Hand me my nose ring

 So, we finish up Mick Farren's Renquist Quartet with the really silly in its premise Underland, in which not only do we get to deal with covert Government black ops involved in the paranormal, but Nazi descendants living in the Hollow Earth that fly Flying Saucers. It sounds silly as hell, but the writing makes it work.

We start with Victor being kidnapped in broad daylight by the NSA-FEMA to be taken to their underground bunkers in Virginia. After some torture, creating a new Darklost, and sort of befriending a human mercenary on the payroll, Victor gets voluntold to enter the Hollow Earth to figure out what's going on down there, since communication between the surface and the caverns is increasingly spotty, with one field team vanishing, and another evidently defecting. Requist agrees, and he and Coulson (the human mercenary), Bridewell (the female Darklost created early on), and Lupo head to Ice Station Zebra to enter the Earth. Which leads to a dark, polluted world with advanced technology and a snake cult run by 3rd or 4th generation Nazis. 

Into this mix comes Julia and De Reeske (last seen at the end of Darklost with the head of her rival that also has a shard of Cthulhu in it), and a bunch of "missing link" vampires who retreated into the Earth during the last Ice Age. Which, of course, leads to chaos. 

By the end, all the dangling plot lines from the last two volumes are resolved, and we're left wondering what will come next, which sadly will never be told, since Farren died. 

Really fun book, despite the really absurd premise.

Just because some watery tart lobs a scimitar at you

 Ok, so, back to The Renquist Quartet by Mick Ferrin, where More Than Mortal delves deeper into the whole Nephilim mythology and the Urshu, sterile ambassadors between the Mortals and the Nephilim. Given we're in England and Scotland for the entirety of this book, dealing with a sealed sarcophagus buried beneath Morton Downs, we're essentially dealing with Merlin Taliesin. Well, eventually. Said mentor to Arthur doesn't actually wake up until roughly 3/4 of the way through, which gives us plenty of time to delve deep into different Nosferatu political and social structures. 

Basically, the troika (three female Nosferatu) living in a castle on the moors are being disturbed by excavations at Morton Downs. One in particular, Columbine, is having horrid nightmares about 600AD and driving the Saxons off the land. Marieko and Destry join her in summoning Victor to England to figure out what's going on. Which sets off a bit of a territorial spat with the Highlander Nosferatu of Clan Fenroir. 

Eventually, Victor gets dragged off to Scotland as a prisoner/guest of the Laird, and the troika contacts the LA colony, which brings Lupo (about 20 pages from the end) and Julia (a bit earlier) to England. 

And of course, there's Merlin, who essentially has his own plots after a several centuries nap. Which is amusing, since his own plotting makes the Nosferatu plotting look a bit like amateur hour. 

I remember being not that thrilled with this one when I read it the first time, and some of that remains, since nothing really happens until the very end. However, as an older man, I can now see it as a "bottle episode", really showing off how things really work in this setting, just to watch it fall apart when a certain being drives through like a 70's car chase. 

I actually rather liked it this go round. While not as action packed as the first two, it has a lot of fun with what it is.

Have you been touched by his tentacle appendage?

 Book two of the Renquist Quartet, Darklost, picks up with the colony just having moved to Los Angeles. The new residence sits off an unmarked road in the hills, isolated from just about everything. However, isolation doesn't mean that the world isn't about to get involved in the Colony's politics. 

With the move, the colony is now using blood bags as backups, preferring to feed from live people rather risk another outbreak of Feasting. Renquist is still mourning Cynara, but everyone else in the colony seems to be adapting well, with even Segal the Grotesque riding with a motorcycle gang most nights. However, Victor gets roused out of some of his isolationism by seeing something bad rising from Beverly Hills. 

Mind you, Julia, who spent most of the first book playing secondary anatagonist, in this one becomes something more of an independent ally. Her own hunting trip leads her to find a psychic who resembles an overweight psychic Stevie Nicks, who's scan reveals she knows Brandon Wales (near as I can tell, a cypher for Marlon Brando). This sets off a plot line for Julia working with Dahlia (the child vampire) to bring Brandon over and restore him to his handsome youth. 

Victor and his second, Lupo, on the other hand, get sucked into investigating the strange aura, which leads to The Apogee, basically a pseudo-religious organization run by Three people with their own internal problems, not the least of which is that Marcus De Reske, who prefers the occult to the scam, has found the Necronomicon made some sculptural decisions, and the stars are aligning for the return of Cthulhu, whom he is convinced will give him Dominion over the Earth.

And we also have Elaine Dance, who was one step from being brought over by Cynara in the last book, now working as a professional domme in LA, and getting back to the colony via following broadcast commands via Julia and Victor. 

So, there's quite a bit going on here, and by the end, at least one eldritch tentacle has crosses between the dimensions. 

We also see Julia and Victor's "DNA Dreams" exploring what Cthulhu was to the Original Beings, who evolved into modern nosferatu, which includes more information on the Nephillim, the ancient aliens who in turn created the original beings and tampered with human DNA. 

When this series was first being written, this is the book I found and read first, drawn in by a B movie plot of Vampires vs Cthulhu. I find reading the first book first helps the much more involved plot of this one make much more sense. It's still a B movie plot, but every character in here understands the absurdity and also acknowledges that absurdity doesn't negate the dangers of interdimensional sushi looking to eat humanity.  

Honestly, it's held up better than I remember it being. Fun read.

Creatures of the Night

 So, I randomly ordered all four books of Mick Farren's Renquist Quartet a while back, and finally finished The Time of Feasting this morning. I'd honestly forgotten how much fun these are.

This, the first book, introduces us to Victor Renquist and his colony of Nosferatu in lower Manhattan as the Time of Feasting is set to begin. Basically, vampires in this setting get by on blood bag infusions to eat, but every so often, the urge to actually eat a human takes over, and the Feasting begins. Renquist's idea for this outbreak is to do his best to make sure that everything looks like the work of a Satanic Serial Killer. 

The colony is facing internal drama as Victor's creation from the mid 1930's, Julia, has created her own progeny, Carfax. Carfax used to front a thrash metal band, and is now undergoing what amounts to the Nosferatu version of the Terrible Twos, challenging Renquist's authority and flaunting his nature while killing indiscriminately. Julia is creating problems of her own, vying for Renquist's affections from Cynara, Victor's long term flame. (Julia from what I remember in later books is a really fun character, acting as both ally and foil.) Oh, and a drunken defrocked priest is able to see through the Nosferatu illusions and see the colony as it is. 

Add into this another group of Voudon practitioners, annoyed with the fact the killings have unleashed 1990's style NYC police work on their population and basically telling Renquist they'll help Renquist with Carfax as long as the colony leaves New York within 48 hours and you have a really over the top Vampire novel that's both readable and fun. 

While the later three books delve deeper into the creation of Nosferatu, this one lays tantalizing hints of aliens creating vampires and creating death rays that kill them back before recorded history, and gives us Dietrich, the old master of the colony, who not terribly long ago walked away to meditate in isolation. 

I've played enough White Wolf games to place most of the colony in Clans and assign disciplines, but frankly, half the fun is in the little bits of irony that come out as the characters occasionally realize exactly how ridiculous the entire thing is. (Yes, it was the 90's.)

Highly recommended reading.