaging though, it has all the potential to be formed into a blockbuster Hollywood vampire movie! I found the first half of the book interesting. It actually kept me hooked. The complete book was gripping enough I must say, just a few points that kind of ruined it for me by the end of it, they would be mentioned below. I liked Electra and that Midnight Hotel Website. All the three main characters were well developed with their respective story lines.
Coming to the disappointments, this book was very long. People who go through my reviews know that I don't like unnecessarily lengthy books. Around a hundred pages could be reduced very easily. At so many places the story seemed to be stretching. The added mythology, which was extremely confusing(probably because I don't like too much of such stuff and because I have not read the first book) and cult stuff made it a tad bit boring to go through. Also, I did not like Katrina's character. She was annoying. David was double annoying for falling for her again after a decade. Where was his love all this time? This was one more reason to like Electra, she was single and had all the freedom to think about N number of men, whenever she wished, unlike the people in disoriented kind of love.
Ok, so over with my rambles, readers who prefer supernatural mixed with action and romance and a pinch of weird mythology should go for this book.
I have not read the first book of this series(seemingly), but I got a gist of what it was all about in the first few pages. In this part, Lazarus Deep takes the center role. Its a deep and dark lake that is home to The Undead. But the town folks are unaware of this and odd dissapearences of people, accidents, as they call them, keep happening, and all the bites and cuts on the victims are thought to be made by some giant, man-eater fishes.
When Dylan's friend Luke disappears without any notice, Dylan gets worried. But a phone call from Luke suggests that something is very very wrong with his childhood friend. Along with his girlfriend and other friends, he leaves in search for him to Lazarus Wake-the house near the lake, where he meets three people, Electra, David and Bernice, who are well aware of whats happening. What happens in the next 2 days and nights fills the second half of the book.
The plot was engaging though, it has all the potential to be formed into a blockbuster Hollywood vampire movie! I found the first half of the book interesting. It actually kept me hooked. The complete book was gripping enough I must say, just a few points that kind of ruined it for me by the end of it, they would be mentioned below. I liked Electra and that Midnight Hotel Website. All the three main characters were well developed with their respective story lines.
Coming to the disappointments, this book was very long. People who go through my reviews know that I don't like unnecessarily lengthy books. Around a hundred pages could be reduced very easily. At so many places the story seemed to be stretching. The added mythology, which was extremely confusing(probably because I don't like too much of such stuff and because I have not read the first book) and cult stuff made it a tad bit boring to go through. Also, I did not like Katrina's character. She was annoying. David was double annoying for falling for her again after a decade. Where was his love all this time? This was one more reason to like Electra, she was single and had all the freedom to think about N number of men, whenever she wished, unlike the people in disoriented kind of love.
Ok, so over with my rambles, readers who prefer supernatural mixed with action and romance and a pinch of weird mythology should go for this book.
December 6, 2023
Once again, Simon Clark has blown me away with his wild imagination. I really enjoyed this second book in Clark's Vampyrrhic series.
And this signed limited edition of Vampyrrhic Rites is beautiful. ☺
And this signed limited edition of Vampyrrhic Rites is beautiful. ☺
March 28, 2023
Worth a read but not very scary in general.
February 25, 2024
Didnt expect much from this book but it was actually pretty enjoyable.
August 30, 2010
I'm not sure whether I'm pleasantly surprised or mildly disappointed that this sequel actually proved to be marginally better than than the original work. It seems that in between writing this book and the first the author may have read a bit of Lovecraft and got a bit more of an idea of how to put together properly engaging and compelling horror. Still, the term 'better' remains a relative one and this story is still deeply flawed in much the same ways as the original if perhaps to not quite such a ridiculous degree as the first book was.
The flaws in question inclde the straightforwardly factual. Ravens do not, for instance, have yellow beaks and nor does Whitby have a 'week-long Gothic festival'. You might think that Simon Clark would have taken the time to be a little more accurate with that statement considering the apparent obsession he seems to have in describing almost everything he can as 'Gothic' and indeed consistently capitalising the word when it is entirely unnecessary to do so. This brings us to another problem which is that of style. Whilst some of the writing is occasionally captivatingly ghostly in its descriptions too often are the same tired motifs repeated, though there aren't quite so many of the utterly ludicrous sentences that brought a good deal of amusement in the first book. There is also at times a rather jarring dissonance between the haunting and the shocking. The writing can't always seem to decide what feeling its really going for and in the end fails in capturing any.
For a good part of the story though the construction of the plot show a particularly marked improvement on the first book. Whilst it still leans a little too heavily on certain horror stereotypes, particularly tiresome being that somewhat mysoginistic streak where any sexually forward women are almost guaranteed to get eaten or come to some unpleasant end after, of course, lurid descriptions of the sexual activity itself, for a time the plot actually seems to be working itself towards a genuinely tense siege climax. Sadly though the tale seems to end up lacking the courage of its convictions and falls back on conjuring some even more ridiculous mythology out of the air than the first book introduced in order to set up a less than spectacular climactic battle. The tedious 'Friday the 13th' epilogue left me a little grumpy too.
Still, to be fair this really is not an entirely bad book. You don't necessarily read horror for an intelligently complex and considered world view and a certain degree of silliness is really to be encouraged. What I would hope for though, and what this book almost manages to deliver, is a compelling storyline with a certain amount of spooky descriptiveness, characters we can feel something towards in real jeopardy and, naturally, one or two shocks and well, some horror. This book has a fair stab at giving it but in the end falls sadly short, if not nearly as laughably short as the first book did. I'm not sure though that maybe that this book obviously shows signs of being a good story actually makes me a bit more grumpy about its obvious flaws. Oh well, at this rate the necessary third volume should turn out to be a pretty decent book!
The flaws in question inclde the straightforwardly factual. Ravens do not, for instance, have yellow beaks and nor does Whitby have a 'week-long Gothic festival'. You might think that Simon Clark would have taken the time to be a little more accurate with that statement considering the apparent obsession he seems to have in describing almost everything he can as 'Gothic' and indeed consistently capitalising the word when it is entirely unnecessary to do so. This brings us to another problem which is that of style. Whilst some of the writing is occasionally captivatingly ghostly in its descriptions too often are the same tired motifs repeated, though there aren't quite so many of the utterly ludicrous sentences that brought a good deal of amusement in the first book. There is also at times a rather jarring dissonance between the haunting and the shocking. The writing can't always seem to decide what feeling its really going for and in the end fails in capturing any.
For a good part of the story though the construction of the plot show a particularly marked improvement on the first book. Whilst it still leans a little too heavily on certain horror stereotypes, particularly tiresome being that somewhat mysoginistic streak where any sexually forward women are almost guaranteed to get eaten or come to some unpleasant end after, of course, lurid descriptions of the sexual activity itself, for a time the plot actually seems to be working itself towards a genuinely tense siege climax. Sadly though the tale seems to end up lacking the courage of its convictions and falls back on conjuring some even more ridiculous mythology out of the air than the first book introduced in order to set up a less than spectacular climactic battle. The tedious 'Friday the 13th' epilogue left me a little grumpy too.
Still, to be fair this really is not an entirely bad book. You don't necessarily read horror for an intelligently complex and considered world view and a certain degree of silliness is really to be encouraged. What I would hope for though, and what this book almost manages to deliver, is a compelling storyline with a certain amount of spooky descriptiveness, characters we can feel something towards in real jeopardy and, naturally, one or two shocks and well, some horror. This book has a fair stab at giving it but in the end falls sadly short, if not nearly as laughably short as the first book did. I'm not sure though that maybe that this book obviously shows signs of being a good story actually makes me a bit more grumpy about its obvious flaws. Oh well, at this rate the necessary third volume should turn out to be a pretty decent book!
August 30, 2010
I'm not sure whether I'm pleasantly surprised or mildly disappointed that this sequel actually proved to be marginally better than than the original work. It seems that in between writing this book and the first the author may have read a bit of Lovecraft and got a bit more of an idea of how to put together properly engaging and compelling horror. Still, the term 'better' remains a relative one and this story is still deeply flawed in much the same ways as the original if perhaps to not quite such a ridiculous degree as the first book was.
The flaws in question inclde the straightforwardly factual. Ravens do not, for instance, have yellow beaks and nor does Whitby have a 'week-long Gothic festival'. You might think that Simon Clark would have taken the time to be a little more accurate with that statement considering the apparent obsession he seems to have in describing almost everything he can as 'Gothic' and indeed consistently capitalising the word when it is entirely unnecessary to do so. This brings us to another problem which is that of style. Whilst some of the writing is occasionally captivatingly ghostly in its descriptions too often are the same tired motifs repeated, though there aren't quite so many of the utterly ludicrous sentences that brought a good deal of amusement in the first book. There is also at times a rather jarring dissonance between the haunting and the shocking. The writing can't always seem to decide what feeling its really going for and in the end fails in capturing any.
For a good part of the story though the construction of the plot show a particularly marked improvement on the first book. Whilst it still leans a little too heavily on certain horror stereotypes, particularly tiresome being that somewhat mysoginistic streak where any sexually forward women are almost guaranteed to get eaten or come to some unpleasant end after, of course, lurid descriptions of the sexual activity itself, for a time the plot actually seems to be working itself towards a genuinely tense siege climax. Sadly though the tale seems to end up lacking the courage of its convictions and falls back on conjuring some even more ridiculous mythology out of the air than the first book introduced in order to set up a less than spectacular climactic battle. The tedious 'Friday the 13th' epilogue left me a little grumpy too.
Still, to be fair this really is not an entirely bad book. You don't necessarily read horror for an intelligently complex and considered world view and a certain degree of silliness is really to be encouraged. What I would hope for though, and what this book almost manages to deliver, is a compelling storyline with a certain amount of spooky descriptiveness, characters we can feel something towards in real jeopardy and, naturally, one or two shocks and well, some horror. This book has a fair stab at giving it but in the end falls sadly short, if not nearly as laughably short as the first book did. I'm not sure though that maybe that this book obviously shows signs of being a good story actually makes me a bit more grumpy about its obvious flaws. Oh well, at this rate the necessary third volume should turn out to be a pretty decent book!
The flaws in question inclde the straightforwardly factual. Ravens do not, for instance, have yellow beaks and nor does Whitby have a 'week-long Gothic festival'. You might think that Simon Clark would have taken the time to be a little more accurate with that statement considering the apparent obsession he seems to have in describing almost everything he can as 'Gothic' and indeed consistently capitalising the word when it is entirely unnecessary to do so. This brings us to another problem which is that of style. Whilst some of the writing is occasionally captivatingly ghostly in its descriptions too often are the same tired motifs repeated, though there aren't quite so many of the utterly ludicrous sentences that brought a good deal of amusement in the first book. There is also at times a rather jarring dissonance between the haunting and the shocking. The writing can't always seem to decide what feeling its really going for and in the end fails in capturing any.
For a good part of the story though the construction of the plot show a particularly marked improvement on the first book. Whilst it still leans a little too heavily on certain horror stereotypes, particularly tiresome being that somewhat mysoginistic streak where any sexually forward women are almost guaranteed to get eaten or come to some unpleasant end after, of course, lurid descriptions of the sexual activity itself, for a time the plot actually seems to be working itself towards a genuinely tense siege climax. Sadly though the tale seems to end up lacking the courage of its convictions and falls back on conjuring some even more ridiculous mythology out of the air than the first book introduced in order to set up a less than spectacular climactic battle. The tedious 'Friday the 13th' epilogue left me a little grumpy too.
Still, to be fair this really is not an entirely bad book. You don't necessarily read horror for an intelligently complex and considered world view and a certain degree of silliness is really to be encouraged. What I would hope for though, and what this book almost manages to deliver, is a compelling storyline with a certain amount of spooky descriptiveness, characters we can feel something towards in real jeopardy and, naturally, one or two shocks and well, some horror. This book has a fair stab at giving it but in the end falls sadly short, if not nearly as laughably short as the first book did. I'm not sure though that maybe that this book obviously shows signs of being a good story actually makes me a bit more grumpy about its obvious flaws. Oh well, at this rate the necessary third volume should turn out to be a pretty decent book!
July 13, 2016
I liked VAMPYRRHIC RITES a bit more than the previous book VAMPYRRHIC. The writing seemed stronger. The plot built nicely upon the concept introduced in the first book. And it seemed to build into a larger climax than the previous book.
David Leppington, Electra Charwood and Bernice Mochardi have all moved on with their lives after defeating the vampire army. However, all of them are having dreams of their fallen friend Jack Black. Having stayed behind in Leppington, Electra notices weird things beginning to happen. It turns out the vampires are still around and hiding in a nearby lake. Events move to all three of them meeting up again in Leppington along with some new friends. The reason for the new activity? There is another Leppington which means the vampires once again have the chance to be led into a battle against all Christians.
As I mentioned, the story builds upon the same idea as before by having a vampire army to be led in battle against all other religions. The events this time though struck me as more intense and involving. While I started the book reading it slowly (a few pages here, a chapter or two there), by the last half of the book I was only putting the book down when I had to. To me that is a sign of a good book: that I was pulled into the book so much that I didn't want to leave it.
David Leppington, Electra Charwood and Bernice Mochardi have all moved on with their lives after defeating the vampire army. However, all of them are having dreams of their fallen friend Jack Black. Having stayed behind in Leppington, Electra notices weird things beginning to happen. It turns out the vampires are still around and hiding in a nearby lake. Events move to all three of them meeting up again in Leppington along with some new friends. The reason for the new activity? There is another Leppington which means the vampires once again have the chance to be led into a battle against all Christians.
As I mentioned, the story builds upon the same idea as before by having a vampire army to be led in battle against all other religions. The events this time though struck me as more intense and involving. While I started the book reading it slowly (a few pages here, a chapter or two there), by the last half of the book I was only putting the book down when I had to. To me that is a sign of a good book: that I was pulled into the book so much that I didn't want to leave it.
February 25, 2016
This is definitely one of those sequels where it is necessary to read the first book first. The ending was thrilling and pulse-pounding, but required a bit of plodding at the beginning to reach the exciting parts. As the story begins, the reader night well ask "Who are these people?" as the narrative switches from one to another. If you hadn't read the first book, you would not understand. That said, the story is imaginative and introduces additional elements of the supernatural to bring together a clash of the undead under the leadership of the Leppingtons, the blood descendants of Thor. The descriptions are very good, and the book does a great job of invoking the atmosphere of the English moors. The new characters introduce a romance that is more satisfying than the first book. Clark's vampires are much more believable than the vampires of legend. The reading is easy and the ending Exciting.
June 8, 2010
Clark was able to restrain a bit of his "Romantic" leanings in the 1st of this series. However, in the pages of this read, I think he was channeling Danielle Steele's muse. The idea of an undead vampyrrhic Viking army was sustainable in the first book, but even with the addition of minor scenes of gratuitous hippie sex and heaving gothic breasts , there wasn't much to keep me turning the pages ... although out of sheer habit (i.e. obsessive compulsiveness) I did keep turning. Again, it may be something endemic to English writing, but the climaxes weren't climactic or well-timed.
October 14, 2014
A bit long in some parts, could have been shorter. Some creepy moments to be found. The ending was rushed.
September 18, 2015
This book is published by Venture Press.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews