Has anybody heard of the Necroscope Saga, by Brian Lumley? Its a set of 13 books, falling in the vampire genre of horror-fiction. Its a story about Harry Keogh, the original Necroscope. I quote from the website:
"The journey is one involving a man known as Harry Keogh, Necroscope, and his life, death, and undeath. Not to mention the lives and deaths of all he touches from the past, present and future."
I got introduced to the Necroscope books way back in school, in Jamshedpur, when I used to frequent a lending library. I used to read a great many horror books, mainly Stephen King and Dean R Koontz. BTW, Stephen King has a fantastic series called "Dark Tower", but more on that another time. The first book I read was the Necroscope (which is book 1), and I was totally blown away. Its a fascinating book, dark and brooding about this master vampire, Thibor Ferenczy whom Harry has to destroy. I've been hooked since that first book. Hook, line and sinker.
I read the three books that the library had, couldnt get my hands on any more. The world moved on and so did I; I forgot about the Necroscope until I chanced upon Necroscope a few years ago in Gangarams, in Bangalore. It was a slightly damaged copy, the last they had (or, I suspect, the only one they had), and I bought it off them at a 10% discount. Hah. Little did they know that I would have paid anything to have that copy. Then started my search, in varous bookstores, but nobody had even heard of this author, forget stocking his books.
A close pal was returning from the US a couple of weeks ago, and I asked him to keep an eye out for the books. Luckily he found some on the net, and in a second hand store. A week ago, I finally got my hands on THREE books. Parts 2, 3 and 5. He'll get me the rest next time, and I can't wait. I've haven't even started reading these three books, I'm hording them. I'm mentally drooling. For a biblomaniac like me, its almost like abstinence before marriage!