| Title | : | Blood Brothers (Necroscope, #6) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0812520610 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780812520613 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 565 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1992 |
Yet there are vampires still, vampires crueler and stranger than any the Necroscope had faced. When these new, merciless killers swoop out of the sky, Nathan and Nestor are men--but they have few of Harry Keogh's miraculous powers.
Torn from each other by battle, the sons of the Necroscope journey across the vampire world, exploring its mysteries, each seeking the powerful, terrible vampires, his missing brother...and the woman they both love!
Blood Brothers (Necroscope, #6) Reviews
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For about the past six years or so, I've been a visitor to Brian
Lumley's vampire world. It hasn't taken me this long because of the availability of the novels, but because I'm bent on making each novel in this series an annual treat.
The Necroscope series has done what has seemed to be the impossible, and that's keep me thoroughly enthralled in a series for five novels. I don't have to rehash what I've already written, you all know how I feel about this series if you've read my other reviews.
I think I had read somewhere that Lumley wrote Blood Brothers because of demands from his readers that he continue the story of this world.
The Necroscope series ended with Deadspawn, with closure, so, it was
with a little guarded optimism that I started reading it.
Would this continue the story, keeping things fresh and interesting? Or are we in for a bunch of filler material from a writer cashing in on his past success?
For about the first 200 pages, the guarded optimism had begun to slip to mild disappointment.
The story centered around the history of the vampires in their world, and while it was interesting, it didn't quite grab me as much as the earlier novels did.
Well, this changed once the novel progressed into the present day. The story launches off about the lives of Harry Keogh's twin sons on Sunside. It's yet another great story, and some mysteries of the land are revealed. Yes, this is yet another winner, folks.
Lumley's novels in this series are true horror. There are a lot of
so-called horror novels that hack, slash and gore their way to staking a claim in this genre, but few can give me the sense of the dread that is produced from human fodder in the aeries of the Wamphiri lords.
Blood Brothers is the first part of a trilogy, and it ended with me drooling for more. I bought the sequel, The Last Aerie, at the same time, but I don't think I'm going to be able to wait a year to read it... -
As you might surmise, the action takes place on a more fleshed-out vampire world adjacent to the Earth, the secret place where a few of the vampires slipped through and tormented humanity on this side in the previous books. We saw this world in some detail before, but this one goes all out.
Harry's secret sons have some of the Necroscope's powers on this other side and the whole book reads like a fantasy adventure. Vampire lords, the sun and star sides of the world, air battles, and grand subjugation everywhere.
Quite satisfying for what it is, and while it does have a slightly different flavor from the previous books, it really does need to be read in sequence.
Adventure time! -
This is the story of Harry & Nina Kiklu's twins, Nathan & Nestor. If you're a Harry Keogh fan, it's well worth reading this trilogy of his sons. Nathan has a head full of numbers and doesn't know why. During a vampire attack at the Settlement, Nestor suffers a head injury and ends up in Starside. He believes Nathan is his enemy. Nathan travels throughout Sunside and meets other people. He ends up in Turgosheim. Great continuation of the Necroscope story.
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This was a very different book from the first five. But it was still just as good. There was a wide span of new characters to love and follow. And as far as my understanding girls will be following these characters for the next two books. I am definitely excited to see what comes next.
Expensive of the world in this book was immense. I 1 so much about the lore of this series. More than I thought would be possible for just one book. From beginning to end I was lost in this horrific but fantastic world. -
This is the 6th book in the Necroscope series and first in the Vampire World trilogy. If you would have asked me when i was 25 to 50 % along if the book was good , I would have said that Lumley made a mistake continuing the Necroscope series after the original series ended in the previous book.
However, somewhere between 50-60% done I was fully into this universe again and now will probably buy #7 in the series.
It takes a while for this book to get going. We learn alot of history and bounce around between alot of timelines. We see what happens after #3 when Harry is recovering and how he happens to father twins he never knew about. We see what happens after #5 when Harry dies and his body goes through timeline and actually is the reason for the first Vamp , Shaitan.
We see Shaitans rise to power and how he starts building an army. He has followers and also enemies. One such enemy is a person turned vampire that thought Shaitan was too cruel lol. He then starts the vampire community in Turgosleim (definitely misspelled) that was kind of a secret vampire community from our usual characters in this alternative world.
Anyway, after all that history things get going. The twins have a kind of StarWars feel to it. One maybe evil, dark side? One light side? I like how the author shows Nathan using his newly practiced Necroscope powers in the desert. The story arc with his twin Nestor isn't followed as much but its tragic and yet, kind of what he deserves for what he tried to do to Misha.
As usual, the author does a great job expanding on the world of Starside/Sunside, the traveller and gypsy culture, the Vampire stacks/aeries and ways of life, and now the desert people and their cavernous underground community. Lots of cool gore and bloody battles and fights. Very visceral. Lots of sexual energy as well.
4 stars -
Out of the Necroscope Trilogy Blood Brother Books 6, 7, and 8 were by far my favorite.
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This is the first book that I read in English.
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Brian lumley is my favorite vampire author because these are not your typical coffin dwelling vampires or your teenage twilight vamps.These are some hard core mothers of all vampires who are nasty as can get and I loved everyone especially cankor wolf fox, if you love vampires you have to read lumley you won't regret it! I didn't.
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WHAT IN THE ACTUAL BLUEFUCK？ -
A very weirdly beautiful book! If you enjoyed the third necroscope you gonna love this one. If you didn’t, avoid it. Iz more to the dark fantasy side than the horror…
The shaitan mythos waz amazing. After Rice, Moorcock and others I loved lumleys take on it. The idea that vampires are born from mushrooms spores of the swamps in starside waz very unique and clever. And as a father of vampires, the whole genealogy and mythos of lumleys vampires is told in an epic and compelling –almost biblical- way.
Wratha’s back story waz very intriguing too.
The book starts a little slow (first 200 pages) but then picks up in a raging rhythm.
The brothers, thou twins, they are opposite in every way, and I really liked the way that their characters ‘’switched’’ in the middle of the book. Without giving anything away: Nestor waz A and Nathan B and after the attack on the village, Nestor became B and Nathan A.
We focus more on Nathan’s journey, which iz awesome, but Nestor’s tale begs us for wanting more. The part were Nathan became Marglore’s guest reminded me of another (Jo)Nathan and t waz a nice Homage to Stoker!
As for the ending:
Nathan for the majority og the book thinks Nestor iz dead, but in an attack he founds out that he iz undead and with Wratha!
Some readers might find it tiresome, haz many narratives, long chapters and long sentences bt… that iz how I like my books! -
These books are the best. I am reading the series for the second time. I have the whole paperback set from 1-13
I would recommend these reads to anyone that have a love for Vampire Stories with a lot of Gore. Five Thumbs Up! -
This is the second of the Necroscope Series. I didn't find this as good as the first, but still a lot of fun to read. This Vampire World series consists of:
Blood Brothers
The Last Aerie
Bloodwars
Plot ***Spoilers***
Blood Brothers
It is revealed that after the Battle in the Garden (Necroscope 3, The Source) while recovering from the ravaging of his mind by his son The Dweller, Harry Keogh fathered two sons unknowingly with a Szgany woman Nana Kiklu, in starside/sunside. This books covers in some part the boys growing up among the Szgany of Lardis Lidesci. With the vampires destroyed (Necroscope 5, Deadspawn) by Harry Keogh and Lady Karen with the help the wolf The Dweller the Szgany have stopped travelling and settled into towns. The boys grow up with their mother in the Lidesci town named Settlement with their friends and especially a girl named Misha and Lardis' son Jason. The boys suffer from dreams and sometimes nightmares of people whispering in their graves and they also talk to three wild wolves who for reasons unknown to them call the boys their uncles.
We also learn of a long forgotten part of the world to the far east of the known Starside/Sunside. Discovered a long time ago by an exiled Wamphyri Lords Turgo Zolte and now home to around 40 Wamphyri Lord and Ladies and similar Szgany tribes al under the command of the Lord Vormulac Unsleep. But whereas the Szgany of old Starside fight back against the Wamphyri, the Szgany in Turgosheim have become worn down and supplicant. Settling in towns and allowing the many Wamphyri to visit and take as they want, using a tithe system where they are forced to choose or find a certain number of "volunteers" to be taken and used by the Wamphyri. Aggravated and tired of the Turgosheim life and aware that the land in the west is free of vampires a group of six Wamphyri under the command of the Lady Wratha The Risen flee Turgosheim for the west.
As they grow older Nathan and Nestors once close relatationship deteriorates due in part because of their affections for Misha. While they are fighting over the Szgany girl their unprepared village is attacked by the Wamphyri led by Wratha. After the attack Nathan journeys away from Settlement, believing his mother, brother and Misha have been taken by the Wamphyri he ends up alone, weary and destitute and ready to die in the desert. His deadspeak thoughts are answered by a dead elder of the underground desert dwellers the telepathic Thyre. Wanting to help Nathan the dead Thyre Rogei guides him to a resting place of their ancients where he is found by the guards there.
Nestor, also injured in the attack on the village ends up in the hills, his memory damaged due to a head injury and believing he is a Wampnyri Lord. Nestor witnessing a duel between two Wamphyri Lords, Vasagi the suck and Wran KIllglance, rivals and part of Wrathas group out of Turgosheim. His intervention in the form of a crossbow bolt fired into Vasagi allows the Killglance Brother to win. He is then "rewarded" by Wran for his help with Vasagi's egg and he becomes Wamphyri.
Nathan, previously shunned by the dead of the Szgany, is immediately taken in by the Thyre and becomes famous among them, communicating with their dead and making many friends. Nathan becomes a conduit for the dead Thyre to talk to and teach the living Thyre, reuniting lost loved ones and telling them of new contraptions and inventions they have designed while dead. Learning to use his telepathy while traveling east with the Thyre across their many towns and underground outposts Nathan eventually ends up in Turgosheim.
In Turgosheim Nathan finds a supplicant Szgany tribe and is put into the tithe where he is taken to the manse of the Wampnyri Lord Maglore The Mage. Intrigued by Nathans intelligence, colours and demeanour Maglore does not vampirise him, instead choosing to keep him around as a companion or "pet". Nathan spends many months in Maglore's manse learning about Turgosheim and he also meets another untouched human, the female Szgany girl Orlea. All the time keeping his powers and mentalism hidden from the Wamphyri Lord Nathan eventually 'escapes' on a flyer and goes back to western sunside and the Szgany Lidesci. Where he is reunited with his mother and marries Misha.
Upon Nathan's return Nestor senses him and is enraged to find him back. Believing in his broken mind that Nathan is an "old enemy" Nestor attacks Nathan and Misha along with his lieutenant Zahar, injured in the brisk skirmish Nestors flyer crashes near a leper colony but not before Nathan is thrown through the Perchorsk gate by Zahar on Nestors orders.
The last Aerie
Sixteen years in the past on Earth Ben Trask along with other members of British E-Branch awake to a nightmare and feel compelled to go to their HQ in London, where they find each other waiting. Once there they use their combined ESP powers to project a hologram of the nightmare into view.
They see a body of a man all burned and blackened by fire spinning in the darkness, suddenly he explodes and disappears into golden shards of light, one of the shards seems to come right out of the image and fly out of the room. They realize they have witnessed the death of Harry Keogh in the vampire world. (Necroscope: Deadspawn)
Back in the present on Earth, Nathan is trapped, stuck inside the entrance of the wormhole gate in Perchorsk in Russia. Unsure if Nathan is human or Wamphyri The commander of Perchorsk, Turkur Tzonov, a telepath, contacts British E-Branch for help. Ben Trask and Ian Goodly agree to go to Perchork as advisors.
Once at Perchork, Ben's talent immediately tells him Nathan is human. Nathan is moved to a cell in the complex where Turkur begins interrogation, but Nathan stays quiet, only using his telepathy to talk to Ben. He realizes that the British knew his father (having learned this from reading Turkur's mind), and wants to know more so he accepts their help. Another Russian telepath Siggi Dam feels sorry for Nathan and allows him to escape. He flees into the mountains where he is finally intercepted by a British special forces helicopter and taken to England.
Once there he is told about his father and speaks to some of Harry's dead friends. E-Branch also tell him of the Möbius continuum and how Harry could teleport. Eager to learn this ability as he already has the numbers in him, Nathan starts to learn mathematics from a tutor but soon surpasses him. He then starts taking lessons from members of the dead, in particular Harry's own teacher a dead British headmaster.
E-branch also shares with Nathan the location of the second gate in Romania which he can use to go home, but Nathan must wait until the river there is at its lowest to get to the entrance, so he spends many months with the British learning about the world and his father.
While Nathan and Zek Foener are on a trip to visit the grave of her husband Jazz Simmons, they are attacked by Turkur's men (still trying to recapture Nathan). Having nowhere to run they are forced to swim in the ocean. Meanwhile in England Ian and David Chung know something is happening and turn on a computer in Harry's room in the E-branch Headquarters. A golden dart flies out of it and disappears. It finds Nathan who is still hiding in the ocean and in danger, and strikes him. By this blow he instantaneously learns Harry's knowledge of the Möbius mathematics and how to transport. He teleports both himself and Zek straight back to the E-Branch office though the Continuum.
While all this has been happening on Earth, back in the vampire world Nestor has ascended as the Wamphyri Lord Nestor Lichloathe, and has discovered the dread power of Necromancy. He is also inflicted with leprosy from crashing his flyer into the leper village. The Wamphyri of Turgosheim have also been busy as well, been making flyers and fighting beasts to follow Lady Wratha's group across to the west in order to wage war against them.
Bloodwars
Nestor and Nathan Kiklu are twins, united by blood and by a psychic bond inherited from their father, Harry Keogh, the Necroscope. Once so close each knew when the other breathed, they have become the bitterest of enemies, divided by the terrible evil of the Wamphyri.
Nestor, now a vampire Lord, rules a portion of the great tower known as the Last Aerie, from which he and the beautiful but deadly vampire Lady, Wratha the Risen, hunt the humans once defended by the Necroscope.
Nathan, flung through the Gate to Earth, discovers that he shares not only Harry Keogh's ability to talk to the dead but his power to travel effortlessly and instantly through space and time. Joining forces with Britain's E-Branch, a super-secret organization of psychics, Nathan returns to the vampire world to save his people.
Nathan desperately seeks a way to redeem his twin, but despite the solace he finds in the arms of his childhood sweetheart, knows his fight with Nestor must end in death - and the death of all the vampires. Blood - both living and undead - is spilled as Earthly weapons are brought to bear against the metamorphic alien Wamphyri.
The psychic powers of two worlds are united in the titanic final battle that forever changes the vampire planet...and Earth! -
Just finished this one on audible, the sixth in the series this was the first one that I struggled to get through. A long and rambling exercise in world building, far removed from the grittiness of the original series. Not bad enough to put me off though, there’s two left in this trilogy within the greater Necroscope saga & I understand there’s more earthbound stuff in the next one. The main thing I missed from other instalments was the captivating introduction & big action set piece endings. The vampires, as is typical in horror lose something in over exposure, I preferred it when it was “the thing in the ground” in those eerie woods of the first book. Rated two stars in relation to the other instalments in the saga so far.
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This is the sixth book in the Necroscope series, and the first book in the blood brothers trilogy. The bioengineering imagery of the inner workings of the vampire 'stack' are morbidly fascinating and, at times, stomach churning. There is much implied and it makes the imagination scream, and then you just keep wanting to know more. I thought that it took a bit longer to get in to it, and then it seemed like the end was rushed. That's ok though, it was a satisfying book to read.
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Necroscope Series by Brian Lumley
Review by Andy Strutt author of “The Afflicted”
I first discovered this series by receiving “Necroscope III : The Source” as a Christmas present. I had never heard of Brian Lumley but I was instantly infatuated with his work as soon as I had read the first few pages. Obviously, the first thing I did was go out and find the rest of the Necroscope series.
Harry Keogh is a very strange character with morbid supernatural powers that allow him to speak to the dead. That is enough to make you want to read the series on its own but it is only the start. The Necroscope is the first in the series of a totally unique and fantastical vampire mythology, and definitely my favourite out of all of them. His writing his dark and exciting and is not for the faint hearted. These are books for true fans of horror and I challenge any new reader to predict what is going to happen next. I pride myself on being able to predict the storyline and I was pleasantly surprised, there was no way I could have guessed where the story would lead. For me it is impossible to review a single novel in isolation (or necessary) because I feel that anyone who reads the first will very quickly read the other 14 novels eagerly.
Highly recommended and I guarantee these books deserve horror classic status. The writing and characterisations are timeless and will be enjoyed by true horror fans for centuries to come. -
Good book although it starts with a very convoluted and winding storyline. It goes back and forth in time between different storytellers and narrators covering the history of Lumley's Vampire World and the origin of the Wamphyri. All of that is interesting, if a bit rambling, since it provides a lot of insight into how the Wamphyri live. Once the story of the brothers finally begins, the book becomes a much better and faster read, effectively drawing me back into the Vampire saga after a long delay. I put off reading the Vampire World trilogy because of the shear size of the books. Now that I've completed Blood Brothers, I am ready to jump into The Last Aerie.
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The first two hundred pages of this book are really excruciatingly dull. I found them hard to read. That's because there's no human focus and no real plot. Instead we get a lot of parallel story to other Necroscope book and a lot of dull history. It's all in service to setting up the actual story of the book, but that means it isn't the story itself. After reading all this, I had to set the book aside for a while, in the hope I'd be able to able to enjoy the rest better after a break.
...
And after letting it sit on my shelf for months, I've decided I'm not going back to this. I've tried to read Lumley's Necro books before and had the same problem ... they're boring. Oh well! -
By the Blood Wars series, I lost most interest in the series. There was too much convolution in an effort to keep alive a storyline that should have ended with Deadspeak or before.
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Spoilers
Leaving this here for me in case it's ages before I read the sequel and can't remember.
We begin with an exposition on Shaitan, his genesis.
There are then another hundred pages about the creation of a place to the East of where the action is, called Turgosheim, and we find out why it's called thus. We are introduced to a "comely" young woman called Wratha, who is treated very badly by the vampires in that part of the world, but makes her comeback, becoming a vampire and then forming a mutiny before flying back West, to take the only stack left after the events of the previous necroscope novel. Karen is missing.
We rejoin Nathan (good) and Nestor (bad), sons of Harry Keogh, they don't know this, as they bicker over the affections of a girl called Misha.
It has been over sixteen years since Harry passed away.
Nestor and Nathan are the sons of Harry Keogh. A Wamphyri attack results in Misha being taken, presumed dead, or to be used, and Nestor and Nathan escape. Nestor is also presumed dead when his flyer crashes.
Nathan walks through a desert, learning more about his powers as a necroscope, and telepath, meeting an underground people, called the Thyre (or similar) before being taken in by Maglore the chief vampire of Turgosheim. They are about to go to war with Wratha's crowd. Nathan escapes, gets home and is married to Misha who we are told, got free herself.. The author spares us a sentimental reunion, she's contrived to be still single (as if ?) after three years?, and they are married, before Nestor, his brain damaged, and now a lord of the Vampires, his consort Wratha, only knows that Nathan is his sworn ancient enemy, finds Nathan and Misha in the woods and attacks them. Nestor crashes (again), his lieutenant takes Nathan and throws him through the hell gate (to our world).
It's all a little contrived. I used to really enjoy this sort of thing in my twenties, but I just can't get away with fantasy anymore, and this is horror dancing closely with it's fey mistress. Maybe I'm just getting old. I'll read the next one I think. I enjoy the huge mythological arcs that Lumley places behind the novels. -
Look - it's a Necroscope book, so I'm reading it.
I'm not going to describe how the new double-feature protagonists, Nathan and Nestor, figure into the storyline, but suffice to say we're going back to Starside, so yay! There's no way around the fact that these books are at their best either when we're in the Vampire World or in Romania (no, not the same thing, at least in these books, heh).
It's another fun, gritty, dark fantasy Lumley experience. I'm holding out hope for the protagonists in the next novels, 'cause their age doesn't make them particularly interesting point-of-view characters (I've also listened to this as an audiobook because who has time for reading anymore - sigh - and while the actor that reads it is great, his choice to go with whiny 12 year old for Nathan proved grating after a while). However, there's always a "however".
This book doesn't hit the highs present in the best previous efforts in the series mostly because, growing pains of introducing an entire set of characters aside, it feels a bit unfocused and it lacks a strong villain. That's not as bad as it might seem; we get a boatload of minor villains to make up for that, a colorful rogue's gallery like you'd expect from a writer that has as much fun with the visceral as Lumley does, and I have my fingers crossed for at least some of these bad dudes and dudettes to graduate into another Janos or Thibor. We also get a more in-depth look at certain major origin stories; there's history, lore and world-building, so the juiciness is thankfully there.
Thing are off to a pretty slow start, then we suffer through a long (and I'd say mostly pointless) trek through a desert, gaaah, move it along, Brian! ...But, hey - there are vampire aeries, and we get to take deliciously grizzly peeks into how Warriors and Fliers are made, and there's Gypsies taking out vamps with shotguns, and...
Screw it, I'm in for the long run with Necroscope. Whatever Lumley comes up with, I'm there. Bring'em on! -
It's been a very long time since I've read book 5 so I was stunned by how great this book was; it gave a nice recap, never became sluggish, we were given a decent history of the vampire lore and at no point did I get bored.
Dvds, people, cinema, news and any other distraction (besides work) were ignored and I spent any waking moment being enthralled by this tale where the monsters are monstrous and nobody or animal are safe.
If the vampire tales stayed true to the nature of the beast, it would be a monster that people feared rather than say "Oh god, another vampire tale"
A great book that stands alongside Dracula, Salem's Lot, I am Legend as the greatest vampire tales ever written.
If someone knows of another which isn't weighed down by teenage cuddles etc please let me know. I haven't read Ano Dracula which I believe to be exceptional and hope to read during my upcoming holidays. -
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, Brian Lumley takes the Necroscope series to the next level. The original 5 are classic and the start of the Vampire World trilogy pick right up where the others left off. Lumley’s Lovecraftian imagery and unique take on the vampire mythos is second to none. With the introduction of new characters and familiar themes e it’s almost impossible to put down.
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Harry Keogh's twin sons are growing up quickly and are in competition for a beautiful gypsy girl. When the Wamphyri return to Sunside, their group is not quite ready for the attack and the brothers are separated. They both survive, but are changed forever. A great continuation of this fascinating series.
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This entire series makes for excellent Halloween reading
If I was filthy rich, I'd seriously try to get this entire series to the big screen. Much the same as the "Strain" made it the screen. -
An attempt to recapture the magic of the original books. It’s just more of the same though and without the actual neuroscience Harry? Imagine buying a 007 book and there being no James Bond 🤬no thx. So what you get is a vampire book that is plain lousy and derivative
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What a slog that was. Too long, meandering (pointless?) story. Never seemed to be tracking to a single point but just telling multiple threads that seemingly went no where.
I will come back to the series for another try eventually but for now this is where I get off the ride.
