Bloodwars

Concluding the darkly hypnotic Vampire World trilogy (Blood Brothers; The Last Aerie), this red-blooded offering from British Fantasy Award-winner Lumley also brings to a close the epic narrative begun in Vampire World's prequel, the five-book Necroscope series. This installment relates the adventures of Nathan Keogh, a cross-dimensional traveler and telepath who speaks with the dead (hence his title of ``Necroscope''). On orders from his vampiric twin brother, Nestor, Nathan is thrown to Earth through an interworld ``Gate'' out of the parallel world of Sunside/Starside, a planet inhabited by gypsies (Szgany) and desert-dwelling mystics (Thyre), as well as by a fascinating assemblage of shape-changing vampires (Wamphyri), thralls and hideous living/undead ``constructs'' formed in vile vats of percolating human and vampire fluids. Enter top-secret British and Russian psychic agents. The British psychic ``E-Branch'' sends Nathan and colleagues to join the Szgany to fight the vampires, who are embroiled in territorial wars (``bloodwars''). Meanwhile, Russia is concerned because its rogue E-Branch head has gone through the Gate with plans to seize control of all of Sunside/Starside-and then Earth. As climax piles on climax, Nathan, in addition to being the linchpin in the plans of the E-Branchers, the Szgany and the Thyre, becomes the prime target of the Wamphyri. Though this is the last of the trilogy, readers must hope that Lumley isn't really putting a stake through the heart of his vampire universe-which is so vivid, with characters to real, that even the undead seem alive. (Oct.)