Back from the grave! The Night Prophets rise from the dead in a brand
new "ultimate edition!"
The 1980s embraced the vampire. Building on Stephen King's
revitalization of the trope in 'Salem's Lot (1974), writers reimagined
the vampire in a multiplicity of ways. Among the more notable
contributions to the sub-genre, one finds some most intriguing twists
and turns, in part exemplified by the following:
Whitley Strieber, The Hunger (1980)
Robert R. McCammon, They Thirst (1981)
S.P. Somtow, Vampire Junction (1984)
Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat (1985)
Brian Lumley, Necroscope (1986)
Ray Garton, Crucifax (1988)
John Skipp and Craig Specter, The Scream (1988)
Nancy A. Collins, Sunglasses After Dark (1989)
Dan Simmons, Carrion Comfort (1989)
Each of these, in its own way, transformed tradition and, especially
in the case of Rice and Lumley, initiated entire sequences of
explorations into things vampiric.
In 1989, just at the end of this efflorescence, Paul F. Olson
published his first novel, Night Prophets. It stands out from many of
the other vampire tales for a simple reason: it chose not to expand
the traditions by concentrating on individual characteristics, such as
the possibilities of psychic vampires; the inherent connections
between vampires and the over-the-top, self-destructive elements of
Rock; the equally inherent connections between vampires and sexuality
in multiple forms; or vampirism as an inversion and simultaneous echo
of parents' failure to meet their responsibilities to their children.
Instead, Olson followed strict, conventional lines that led from Bram
Stoker's Dracula directly to King's 'Salem's Lot and focused instead
upon the gradual revelation of evil and the unDead within a relatively
closed society. King had selected a small town, isolated, in which
townspeople shared few deep connections and the vampire's depredations
could go almost unnoticed…for a while, at least. Then the story turned
explore to how a handful of believers might overcome something as
powerful as a King Vampire.
Olson goes a step farther in isolating his victims. When the central
character, Curt Potter, arrives at the main compound of the Universal
Ministries just outside of Chicago, he finds himself in a completely
self-sufficient religious community with a strict hierarchy in which
all of the faithful know their places and few, it seems, dare question
authority. There is no outside interference.
Potter has entered the compound on his own private search for truth
and justice, one that has no overt connection to religion; and though
he is impressed with the physical structures and the dedication of
individuals, he remains an outsider. As such, he begins to notice
small things that insiders do not…young people behaving almost as if
they were zombies; a strange affliction that besets a young man
worshipping in an outdoor amphitheater; the inexplicable lack of
mirrors anywhere on the campus. Only he can put the clues together and
arrive at the inevitable, though impossible, conclusion: the
leadership of Universal Ministries are vampires.
It then remains for Potter to collect a small nucleus of believers
and, armed with traditional weapons against the undead, set out to
destroy the King.
In most vampire novels, they have no true antitheses, no equal but
opposite forces to counteract their consummate evil.
The Night Prophets reverses that trend. There is a power present that
urges toward the destruction of the vampires. It is not named "God";
it has not physical presence in the novel per se. But character know
that they have been led, that it is their task—almost their calling—to
destroy the evil and, at the darkest moments, they call on that power
and it responds.
The Night Prophets satisfies. It recalls a different time and subtly
blends it into our own, not by references to cultural icons and
name-brand commodities but by reminding readers of a time when Evil
was forced to face Good…and Good triumphed.
-- Michael R. Collings (Hellnotes)