Thursday, March 4, 2010

Update

I confess, I'm blowing my own horn here but I recently came across two very flattering bits of news on the internet. The first entails a review of Temutma, the book I wrote in partnership with Rebecca Bradley. Temutma was published by Asia 2000 who was remiss in informing us that they had sold the publishing rights to a German company, Union Verslag, who are now producing audio copies of the book. Neither Rebecca nor I have ever seen a penny in royalties from the sale of these audio books. However, the review, which is copied here, soothes my wounded pride somewhat.

Possibly the BEST vampire novel since Dracula. March 9, 2005
By Devlin Tay (Adelaide, Australia)
"Temutma" is a little gem of a horror novel from Hong Kong that most readers would unfortunately never have heard of. It is quite possibly the BEST vampire novel I've ever read since Dracula (take that, Anne Rice) - and I say this not because of Temutma's literary merits, but because of its frenetic pacing and the atmosphere of sheer terror that it evokes. Set in Hong Kong in the early 1990s, an ancient horror awakens deep within the catacombs of Kowloon's famed Walled City. A series of grotesque murders are committed on one single night, leaving the Hong Kong police completely baffled. The murders are seemingly unrelated; but for the fact that the crime scenes all fall on a direct line of sight beginning from the Kowloon Walled City, across the narrow strait separating Kowloon from Hong Kong island, to the Bank of China building, and finally ending at a luxury home at the Peak. All victims had been drained completely dry of blood. Even more strangely, one of the first victims had been seen following a subsequent victim hours after he supposedly died, according to forensics. As the chief investigating officer, Superintendent Michael Scott of the Royal Hong Kong Police, delves deeper into the mystery, little does he know that he will soon come face to face with a being more ancient and powerful than he could ever imagine - an amoral being whose only instinct is to satisfy his own bloodlust. Rebecca Bradley and Stewart Sloan successfully weave Chinese superstition with vampiric lore into a melange of fear and action so thick one could almost imagine watching the story unfold in a Cineplex with full DTS surround sound. The characters are believable, the action is evenly paced, and the horror is conveyed though a finely-balanced mixture of suspense and gore. Temutma, the eponymous vampire, is a creature so believably alien, repulsive and evil - and yet strangely compelling. There is none of that vampiric angst, the likes of which authors like Anne Rice are so fond of, to be found anywhere in this book. Here, at last, is a creature that stalks, tortures, kills and inflicts pain simply because it is what it does - much like the way a cat hunts for, and plays with, its prey purely out of instinct, the way all cats do. Five stars and two thumbs up!


The other bit of news that cheered me up was the news that my first book, 'The Sorceress' which was published in 1994 and sold for the grand sum of HK$ 70.00 is available on a second hand book website for the price of HK$ 168.20!

The question that now begs to be asked is, if I'm that good, why aren't I sitting on a beach somewhere sipping champagne?

No comments: