|
|
Mortal Companion
a novel
by Patrick Califia
Praise for Mortal Companion
"Immensely talented local sex-pert Patrick Califia's latest book is a sprawling, ambitious tour de force vampire epic that has themes of sex, love, revenge, betrayal, and a sprawling back-story all spinning at the same time--all with mesmerizing effects.
"When we first meet Ulric Jager, a 600-year-old vigorously athletic, motorcycle-riding vampire, he is rising in the twilight, fresh from a day's slumber buried under a thin covering of leaves deep in the woods. Flitting through sullen nights and empty days, he is lonely and desperate for companionship, spending his time wandering the streets searching for some sense of purpose.
"His immediate need for a partner is finally sated with virginal librarian Mary Beth Wolcott. In breathtaking fashion, Ulric arouses her suppressed sadomasochistic fantasies, drinks her blood, and renames her Lilith, now his mortal companion, sex slave, and new addition to his joint checking account. Lilith's culture shock proves too straining and the pair soon separate, but not for long as she remarks of Ulric that "life without him was a dull cacophony of anticlimaxes."
"But there's a sibling hovering just above them, casting a dark shadow on all of this crude hematology. She is Adulfa, Ulric's shape-shifting half-sister and "fearsome entity" who despises Ulric and blames him for the torturous way her "changing" occurred centuries ago. She hangs around in San Francisco lying in wait for him to return home, while attending women's group-therapy sessions and taking a few bites here and there.
"From steamy backrooms and leather bars on Folsom Street, to S/M support groups at the LGBT Community Center, Califia's lovingly limned San Francisco is seemingly rife with the undead and pulses with simmering desire. Pages and pages of pungent sex follows (especially Ulric bottoming out for local masochist Alain), along with standout scenes featuring Ulric's breathless vampire transformation, a visit to a bondage club, and Lilith's first "flying lesson" swaddled in Ulric's arms.
"The much-foreshadowed revenge scheme by sweet sis Adulfa (a scene-stealer in black, knee-high logging boots) takes center stage and reaches a quite violent climax as Ulric, with the aid of a few talking cats, finally meets her fang to fang, with revelations swirling everywhere.
"Ulric makes a formidable host and author Califia instills in him and all his vampires the most unshakable of human fallibilities: longing, loneliness, and the need for validation; readers are free to connect and relate to their strife. But it is the uninhibited, energetic sex that transcends genre limitations; the book virtually drips with juicy, erotically-charged backdrops. Califia has carved a separate niche for himself in this genre since there's great doubt that Anne Rice would ever have Lestat enduring forced anal intercourse or getting gang banged in a biker bar ("Giddyup!")."
More sensual than scary, Califia's story finds Ulric and Adulfa a breed apart and a cut above conventional bloodsuckers. They are fun to read and devilish to imagine. The dangling plot threads on the final page suggest that Califia's spicy story will continue in future installments to suck us dry again. More, please.
—Jim Piechota, Bay Area Reporter
“Sleeps by day, hiding from the light: check. Frets about stakes to the
heart: check. Must suck blood nightly to survive: check. Has accumulated
vast wealth over centuries: check. Possesses enormous strength, impossible
beauty, and irresistible sexuality: check. Ought not fall in love with a
mortal, because he is immortal: check. Califia's dynamic new vampire novel
certainly hews closely to revered traditions of the genre. But Mortal
Companion transcends traditions, too, infusing the vampire mystique with
erotic pansexual originality and savvy S/M intensity. It's a rip-roaring
saga, arcing from cruel Christian crusades in the 14th century to the
cruelty of AIDS in contemporary San Francisco. It's also an enticingly
tender story, of the impossible love between ageless vampire Ulric and his
unlikely soulmate, small-town librarian Lilith. Add in Ulric's vengeful
half-sister vampire Adulfa, hell-bent on destroying him; a coterie of
magical cats, the 'familiars' who watch over Ulric; and a happy band of S/M
warriors who come to Ulric's rescue at the story's cliff-hanging conclusion,
and it's a sizzling read, begging for a sequel--or two.”
—Richard Labonte, Book Marks
“A cry of protest at sexual hypocrisy, a manifesto for a new world order, a love story, a tale of revenge and a dirty, dirty book, Mortal Companion is engaging, energetic and weird.
"Mortal Companion is the story of Ulric, a bisexual vampire who feels guilty about drinking people's blood, and his affair with a newly-liberated former librarian, Lilith. Ulric's vengeful and less compassionate sister Adulfa has no truck with his fussy morals and spends her time offing quack shrinks and enslaving cute butch junkies. Their adventures are as raunchy as they are murderous, and the sex scenes are juicy and inventive and cover just about every flavour and hanky colour.
"There's a patchwork of backstory presented predominantly as setpieces introducing various outrageously esoteric perverts and predators. Poison, the kabuki-faced dom pole-dancer is a splendid creation. Alain, Ulric's former lover, is alluring and poignant, and Patrick Kelly, Califia's bent cop avatar from a previous collection of shorts, makes a brief appearance. You need a certain suspension of disbelief, since the riot of ideas and images often gets a little tangled—not to say preposterous—but Calfia's worldview is singular and compelling, his sense of humour bone dry and his imagination as filthy and dark as ever."
—James Craven, Chroma
“We don't get nearly as many BDSM love stories as we need, but this one makes up for at least half of what we're missing with luscious romance and incendiary sex, not to mention a marvelous dose of fantasy in the creation of our vampire hero Ulrich's homeland where, apparently, there are no social iniquities and everything is nearly perfect. But okay. After he seduces a staid librarian in her sleep with the powers of his mind and makes her fall so deeply in love that she pledges herself to him as his mortal companion (a fact he takes a certain amount of shit for from the other vampires in a sort of satisfyingly realistic touch). Also notable is the treatment of Ulrich's animal appetites--most of the vampire-as-hero texts of modern times have the immortals subsisting on donated blood of bleeding those who deserve to die, but we get to see Ulrich sometimes taking what he needs for the pleasure of having it, which not only seemed appropriate and correct but also made me feel a little better. More knowledgeable fantasy people may have further critique of the treatment of story conventions, but since I don't know any better I was able to just lose myself in the sweeping romance of the story and enjoy this new delicious book from Califia, whose name on a binding remains aphrodisiac in and of itself.”
—S. Bear Bergman, ButchDykeBoy.com
"With the shockingly sexual Mortal Companion, Patrick Califia brings the vampire novel to new heights of queer--and we expect nothing less from this ISO fave author.
"In this gender-bending chiller, pagan warrior Ulric, a vampire for centuries, is paying the cost of immortality--loneliness. Vampires cannot stand each other's presence, so Ulric must look for his soul mate in the form of a mortal. When he sinks his fangs into a woman he renames Lilith, he thinks his endless search for fulfillment is complete. But Lilith has a mortal's lifespan, and refuses to become undead herself because it will force her out of Ulric's life sooner--and into a vampiric world of aloneness. But she does submissively follow him into a sadistic world of BDSM in San Francisco.
"And it is in this world of taboo sex practices that Lilith falls under the seductive spell of another woman. This woman is actually Ulric's undead sister Adulfa--a vicious vamp who intends to get revenge on her brother for forcing her violently into the destitute existence of a vampire centuries ago."
—InsightOut Book Club
"Let's face it; a great deal of the popularity and longevity of vampire fiction is due to the fact that these stories are fraught with metaphors for sexuality. Much has been made of the undercurrents of sexuality found in Bram Stoker's Dracula, or the unspoken undercurrent of lesbianism in J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla. Much of today's vampire fiction goes well beyond mere hinting at the sexuality inherent in vampirism, and often provides graphic scenes of the vampires in rut with humans or occasionally other vampires. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that famed erotic writer Patrick Califia's first foray into horror would be a sexually charged tale of vampires.
"Our main vampire is Ulric, a pagan warrior changed by a Christian Crusader in the 14th century. The long years have made him lonely, as he cannot seek companionship with his own kind because vampires can't abide one another's presence. He finds his soul mate in a librarian named Mary Beth, whom he re-names Lilith. They enter into an intensely passionate sado-masochistic relationship in which his dominance and her submission suit one another perfectly. Their tragic love is heightened because he cannot make her immortal, or she would have to leave his side to establish her own hunting ground. But the more immediate threat to their love comes from Ulric's half-sister Adulfa, who has nursed her rage against her brother over the centuries for turning her into a blood-drinker. She cannot abide the idea of Ulric having so much as a moment of happiness after what he did to her, so she begins scheming to take Lilith away from him.
"Though Califia does not short-shift readers on the history and lifestyles of his vampires, he expends a somewhat larger effort on the phenomenon of bondage and domination. The book is chockfull of graphic sexual encounters, both private and public, in which the kiss of the lash must precede the normal kiss of lips. In such relationships, gender is not an issue. There are boy-girl, boy-boy, and girl-girl encounters, all described with the same loving detail. In S/M, it seems, a person's equipment is not an issue so much as how well they can control or be controlled by another. If this is not a kink you share (this reviewer doesn't), then the sex scenes are not liable to be much of a turn-on to you. But if it is, Califia provides a veritable feast of pain and pleasure, torture and titillation.
"This is by no means the first novel to use the vampire myth to explore sado-masochism. Nancy Kilpatrick, under her Amarantha Knight pseudonym, did so previously in The Darker Passions: Dracula. But where I found much of that novel funny--especially in that it presents Van Helsing as a Master fighting for domination with Dracula over his slave, Dr. Seward--Califia takes his story a bit more seriously.
"Vampire fans are apt to enjoy Mortal Companion provided they are not turned off by the S/M sex. Califia manages at least one original idea, having Ulric's home guarded by vampire cats he can communicate with telepathically. This is by no means a mainstream vampire novel, but it's apt to enjoy a cult status among certain vampire aficionados and devotees of S/M. The book is extremely well written, but whether or not you will enjoy it likely depends on your own tastes in erotica."
—Garrett Peck, CD Weekly and Cemetery Dance
"Mortal Companion is not for the easily offended or those who are not comfortable with explicit sex. Subtitled as 'an erotic tale of love and vengeance' like no other, Mortal Companion delivers. Patrick Califia has created a world where everything is possible and nothing is taboo. This world is opened up to the reader layer by layer chapter by chapter until the final climatic end which leaves us panting and waiting for the sequel."
—Alisa McCune, Midwest Book Review and SF Site
Read the full review here or here.
"As in much of Califia's fiction, the wildness of extreme and very intimate sex (and these vampires do everything mortals can do) is contrasted with soul-killing institutional abuse. Christianity, corporate capitalism and group therapy turn out to be the real villains in this plot. Even the over-the-top vampire dyke Adulfa seems like a more honest and attractive predator than the modern mortals who feed on others in socially-acceptable ways."
—Jean Roberta, The Dominant's View
Read the full review here.
“'Sometimes he could not bear it, and he had to run riot, smash their serenity and smug assumptions, show them the terrible grin of the bone beneath their stupid faces.' After living as a vampire for 600 years, Ulric is more than frustrated with his existence. Created in a cruel accident by a Christian marauder upon Ulric's pagan people, forever a young man to outward appearances, Ulric seeks a human companion for his lonely existence.
"He finds one in a beautiful yet troubled woman whom he renames Lilith. She becomes his lover and his slave, equal in her ability to command his heart while submitting to him in all ways.
"Yet both are hunted by Ulric's sister, Adulfa, whose only reason for existence is revenge upon her brother for making her a vampire when he was imprisoned, starved for blood. Brother and sister are opposite, as they were in life. Ulric, though sometimes cruel with his human victims, attempts to remember what it was to be human, to surround himself with art and pets and to have a companion. Adulfa is always cruel to her human victims, toying with them before destroying them. She prefers her daily "sleep of death" in dank alleys, under bridges, in wild places.
"The author is a writer of essays, fiction, and poetry, as well as a licensed marriage and family therapist--and a pagan minister. Highly charged eroticism makes [Mortal Companion] appropriate for a somewhat specialized audience, familiar with bondage, discipline, and sado-masochism.
"This work is reminiscent of the ironies found in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, yet the author has gone beyond Rice's sensuous depiction of vampires and their terrible tautological existence, which can only be achieved by murder. "His quest for a soul mate among them was pathetic," Califia writes, "as mad as a cougar singing love songs to a white-tailed deer." Ulric is doomed to be a murderer, yet he wants human companionship, love, even erotic relationships. In the end, however, he knows that his companions will either have to be killed or "made" immortal. But once they become vampires like his sister, they will become his enemies.
Mortal Companion is not just another vampire story. Like its literary predecessors in Rice's works and even Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Califia's characters suffer the terrible fate of doomed beings without souls who still yet strive to redeem themselves.”
—Ronald L. Donaghe, ForeWord Magazine
"In a world still mourning the absence of Buffy and the putrescence of the final season, it's encouraging to find the world of vampires and humans erotically explored in dimensions of the flesh and beyond rarely explored in genre fiction. This time Patrick Califia (Macho Sluts, etc.) crafts an intriguing tale of S/M insatiability, of more boundary crossings and revelations than a hoard full of midget hookers on the Springer show, and of unsettling yet almost romantic love. Yep, Califia and the L word. Go figure.
"I have to admit I was expecting something more 'literary', and that's my fault, not the text. Califia has a good handle on dialogue, blending the popular with the fantasy, the romantic with the raunchy, so we're not surprise when one of the characters only half-ironically remarks, 'I don't want to think about this [the partner being a vampire]. I want to hold onto the man who took my virginity and have him pet my hair and tell me I'm beautiful and he loves me. No, this can't be!' On a more pedantic note, I'm not so sure about the ostrich reference on page 156--emus were in the Dream Time, to be sure, but their African counterparts?
"But forget about that--when there's mind control sex slave multiply pierced cops and punks to be pummeled and plucked and ploughed, who's going to bicker about the buggering birds? Califia's not written a highbrow po-mo tome this time, but he has created a darkly erotic and dangerous narrative that arouses and alarms at an equal pace. Like any good master, he's firm, not-often gentle, and only occasionally fair. Now, who's next for the tongue lashing?"
—Geoff Parkes, Logged Off
"Hot on the heels of his anthology Hot Men, comes Patrick Califia's novel, Mortal Companion. I don't just mention these two books together because they were released so relatively close to each other, but also because they are wonderful to read back to back. Hot Men contains two short story length excerpts from Mortal Companion, while Mortal Companion re-introduces us to Patrick Kelly and Davy from No Mercy, a sexy D/s story from Hot Men.
"Mortal Companion is another of very few examples of how erotica can be literary and intellectually stimulating as well as entertaining. I'm not a long time fan of the vampire story. Most vampire novels are too soap opera-esque for me. I run quickly in the opposite direction of this genre. I hadn't planned to read this one at all, but when Hot Men landed on my desk, I didn't know the proverbial can of worms it would bring with it in the form of the short stories 'The Wolf is My Shepard, I Shall Not Want' and 'Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow'. It was Hot Men that first introduced me to Ulric, the uber-hot, leather clad, brooding and thoughtful vampire.
"Mortal Companion gives us a round portrait of Ulric, his suffering and his evil. Having been turned by Sir Hilbert, general of the Germanic Knights, Ulric rapes his sister with eternal un-life. Adulfa hates and hunts him as Ulric fights to control his hunger and retain his humanity by collecting human comforts and finally by taking a mortal companion. It is his love of the very much alive Lilith that sets the rest of this story into fierce climactic action.
"Mortal Companion covers most of the traditional vampire lore while adding beautiful histories to Ulric's lonely tale. Califia introduces us to the romantic idea of The Elders, older vampires who were responsible for passing wisdom, knowledge and tradition down to the youngest of their Pagan tribes people. Califia also introduces us to vampire cats, which are so true to the spirit of the cat that I read bits aloud to Bowie and Cobweb while they licked themselves in feigned disinterest.
"There is just enough of the old and new fused together in this novel to make it a wholly new vampire tale. There are also heaping mounds of hot, on the edge, sex. While the sex was frightening and titillating it is the rest of the story where Califia's talent shines. I was on the edge of every chair and bed that held my ass up while I spoiled myself with this book. This novel has a sequel in its future and that knowledge alone will have to sustain me, that and re-reading the last three chapters, which I've done twice."
—darling ry, Blue Food
“I don't think there have been a lot of reviews for [Mortal Companion], yet. That's possibly because you can't keyboard in a cold shower. You probably could manage it while involved in other more pleasant activities that offer sexual relief, but whatever you wrote would require heavy editing and possibly hardware replacement.
"The basic plot: Ulric, born in 1339, has struggled with the loneliness of immortality for more than six centuries. In his unnatural heart, he desires more than anything, to be loved and accepted by a lover. He can't even share his angst with fellow vampires. The only true vampire he knows of is his sister, Adulfa, and she's despised him ever since he made her a vampire. Even though Ulric has good cause to feel innocent concerning her, Adulfa will never forgive. She visits occasionally just to make sure he painfully remembers that he will live until she devises the perfect punishment. Ulric finds someone who could be the companion he so desires - Mary Beth, a virginal small-town librarian. The librarian is sexually awakened and re-dubbed 'Lilith' and Ulric seems to have found a beloved mortal companion. Of course he is well aware of the pain of loving a human who will inevitably age and die and leave him. (He's gone through the process before over the centuries and his previous great love, Alain, was an early victim of the most recent plague -- AIDS.) But turning Lilith into a fellow immortal will take her away from him. Meanwhile, we are kept informed of Adulfa's sex life. Before the end, Adulfa sees, of course, she can use Lilith to wreck revenge against her brother.
"The basic sex: Yes. And middle sex. And advanced sex. And kinky sex. And lots of variations. Sex. Sex. Sex. Let's get that clear. This book's so hot your fangs will melt.
"The basic horror: Well, not really, unless you count anything with a vampire in it as horror.
"As what is probably part of my karmic debt (man, I must have done some bad stuff in some previous life) I've had to read and review a lot of vampire novels the last couple of years. (I did it for the money, okay?) Very few of them add much to a positive argument that the world needs more vampire novels. But vampires are a versatile metaphor that can be put to great literary purpose and relevance and Califia again freshens the fangsters Califia has a lot of escapist fun -- lesbian dominatrix Adulfa is as wicked a perv as possible and commands Rhys to do much more interesting things than Dracula ever ordered Renfield to do; Ulric and Lilith are the perfect, even romantic, Dom/sub ideal, not that Ulric confines himself to topping -- but he's also exploring sexuality and relationship issues and touches on some historic points of interest as well. There are humorous references to stock vampirism that most vamp-readers will catch, but there's also considerable respect for the genre. Most importantly, the novel works because the heaps of sex are integral to the story and the characters, despite their fantastic nature, are convincing."
Califia also develops an interesting vampire history (involving European pagans who honored immortal bloodsuckers as village Elders and a race of vampire cats) and leaves the door open for a sequel. Yes, the world does seem to need another vampire novel -- or two.”
—Paula Guran, Dark Echo
"This book is many things; gay, straight and lesbian erotica, heavy on BDSM that isn't for the faint of heart, but most of all it is an excellently written, original and absorbing vampire story. The reader is sucked in from the first page and not released until the last, when the book is done with him.
"We meet Ulric Jager, a vampire made in the 14th century in his native land of Prussia, during the Christian Crusades. In an original twist we learn that the Elders in Ulric's village are vampires, highly regarded and respected leaders whose wisdom guides his people. Ulric's entrance into this revered sect is unwanted, unasked for, and in his view, undeserved. While purging the 'heathens' to make way for Christianity, Sir Hilbert, Ulric's captor, makes him; his creation was something that, according to the ways of Ulric's people was never meant to be. There's more to exactly how this happens, but that won't be revealed here, nor will the details of how Ulric's sister, Adulfa also becomes a vampire, and in the process, Ulric's most potent and vengeful enemy. Back to present-day America, Ulric is now about to take what he wants, but this time, it goes contrary to what most other vampires want or are expected to have; a mortal companion. Through mental manipulation and seductive mind-play, Ulric wins the heart and sexual liberation of Mary Beth, whom he re-names Lilith, an amusing stereotype of the repressed librarian. Lilith quickly evolves from a stifled woman to a sexual spitfire, and soon after, a vampire-friendly companion. One of the secret longings within Lilith that Ulric unlocks is her love of BDSM, which they (and the reader) spend the rest of the book with. It is central to the story and involves men with women, men with men, and women with women. Some might find some elements or combinations tedious or uninteresting if one has a preference for one kind of erotica over another, but it's well worth sticking with the story despite this, if that be the case. The story reaches its climax when Rhys, Adulfa's sexually enslaved and submissive servant, finds Ulric, whom she has been dispatched to search for, so that her master may destroy him. Intertwined with the story's other elements is Lilith's adamant refusal to join Ulric as one of the Undead.
"Apart from Patrick Califia's original storytelling ability, he is an extraordinarily gifted writer. His prose is smooth and often poetic, his skill with words evident, and in this he is consistent throughout the book. He has given us another original twist; Ulric's cats, who are also his guardians and protectors--and vampires themselves. Califia has endowed them with the ability to communicate telepathically with Ulric, and those who have ever been owned by a cat might find their 'voices' and habits extremely amusing, irresistibly enchanting, and thoroughly believable.
"If books were judged as Olympic events, Mortal Companion would earn 10s across the board, for style, content, originality and enjoyment. For those who love a good vampire story, this is one of the best. For those who enjoy erotica, and aren't put off by BDSM, this is a worthy edition to one's bookshelf. If you a reader who loves both, this book is very highly recommended."
—John Charles, The Independent Gay Writer
“Take one erotic master; open up a vein of eternal yearning. Look into the heart of horror, and find its greatest intimacy: the infinite thirst for blood and love in the hands of Patrick Califia’s Mortal Companion.”
—Susie Bright, editor of The Best American Erotica series
“Patrick Califia has crafted a lush and passionate tale of bloodlust, ennui, and immortality, fairly crackling with the erotic energy and gender bending that only lurk sedately beneath the surfaces of tamer vampire novels. This is Anne Rice on ecstasy, with all the stops pulled out!”
—Caitlin R. Kiernan, author of Threshold and Low Red Moon
“Patrick Califia straps in readers for a wild ride. It’s all here: love, passion, seduction, violence and revenge, laced with vampires, spliced with vanilla-to-dark-chocolate sex, cut with B&D, S/M, straight, gay, lesbian and outré eroticism that will delight. Mortal Companion is well-written, highly charged, funny, sexy, and tender—loved the talking cats! What a pansexual adventure!”
—Nancy Kilpatrick/Amarantha Knight, author of The goth Bible, The Power of the Blood series, and The Darker Passions series
“Mortal Companion is like a big slice of Sacher torte: rich, sweet, dark, complex, and memorably delicious. Patrick Califia has mixed the Byronic hero, Gothic romance, and the BDSM subculture to create a sensual, fast-moving, perverse, and intelligent novel that delighted me from beginning to end. In smoldering pagan leatherbear Ulric Jäger, the novel's passionate protagonist, Califia has contributed a character of great depth and originality to vampire literature, a hero whose adventures I relished mightily and a kindred soul whose future exploits I hungrily anticipate.”
—Jeff Mann, author of Bones Washed with Wine, Edge, and Devoured
“Patrick Califia has been one of the bravest, most articulate, and most original voices in alternative literature for longer than many of today's writers have been plying their craft. His masterful touch and authoritative voice are immediately apparent in this new novel, and can only serve to further burnish his literary crown, adding the fantasy field to his many other conquests.”
—Michael Rowe, editor of the Queer Fear anthology series
release: May 2004
horror/queer fiction
softcover, 5.5X8.5
288 pages
$16.95
0-9710846-9-6
|
|
