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Necroscope #15
Necroscope: The Plague-Bearer
Harry Keogh is moving on. Though the search for his missing wife and child continues, his heart now lies in Edinburgh with Bonnie Jean—a beautiful Scottish werewolf whose friendly pack and flourishing pub have given him a place he can almost call home.But from the rocky heights of Sicily, the diabolical Francezci brothers plot the wolf-pack’s destruction; and down in the terrible Pit beneath Le Manse Madonie, an ancient evil schemes.The vampires conspire. They reach a decision. They choose a vector. Mafia thug Mike Milazzo is no good to anyone, anytime, anywhere . . . which makes him perfect. Disposable.The brothers infect him with a deadly poison—an engineered plague that even a werewolf could never survive—and they offer him a terrible successfully contaminate the wolf-pack, and receive the antidote. Fail, and die!Mike has everything to lose. So does Harry Keogh. But the Necroscope lost everything once before, and he isn’t about to do it again…
184 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
12 people are currently reading
1003 people want to read
About the author
Brian Lumley
444 books1,355 followersBrian Lumley was born near Newcastle. In 22 years as a Military Policeman he served in many of the Cold War hotspots, including Berlin, as well as Cyprus in partition days. He reached the rank of Sergeant-Major before retiring to Devon to write full-time, and his work was first published in 1970. The vampire series, 'Necroscope', has been translated into ten languages and sold over a million copies worldwide.
He was awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2010.
He was awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 2, 2021
3.5/5.
It has its good moments and I love Lumley's writing style but the story just has a filler feel to it which makes sense since these chapters were actually removed from the first Lost Year novel.
It has its good moments and I love Lumley's writing style but the story just has a filler feel to it which makes sense since these chapters were actually removed from the first Lost Year novel.
October 9, 2015
The problem with this novella, lost chapter of "Necroscope: Lost years", is that you know from the start that Mike Milazzo's mission is going to fail... but for that is always a pleasure reading "new" stories about Harry Keogh. Brian Lumley's Necroscope is the best horror/science-fiction saga ever, I wanna read it again but my to-read list is too big and growing to do that now *Sigh*
July 30, 2017
It was good, but the story had been resolved earlier so there were no surprises.
July 25, 2020
A mini-Harry Keough adventure set back in the earlier days of the Necroscope books. It was nice to get a harry tale like those of old. However, this being such a short story, I found the pacing was inconsistent - the story dragged with details for about 60%, then the closer it got to the end, it skipped through a lot to get to the action. I also never before noticed how long winded Lumley can sometimes be, dragging out the narrative with way too much of extensive character thoughts and descriptions. Nonetheless, I was happy to read old school Harry Keough again.
May 21, 2021
It's been something like 20 years since I read the other Neceoscope novels (at least the original series anyway) so I'm basing my reading mostly on how much I enjoyed them. This story was fine. But, I think I'd have enjoyed it more had I read it chronologically with those novels.
November 5, 2021
Classic Necroscope
A pleasant romp in the world of the Necroscope. While not as detailed as the longer works in the series it is pleasurable to catch up with a couple friendly faces.
A pleasant romp in the world of the Necroscope. While not as detailed as the longer works in the series it is pleasurable to catch up with a couple friendly faces.
September 11, 2024
It was bittersweet listening to this audiobook.
It is literally my last Lumley Necroscope, I've now read them all, and with Brian having left us, it will be the last "first time" for a Necroscope. The book itself is fun and solid Harry Keogh.
It is literally my last Lumley Necroscope, I've now read them all, and with Brian having left us, it will be the last "first time" for a Necroscope. The book itself is fun and solid Harry Keogh.
November 13, 2017
Pretty good, even if I wasn’t terribly interested in mob-related vampires.
February 11, 2015
Overall, the storytelling was solid, however, you knew Mike Milazzo was going to fail his mission from page one. Which sucked all the fire out of the story. I'd read lots of reviews touting "The Plague Bearer" as one of their favorite Necroscope books, but I'd say it's one of my least favorites. Aside from the larger novels, I enjoyed the stories in "Harry and the Pirates," and "Dinosaur Dreams" from "Necroscope and Other Heroes" much more than "The Plague Bearer."
The artwork is one of the best Bob Eggleton has ever created. I remember seeing this in bookstores and being oddly drawn to the book just from the artwork.
Lumley added a note in the epilogue to not just him too harshly if minor details didn't exactly line up with the Lost Years books. On that note, I've noticed that he tends to get his wires crossed a bit in terms of the warring hypnotic commands within Harry from E-branch and B.J. It's tough to keep track of what he can't say in whose presence. Other times, Harry seems to ignore these hypnotic commands entirely and do what he wants. The hardest part is the consistency of what Harry remembers, and what he's supposed to remember. With these complications, I felt comfortable just trusting the author to keep it all straight. But with "The Plague Bearer" I began to question whether Lumley really had it all straight in his head. Based on what Harry remembers or doesn't in "The Lost Years" books, the continuity seemed quite off in parts.
The most intriguing element of the book was Harry's use of time travel in the Mobius Continuum. Playing with time travel is playing with fire. Thankfully, Lumley added a quick disclaimer in the book that explained Harry's limitations with changing the past. Otherwise, Harry could travel back along the life threads and save his mothers life, could stop Yulien Bodescu from ever being born, thus saving Brenda and Harry Jr. so they didn't have to disappear. He could also have saved countless members of E-branch who were killed. But Lumley ties it into a nice bow:
"And yet...Even now the thought of Mobius time travel gave Harry pause. This first leg would not be problematic, he knew; for the past, even the recent past, was over and done with; it contained nothing worth fearing, for nothing could be changed. But the future..."
I really enjoyed some of Lumley's imaginative descriptions as Harry jumped back to the past in order save Kate:
"Simultaneously, he watched his life-thread as it appeared to wind itself back into him, while also seeming to reel him back into the past! And moving in opposition to time's flow, he held his wrist to the fore with the face of his wristwatch visible in the blue glare of his life-thread. And there a truly astonishing sight: the second hand blurring as it hurtled anti-clockwise round the dial, the minutes in a crazy whirl, and the hours unwinding like so many seconds! Harry supposed it was possible that he too was somehow growing younger: a notion that had never occurred to him before."
Some really fun concepts here that I hope Lumley explores in future books.
So Mike Milazzo, even with that bastard, Angus McGowan's help, fails miserably. The ending of this story was so anticlimactic. Not only did we know Mike was going to fail and die, but there wasn't even a real fight. Mike's body just fell apart before he could do anything.
However, Lumley did write some fantastic descriptions of Mike's painful death:
"Harry jerked himself back from Mike's damp-gleaming visage; and several of the vampire's flaky twig fingers - full of leprosy and as spongy as puffballs - went with him! Still grasping Harry's jacket as they broke off from Mike's quaking hands, the crumbling fingers at once lost their grip, and along with their blackened fingernails slid from the Necroscope's lapels like so many giant, dessicated caterpillars."
Harry's takedown of the Chemist with a sniper rifle was pretty sweet, and was really the only violent action of the story. The dead Chemist never said anything of value, and Mike barely did.
Overall, a fun little story. Anticlimactic for sure. The best part was the time travel scenes and watching Mike Milazzo completely fall apart.
The artwork is one of the best Bob Eggleton has ever created. I remember seeing this in bookstores and being oddly drawn to the book just from the artwork.
Lumley added a note in the epilogue to not just him too harshly if minor details didn't exactly line up with the Lost Years books. On that note, I've noticed that he tends to get his wires crossed a bit in terms of the warring hypnotic commands within Harry from E-branch and B.J. It's tough to keep track of what he can't say in whose presence. Other times, Harry seems to ignore these hypnotic commands entirely and do what he wants. The hardest part is the consistency of what Harry remembers, and what he's supposed to remember. With these complications, I felt comfortable just trusting the author to keep it all straight. But with "The Plague Bearer" I began to question whether Lumley really had it all straight in his head. Based on what Harry remembers or doesn't in "The Lost Years" books, the continuity seemed quite off in parts.
The most intriguing element of the book was Harry's use of time travel in the Mobius Continuum. Playing with time travel is playing with fire. Thankfully, Lumley added a quick disclaimer in the book that explained Harry's limitations with changing the past. Otherwise, Harry could travel back along the life threads and save his mothers life, could stop Yulien Bodescu from ever being born, thus saving Brenda and Harry Jr. so they didn't have to disappear. He could also have saved countless members of E-branch who were killed. But Lumley ties it into a nice bow:
"And yet...Even now the thought of Mobius time travel gave Harry pause. This first leg would not be problematic, he knew; for the past, even the recent past, was over and done with; it contained nothing worth fearing, for nothing could be changed. But the future..."
I really enjoyed some of Lumley's imaginative descriptions as Harry jumped back to the past in order save Kate:
"Simultaneously, he watched his life-thread as it appeared to wind itself back into him, while also seeming to reel him back into the past! And moving in opposition to time's flow, he held his wrist to the fore with the face of his wristwatch visible in the blue glare of his life-thread. And there a truly astonishing sight: the second hand blurring as it hurtled anti-clockwise round the dial, the minutes in a crazy whirl, and the hours unwinding like so many seconds! Harry supposed it was possible that he too was somehow growing younger: a notion that had never occurred to him before."
Some really fun concepts here that I hope Lumley explores in future books.
So Mike Milazzo, even with that bastard, Angus McGowan's help, fails miserably. The ending of this story was so anticlimactic. Not only did we know Mike was going to fail and die, but there wasn't even a real fight. Mike's body just fell apart before he could do anything.
However, Lumley did write some fantastic descriptions of Mike's painful death:
"Harry jerked himself back from Mike's damp-gleaming visage; and several of the vampire's flaky twig fingers - full of leprosy and as spongy as puffballs - went with him! Still grasping Harry's jacket as they broke off from Mike's quaking hands, the crumbling fingers at once lost their grip, and along with their blackened fingernails slid from the Necroscope's lapels like so many giant, dessicated caterpillars."
Harry's takedown of the Chemist with a sniper rifle was pretty sweet, and was really the only violent action of the story. The dead Chemist never said anything of value, and Mike barely did.
Overall, a fun little story. Anticlimactic for sure. The best part was the time travel scenes and watching Mike Milazzo completely fall apart.
January 8, 2012
This novella, or short story is a lost chapter from Brian Lumley's "Necroscope: the Lost Years." It's been a while since reading anything by Brian Lumley and I had forgotten how wordy he can be. But, having read "The Lost Years" I feel into this easily and I enjoyed the further adventures of Harry Keogh. This is probably only for real die-hards of Brian Lumley and his Necroscope series. If you are one of them, as I am, you should enjoy the read.
July 5, 2015
He did it again!
Mr Lumley
Capture his devoted reader with another incredibly crafted novel of intriguing and grotesquely twisted tail of Harry's obsession with BJ a werewolf pack leader who had him hypothesized and under her command. I felt book left me wonder what's next. Will Harry go back to his secret organization or will he stay with BJ and continue to drink her wine and under her control...enough of this let's get real. Harry needs to accept the lost of his family.
Mr Lumley
Capture his devoted reader with another incredibly crafted novel of intriguing and grotesquely twisted tail of Harry's obsession with BJ a werewolf pack leader who had him hypothesized and under her command. I felt book left me wonder what's next. Will Harry go back to his secret organization or will he stay with BJ and continue to drink her wine and under her control...enough of this let's get real. Harry needs to accept the lost of his family.
September 16, 2010
I really am a fan of Brian Lumbley Necroscope series and this book is no exception. This is a very short story that takes place long before Harry ends up in another world. It takes place in Scotland where Harry has gone after the disappearance of his wife and child and meets a woman/wolf that he becomes involved with protecting.
January 15, 2013
This was a very short and little disappointing return into the world of Necroscope - maybe I feel it like this because I did not enjoy both "Lost years" books as much as the other Necroscope novels, especially as the "Vampire world" trilogy.. However every story from this universe will still be interesting for me and I will read it with interest no matter what it`s like :-)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews