Lilith's Dream: A Tale of the Vampire Life

In this third, and last, of Whitley's Vampire Novels, the first vampire awakes, extremely hungry, wondering why she hasn't been fed. For millenia, her children, (vampires) have been bringing her victims to eat. So she's not even had to wake up fully to eat. She knows this means no less than that her children have been killed. Thousands of years have past since she has last awoken and left the remote cave in Egypt. This is Lilith, the first wife of Adam, from the Bible, the one before Eve, rejected because she was too demanding and refused to take only the missionary position. (Don't blame me; it's actually in the Bible.) Anyway, she awakes to find that what the road is made of, what the horseless carriages run on, and many other things in the world now, are made of petroleum. She knows this just by smelling! This tale is fascinating, as she feeds, then makes her way through modernity, evading the vampire hunters. Even so, her wonderment grows as she sees the first major cities, realizing that humanity has reached an evolutionary equal now with the Keepers. Still she must feed, though. Some humor is involved, as she learns language from the T.V., learns how to get around in the world unnoticed, and as she searches for the remaining half-vampire/pop singer Leo Patterson, made by Miriam in the previous book. She finds more than she has bargained for, and there is a huge amount of sexual material definately not suited for younger readers. All the while, the vampire hunters (a secret part of cooperating international governments) are trying to catch up with her. At the beginning, we are given a clue that Lilith has a vague memory of something silver in the sky, dropping her off on this planet. He hints at an ET connection. At the end, we are faced with the huge spiritual question: What is reality? The book offers up an answer, and it will surprise you, as will many other interesting parts of the book too numerous to be mentioned here. Overall, for those who love interesting, fast paced vampire novels, this is an excellent book. It has none of the inconsistencies that Streiber's second novel has. I rate this one very highly.

I enjoyed this novel a lot more than other vampire novels, chiefly because Strieber is such a good writer. This novel may not be terribly original, but it has some of the most vivid writing I have ever read, especially in the descriptions of Lilith's attempts to deal with the modern world; not only that, it doesn;t rely on gore to deliver the thrills, though it does have its horrific moments. On the minus side, it is, like I've said, not terribly original, there is some pointless name-dropping, and there is a glaring mistake in chapter 10 in which a woman throws her empty gun away, but then still has it two pages later. An A for effort, but a B (at best) for results.

I love Whitley Strieber's books. I've ready them all, even the hard-to-find ones, and I can safely say this is one surprised me. It's just as good as the book's two predecessors (The Hunger and The Last Vampire), but it blows the whole thing wide open by giving us the vampire's point of view. You can't help but fall in love with Lilith. But amazingly, you love her because she, too, is a living, complicated being.If you're looking for the fantastic action and sexy mystique Whitley's books are famous for, you won't be disappointed. But this particular book goes down paths no other book in the genre has travelled before. It's an odd path, but it works. And it just may open you mind a bit, too.

When I consider the quantity of bloated best-selling potboilers about vampires I've slogged through over the years, I bow before the artistry of Whitley Streiber. I relished every page of Lilith's Dream. Well-drawn, witty characterizations, a clever plot you will care about, and some compelling theories to consider as well. Streiber--unlike Anne Rice, for instance--suggests more than he includes. He puts an intriguing spin on things that I found both charming and unsettling, with more than the expected frisson of horror. His title character, Lilith, is TRULY the Queen of Vampires, and could kick Akasha's butt any night of the week. And hold ones interest far longer. Her experiences catching up to the 21st century literally overnight are a delight.

Lilith wakes up from a millennium long sleep in a cave in Egypt to find that the world has changed since the vampire created the human race. She finds that the rest of her kind is dead, slain by vampire hunter Paul Ward who has vampire blood flowing through his arteries. His son Ian is the product of a mating with a full blood vampire Miriam Blaylock. Paul watches him closely for he knows that if he turns, he will have to kill his son.In New York, at a rock concert, Lilith connects with the last vampire Leo Patterson and Ian. The two women immediately know each other for what they are and they kidnap Ian in the hopes of turning him so that their race will promulgate and once again roam the earth. Paul and his wife follow them, determined to save their son or die trying.This is last book in the vampire series that began with THE HUNGER and it is a haunting work that will thrill fans of horror by allowing readers to empathize with beings wanting to turn us into fodder as they react to their own biological imperatives. Whitley Strieber has written a fast-paced supernatural thriller that deserves at least a Bram Stoker nomination if not the award.Harriet Klausner