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Timmy Valentine #3
Vanitas: Escape from Vampire Junction
Vampire Junction, S. P. Somtow's groundbreaking novel of vampiric horror, introduced Timmy Valentine, a world-famous rock star with the body of a twelve-year-old boy...and the ageless soul of a bloodthirsty predator. Timmy returned in Valentine, in which he finally shed his undead curse forever. Or did he?
In Vanitas, Timmy Valentine has relinquished his immortality and transferred his vampiric essence to young Angel Todd. Timmy is now an ordinary boy, awakened at last from an ancient nightmare. His new album has just come out, but there's something missing. In a desperate bid to salvage his career, he goes on a world tour. Every stop, though, brings haunting memories of his inhuman past and terrifying manifestations of a blood-drenched future.
In Vanitas, Timmy Valentine has relinquished his immortality and transferred his vampiric essence to young Angel Todd. Timmy is now an ordinary boy, awakened at last from an ancient nightmare. His new album has just come out, but there's something missing. In a desperate bid to salvage his career, he goes on a world tour. Every stop, though, brings haunting memories of his inhuman past and terrifying manifestations of a blood-drenched future.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1995
2 people are currently reading
154 people want to read
About the author
S.P. Somtow
180 books156 followersCalled by the Bangkok Post "the Thai person known by name to most people in the world," S.P. Somtow is an author, composer, filmmaker, and international media personality whose dazzling talents and acerbic wit have entertained and enlightened fans the world over.
He was Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul in Bangkok. His grandfather's sister was a Queen of Siam, his father is a well known international lawyer and vice-president of the International Academy of Human Rights. Somtow was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and his first career was in music. In the 1970s (while he was still in college) his works were being performed on four continents and he was named representative of Thailand to the Asian Composer's League and to the International Music Commission of UNESCO. His avant-garde compositions caused controversy and scandal in his native country, and a severe case of musical burnout in the late 1970s precipitated his entry into a second career - that of author.
He began writing science fiction, but soon started to invade other fields of writing, with some 40 books out now, including the clasic horror novel Vampire Junction, which defined the "rock and roll vampire" concept for the 80s, the Riverrun Trilogy ("the finest new series of the 90's" - Locus) and the semi-autobiographical memoir Jasmine Nights. He has won or been nominated for dozens of major awards including the Bram Stoker Award, the John W. Campbell Award, the Hugo Award, and the World Fantasy Award.
Somtow has also made some incursions into filmmaking, directing the cult classic The Laughing Dead and the award winning art film Ill Met by Moonlight.
He was Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul in Bangkok. His grandfather's sister was a Queen of Siam, his father is a well known international lawyer and vice-president of the International Academy of Human Rights. Somtow was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and his first career was in music. In the 1970s (while he was still in college) his works were being performed on four continents and he was named representative of Thailand to the Asian Composer's League and to the International Music Commission of UNESCO. His avant-garde compositions caused controversy and scandal in his native country, and a severe case of musical burnout in the late 1970s precipitated his entry into a second career - that of author.
He began writing science fiction, but soon started to invade other fields of writing, with some 40 books out now, including the clasic horror novel Vampire Junction, which defined the "rock and roll vampire" concept for the 80s, the Riverrun Trilogy ("the finest new series of the 90's" - Locus) and the semi-autobiographical memoir Jasmine Nights. He has won or been nominated for dozens of major awards including the Bram Stoker Award, the John W. Campbell Award, the Hugo Award, and the World Fantasy Award.
Somtow has also made some incursions into filmmaking, directing the cult classic The Laughing Dead and the award winning art film Ill Met by Moonlight.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 2, 2009
Vanitas is the final book in S. P. Somtow's Vampire Junction/Timmy Valentine trilogy, and it's a great finale for the series (though Valentine, the second book, will always be my personal favourite).
If your idea of fun vampire fiction is the Twilight series... this is not the book for you. Vanitas (and the trilogy as a whole) is real horror fiction, and while S. P. Somtow's lyrical, poetic style never fails to move me, there are some truly graphic and gory scenes in this book. All of which are completely appropriate for the story Somtow is telling, but I consider myself a veteran horror fan, and there are still parts of this book that make me cringe.
That said, the history, psychology, philosophy and, yes, opera, that Somtow mixes into Vanitas and its predecessors make it so much more than just a bloody horror story. If you're a fan of thought-provoking fiction, I highly recommend picking up Vampire Junction, the first book in the series, and seeing what you think. If you can handle the horror elements, it's very much worth it to see the skewed mirror image of our world that Somtow paints so deftly in these novels.
If your idea of fun vampire fiction is the Twilight series... this is not the book for you. Vanitas (and the trilogy as a whole) is real horror fiction, and while S. P. Somtow's lyrical, poetic style never fails to move me, there are some truly graphic and gory scenes in this book. All of which are completely appropriate for the story Somtow is telling, but I consider myself a veteran horror fan, and there are still parts of this book that make me cringe.
That said, the history, psychology, philosophy and, yes, opera, that Somtow mixes into Vanitas and its predecessors make it so much more than just a bloody horror story. If you're a fan of thought-provoking fiction, I highly recommend picking up Vampire Junction, the first book in the series, and seeing what you think. If you can handle the horror elements, it's very much worth it to see the skewed mirror image of our world that Somtow paints so deftly in these novels.
November 15, 2009
The title refers to an art movement of the 17th century of still lifes that had an element of death within them: a maggot, worm or skull to represent the fleetingness of life.
Timmy Valentine is a real boy again after 2,000 years as a vampire, and he’s still not happy. As a singer, he must now breathe, he’s not as morbid as he was, his fans have lost interest, and he’s still castrato. Angel is imprisoned as a vampire; he’s killing for the thrill. PJ and Chit have lost the magic they had that allowed them to live through the conflagration in Junction and they’ve lost some of each other too.
Meanwhile, as a human, Timmy has lost some of his perfect memory, but gets chunks of it back in this book. He made Dracula. Inspired Marlowe. Acted for Shakespeare. Told stories to Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde. Caravaggio painted him. He decided he was good when he met Gilles de Rais, the murderous inspiration for Bluebeard and campaigner with Joan of Arc, who tried to kill him, then begged him to make him a vampire. A tabloid describes Timmy as a “Twelve year old gore-loving new age punk got-rave cyberdeathrock puke popper.”
Timmy Valentine is a real boy again after 2,000 years as a vampire, and he’s still not happy. As a singer, he must now breathe, he’s not as morbid as he was, his fans have lost interest, and he’s still castrato. Angel is imprisoned as a vampire; he’s killing for the thrill. PJ and Chit have lost the magic they had that allowed them to live through the conflagration in Junction and they’ve lost some of each other too.
Meanwhile, as a human, Timmy has lost some of his perfect memory, but gets chunks of it back in this book. He made Dracula. Inspired Marlowe. Acted for Shakespeare. Told stories to Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde. Caravaggio painted him. He decided he was good when he met Gilles de Rais, the murderous inspiration for Bluebeard and campaigner with Joan of Arc, who tried to kill him, then begged him to make him a vampire. A tabloid describes Timmy as a “Twelve year old gore-loving new age punk got-rave cyberdeathrock puke popper.”
August 4, 2009
Revenu de l’autre côté du miroir après avoir échangé son destin avec Angel Todd, Timmy Valentine doit réapprendre à se comporter comme un simple mortel.
Mais la vie d’une rock star n’a rien d’une sinécure, surtout quand on a treize ans et qu’on n’est plus un vampire.
D’autant qu’Angel a du mal à s’adapter à sa nouvelle vie de créature de la nuit et fait tout pour revenir sur le devant de la scène.
Timmy devient, à son tour, chasseur de vampires et se replonge dans son lointain passé, lorsqu’il croisait Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Jack l’Éventreur et même Bram Stoker, à qui il dévoila la véritable histoire du comte Dracula.
Vanitas clôt brillamment une trilogie mêlant rock et vampires, meurtres abominables et déviances sexuelles.
Cette œuvre choc, souvent comparée aux premiers romans de Stephen King, a valu à son auteur un succès mondial.
Mais la vie d’une rock star n’a rien d’une sinécure, surtout quand on a treize ans et qu’on n’est plus un vampire.
D’autant qu’Angel a du mal à s’adapter à sa nouvelle vie de créature de la nuit et fait tout pour revenir sur le devant de la scène.
Timmy devient, à son tour, chasseur de vampires et se replonge dans son lointain passé, lorsqu’il croisait Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Jack l’Éventreur et même Bram Stoker, à qui il dévoila la véritable histoire du comte Dracula.
Vanitas clôt brillamment une trilogie mêlant rock et vampires, meurtres abominables et déviances sexuelles.
Cette œuvre choc, souvent comparée aux premiers romans de Stephen King, a valu à son auteur un succès mondial.
May 20, 2016
A friend of my mother's gave me this book, no doubt unaware that it was the finally book in the series, something I didn't learn until I was almost done reading it. I suppose that had I read the series in order I might have enjoyed it but at the time I was so lost and weirded out, one of the characters brings another back by having sex with their corpse if I remember right that I was left with no desire to go back to the beginning.
March 11, 2011
I always thought that Justin Bieber was suspicious.
Curious modern style vampire / sci-fi novel, as a vampire that looks like a 12 yearl old boy and is a boy pop star has changed into a human and swapped with another 12 year old boy who goes a-vampirin', with a German girl who wants to be a vampire and a painter living in Ireland who paints vampire death scenes.
Curious modern style vampire / sci-fi novel, as a vampire that looks like a 12 yearl old boy and is a boy pop star has changed into a human and swapped with another 12 year old boy who goes a-vampirin', with a German girl who wants to be a vampire and a painter living in Ireland who paints vampire death scenes.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews