Publisher: Pocket Books
294 pages
1980
Source: Borrowed from family
Description: The Vampire Tapestry examines the classic monster as a biological, rather than supernatural, predator who awakens from hibernation every few decades needing to relearn human culture. After years of secret effort, the self-styled Edward Weyland has become a respected anthropology professor and director of a sleep research lab. With reliable access to unsuspecting blood donors, he grows complacent and makes a near-fatal error. First critically wounded by a strong and canny woman, then imprisoned and humiliated by a power-mad Satanist, he is forced on a journey toward an empathy with his prey that threatens the foundations of his survival. (copied from Goodreads)
Review: I'll start by saying this isn't a bad book, it just didn't quite click for me, so it took far longer to read than a three hundred page book really should have.
The take on vampirism is actually somewhat novel, being more predator than monster, and, at times, fairly sympathetic without being a good "person."
The journey the character takes is told in five segments, the first three from the perspective of other characters, and I found them a bit of a mixed bag. I didn't really like the narrator of the first segment and I really couldn't follow the therapy in the third segment, which I suspect has some rather dated techniques. The last two are more from the vampires perspective, and make him a bit less alien to the reader. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on the reader.
Overall, while it didn't quite live up to my expectations, I feel it was still a book worth reading.
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