Blood Prophecy by Stefan Petrucha – review

Just when I thought vampire novels were getting passe and that there were no new takes that could be written on the vampire theme, along comes Stefan Petrucha’s taut and suspenseful Blood Prophecy to prove me wrong. There have been historical vampire tales before, of course; vampires generally live for quite a long time, and the rich amount of history they’ve lived through and sometimes have participated in are often the most fascinating and interesting aspects of this fantasy/horror subgenre. And vampires have sometimes been involved in saving the world, as the Puritan-Turned-Vampire main character, Jeremiah Fall, does in Blood Prophecy. But it is what Stefan Petrucha does within these parameters–it is how he fleshes out his characters, builds suspense, brings to life the early history of America and that of Egypt under Napoleon’s rule, the way he incorporates also the Rosetta Stone into his novel–that helps set Blood Prophecy apart.

What does it take to make a great vampire novel? One has to look no further than Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Anne Rice’s Interview With a Vampire, or Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian to find out (and I’d recommend the television series Dark Shadows, as well, featuring the suave vampire Barnabas Collins; Blood Prophecy is dedicated: “To the memory of Dan Curtis and all the actors, actresses, and writers of Dark Shadows.” Dan Curtis was the show’s creator and producer). The vampires should ideally be powerful, mysterious, seductive. They often have their own agendas and use their magnetic hold over their victims to change them into their pawns. Also, their past experiences and living through crucial historical moments adds a lot to ensure the continuing popularity of vampire novels.

How fun and entertaining can a novel about a Puritan vampire be? Actually, surpisingly fun and entertaining, really, but first off, I should be a bit more clear with my terms:  Blood Prophecy never uses the word “vampire,” instead having characters refer to Jeremiah Fall and the Indian, Skog, who bit him and turned him into a vampire, as serpents or snakes, which have long been associated with evil and the Devil. How did Skog become a vampire? What causes Jeremiah Fall to voyage to Egypt? Those are tricky questions….

Blood Prophecy begins in October of 1799, in Egypt, before recounting everything that happens that leads up to the Prologue. Jeremiah is chained up in a pit, a captive of the French. He survives by draining the blood from rats that wander into the pit. He desperately inquires after the date to anyone who gets within earshot of him, but no one wants to give him the answer, though it is of vital importance to Fall. The reason is that he believes the end of the world is imminent, and he is worried that time will run out and he will be unable, if he stays a captive, to do anything that might be able to stop it from happening.

He makes a deal with a priest, a scholar, and French soldiers who climb down into the pit using a ladder, to tell them his story and what is about to happen to the world if it can’t be stopped, if they tell him what date it is–though he has to threaten to bite one of the men before he’s finally told. They are curious about how he can survive down in the pit for so many days without food or water. He’s offered some, but doesn’t eat the food or drink the water. Also, they brand him with a hot iron in the shape of a cross, to see his miraculous ability to heal himself in front of their eyes. The priest says, afterward, to the scholar who is skeptical and believes everything has a scientific explanation:

“Do you explain that by virtue of science or does the unholy magic of one of Satan’s minions now seem more reasonable?”

The rest of the novel is told chronologically, the first chapter beginning on April 14, 1644, in “Dedham, a township of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.”  Though he’s well educated for the times and attended college at Harvard, Jeremiah is back on the family farm plowing the fields with Patience, their ox.  The Indian, Skog, who had spread a “plague” that almost wiped out his tribe, is a vampire, and the ropes that have bound him have rotted enough for him to escape and walk the Earth again. He attacks Jeremiah’s father and kills him, only to have Nathan come back from the dead and attack his own family.  Jeremiah’s grandfather dispatches Nathan with an ax, but he has already bitten Jeremiah.  Atticus doesn’t use the axe on his grandson, but instead tells Jeremiah that he is like the Jeremiah from the Bible, who was a potter and broke a pot. He can be remade, though he is changed, like the pot can be remade into a new one. He just needs to strive to keep his humanity, and not to give in to the overwhelming urges he feels and the voice of the beast within him telling him to kill. From there the novel follows Jeremiah’s journey to resist his new instincts and find a cure to make himself human again.

What really impressed me about Blood Prophecy is the amount of research Stefan Petrucha did. Sure, it’s a fantastical tale of a vampire who wants to learn about what sort of creature he’s become, not even having a name for what he is, and his quest to find a cure for his condition and become human again. He believes that the black stone that becomes known as the Rosetta Stone might be the answer he’s looking for. But apart from all that, Stefan researched about the Algonquin Indians of the era, and he includes many factual details about them in the novel. Also, he’s done quite a bit of research into Napoleon’s conquest of parts of Egypt, and the discovery and translation of the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone. Some reviews I’ve read say the book is great, but the reviewers didn’t like the emphasis the author placed on the historical details of the novel. I, though, liked reading about them, as I thought they were interesting and helped lend an air of believability to Jeremiah’s story.

I liked how certain religious beliefs, songs, and tales of the Algonquins seemed to echo similar beliefs, songs, and tales Jeremiah reads about or learns from his journeys that people in diverse countries around the world have, like the English, the French, and the Egyptians. Fall theorizes the Algonquins possibly have such similarities because they are one of the lost tribes of Israel. This is not so odd; some Cherokee Indians currently are trying to prove through a DNA base that they are descended from the Jews, also.

Blood Prophecy is an unique take on the traditional vampire story that is a suspenseful must-read. Does the Rosetta Stone hold the key for Jeremiah Fall’s regaining his humanity, or does it signal the end of the world? There are a lot of twists and turns in the book that will keep you spellbound. Check it out today!