Isilith wrote:Robert_A_Woodward wrote:At a book signing (for _Uncompromising Honor_), he mentioned that Vlad wasn't a vampire; he was something else (my guess is that somebody off planet was responsible for a super warrior enhancement).
Yeah, that's depressing. Sounds like he is going to go the Highlander 2 route. Sucks, I was looking forward to the sequel.
Since I never actually saw Highlander 2 (the reviews were enough to make me stay far, far away from it; when one has only limited time to devote to cinema, one tries to stay away from the movies one
knows will do Bad Things to one's blood pressure and generally sweet and gentle personality),* I can't say for sure. I don't really expect you to be horribly disappointed, though. Unless you simply insist on your vampires being the classical version. In fact, i think you will find that a lot of vampiric lore is based on Vlad and his buds (and vice versa) before this book is over.
When I wrote the original short story which Tom Doherty at Tor asked me to expand into a novel, I fully intended for Vlad to be, well. . .
Vlad, with more of a throw back (in terms of powers and vulnerabilities) to the original Dracula. When I was asked to expand it into a novel with the possibility of a series of sequels, I decided that would be too much of a clash with the military scifi aspects of it. (I think mixing fantasy and hard military SF worked for me in the Fury books, but it's a really hard line to walk.) So I looked for another "flavor" of vampire, and I think the one I came up with actually works pretty darn well.
At any rate, if you liked OOD, I suggest you wait and take a look at ITL before you just write it off. It's a straight continuation of the original novel, and aside from the fact that not only the reader but some of the characters made some assumptions about just what it really means to be a "vampire," it has almost exactly the same feel to it, I think. Well, aside from the fact that the humans in it aren't
currently battling genocidal aliens!
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
*Actually, the last 15 minutes or so of the original were enough to make me stay away from the sequel. Took a while to get the bad taste of "So
that's the great prize?!?!" out of my mouth. Fantastic film up to that point. Then . . . kerblooie!
![Mad :x](./images/smilies/icon_mad.gif)