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The Vampire Genevieve #1-4
The Vampire Genevieve
A Warhammer Horror omnibus
Genevieve Dieudonné is a vampire – but that doesn't make her evil. Follow her adventures across three novels and an anthology as she battles the darkness across the Old World with an unlikely collection of allies.
READ IT BECAUSE
Experience the entire classic saga of Genevieve in one volume. From her battles against the Great Enchanter to a sinister murder mystery and beyond, it's packed with fantasy adventure.
DESCRIPTION
Evil has a new enemy… one of its own.
Meet Genevieve Dieudonné. She’s beautiful, powerful, resourceful, and courageous – and she's over four hundred years old. In the crowded cities and dark forests of the Warhammer world, Genevieve and her unlikely companions battle the forces of malevolence and insanity. However, the vampire blood running through Genevieve’s veins means she must constantly fight the urge to surrender to the evil within.
The Vampire Genevieve collects together all the tales of Genevieve and her unusual allies into one packed volume.
Written by Kim Newman (writing as Jack Yeovil)
CONTENTS
Drachenfels
Genevieve Undead
Beasts in Velvet
Silver Nails
Genevieve Dieudonné is a vampire – but that doesn't make her evil. Follow her adventures across three novels and an anthology as she battles the darkness across the Old World with an unlikely collection of allies.
READ IT BECAUSE
Experience the entire classic saga of Genevieve in one volume. From her battles against the Great Enchanter to a sinister murder mystery and beyond, it's packed with fantasy adventure.
DESCRIPTION
Evil has a new enemy… one of its own.
Meet Genevieve Dieudonné. She’s beautiful, powerful, resourceful, and courageous – and she's over four hundred years old. In the crowded cities and dark forests of the Warhammer world, Genevieve and her unlikely companions battle the forces of malevolence and insanity. However, the vampire blood running through Genevieve’s veins means she must constantly fight the urge to surrender to the evil within.
The Vampire Genevieve collects together all the tales of Genevieve and her unusual allies into one packed volume.
Written by Kim Newman (writing as Jack Yeovil)
CONTENTS
Drachenfels
Genevieve Undead
Beasts in Velvet
Silver Nails
1191 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2005
82 people are currently reading
742 people want to read
About the author
Kim Newman
288 books949 followersNote: This author also writes under the pseudonym of Jack Yeovil.
An expert on horror and sci-fi cinema (his books of film criticism include Nightmare Movies and Millennium Movies), Kim Newman's novels draw promiscuously on the tropes of horror, sci-fi and fantasy. He is complexly and irreverently referential; the Dracula sequence--Anno Dracula, The Bloody Red Baron and Dracula,Cha Cha Cha--not only portrays an alternate world in which the Count conquers Victorian Britain for a while, is the mastermind behind Germany's air aces in World War One and survives into a jetset 1950s of paparazzi and La Dolce Vita, but does so with endless throwaway references that range from Kipling to James Bond, from Edgar Allen Poe to Patricia Highsmith.
In horror novels such as Bad Dreams and Jago, reality turns out to be endlessly subverted by the powerfully malign. His pseudonymous novels, as Jack Yeovil, play elegant games with genre cliche--perhaps the best of these is the sword-and-sorcery novel Drachenfels which takes the prescribed formulae of the games company to whose bible it was written and make them over entirely into a Kim Newman novel.
Life's Lottery, his most mainstream novel, consists of multiple choice fragments which enable readers to choose the hero's fate and take him into horror, crime and sf storylines or into mundane reality.
An expert on horror and sci-fi cinema (his books of film criticism include Nightmare Movies and Millennium Movies), Kim Newman's novels draw promiscuously on the tropes of horror, sci-fi and fantasy. He is complexly and irreverently referential; the Dracula sequence--Anno Dracula, The Bloody Red Baron and Dracula,Cha Cha Cha--not only portrays an alternate world in which the Count conquers Victorian Britain for a while, is the mastermind behind Germany's air aces in World War One and survives into a jetset 1950s of paparazzi and La Dolce Vita, but does so with endless throwaway references that range from Kipling to James Bond, from Edgar Allen Poe to Patricia Highsmith.
In horror novels such as Bad Dreams and Jago, reality turns out to be endlessly subverted by the powerfully malign. His pseudonymous novels, as Jack Yeovil, play elegant games with genre cliche--perhaps the best of these is the sword-and-sorcery novel Drachenfels which takes the prescribed formulae of the games company to whose bible it was written and make them over entirely into a Kim Newman novel.
Life's Lottery, his most mainstream novel, consists of multiple choice fragments which enable readers to choose the hero's fate and take him into horror, crime and sf storylines or into mundane reality.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
May 2, 2020
Not Recommended
I don't think I have ever been made to feel as disappointed- or cheated - by a book before. Oh - I've bought and not enjoyed books before. Sometimes I don't like characters, or just don't like the writing style. That's fine - the book just isn't for me. That's okay, I'll move on.
But The Vampire Genevieve was different. The Vampire Genevieve contains 4 books, though only two are novels, the other half being collections of novellas and shorts, and in my naivety i had assumed they would be about a vampire called Genevieve. Largely, they were not.
Book 3, Beasts in Velvet, does not even feature Genevieve as a character (She has a brief camo, but has no relevance to anything in the book) and should probably just be excised from the canon (Along with its associated shorts) on the grounds they have literally nothing to do with the title character, even the stories where Genevieve does appear, she is usually a secondary character who has little impact on the story, except to come in at the end to bash the antagonists heads in with her super vampire strength, absolving the author of comping up with a clever way for the protagonists to overcome the odds. I didn't really feel like I was reading a story 'about' Genevieve, or featuring her in some significant way, until the first short story of the Fourth Book in the series, Silver Nails. It was then I realised that, in the last 500 pages of the Omnibus, I had learned next to nothing about Genevieve as a character - I knew what she was, a vampire, how old she was, and what her full name was - but little else. She had no character - I didn't know her motivations, her desires. I didn't know what made her sad, happy, or angry. Previously, she had been a walking plot device, existing only to move the plot ahead on occasion, and then to fade back into the shadows until she was needed to beat someone's head in. For the title Character of an Omnibus, she shows up little, and has less of an impact.
Aside from the disappointment of the marketing setting false expectations, the novels and stories themselves are just not very good in their own right. Yeovil's writing is plagued many contradictions, one-dimensional characters, and trite plot-lines. Stories seem as if they were written backwards - starting with an idea of the climax or ending, Yeovil seemed to put characters in the places they need to be, resulting in characters constantly making stupid, contradictory decisions and conveniently forgetting facts that had been previously set-up. Both of the novels contain serious contradictions that surprisingly made it past an editor, with in one case a scene happening that was completely forgotten by all involved later in the book, neither the scene nor the plot advancement it contained to be mentioned again. Significantly, the scene would not fit in with the twist Yeovil wanted to pull at the end. Yeovil is enamoured with his unexpected twists and loves to throw red herrings. But a red herring is like a garden-path sentence - it only really works if it tricks the mind into learning one way, but is still explicable when the twist is revealed. When a red herring points one way and can't be accounted for by the twist, it's not a red herring, its rotten fish that spoils the show. Under this definition, The Vampire Genevieve collection contains a lot of rotten fish.
In other cases, the plot feels like it's being written by a dice-roll as the author realises he can't write his character's out of a mess without utterly pulling something from nowhere. In one memorable scene (Spoiler for the remainder of the paragraph), the antagonist is murdered by a serial killer who seemed neither to exist before the scene where he murdered the antagonist, nor after it - where he conveniently popped out of existence - At least until a few books later, where the author realises his mistake and writes a nonsensical short in an attempt to plug the hole that makes it all the more glaring.
Despite it all, I admit after almost 800 pages I did grow to be quite fond of Genevieve and Detlaf, her poet-lover who it the main character of the first book, and who shows up in several of the better Shorts. There were some enjoyable parts and, even, some genuinely interesting an exciting plot-happenings, but they were entirely focused on the Genevieve-and-Detlaf sections, while all the other shorts (and novel) that focused on others were fairly run of the mill. If the series was restructured to be entirely around these two - with the unrelated shorts and novel removed, it would have made a much stronger experience, despite its flaws, with the best parts, most of the worst offenders gone, and an overall emotionally satisfying character and romance arc. Unfortunately, it was not to be, and the baby drowns in the bathwater, for wont of it being thrown out.
There are also some fairly severe timeline issues - Chronologically, Many of the Shorts in Silver nails are prequels to the Earlier novels (both in terms of their setting, and when they were originally written) and book 3 takes place before book 2 - a significant misplacement, given book 2 contains in it, plainly and with no riddle, the big twist for book 3. In republishing the works as an Omnibus, it would have benefited greatly from some reorganisation.
Coming from the high of reading Ulrika the Vampire, Genevieve is a long way to fall. I would nominally have given this 2 stars (Two is certainly the rounded average of what I gave Books 1-4), but I felt I had to knock it down purely because the title, cover, and blurb sells the book as 'The Adventures of Genevieve the vampire' and, having read Ulrika and worked up a red thirst for more vampire femme fatale, that's why I bought it. The fact Genevieve is absent for a large minority of the book and a secondary character of little exploration or focus through the overwhelming majority suggests it should be rebranded as something else. Perhaps, 'The Adventures Occurring in the General Vicinity of Genevieve the Vampire, or Which Happened Once to Someone to Which she is Vaguely Acquainted, through at most 1 degree of separation.'
I don't think I have ever been made to feel as disappointed- or cheated - by a book before. Oh - I've bought and not enjoyed books before. Sometimes I don't like characters, or just don't like the writing style. That's fine - the book just isn't for me. That's okay, I'll move on.
But The Vampire Genevieve was different. The Vampire Genevieve contains 4 books, though only two are novels, the other half being collections of novellas and shorts, and in my naivety i had assumed they would be about a vampire called Genevieve. Largely, they were not.
Book 3, Beasts in Velvet, does not even feature Genevieve as a character (She has a brief camo, but has no relevance to anything in the book) and should probably just be excised from the canon (Along with its associated shorts) on the grounds they have literally nothing to do with the title character, even the stories where Genevieve does appear, she is usually a secondary character who has little impact on the story, except to come in at the end to bash the antagonists heads in with her super vampire strength, absolving the author of comping up with a clever way for the protagonists to overcome the odds. I didn't really feel like I was reading a story 'about' Genevieve, or featuring her in some significant way, until the first short story of the Fourth Book in the series, Silver Nails. It was then I realised that, in the last 500 pages of the Omnibus, I had learned next to nothing about Genevieve as a character - I knew what she was, a vampire, how old she was, and what her full name was - but little else. She had no character - I didn't know her motivations, her desires. I didn't know what made her sad, happy, or angry. Previously, she had been a walking plot device, existing only to move the plot ahead on occasion, and then to fade back into the shadows until she was needed to beat someone's head in. For the title Character of an Omnibus, she shows up little, and has less of an impact.
Aside from the disappointment of the marketing setting false expectations, the novels and stories themselves are just not very good in their own right. Yeovil's writing is plagued many contradictions, one-dimensional characters, and trite plot-lines. Stories seem as if they were written backwards - starting with an idea of the climax or ending, Yeovil seemed to put characters in the places they need to be, resulting in characters constantly making stupid, contradictory decisions and conveniently forgetting facts that had been previously set-up. Both of the novels contain serious contradictions that surprisingly made it past an editor, with in one case a scene happening that was completely forgotten by all involved later in the book, neither the scene nor the plot advancement it contained to be mentioned again. Significantly, the scene would not fit in with the twist Yeovil wanted to pull at the end. Yeovil is enamoured with his unexpected twists and loves to throw red herrings. But a red herring is like a garden-path sentence - it only really works if it tricks the mind into learning one way, but is still explicable when the twist is revealed. When a red herring points one way and can't be accounted for by the twist, it's not a red herring, its rotten fish that spoils the show. Under this definition, The Vampire Genevieve collection contains a lot of rotten fish.
In other cases, the plot feels like it's being written by a dice-roll as the author realises he can't write his character's out of a mess without utterly pulling something from nowhere. In one memorable scene (Spoiler for the remainder of the paragraph), the antagonist is murdered by a serial killer who seemed neither to exist before the scene where he murdered the antagonist, nor after it - where he conveniently popped out of existence - At least until a few books later, where the author realises his mistake and writes a nonsensical short in an attempt to plug the hole that makes it all the more glaring.
Despite it all, I admit after almost 800 pages I did grow to be quite fond of Genevieve and Detlaf, her poet-lover who it the main character of the first book, and who shows up in several of the better Shorts. There were some enjoyable parts and, even, some genuinely interesting an exciting plot-happenings, but they were entirely focused on the Genevieve-and-Detlaf sections, while all the other shorts (and novel) that focused on others were fairly run of the mill. If the series was restructured to be entirely around these two - with the unrelated shorts and novel removed, it would have made a much stronger experience, despite its flaws, with the best parts, most of the worst offenders gone, and an overall emotionally satisfying character and romance arc. Unfortunately, it was not to be, and the baby drowns in the bathwater, for wont of it being thrown out.
There are also some fairly severe timeline issues - Chronologically, Many of the Shorts in Silver nails are prequels to the Earlier novels (both in terms of their setting, and when they were originally written) and book 3 takes place before book 2 - a significant misplacement, given book 2 contains in it, plainly and with no riddle, the big twist for book 3. In republishing the works as an Omnibus, it would have benefited greatly from some reorganisation.
Coming from the high of reading Ulrika the Vampire, Genevieve is a long way to fall. I would nominally have given this 2 stars (Two is certainly the rounded average of what I gave Books 1-4), but I felt I had to knock it down purely because the title, cover, and blurb sells the book as 'The Adventures of Genevieve the vampire' and, having read Ulrika and worked up a red thirst for more vampire femme fatale, that's why I bought it. The fact Genevieve is absent for a large minority of the book and a secondary character of little exploration or focus through the overwhelming majority suggests it should be rebranded as something else. Perhaps, 'The Adventures Occurring in the General Vicinity of Genevieve the Vampire, or Which Happened Once to Someone to Which she is Vaguely Acquainted, through at most 1 degree of separation.'
January 2, 2012
The most difficult task for an author is to re-invent a character (or a type), and yet remain true to the genre. Lots of superhero/heroine-s need "re-boot"-s simply to remain relevant in an increasingly complex world, with shades of grey creeping in everywhere. Kim Newman (using a pseudonym here) accomplishes that task with his vampire heroine with great elan, and in the process delivers some immensely enjoyable stories that belong to different stylistic categories (adventure, horror, murder-mystery, humour). The contents of this book are:
1) DRACHENFALLS: a dazzlingly original take on the classic "journey into the heart of darkness" theme, involving a hero, a heroine, a villain, a genius, and several others. This novel, on its own, should be the reason for you to read this book.
2) GENEVIEVE UNDEAD: A collection of several novellas which are of varying qualities, and have Genevieve in fringe roles. These novellas are:
(a) STAGEBLOOD: the sequel to Drachenfalls, as well as the Warhammer 'take' on "Phantom Of The Opera".
(b) COLD STARK HOUSE: a parody of every gothic novel, evident from not just the plot (bizarrely non-linear), but also from the names of the characters.
(c) UNICORN IVORY: a murder mystery, that doesn't "click" so well.
3) BEASTS IN VELVET: a gripping murder-mystery (with almost no role played by Genevieve, except a cameo appearance) that is the Warhammer 'take' on Jack The Ripper killings.
4) SILVER NAILS: another loose collection of novellas, some of which has Genevieve in it, and some doesn't. These novellas are:
(a) RED THIRST: an action-packed Genevieve adventure, which is the immediate prequel to the second part of DRACHENFALLS.
(b) NO GOLD IN THE GREY MOUNTAINS: a story involving Genevieve's grandmother-in-darkness (but NO Genevieve).
(c) THE IGNORANT ARMIES: the back-story of two characters who had played very important roles in "BEASTS IN VELVET" (but NO Genevieve).
(d) THE WARHAWK: another adventure of Policeman "Filthy" Harald and Scryer Rosanna (but NO Genevieve).
(e) THE IBBY THE FISH FACTOR: a humorous novella which has its chilling moments, but in its attempt to conclude the saga of Genevieve (and the genius Detlaf) on a happier note, with all loose ends tied up neatly, the story suffers to some extent.
Nevertheless, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anybody looking forward towards some escapist fun that has its moments of depth. And I must admit, the world needs heroines like Genevieve. Can the author bring her back please?!!!
1) DRACHENFALLS: a dazzlingly original take on the classic "journey into the heart of darkness" theme, involving a hero, a heroine, a villain, a genius, and several others. This novel, on its own, should be the reason for you to read this book.
2) GENEVIEVE UNDEAD: A collection of several novellas which are of varying qualities, and have Genevieve in fringe roles. These novellas are:
(a) STAGEBLOOD: the sequel to Drachenfalls, as well as the Warhammer 'take' on "Phantom Of The Opera".
(b) COLD STARK HOUSE: a parody of every gothic novel, evident from not just the plot (bizarrely non-linear), but also from the names of the characters.
(c) UNICORN IVORY: a murder mystery, that doesn't "click" so well.
3) BEASTS IN VELVET: a gripping murder-mystery (with almost no role played by Genevieve, except a cameo appearance) that is the Warhammer 'take' on Jack The Ripper killings.
4) SILVER NAILS: another loose collection of novellas, some of which has Genevieve in it, and some doesn't. These novellas are:
(a) RED THIRST: an action-packed Genevieve adventure, which is the immediate prequel to the second part of DRACHENFALLS.
(b) NO GOLD IN THE GREY MOUNTAINS: a story involving Genevieve's grandmother-in-darkness (but NO Genevieve).
(c) THE IGNORANT ARMIES: the back-story of two characters who had played very important roles in "BEASTS IN VELVET" (but NO Genevieve).
(d) THE WARHAWK: another adventure of Policeman "Filthy" Harald and Scryer Rosanna (but NO Genevieve).
(e) THE IBBY THE FISH FACTOR: a humorous novella which has its chilling moments, but in its attempt to conclude the saga of Genevieve (and the genius Detlaf) on a happier note, with all loose ends tied up neatly, the story suffers to some extent.
Nevertheless, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anybody looking forward towards some escapist fun that has its moments of depth. And I must admit, the world needs heroines like Genevieve. Can the author bring her back please?!!!
November 24, 2011
This is a collection of all the Warhammer novels and short stories by Yeovil that contain Genevieve the Vampire. In some of the stories she does only make an appearance, but the stories are all good, imaginative fantasy stories in their own right, and they all fit together. Finishing this collection felt like finishing a novel - with everything tied up neatly, and satisfyingly. It took me a while to warm to the Genevieve character herself - I personally preferred Detlef Sierck, her larger-than-life human lover - but I was hooked from beginning to end.
Yeovil writes within the Warhammer world without obsessing about it - you don't have to know the world when you start this book. This is great fantasy, with an entertaining mix of humour, swords-and-sorcery excitement and horror.
My only real criticism is that the text is full of errors and typos, which is a shame. It just struck me as odd, since the stories within had been published before, that no one had corrected these.
Yeovil writes within the Warhammer world without obsessing about it - you don't have to know the world when you start this book. This is great fantasy, with an entertaining mix of humour, swords-and-sorcery excitement and horror.
My only real criticism is that the text is full of errors and typos, which is a shame. It just struck me as odd, since the stories within had been published before, that no one had corrected these.
January 4, 2018
This was a struggle to read and the more I read the more I wanted to just give up. I was hoping for so much more with this (I've previously read Ulrika the Vampire, another Warhammer book) after reading other vampire stories of Warhammer and was very disappointed. I thought it was falsely advertised as I believed that I was getting a book about Genevieve but most of the stories in it she wasn't even in. I gave it 2 stars just purely because there was a couple of stories in it I did enjoy but otherwise was a big disappointment and I'm so glad to have finally finished it so I can move on to other books
gave-up-on
November 29, 2016I can't finish this book.
Don't get me wrong, it's wonderfully written with great characters and a living world. I can't finish this because of Drachenfels (Warhammer).
The first book breaks so many stereotypes of gaming fiction. It takes the tired cliché plot and skips over it to get to the interesting part decades later. It’s witty, poignant at times, and filled with much deeper characters than I ever saw in Dungeons & Dragons novels.
And that ending.
The ending chapter is so perfect, so emotional, that I had to read it over again once I finished it. That's why I can't go on after the first book.
You really come to root for and love the survivors of Drachenfels who earn their happy ending. Because of that, I can't continue with their story. It's the Batman Problem, y'see. Batman can't have a true ending, because he has to be ready for adventure next month. In the same way, I know Genevieve can't keep the ending she gets in Drachenfels because she has to be uprooted and battered for the entire series.
I can't accept that.
I'll treasure this book because it has Drachenfels, but I'll pretend the short story afterwards never happened and probably never read further. If I want more Genevieve, I'll read about an alternate version of her in Anno-Dracula. For me, her story ends here, and it is one of the most perfect fantasy novels I've ever read.
Don't get me wrong, it's wonderfully written with great characters and a living world. I can't finish this because of Drachenfels (Warhammer).
The first book breaks so many stereotypes of gaming fiction. It takes the tired cliché plot and skips over it to get to the interesting part decades later. It’s witty, poignant at times, and filled with much deeper characters than I ever saw in Dungeons & Dragons novels.
And that ending.
The ending chapter is so perfect, so emotional, that I had to read it over again once I finished it. That's why I can't go on after the first book.
You really come to root for and love the survivors of Drachenfels who earn their happy ending. Because of that, I can't continue with their story. It's the Batman Problem, y'see. Batman can't have a true ending, because he has to be ready for adventure next month. In the same way, I know Genevieve can't keep the ending she gets in Drachenfels because she has to be uprooted and battered for the entire series.
I can't accept that.
I'll treasure this book because it has Drachenfels, but I'll pretend the short story afterwards never happened and probably never read further. If I want more Genevieve, I'll read about an alternate version of her in Anno-Dracula. For me, her story ends here, and it is one of the most perfect fantasy novels I've ever read.
August 17, 2023
Having just finished silver nails I fear I may have been pulled into the world of warhammer fantasy and left penniless from the vast wealth of books available but this series in particular will now always hold a special place in my heart, so many great characters and violent altercations.
January 12, 2013
(Feb. 5, 2010)
The first book ends about page 174.
Not fluff.
Mild to moderate gore, and surprisingly not because (most of it) of the vampire!
Most of this first book is not about the vamp, but another character. It's a bit long winded in some places.
I need to remember to replace the batteries in my dictionary and put next to reading spot before continuing, lol.
I've yet to read the Lord of the Rings, but I believe the prologue here is something like that. Meaning it starts with a bunch of characters that you have no hope of remembering all their names and such, but a lot of them die off pretty quick, so luckily you don't actually have to remember many of them, lol.
In spite of the occassional going on and on of one of the characters (in particular), I didn't get bored, though I wouldn't mind less gore, lol. So I shall continue on and update my review as I go. At least that is the plan. ;)
Update:
August 9, 2011
Book 2 is pages 175 - 355(?)
Yesterday I read pgs 175 - 254, about 100pgs left I think.
Alright, first impression upon re-entering this collection (other than where the heck was my dictionary and the batteries I was supposed to put in it - lol) is I shouldn't have let quite so much time go by before starting the second book.
I had meant to sooner but every time I went to get it off the shelf the library would suddenly get in a bunch of books I'd put on hold lol.
Anyway, many of the characters from the first book (as far as I can remember lol) are in the second book and I don't remember much, but there are some characters that remind us of what happened last time so it's not too bad. (And unlike some books they don't quite take the reminding to far, they don't go over everything detail by boring detail ya know?)
This story has moved quicker than the first - less of the long purple prose thoughts of 'certain characters,' who shall remain nameless, but they know who they are!
Less gore than the first, if I remember correctly, which I might not (lol), however there has already been the introduction of a character from the next book (I think). Or at least the character has a hawk that he(?) sends out to kill people, and well, remember 'The Birds'? What is it with people and the slashing and tearing and squishing and all such of the EYEBALLS?! The hawk has make it's entrance and is already killing people and of course we get the lovely description of what's going on, the ripping and squishing and all that and the hawk gets to wear these lovely metal spikes on it's heels (uh-huh ^^ ) that enable it to pierce the skull of it's victims and peck into the brains. Lovely yes? *groans* This makes my eyes hurt! lol
I can take the rest of the gore (other than the raping) but not the EYEBALLS! Please!
lol
Omg, none of the characters are safe from the author!
There is a funny bit when Genevieve is exploring some secret tunnels and she ends up coming out of an (luckily not lit!) oven to the surprise of a cook. She says something along the lines of: "I'm sorry, I thought I was cooked through."
Lol.
To update later....
The first book ends about page 174.
Not fluff.
Mild to moderate gore, and surprisingly not because (most of it) of the vampire!
Most of this first book is not about the vamp, but another character. It's a bit long winded in some places.
I need to remember to replace the batteries in my dictionary and put next to reading spot before continuing, lol.
I've yet to read the Lord of the Rings, but I believe the prologue here is something like that. Meaning it starts with a bunch of characters that you have no hope of remembering all their names and such, but a lot of them die off pretty quick, so luckily you don't actually have to remember many of them, lol.
In spite of the occassional going on and on of one of the characters (in particular), I didn't get bored, though I wouldn't mind less gore, lol. So I shall continue on and update my review as I go. At least that is the plan. ;)
Update:
August 9, 2011
Book 2 is pages 175 - 355(?)
Yesterday I read pgs 175 - 254, about 100pgs left I think.
Alright, first impression upon re-entering this collection (other than where the heck was my dictionary and the batteries I was supposed to put in it - lol) is I shouldn't have let quite so much time go by before starting the second book.
I had meant to sooner but every time I went to get it off the shelf the library would suddenly get in a bunch of books I'd put on hold lol.
Anyway, many of the characters from the first book (as far as I can remember lol) are in the second book and I don't remember much, but there are some characters that remind us of what happened last time so it's not too bad. (And unlike some books they don't quite take the reminding to far, they don't go over everything detail by boring detail ya know?)
This story has moved quicker than the first - less of the long purple prose thoughts of 'certain characters,' who shall remain nameless, but they know who they are!
Less gore than the first, if I remember correctly, which I might not (lol), however there has already been the introduction of a character from the next book (I think). Or at least the character has a hawk that he(?) sends out to kill people, and well, remember 'The Birds'? What is it with people and the slashing and tearing and squishing and all such of the EYEBALLS?! The hawk has make it's entrance and is already killing people and of course we get the lovely description of what's going on, the ripping and squishing and all that and the hawk gets to wear these lovely metal spikes on it's heels (uh-huh ^^ ) that enable it to pierce the skull of it's victims and peck into the brains. Lovely yes? *groans* This makes my eyes hurt! lol
I can take the rest of the gore (other than the raping) but not the EYEBALLS! Please!
lol
Omg, none of the characters are safe from the author!
There is a funny bit when Genevieve is exploring some secret tunnels and she ends up coming out of an (luckily not lit!) oven to the surprise of a cook. She says something along the lines of: "I'm sorry, I thought I was cooked through."
Lol.
To update later....
November 15, 2024
Another series bites the dust.
The complete 4-book series of the Vampire Genevieve.
RTC
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[2005] [763p] [Fantasy] [Partly Recommendable] -----------------------------------------------
★★★★☆ 1. Drachenfels [4.5]
★★★☆☆ 2. Genevieve Undead [2.5]
★★☆☆☆ 3. Beasts in Velvet [1.5]
★★★☆☆ 4. Silver Nails [2.5]
★★★☆☆ 1-4. The Vampire Genevieve
-----------------------------------------------
Otra serie muerde el polvo.
La serie completa de 4 libros de la Vampira Genevieve.
RTC
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[2005] [763p] [Fantasía] [Parcialmente Recomendable]
-----------------------------------------------
The complete 4-book series of the Vampire Genevieve.
RTC
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[2005] [763p] [Fantasy] [Partly Recommendable] -----------------------------------------------
★★★★☆ 1. Drachenfels [4.5]
★★★☆☆ 2. Genevieve Undead [2.5]
★★☆☆☆ 3. Beasts in Velvet [1.5]
★★★☆☆ 4. Silver Nails [2.5]
★★★☆☆ 1-4. The Vampire Genevieve
-----------------------------------------------
Otra serie muerde el polvo.
La serie completa de 4 libros de la Vampira Genevieve.
RTC
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[2005] [763p] [Fantasía] [Parcialmente Recomendable]
-----------------------------------------------
January 11, 2010
I was expecting a bit more from this book after reading The Von Carstein Trilogy. It feels like it's a bit of a waste that you have a 600+ year old vampire and only explore a period of about 50 years of her life. I personally was expecting a story that spans multiple generations.
This book is an Omnibus that combines a few novels and some short stories together. While the novel was a typical fantasy affair. The short stories is where the book really shines. They're based on the minor characters around the Vampire Genevieve and you can see how their stories shape a bit of the history around the vampire. However, the flow of the book as a whole is a bit ruined by it as you start with a novel that's really focused on Genevieve and then she is almost entirely out of the pictures as the short stories fill in background information.
This book is an Omnibus that combines a few novels and some short stories together. While the novel was a typical fantasy affair. The short stories is where the book really shines. They're based on the minor characters around the Vampire Genevieve and you can see how their stories shape a bit of the history around the vampire. However, the flow of the book as a whole is a bit ruined by it as you start with a novel that's really focused on Genevieve and then she is almost entirely out of the pictures as the short stories fill in background information.
October 14, 2013
Kim Newman’s Warhammer Fantasy fiction stars an alternate universe version of Genevieve, from his Anno Dracula works. This collection has all the wit and sly references you would expect from the Anno Dracula world, set in the darkly compelling world of the Warhammer Fantasy RPG. Although, I’m somewhat disappointed in myself for taking so long to get that “Filthy Harald” was a riff on Dirty Harry.
May 28, 2012
The lightest and funniest Warhammer book I've ever read. Genevieve is kinda in the background.
March 3, 2025
Vampire Genevieve — A Deep-Dive Review🦇
Introduction
Vampire Genevieve might seem like just another grim, bloody romp through the Warhammer universe—a place already steeped in chaos, death, and monsters. But behind the familiar trappings of gothic horror and dark fantasy, Jack Yeovil gives us something deeper:
What does it mean to remain moral in a world that thrives on cruelty? And can a vampire—a literal predator—choose to be good?
In a setting as nihilistic as Warhammer’s Old World, where corruption and decay touch everything, Genevieve Dieudonné emerges as an oddly radiant figure: immortal, powerful, yet compassionate. This book invites us to wrestle with the paradox of being both monster and saviour, outsider, and protector.
Summary of Core Ideas
Vampire Genevieve is a collection of four interconnected novels:
• Drachenfels
• Genevieve Undead
• Beasts in Velvet
• Silver Nails
Together, they trace Genevieve’s journey through centuries of intrigue, murder, political machinations, and personal loss in the dark, decaying cities of the Warhammer world.
At the heart of these stories are a few key ideas:
• Moral Ambiguity: In a world where no one is truly innocent, Genevieve constantly struggles with her own nature. As a vampire, she’s cursed with an instinct to kill, but she resists this, often serving as the most humane character in a cast of deeply flawed mortals.
• Identity and Alienation: Genevieve is caught between two worlds—neither fully human nor fully monster. This tension runs throughout the stories as she searches for belonging and meaning in a society that fears and uses her in equal measure.
• Decay and Corruption: Warhammer's Old World is a place where institutions rot from within, and people are pawns in larger, brutal games. Genevieve navigates this landscape with weary grace, aware that any idealism is dangerous in such a place.
Philosophical Reflections
Beneath the swordplay and bloodletting, the book raises timeless questions:
• What defines a “monster”? Is it biology, behaviour, or something deeper? Genevieve, despite her vampiric hunger, shows more virtue than many humans in the story. This invites us to rethink rigid moral categories.
• Is goodness meaningful in a doomed world? In the grimdark of Warhammer, heroism seems futile. But Genevieve acts with compassion, anyway, suggesting that morality isn't about victory—it's about integrity.
• How does immortality change one's perspective? Living across centuries, Genevieve becomes detached from mortal concerns but also gains a kind of tragic wisdom about loss, love, and history’s cycles.
In this way, Vampire Genevieve becomes almost existentialist. You persist. You do good. Not because it changes the world, but because it affirms who you are.
Religious Perspectives
Warhammer's world is thick with corrupted cults, false gods, and religious hysteria, and Genevieve is frequently at odds with both zealots and the undead.
Her very existence challenges the idea of salvation. She cannot die and find peace; she carries her curse through time.
Is there grace for someone like Genevieve?
If the gods are silent, does she become her own source of meaning?
These are deeply theological questions. We might compare Genevieve to figures in Christian thought like the wandering Jew or Cain—doomed to walk the earth, marked by violence, yet capable of deep reflection and change.
Non-Fiction Insights
While Vampire Genevieve is pure fiction, it draws on real-world historical and cultural ideas:
• Gothic literature: It echoes classic gothic themes of decay, forbidden knowledge, and the monstrous feminine.
• Urban decay and class struggle: The setting often portrays social breakdown, with the wealthy exploiting the poor, and the institutions meant to protect people falling into ruin—eerily resonant with real-world histories of collapsing empires and corrupt cities.
Connections and Implications
If you've read works like Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or even Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus, you’ll recognize similar themes: the search for meaning in suffering, the burden of being “other,” and the defiance of despair through small acts of goodness.
Genevieve’s story asks us:
• How do we live with our own darker instincts?
• What does it mean to try to "be good" in systems designed to make us complicit?
• Can beauty and kindness exist amid rot and ruin?
Final Reflection
If you come to Vampire Genevieve for thrilling gothic fantasy, you’ll find it. But if you stay a little longer, you’ll discover a surprisingly poignant meditation on morality, identity, and resistance.
Genevieve is a monster who teaches us how to be human.
Introduction
Vampire Genevieve might seem like just another grim, bloody romp through the Warhammer universe—a place already steeped in chaos, death, and monsters. But behind the familiar trappings of gothic horror and dark fantasy, Jack Yeovil gives us something deeper:
What does it mean to remain moral in a world that thrives on cruelty? And can a vampire—a literal predator—choose to be good?
In a setting as nihilistic as Warhammer’s Old World, where corruption and decay touch everything, Genevieve Dieudonné emerges as an oddly radiant figure: immortal, powerful, yet compassionate. This book invites us to wrestle with the paradox of being both monster and saviour, outsider, and protector.
Summary of Core Ideas
Vampire Genevieve is a collection of four interconnected novels:
• Drachenfels
• Genevieve Undead
• Beasts in Velvet
• Silver Nails
Together, they trace Genevieve’s journey through centuries of intrigue, murder, political machinations, and personal loss in the dark, decaying cities of the Warhammer world.
At the heart of these stories are a few key ideas:
• Moral Ambiguity: In a world where no one is truly innocent, Genevieve constantly struggles with her own nature. As a vampire, she’s cursed with an instinct to kill, but she resists this, often serving as the most humane character in a cast of deeply flawed mortals.
• Identity and Alienation: Genevieve is caught between two worlds—neither fully human nor fully monster. This tension runs throughout the stories as she searches for belonging and meaning in a society that fears and uses her in equal measure.
• Decay and Corruption: Warhammer's Old World is a place where institutions rot from within, and people are pawns in larger, brutal games. Genevieve navigates this landscape with weary grace, aware that any idealism is dangerous in such a place.
Philosophical Reflections
Beneath the swordplay and bloodletting, the book raises timeless questions:
• What defines a “monster”? Is it biology, behaviour, or something deeper? Genevieve, despite her vampiric hunger, shows more virtue than many humans in the story. This invites us to rethink rigid moral categories.
• Is goodness meaningful in a doomed world? In the grimdark of Warhammer, heroism seems futile. But Genevieve acts with compassion, anyway, suggesting that morality isn't about victory—it's about integrity.
• How does immortality change one's perspective? Living across centuries, Genevieve becomes detached from mortal concerns but also gains a kind of tragic wisdom about loss, love, and history’s cycles.
In this way, Vampire Genevieve becomes almost existentialist. You persist. You do good. Not because it changes the world, but because it affirms who you are.
Religious Perspectives
Warhammer's world is thick with corrupted cults, false gods, and religious hysteria, and Genevieve is frequently at odds with both zealots and the undead.
Her very existence challenges the idea of salvation. She cannot die and find peace; she carries her curse through time.
Is there grace for someone like Genevieve?
If the gods are silent, does she become her own source of meaning?
These are deeply theological questions. We might compare Genevieve to figures in Christian thought like the wandering Jew or Cain—doomed to walk the earth, marked by violence, yet capable of deep reflection and change.
Non-Fiction Insights
While Vampire Genevieve is pure fiction, it draws on real-world historical and cultural ideas:
• Gothic literature: It echoes classic gothic themes of decay, forbidden knowledge, and the monstrous feminine.
• Urban decay and class struggle: The setting often portrays social breakdown, with the wealthy exploiting the poor, and the institutions meant to protect people falling into ruin—eerily resonant with real-world histories of collapsing empires and corrupt cities.
Connections and Implications
If you've read works like Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or even Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus, you’ll recognize similar themes: the search for meaning in suffering, the burden of being “other,” and the defiance of despair through small acts of goodness.
Genevieve’s story asks us:
• How do we live with our own darker instincts?
• What does it mean to try to "be good" in systems designed to make us complicit?
• Can beauty and kindness exist amid rot and ruin?
Final Reflection
If you come to Vampire Genevieve for thrilling gothic fantasy, you’ll find it. But if you stay a little longer, you’ll discover a surprisingly poignant meditation on morality, identity, and resistance.
Genevieve is a monster who teaches us how to be human.
July 29, 2023
What an epic! I will try and keep my review relatively spoiler free but I really enjoyed it. While this omnibus is called "The Vampire Genevieve" it should more accurately be called "Kim Newman's Warhammer Stories". It is a great collection of stories including murder mystery, dark fantasy and epic adventure. As a person who is not totally familiar with the "Old World" of Warhammer Fantasy I enjoyed it, especially when familiar characters from other series made their surprise cameos.
Drachenfels
On balance the best of the stories, with a fantastic central mystery and a compelling twisting narrative. It was a great introduction to the characters and world, as the incident at Drachenfels has longstanding repercussions throughout the rest of the series.
Genevieve Undead - Stage Blood
Essentially Drachenfels part 2, featuring many of the same characters as they settle back into city life and all of the nightmarish drama that follows them. I really liked it, especially seeing how the events of Drachenfels were interpreted (and misinterpreted)
Genevieve Undead- The Cold Stark House
The only miss for me. I can see what Newman was trying to do here, but I think this sort of story really works better on stage or screen than in book format. It was simply too confusing, a lot of it intentionally so. It is also entirely skippable with no ramifications on the rest of the series.
Genevieve Undead- Unicorn Ivory
Newman does a great job of remaking fantasy elements, in this case the Unicorn, and this is a compelling little story.
Beasts in Velvet
Seems to get a lot of hate for not featuring Genevieve, but I really liked this twist on the "Jack the Ripper" style murder mystery. It also does a good job of setting the scene for wider troubles in the Empire (even if ultimately these don't end up being paid off)
Silver Nails - Red Thirst
Genevieve is back with a bit of an "interquel" set before most of the events of Drachenfels. It is more about setting up the character of Vikotich and establishing more hints at a wider struggle.
Silver Nails- No Gold in the Grey Mountains
A nice, snappy, short horror vignette set in the ruins of a haunted castle. Good times.
Silver Nails- The Ignorant Armies
I really loved this story, mainly because I think it contains some of the most horrific and "chaotic" depictions of Chaos that we don't really see in Warhammer fiction these days. Newman's Chaos forces are unbridled, random and grotesque in a way that doesn't really exist any more. Probably because Games Workshop needs some sort of uniformity to sell miniatures.
Silver Nails- Warhawk
Another great little murder mystery, although not quite as tight or engaged as previous stories. The reveal is a bit left field BUT it does feature the best non-Newman cameo in the series.
Silver Nails- The Ibby The Fish Factor
Newman has said in interviews that he had some ideas about how the arc of Genevieve might end, and had considered a bit epic empire shattering event featuring all of the characters and sub-plots that he has established in the rest of the series. Instead however he ends the story with a happy ending, which is an unusual choice but not an unwelcome one.
Drachenfels
On balance the best of the stories, with a fantastic central mystery and a compelling twisting narrative. It was a great introduction to the characters and world, as the incident at Drachenfels has longstanding repercussions throughout the rest of the series.
Genevieve Undead - Stage Blood
Essentially Drachenfels part 2, featuring many of the same characters as they settle back into city life and all of the nightmarish drama that follows them. I really liked it, especially seeing how the events of Drachenfels were interpreted (and misinterpreted)
Genevieve Undead- The Cold Stark House
The only miss for me. I can see what Newman was trying to do here, but I think this sort of story really works better on stage or screen than in book format. It was simply too confusing, a lot of it intentionally so. It is also entirely skippable with no ramifications on the rest of the series.
Genevieve Undead- Unicorn Ivory
Newman does a great job of remaking fantasy elements, in this case the Unicorn, and this is a compelling little story.
Beasts in Velvet
Seems to get a lot of hate for not featuring Genevieve, but I really liked this twist on the "Jack the Ripper" style murder mystery. It also does a good job of setting the scene for wider troubles in the Empire (even if ultimately these don't end up being paid off)
Silver Nails - Red Thirst
Genevieve is back with a bit of an "interquel" set before most of the events of Drachenfels. It is more about setting up the character of Vikotich and establishing more hints at a wider struggle.
Silver Nails- No Gold in the Grey Mountains
A nice, snappy, short horror vignette set in the ruins of a haunted castle. Good times.
Silver Nails- The Ignorant Armies
I really loved this story, mainly because I think it contains some of the most horrific and "chaotic" depictions of Chaos that we don't really see in Warhammer fiction these days. Newman's Chaos forces are unbridled, random and grotesque in a way that doesn't really exist any more. Probably because Games Workshop needs some sort of uniformity to sell miniatures.
Silver Nails- Warhawk
Another great little murder mystery, although not quite as tight or engaged as previous stories. The reveal is a bit left field BUT it does feature the best non-Newman cameo in the series.
Silver Nails- The Ibby The Fish Factor
Newman has said in interviews that he had some ideas about how the arc of Genevieve might end, and had considered a bit epic empire shattering event featuring all of the characters and sub-plots that he has established in the rest of the series. Instead however he ends the story with a happy ending, which is an unusual choice but not an unwelcome one.
July 29, 2016
So, here's another secret-that-isn't-a-secret: Jack Yeovil is Kim "Anno Dracula" Newman. Most folks who have heard one name or the other already know this, but in case anyone coming into the series doesn't know that, the foreword is credited to Kim Newman. It reminds me of how Stephen King continues (sporadically, yes, but still...) to use the Richard Bachman name, even though the general public not only already knows this, but the books also have his real name and his pen-name on the covers (seriously; look up Blaze and see which name gets the largest font). Still, in his foreword, Newman gives a good reason as to why he used the Yeovil pseudonym, and it's not like he's trying to fool anyone with any subterfuge.
The Vampire Genevieve is actually an omnibus collection of three novels and one short-story collection that feature his eponymous character. Fans of Newman know that Genevieve is also a character in his Anno Dracula series, and he considers this series of stories an alternate history of that same character. Interestingly enough, the character was created in this universe and then transferred over to Anno Dracula, so this also gives us a look at how Newman originally envisioned the character. It's also set in the world of Warhammer 40,000, which concerned me for not knowing much about that world (much as I had concerns over Charles Grant's Watchers set in the World of Darkness), but the stories still worked without having knowledge of the setting. A little research showed that Chaos is a faction, which explains some references in the story, but the plot still worked even without those references.
The first novel, Drachenfels, is about a handful of adventurers who are the survivors of a group who defeated an evil wizard. The story catches up with them 25 years after the defeat, as a playwright has been commissioned by a prince (also a survivor) to write a play based on the events. The story does feature Genevieve, but only as part of a larger cast (a much larger cast; I had trouble following who was who at certain points in the story). It took a while to get going, enough so that I wondered if I would stay with it through all four books, but it picked up considerably at the end, and had a satisfying conclusion. There were also a couple of neat tricks that Newman employed that sent chills up my arms. I'll leave it at that.
Genevieve Undead is the second part of the collection, and is billed as a novel but is really another collection of three novellas. One featured Genevieve and her playwright lover; the second featured Genevieve being held prisoner in an estate where she believed herself to be part of a royal family killing each other nightly for their father's inheritance; and the third story was about Genevieve undercover in a household with the intent of assassinating one of their number. The three stories were tangentially related, but only barely. They may as well have been listed as distinct stories of their own.
The third piece in the collection, Beasts in Velvet, hearkens back to Anno Dracula more than any other story in the book. This novel follows Anno Dracula by just a year, according to publication date (Beasts in Velvet was published in 1993, Anno Dracula in 1992), so the two books may have been written concurrently, and best highlights the alternate history Newman was attempting by featuring the same character in both series. Here, prostitutes are being murdered in a capital city, prompting small hysteria in the public, and a half-hearted investigation by the police. In short, this is another take on Jack the Ripper, this time set in a fantasy world. It might be worth reading this and Anno Dracula back-to-back just to see how much they have in common, but my interest isn't high enough to pursue it. Why it's a Genevieve story, though, is beyond me; she shows up in one scene, which isn't even relevant to the rest of the story, save to place it before the time of Genevieve Undead.
Silver Nails, the fourth piece, is made up of shorter stories, so now we're down to reading a compilation in a compilation. It's getting a little Inception in here.
Anyway, the first story, "Red Thirst", is a kind of combo buddy-cop/heist story, featuring Genevieve and an unwilling conspirator. It's an entertaining read that had a sense of importance as Yeovil gave it more of a purpose. "No Gold in the Grey Mountains" is another Genevieve story without Genevieve, save for an aside that mentions her. It's short. I remember that much. The next story, "The Ignorant Armies", is another story without Genevieve, though she's mentioned once, and the story features characters who featured in other stories that did have Genevieve in them. Following that is "The Warhawk", which features the two main characters who starred in Beasts in Velvet, and was a rather gripping little whodunnit story. Lastly, "The Ibby the Fish Factor", which does feature Genevieve, is an interesting story of crusades, power struggles, and murder, which takes everything that took place in Yeovil's universe and brought it around full circle.
So, despite being called The Vampire Genevieve, the collection doesn't feature her as much as I would have expected. Luckily, Yeovil is a talented enough writer to take all the disparate elements of all the stories featured here and bring them together in a rather satisfying conclusion. It also took me a long time to read, given that the book is actually four books, the print is in teeny-tiny type, and the narrative sometimes was so dense that I would read a couple of pages before realizing I hadn't grasped any of what had just happened. I do wonder if not having a knowledge of the Warhammer universe was a strike against me, too.
If I were to recommend either this or the Anno Dracula series, I would suggest the latter, hands down. Even with the last two books in that series not matching what he accomplished with the first two, and with the deftness with which he concluded his series here, Anno Dracula is the superior series of the two.
The Vampire Genevieve is actually an omnibus collection of three novels and one short-story collection that feature his eponymous character. Fans of Newman know that Genevieve is also a character in his Anno Dracula series, and he considers this series of stories an alternate history of that same character. Interestingly enough, the character was created in this universe and then transferred over to Anno Dracula, so this also gives us a look at how Newman originally envisioned the character. It's also set in the world of Warhammer 40,000, which concerned me for not knowing much about that world (much as I had concerns over Charles Grant's Watchers set in the World of Darkness), but the stories still worked without having knowledge of the setting. A little research showed that Chaos is a faction, which explains some references in the story, but the plot still worked even without those references.
The first novel, Drachenfels, is about a handful of adventurers who are the survivors of a group who defeated an evil wizard. The story catches up with them 25 years after the defeat, as a playwright has been commissioned by a prince (also a survivor) to write a play based on the events. The story does feature Genevieve, but only as part of a larger cast (a much larger cast; I had trouble following who was who at certain points in the story). It took a while to get going, enough so that I wondered if I would stay with it through all four books, but it picked up considerably at the end, and had a satisfying conclusion. There were also a couple of neat tricks that Newman employed that sent chills up my arms. I'll leave it at that.
Genevieve Undead is the second part of the collection, and is billed as a novel but is really another collection of three novellas. One featured Genevieve and her playwright lover; the second featured Genevieve being held prisoner in an estate where she believed herself to be part of a royal family killing each other nightly for their father's inheritance; and the third story was about Genevieve undercover in a household with the intent of assassinating one of their number. The three stories were tangentially related, but only barely. They may as well have been listed as distinct stories of their own.
The third piece in the collection, Beasts in Velvet, hearkens back to Anno Dracula more than any other story in the book. This novel follows Anno Dracula by just a year, according to publication date (Beasts in Velvet was published in 1993, Anno Dracula in 1992), so the two books may have been written concurrently, and best highlights the alternate history Newman was attempting by featuring the same character in both series. Here, prostitutes are being murdered in a capital city, prompting small hysteria in the public, and a half-hearted investigation by the police. In short, this is another take on Jack the Ripper, this time set in a fantasy world. It might be worth reading this and Anno Dracula back-to-back just to see how much they have in common, but my interest isn't high enough to pursue it. Why it's a Genevieve story, though, is beyond me; she shows up in one scene, which isn't even relevant to the rest of the story, save to place it before the time of Genevieve Undead.
Silver Nails, the fourth piece, is made up of shorter stories, so now we're down to reading a compilation in a compilation. It's getting a little Inception in here.
Anyway, the first story, "Red Thirst", is a kind of combo buddy-cop/heist story, featuring Genevieve and an unwilling conspirator. It's an entertaining read that had a sense of importance as Yeovil gave it more of a purpose. "No Gold in the Grey Mountains" is another Genevieve story without Genevieve, save for an aside that mentions her. It's short. I remember that much. The next story, "The Ignorant Armies", is another story without Genevieve, though she's mentioned once, and the story features characters who featured in other stories that did have Genevieve in them. Following that is "The Warhawk", which features the two main characters who starred in Beasts in Velvet, and was a rather gripping little whodunnit story. Lastly, "The Ibby the Fish Factor", which does feature Genevieve, is an interesting story of crusades, power struggles, and murder, which takes everything that took place in Yeovil's universe and brought it around full circle.
So, despite being called The Vampire Genevieve, the collection doesn't feature her as much as I would have expected. Luckily, Yeovil is a talented enough writer to take all the disparate elements of all the stories featured here and bring them together in a rather satisfying conclusion. It also took me a long time to read, given that the book is actually four books, the print is in teeny-tiny type, and the narrative sometimes was so dense that I would read a couple of pages before realizing I hadn't grasped any of what had just happened. I do wonder if not having a knowledge of the Warhammer universe was a strike against me, too.
If I were to recommend either this or the Anno Dracula series, I would suggest the latter, hands down. Even with the last two books in that series not matching what he accomplished with the first two, and with the deftness with which he concluded his series here, Anno Dracula is the superior series of the two.
August 9, 2017
So much vampire stuff out there. It falls into camps. You've got the sexy licenstious vamps. You've got the power-hungry vamps. You've got the sciency vamps. You've got the ugly disgusting "it's a demon! kill it!" vamps. Then, there is Genevieve. She reminds me of Anne Rice's Pandora a bit. Beautiful, demure, passionate, restrained, and refined... she does what I think I might do were I turned into a vampire: test life to its limits and enjoy the opportunity to do things I would have never been able to do with finite years.
Finally, a balanced vampire.
Finally, a balanced vampire.
June 4, 2019
A pure dip into nostalgia for me, doubling up as research for the WFRP Altdorf book. I love Drachenfels and Beasts in Velvet, especially the latter, and it's nice to have the novella Genevieve Undead and the short stories too.
What's weird is the order; they're neither in chronological order by story or by publication. No idea why.
There's some bizarre cognitive dissonance as the Warhammer world featured differs somewhat from its latter form (such as their casual attitudes towards warp stone and mutations), but I love Yeovil (or rather, Kim Newman)'s style, and his characters.
What's weird is the order; they're neither in chronological order by story or by publication. No idea why.
There's some bizarre cognitive dissonance as the Warhammer world featured differs somewhat from its latter form (such as their casual attitudes towards warp stone and mutations), but I love Yeovil (or rather, Kim Newman)'s style, and his characters.
April 2, 2022
A pleasant set of stories with well realized characters that one comes to care about. I particularly like how characters returned in later tales and short stories. As others have noted, read the third story before the second.
I'll be reading more by Newman.
I'll be reading more by Newman.
April 1, 2018
Surprisingly great! Funny, romantic, clever. A wonderful journey over three novels and five short stories. I recommend it.
October 20, 2019
Lo he dejado por la página 112, me estaba pareciendo soporífero.
December 3, 2025
First book is fun. Rest of it… doesn’t have Genevieve. Like I spent so much time wondering why they called it that that I missed some story. Maybe a lot.
October 12, 2016
A collection of the stories Kim Newman has written featuring Genevieve in the Warhammer world. I love the character of Genevieve when I've come across her in Kim's Anno Dracula books, but had no idea she existed in this world as well. She's different and there are 'explain-a-bit-about-warhammer' moments, but the writing is playful, the characters believeable and the emotional involvement as powerful as ever. I love the interactions and relationships between Genevieve, Detlef, Vukotich and their enemies. The homage to various great stories of the past, gothic horror novels, Jekyll and Hyde, Phantom of the Opera made me smile. The character of Rosanna who can read thoughts and past events is someone I'd like to meet again too.
My favourite story was The Ibby the Fish Factor for the humour and the only thing I didn't like was some of the memorable, but very unpleasant violence, however it's part of the genre and was often inventive. Shake off your prejudices and give it a go.
My favourite story was The Ibby the Fish Factor for the humour and the only thing I didn't like was some of the memorable, but very unpleasant violence, however it's part of the genre and was often inventive. Shake off your prejudices and give it a go.
December 30, 2016
Collecting all four of Jack Yeovil's Warhammer novels, this omnibus edition is well worth the price. Yeovil is known for his darkly disturbing, yet cynically humorous, style, and it is in full display here. The characters he creates in these novels are for the most part excellent, especially Genevieve herself. The way she is portrayed makes her impossible not to love, and its hard not to get frustrated when she is left out of a tale. You do not need to have any knowledge or interest in the Warhammer Fantasy world to enjoy this book, which could really be passed off in nearly any generic fantasy setting. One thing I would recommend: don't read this omnibus volume straight through. Give yourself breaks between the books to break up the occasional repetitive-seeming parts and to keep the freshness of the stories alive.
The first book, Drachenfels, was my personal favorite of the series. The book takes the form of a dark and gritty mystery (without the reader being sure of what the mystery to be solved really is) with classic elements of fantasy and spoof comedy. The characters are rich and believable (for a fantasy) while the storyline progresses smoothly without slowing down from the beginning to the dramatic conclusion (which has a totally unexpected and thrilling twist). The basic premise consists of a prince of the realm sponsoring a theatre production telling of his famous defeat of the dark and evil Constant Drachenfels. Genevieve played a role in the original feat and is invited back to participate in the play version. Twists and turns and mysterious happenings plague the production as hilarious characters scheme and plot for their own agendas. Yeovil keeps the reader engaged throughout the story. [5-stars]
Genevieve Undead, the second book in this volume is my least favorite of the four. It is actually composed of three independent short stories only loosely tied together. The three short stories don't develop to the same scope as DRACHENFELS. Nevertheless, this book is very enjoyable and won't disappoint Warhammer fans who're looking for something a bit darker than you get from most fantasy books. Many of the scenes here are downright disturbing. Still, this novel is mildly disappointing, not having much depth and not really contributing too much to Genevieve's character or the greater story of her life. [3-stars]
The third book, Beasts in Velvet, is a rather generic murder mystery and hardly involves Genevieve at all. The principle character is Johann von Mecklenburg, an aristocrat that you meet in previous books. The story involves Johann and a few other characters trying to solve the mystery behind a spree of gruesome murders. Suspicions are spread around a number of side characters, keeping the reader guessing as to who may be the real killer. While you get some pretty graphic violence and a unique look into the psyche of some twisted individuals (something that Yeovil is so good at), this book just didn't grab my attention. Predictable and with somewhat flat characters, BEASTS IN VELVET doesn't live up to Yeovil's other work and is a bit out of place in this omnibus. [3-stars]
The final book, Silver Nails, finishes off this volume nicely. Made up of loosely-connected but still individual short stories, this book can be read one story at a time, or all together. These stories actually serve to connect all of the previous Genevieve stories contained in the omnibus. Some occur before, between, or after the stories in the other three books. Many of the characters from the rest of the series play prominent roles here, and the stories themselves are (mostly) top notch examples of Yeovil's writing. Adventure, mystery, and humor are intertwined with frankly disturbing scenes of love, evil, and just plain weirdness. You even get a cameo of the intrepid Gotrek and Felix in this one. The book ends with a rather disappointing conclusion to the overall story of Genevieve, but the main meat of this one is excellent. [5-stars]
Overall, this omnibus should be enjoyable by most fans of fantasy. Much different than most Warhammer books, this one doesn't require any interest in that world. Fans of dark mystery and vampires will especially like this one, but really anyone will find it enjoyable. Recommended.
The first book, Drachenfels, was my personal favorite of the series. The book takes the form of a dark and gritty mystery (without the reader being sure of what the mystery to be solved really is) with classic elements of fantasy and spoof comedy. The characters are rich and believable (for a fantasy) while the storyline progresses smoothly without slowing down from the beginning to the dramatic conclusion (which has a totally unexpected and thrilling twist). The basic premise consists of a prince of the realm sponsoring a theatre production telling of his famous defeat of the dark and evil Constant Drachenfels. Genevieve played a role in the original feat and is invited back to participate in the play version. Twists and turns and mysterious happenings plague the production as hilarious characters scheme and plot for their own agendas. Yeovil keeps the reader engaged throughout the story. [5-stars]
Genevieve Undead, the second book in this volume is my least favorite of the four. It is actually composed of three independent short stories only loosely tied together. The three short stories don't develop to the same scope as DRACHENFELS. Nevertheless, this book is very enjoyable and won't disappoint Warhammer fans who're looking for something a bit darker than you get from most fantasy books. Many of the scenes here are downright disturbing. Still, this novel is mildly disappointing, not having much depth and not really contributing too much to Genevieve's character or the greater story of her life. [3-stars]
The third book, Beasts in Velvet, is a rather generic murder mystery and hardly involves Genevieve at all. The principle character is Johann von Mecklenburg, an aristocrat that you meet in previous books. The story involves Johann and a few other characters trying to solve the mystery behind a spree of gruesome murders. Suspicions are spread around a number of side characters, keeping the reader guessing as to who may be the real killer. While you get some pretty graphic violence and a unique look into the psyche of some twisted individuals (something that Yeovil is so good at), this book just didn't grab my attention. Predictable and with somewhat flat characters, BEASTS IN VELVET doesn't live up to Yeovil's other work and is a bit out of place in this omnibus. [3-stars]
The final book, Silver Nails, finishes off this volume nicely. Made up of loosely-connected but still individual short stories, this book can be read one story at a time, or all together. These stories actually serve to connect all of the previous Genevieve stories contained in the omnibus. Some occur before, between, or after the stories in the other three books. Many of the characters from the rest of the series play prominent roles here, and the stories themselves are (mostly) top notch examples of Yeovil's writing. Adventure, mystery, and humor are intertwined with frankly disturbing scenes of love, evil, and just plain weirdness. You even get a cameo of the intrepid Gotrek and Felix in this one. The book ends with a rather disappointing conclusion to the overall story of Genevieve, but the main meat of this one is excellent. [5-stars]
Overall, this omnibus should be enjoyable by most fans of fantasy. Much different than most Warhammer books, this one doesn't require any interest in that world. Fans of dark mystery and vampires will especially like this one, but really anyone will find it enjoyable. Recommended.
April 2, 2016
This was interesting. That more or less covers my feelings towards this book.
Anyone interested in finding out where warhammer came from should pick one of these up and if you are relatively new to the lore but do know the canon of the end times you will be amazed how things changed troughout the years in the warhammer fantasy canon.
Vampires in both true death and half death versions(can resist sunlight, no magical powers) and they are more or less accepted in the empire! what the hell? There is an open vampire bar in altdorf and thousand year old queens and princes of the night can have a little nip of someones neck as if it is some form of kinky sex frowned upon but not a cause for witchhunts. The cult of sigmar is nearly abscent in the empire as is the cult of shallya, the cult of Morr is present and get a sudden role of prominence as does the cult of Ulric and several other cults never really mentioned afterwards. Emperor karl Franz is a push over in these books to the extent that you wonder if this guy and the deamon slaying bad ass Karl Franz of the end times are different people. Dwarves and elves appear randomly in the crowd as a sort of ethnic minority as opposed to the clearly distint races that evoke awe and fear in humans in the later lore and Zufbhar is a human town and not the bastion of dwarven ingenuity it is in the current lore (I can imagine the last throng of dwarves in the end times having a fit of rage to discover their proud karak was once a mere human fortress city built upon former dwarf fortifications). Necromancers are considered part of chaos and team up with skaven, beastmen, maurauders and tainted as if it is all the same.
I could go on but the point is made, the canon has changed insanely since the time the stories of Genevieve were written. This makes these books absolutely fascinating for any warhammer enthusiast even if you have to silence that inner voice screaming WTF every few pages. Unfortunately the bundle does suffer from some serious issues mainly in the structure of stories. The bundle organized them chronologically when they were published and that makes for some confusing situations for the stories do not link up the same way. For example the first book discusses how the great sorcerer drachenfells was beaten but one of the final books in the bundle suddenly takes place decades before this battle, but the story after takes place a few years after the battle but before the second part of the first story. The problem stems from the fact that a lot of the stories were written to expand upon a backstory or a little side note mentioned in the main story as if the writer felt like he was oblidged to do so. One character Detlef switches between adult, infant and elderly every story and you can never predict in what way. Another issue I had was that in a lot of the tales in this bundle called the vampire Genevieve, Genevieve the vampire is hardly in them. She passes trough a foggy streat, is mentioned by name and that's it and sometimes not even that.
I would have preferred a more strictly chronoligically coherent bundle and even though I liked most of the tales in this bundle and in particular the ones involving dirty Harald (die hard style cop in the warhammerworld who would have predicted?) it dit feel like a rag tag collection at times. However if you want to go back to a time when the warhammer world was less gloom and doom then I suggest you pick up a copy and start reading.
Anyone interested in finding out where warhammer came from should pick one of these up and if you are relatively new to the lore but do know the canon of the end times you will be amazed how things changed troughout the years in the warhammer fantasy canon.
Vampires in both true death and half death versions(can resist sunlight, no magical powers) and they are more or less accepted in the empire! what the hell? There is an open vampire bar in altdorf and thousand year old queens and princes of the night can have a little nip of someones neck as if it is some form of kinky sex frowned upon but not a cause for witchhunts. The cult of sigmar is nearly abscent in the empire as is the cult of shallya, the cult of Morr is present and get a sudden role of prominence as does the cult of Ulric and several other cults never really mentioned afterwards. Emperor karl Franz is a push over in these books to the extent that you wonder if this guy and the deamon slaying bad ass Karl Franz of the end times are different people. Dwarves and elves appear randomly in the crowd as a sort of ethnic minority as opposed to the clearly distint races that evoke awe and fear in humans in the later lore and Zufbhar is a human town and not the bastion of dwarven ingenuity it is in the current lore (I can imagine the last throng of dwarves in the end times having a fit of rage to discover their proud karak was once a mere human fortress city built upon former dwarf fortifications). Necromancers are considered part of chaos and team up with skaven, beastmen, maurauders and tainted as if it is all the same.
I could go on but the point is made, the canon has changed insanely since the time the stories of Genevieve were written. This makes these books absolutely fascinating for any warhammer enthusiast even if you have to silence that inner voice screaming WTF every few pages. Unfortunately the bundle does suffer from some serious issues mainly in the structure of stories. The bundle organized them chronologically when they were published and that makes for some confusing situations for the stories do not link up the same way. For example the first book discusses how the great sorcerer drachenfells was beaten but one of the final books in the bundle suddenly takes place decades before this battle, but the story after takes place a few years after the battle but before the second part of the first story. The problem stems from the fact that a lot of the stories were written to expand upon a backstory or a little side note mentioned in the main story as if the writer felt like he was oblidged to do so. One character Detlef switches between adult, infant and elderly every story and you can never predict in what way. Another issue I had was that in a lot of the tales in this bundle called the vampire Genevieve, Genevieve the vampire is hardly in them. She passes trough a foggy streat, is mentioned by name and that's it and sometimes not even that.
I would have preferred a more strictly chronoligically coherent bundle and even though I liked most of the tales in this bundle and in particular the ones involving dirty Harald (die hard style cop in the warhammerworld who would have predicted?) it dit feel like a rag tag collection at times. However if you want to go back to a time when the warhammer world was less gloom and doom then I suggest you pick up a copy and start reading.
June 2, 2014
Enjoyed this a lot more than i thought i would, especially after reading the cliched ridden prologue to the first story. My main reason for picking this up was that i really enjoyed the first 2 books in the Anno Dracula series & a different reincarnation of Genevieve is obviously the main(ish) heroine of this Warhammer omnibus. As others have said, she does not appear in all the stories & has a fairly passive role in others.
It's nice to have this omnibus & be able to read the novels/short stories all together, as many characters make reappearances in later stories & some story threads are again picked up in later books & brought to a conclusion.
As Kim says in his introduction he saw no reason not to try different types of stories set within the Warhammer world so he covers everything from the obvious fantasy & horror to crime & romantic comedy (not so sure about this one!).
My favorite story was Beasts in Velvet which was a clever riff on Jack the Ripper. The writing on all the stories was pretty clever & if you enjoy Kim/Jack's later works, the chances are you would enjoy some if not all of the stories found here.
It's nice to have this omnibus & be able to read the novels/short stories all together, as many characters make reappearances in later stories & some story threads are again picked up in later books & brought to a conclusion.
As Kim says in his introduction he saw no reason not to try different types of stories set within the Warhammer world so he covers everything from the obvious fantasy & horror to crime & romantic comedy (not so sure about this one!).
My favorite story was Beasts in Velvet which was a clever riff on Jack the Ripper. The writing on all the stories was pretty clever & if you enjoy Kim/Jack's later works, the chances are you would enjoy some if not all of the stories found here.
November 14, 2025
The Least Interesting Character in This Anthology Award goes to…Genevieve! You know something went wrong with the writing when the titular character is the most flat and boring one in the book (despite being a vampire). The best stories in this collection of two novels and a handful of short stories and novellas were the ones where Genevieve merely put in a cameo appearance.
Also, aside from featuring a vampire, I’m not sure why this is part of the Warhammer Horror line. Any of the Warhammer settings are pretty grimdark, and most of these are primarily mystery/crime stories (including multiple appearances of the violent copper known as “Filthy Harold”) rather than anything that amps up the grim or dark. Overall, they weren’t terrible as escapist dark fantasy, but I wouldn’t ever bother to read them again or check out anything else by this particular author.
Also, aside from featuring a vampire, I’m not sure why this is part of the Warhammer Horror line. Any of the Warhammer settings are pretty grimdark, and most of these are primarily mystery/crime stories (including multiple appearances of the violent copper known as “Filthy Harold”) rather than anything that amps up the grim or dark. Overall, they weren’t terrible as escapist dark fantasy, but I wouldn’t ever bother to read them again or check out anything else by this particular author.
July 28, 2011
I enjoyed this series about a vampire in the Warhammer world. Though some of the stories deal with other characters in the various short stories, I rather enjoyed them despite the fact that Gene wasn't in them. It was also nice to see old characters from other books (such as Konrad) show up for small parts. All in all, a good book, and one I recommend if you like the Warhammer world and things that go bump in the night. The writing was pleasant though I did find that some stories definatly did fall flatter as they went on compared to others. (oddly, these again, were the stories without Gene in them) Pick it up, it's still a wonderful read despite that one flaw.
April 16, 2008
If I hadn't made a commitment to myself to review every book I read none of you would know that I read dreck like this. Genevieve is a badly written collection of notes from Jack Yeovil's other novels(hopefully they're better). I only bought it because I was getting on a plane for 12 hours and Genevieve is nearly 800 pages long. As you can imagine I didn't finish it but instead spent my time perusing the Skymall catalog and watching bad movies that I wouldn't even consider renting.
November 17, 2022
I read two of the novels in this omnibus, Drachenfels and Beasts in Velvet, back when they first came out, and they're just as much fun on a second read as they were back then.
Kim Newman, whether writing as Jack Yeovil or not, is one of those writers I keep saying I should read more of, and after finishing this doorstop of a collection, I will certainly be hunting out some of his other works.
Kim Newman, whether writing as Jack Yeovil or not, is one of those writers I keep saying I should read more of, and after finishing this doorstop of a collection, I will certainly be hunting out some of his other works.
October 14, 2012
While being far from bad, this book doesn't feel like its actually in the Warhammer world. Karl Franz knows she's a vampire but is oddly cool with that? Seems doubtful. Still, it's an ok read with some stories being better than others. For Warhammer vampire goodness I strongly recommend the Ulrika the Vampire series over this.
June 23, 2008
Without doubt the best series of 'sharecropper' game fiction ever written.
Sure, it's like being the world's tallest midget...but it's so rare to come across 'work for hire' junk like this that's written by someone who's actually invested in the material it's like a small miracle.
Sure, it's like being the world's tallest midget...but it's so rare to come across 'work for hire' junk like this that's written by someone who's actually invested in the material it's like a small miracle.
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