Cavelos, Jeanne, ed. The many faces of Van Helsing.CAVELOS, Jeanne, ed. The many faces of Van Helsing. Penguin, Berkley, Ace. 400p. 0-441-01170-5. $14.95. SA Forget this year's Van Helsing flick (even if you love sexy Hugh Jackman or the outlandishly out·land·ish adj. 1. Conspicuously unconventional; bizarre. See Synonyms at strange. 2. Strikingly unfamiliar. 3. Located far from civilized areas. 4. Archaic Of foreign origin; not native. wonderful special effects special effects, in motion pictures, cinematographic techniques that create illusions in the audience's minds as well as the illusions created using these techniques. ). That movie character and the venerable vampire hunter
A vampire hunter or vampire slayer is someone who specializes in finding and destroying vampires. Van Helsing wouldn't know each other if they shared a bunk bunk, bunker large storage bin. bunk forage forage, usually ensilage stored in a large storage bunk and made available to cattle or other livestock along a face of the storage. together in Dracula's castle Dracula's Castle may refer to:
There are 21 stories in all and they attack their subject in almost as many ways, with a great deal of creativity and ingenuity. Clearly the authors know Van Helsing or what they'd like him to be. Some of the names will be familiar: Tanith Lee This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. , J.A. Konrath, Thomas F. Monteleone are among them. There are stories in which Van Helsing is barely recognizable, even one in which he himself is a vampire! The authors have him roam far and wide, from Europe to the US to China and back to Europe. Van Helsing's family is the subject of a number of these entries. A few writers explore the insanity insanity, mental disorder of such severity as to render its victim incapable of managing his affairs or of conforming to social standards. Today, the term insanity is used chiefly in criminal law, to denote mental aberrations or defects that may relieve a person from of Van Helsing's wife--some in a most poetic way, others taking unexpected avenues, such as the story in which Van Helsing loses his wife because she comes to terms with her lesbianism lesbianism: see homosexuality. lesbianism also called sapphism or female homosexuality, the quality or state of intense emotional and usually erotic attraction of a woman to another woman. . Van Helsing's son is also the subject of tales--his death is a source of sorrow and regret for Van Helsing so it is natural for these writers to speculate on how and why the boy died. The child's death is particularly haunting for Van Helsing and a few contributors explore why this might be the case, such as in the tale in which Van Helsing, in trying to cure his son's illness, turns the boy into a vampire instead. What a dilemma for the man! Some use their stories to explain why Van Helsing is so obsessed ob·sess v. ob·sessed, ob·sess·ing, ob·sess·es v.tr. To preoccupy the mind of excessively. v.intr. with killing vampires--and, naturally, the death of his own family at the hands of vampires is seen as such a reason. Tanith Lee's tale is, of course, a standout. Van Helsing, as she sees it, was an abandoned child found and raised, not as a tasty snack, by a family of vampires. He grows to love them, learns their ways and their thoughts, and finally, desires to become one of them. Needless to say, this does not happen--but the how and why and the consequences of his decision are wonderfully handled. This is a terrific collection for any library. Better readers will have an easier time and vampire fans will be greatly interested. And the movie, even though it makes a comic book-type hero of Van Helsing, will spark some interest in this title. Joseph DeMarco, Libn., St. Joseph's Sch., Philadelphia, PA |
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