Stagestruck Vampires: And Other Phantasms [Paperback]

Stagestruck Vampires by Suzy McKee Charnas is an anthology of both new and vintage works. Included are such favorites as "Beauty and the Opera or the Phantom Beast," the Hugo-award-winning "Boobs" and a trio of tales about Charnas' vampire, Dr. Edward Weyland (of The Vampire Tapestry fame), who evolves toward humanity rather than away from it. A surprise for me was "Advocates," a collaboration between Charnas and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (author of the Saint-Germain Chronicles) in which their respective vampires (Weyland and the Comte de Saint Germain) meet. This was not a combination I would ever have imagined working, yet it does. Each character retains the inimitable qualities that made him so memorable in previous works. Also included in the collection are "Evil Thoughts" (which cannot be kept hidden) and "Listening to Brahms," a post-apocalyptic nightmare in which the beauty and corruption of humankind lives on after our physical annihilation--in a most unexpected way. As for the newest works, there's "Peregrines," appearing for the first time in 2004 as well as "The Stagestruck Vampire" and "They're Right, Art Is Long" published for the very first time in this collection. "Peregrines" is a novella set in a xenophobic near-future New York. This world in which undocumented immigrants are hunted down along with anyone who harbors them becomes a training ground for the holiest of holy. One is forced to ponder how near the world of the spirit may be our dusty, mundane lives. The last two works are essays. "The Stagestruck Vampire" takes the reader step-by-step through the writing and first staging of Charnas' theatrical work Vampire Dreams. They're Right, Art Is Long" documents the author's twenty-plus-year odyssey in creating the acclaimed quartet of novels known as the Holdfast Chronicles. The entire anthology Stagestruck Vampires is an enjoyable read for lovers of fantastic fiction (or for that matter just good fiction) while at the same time providing a depth that rewards repeated readings.

I am not particularly a vampire fan, although there seem to be many out there. However, I am a Suzy McKee Charnas fan, ever since I read Motherlines lo, those many years ago.

Ms. Charnas is also the winner of a Hugo Award for her "revenge fantasy" werewolf story called "Something Amazon won't let me print, but is mentioned in the review below" which just happens to appear in the Stagestruck Vampires collection.

This book is primarily a collection of dark fantasy, as well as two excellent essays. One, the eponymous "Stagestruck Vampires", is about the travails of bringing her Nebula Award winning novelet "Unicorn Tapestry" to the stage, the other, "They're Right, Art Is Long", deals with the hassles of writing (and getting published) the four book series starting with "Walk To The End Of The World".

As well as the various "monster" stories that Ms. Charnas has written over the years, the book also includes a new story called "Peregrines" a very fun romp that includes a child-shaman and an old, crusty tarot reader in a New York of a few years hence, when Homeland Security, among other things, requires permits for state-to-state travel, just a little throwaway bit, but indicative of the attention to details that are part of Suzy McKee Charnas' charm.

Read this book!

Beauty and the Opéra (a.k.a. The Phantom Beast) is actually a short story amidst a conglomeration of other works published in a book entitled Stagestruck Vampires and Other Phantasms. I read most of the other stories and stopped reading because, quite frankly, they're not my cup of tea. In my opinion, Beauty and the Opéra was the best of the lot. For those looking for a review of the entire anthology, you may want to stop here. This review is aimed at those "Phantom of the Opera" fans who are considering the book for this story alone.

Written in the first person, it is many years after the incidents at the Paris Opera House had taken place and Christine recounts the true story of what had happened between her and the Phantom.

During Christine's first performance of Faust, she suddenly felt a pair of powerful arms enfold her as she dropped through a trap door into the depths of the Opera House. From there, the Phantom carried her through his labyrinth, across the lake on a small boat, and into the confines of his lair.

While there, he asks her to live with him in the city above as his wife. When she becomes evasive, he not only reveals his terrible deformity but he also confesses all that he has done to bring her to this end (i.e., Buquet's murder, the falling of the chandalier to name a few). He then tells her that her lover, the Vicomte's, life depends upon her answer this night. Thus saying, he opens a curtain to a window which reveals Raoul lashed to a chair in which he was vainly struggling to free himself.

In Ms. Charnas' version, Christine, though very young, is not altogether naïve nor as pliable as the Phantom would have liked. She agrees to his terms, but with one condition. She will live with him for the duration of 5 years, after which time he must free her. As he considers her proposal, Raoul challenges the Phantom to a fight from the confines of his prison.

Enraged, the Phantom accuses Christine of lying to him, that she was merely playing games in order to free her precious Vicomte. When she protests her innocence, the Phantom challenges her to prove it. As proof, she takes his hideous head into her hands and kisses him passionately.

The Phantom then relents, telling her that he will release Raoul and that he will "submit my hatreds to your authority." But he informs her that she must marry him first, as he will not allow her reputation to be marred and so that there will be "no misunderstanding" as to his expectations of her as his wife.

Christine agrees - but she refuses to live with him in the city above. They must make their home in the cellars of the opera house where he has lived for so many years.

While the Phantom carries Raoul's prone body to freedom, Christine considers her promise. Believing that once freed Raoul will gather the citizenry to release her, she is certain that she will not be condemned to fulfill her side of the bargain with the Phantom.

But over the ensuing days and weeks, Raoul doesn't return to rescue her, and she finally has to face the realization that for the next 5 years, she belongs to the Phantom amidst their strange agreement. While he is her master in music, she is his master of conscience.

Outside of Susan Kay's Phantom, this is one of the few published phics that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. While Ms. Charnas' story doesn't delve much into the Phantom's past, it does give us an excellent view of his character. She provides an interesting and believable Phantom. Christine, though young, stands up to the man who would bend her to his will if given the chance. The story of this dubious couple dwelling in the recesses of the Phantom's labyrinth for the 5 years that Christine promised is compelling and endearing. To those of you who detest a whiny, immature, and frightened Christine, I'm sure you'll like Ms. Charnas' version much better. I love how she ends her story:

"Awaiting my own exit, I live my days in this brash and cynical present as other people do. But I nourish my soul on the sweet pangs of looking back, more than forty years now, to the time when the Opéra Ghost and I lived together underground, in a candlelit world of passion and music.

"I have thought of writing an opera about it, but time seems short and I know my limitations. Someone else will write it, someday. They will get the story wrong, of course; but perhaps, all the same, the music will be right."

Given the proliferation of less than adequate self-published POTO fics out there, I would recommend this book (yes, just for this one story) to any POTO fan/collector who truly enjoys GOOD Phantom-based fiction.