Below is a glowing commentary of Darklost, the second novel of the Renquist Quartet. I don’t know if any movie directors visit Doc40, but if they do, I would draw their attention to the second paragraph. (But do movie people still read, or do they just look at the pictures? I’d be happy talking with an artist who was looking to do a graphic novel.)
"The second novel of vampire Victor Renquist, now shifted to LA where there is a rich and mad cult planning to raise Chthulhu, plus a woman who was halfway turned before the vampire concerned died (she is termed a darklost), plus a squadron of violent off-the-books cops, a rock band, a feral Mexican vampire, some armadillos (don't ask me) and Marlon Brando. It's highly compressed - almost 500 pages, nearly all of it covering a couple of days of beautifully orchestrated action, full of exciting set-pieces, with the overall megathreat never occluded at all.
He's also great at creating memorable visuals (my oldest friend was particularly captivated by the opening of Phaid The Gambler). At the climax of this, LA is in chaos: riots, people going crazy, strange energies flashing around, covered in a toxic fog. The vampires are coming to save the world: 1000-year-old Victor with his cursed samurai sword, Brando looking as he had in The Wild One, a little girl in Victorian schoolgirl garb, with her bald teenage sister, another who has worked for decades as an unstoppable Mafia assassin, and others. This lot come striding out of the fog, everyone instinctively getting out of their way - any movie director could make a career out of that scene."
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8 comments:
I thought the Renquist books were great, arguably your best. Unfortunately, I'm a little short on influence just lately. Let me get back to you.
I'll still pay good money for a sequel to Underland... I'll even donate $20 to the endeavor up front, I'm pretty sure I could afford that.
Fuck it, I'd be willing to sell my Xbox 360 and donate the money if it'd get the book in my hands any sooner.
I'll pass my copy on to my good friend Geoff Isherwood, who has drawn for both DC and Marvel. These days he's drawing storyboards and art dept stuff for films based in Montreal.
You need to start going to the right parties Mick.
Color me surprized that Rhenquist Quartet hasn't been optioned. Then again, after what ended up happening to Steakley's Vampire$...
Thank you for all the kind words. Two things I really want to do (at least) is one more Renquist book, and the sequel to Necrom. Maybe they could meet. I dunno. I sit and plot.
As to the right parties, I used to go to them, but they were so right, I tended to become drink and withering in my scorn.
That was supposed to be "drunk and withering in my scorn."
I understand. I've hawked a few screenplays around La-la Land myself.
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