The Space Vampires
Encyclopedia
The Space Vampires is a British science fiction
horror novel written by author Colin Wilson
, and first published in England and the United States by Random House
in 1976
. This is Wilson's fifty-first book. It is about the remnants of a race of intergalactic vampires who are brought back from outer space and are inadvertently let loose on Earth.
The titular space aliens are energy vampires
, as opposed to the familiar stereotypical blood-sucking Earth vampires that suck blood and change into bats. They consume the "life force
" by seducing living beings with a deadly kiss and also have the ability to take control of the willing host bodies of their victims. Though initially the aliens' "true" form appears to be a giant monstrous bat-like creature, the creatures are ultimately revealed to be insubstantial energy-beings from a higher dimension. The novel's main protagonist
is Captain Olof Carlsen, the commanding officer of the space exploration vehicle which discovered the vampires' spacecraft.
The novel was mildly successful and was translated into many languages including Spanish
, Japanese
, French
, Dutch
and Swedish
.
The concept and set-up of the novel was apparently inspired by, and loosely based on, the purported phenomenon and mythologic legend of psychic vampirism
.
, a gigantic dead castle-like derelict alien spacecraft is discovered by the space exploration vehicle Hermes, commanded by Captain Olof Carlsen. Investigating the spacecraft's interior, the astronauts first discover the desiccated corpses of giant bat-like creatures, then three glass coffins containing three immobilized humanoids - two male and one female - preserved in a state of suspended animation
.
Returning to Earth with the preserved humanoids, Carlsen discovers the true nature of the beings when one of them kills a young man, a reporter (and the son of a friend of Carlsen) whom Carlsen illicitly allowed to view the body. The woman kills her victim by completely draining his life-force (a quantifiable energy measured by a device called "lambda-field scanners"), then, when Carlsen attempts to intervene, partially draining him of energy as well. Carlsen is left still alive, but unable to prevent the woman from escaping the hospital.
Carlsen joins forces with Dr. Hans Fallada, a scientist researching energy vampirism and longevity, to find the escaped vampire and recapture her. In the course of their investigations they discover that the aliens can transfer from one body to another, and that the other two have also escaped; they also discover the potential for energy vampirism -- and more generalized voluntary energy transfer -- that exists in all humans, and the parallels between vampirism, criminality, and sexual fetishization. At last Carlsen tracks down the vampires in London, their leader having possessed the body of the Prime Minister; but their confrontation is averted when representatives from the Nioth-Korghai, the vampires' original race, appear and offer the vampires (the Ubbo-Sathla, as they call themselves) the chance to regain their original nature as higher-dimension energy-beings. The vampires accept joyfully, but destroy themselves upon regaining the ability to see themselves for what they had become.
An epilogue, set nearly a century later, reveals that Carlsen has used the techniques of benevolent energy transference he learned via his encounters with the vampires to live an extraordinarily long life, and possibly (it is implied) to have achieved a kind of transcendence upon his death.
acceptably regraded the novel as "Thoroughly intriguing", while the Chicago Tribune
simply called it a "new slant on horror...unique rendering of the age-old enigma of the kiss of death".
, directed by Tobe Hooper
. Later, in June 1985, the original novel was reissued as a movie tie-in
to accompany the film's original theatrical release, under the same title as its movie counterpart.
The movie differs in many respects from the novel; it is set in the modern day (using the 1986 flyby of Halley's comet as a plot element), and the character of Carlsen (an American colonel named Tom) is much weaker, with a more obsessive relationship to the female vampire. The character of Colonel Caine of the SAS
is given a much more prominent place, and the story's vampirism is more evocative of traditional vampire legends in its details, most specifically in how the vampires can be killed (a leaded iron shaft through the "energy centre two inches below the heart", a possible allusion to Eastern-mysticism chakras) and in the process by which vampire victims become vampires themselves, a much deadlier and more prolific contagion in the film.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
horror novel written by author Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
Colin Henry Wilson is a prolific English writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true crime, mysticism and other topics. He prefers calling his philosophy new existentialism or phenomenological existentialism.- Early biography:Born and...
, and first published in England and the United States by Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
in 1976
1976 in literature
The year 1976 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Saul Bellow won both the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.-New books:*Kingsley Amis – The Alteration...
. This is Wilson's fifty-first book. It is about the remnants of a race of intergalactic vampires who are brought back from outer space and are inadvertently let loose on Earth.
The titular space aliens are energy vampires
Psychic vampire
A psychic vampire is a person or being who claims to feed off the "life force" of other living creatures. Psychic vampires are represented in the occult beliefs of various cultures and in fiction...
, as opposed to the familiar stereotypical blood-sucking Earth vampires that suck blood and change into bats. They consume the "life force
Life force
Life force is a concept of spiritual energy.Life force may also refer to:* Life Force , the American version of the arcade game Salamander* Lifeforce , a 1985 science fiction-horror film...
" by seducing living beings with a deadly kiss and also have the ability to take control of the willing host bodies of their victims. Though initially the aliens' "true" form appears to be a giant monstrous bat-like creature, the creatures are ultimately revealed to be insubstantial energy-beings from a higher dimension. The novel's main protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
is Captain Olof Carlsen, the commanding officer of the space exploration vehicle which discovered the vampires' spacecraft.
The novel was mildly successful and was translated into many languages including Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
and Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
.
The concept and set-up of the novel was apparently inspired by, and loosely based on, the purported phenomenon and mythologic legend of psychic vampirism
Psychic vampire
A psychic vampire is a person or being who claims to feed off the "life force" of other living creatures. Psychic vampires are represented in the occult beliefs of various cultures and in fiction...
.
Plot
In the late twenty-first century, far out in a nearby asteroid beltAsteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...
, a gigantic dead castle-like derelict alien spacecraft is discovered by the space exploration vehicle Hermes, commanded by Captain Olof Carlsen. Investigating the spacecraft's interior, the astronauts first discover the desiccated corpses of giant bat-like creatures, then three glass coffins containing three immobilized humanoids - two male and one female - preserved in a state of suspended animation
Suspended animation
Suspended animation is the slowing of life processes by external means without termination. Breathing, heartbeat, and other involuntary functions may still occur, but they can only be detected by artificial means. Extreme cold can be used to precipitate the slowing of an individual's functions; use...
.
Returning to Earth with the preserved humanoids, Carlsen discovers the true nature of the beings when one of them kills a young man, a reporter (and the son of a friend of Carlsen) whom Carlsen illicitly allowed to view the body. The woman kills her victim by completely draining his life-force (a quantifiable energy measured by a device called "lambda-field scanners"), then, when Carlsen attempts to intervene, partially draining him of energy as well. Carlsen is left still alive, but unable to prevent the woman from escaping the hospital.
Carlsen joins forces with Dr. Hans Fallada, a scientist researching energy vampirism and longevity, to find the escaped vampire and recapture her. In the course of their investigations they discover that the aliens can transfer from one body to another, and that the other two have also escaped; they also discover the potential for energy vampirism -- and more generalized voluntary energy transfer -- that exists in all humans, and the parallels between vampirism, criminality, and sexual fetishization. At last Carlsen tracks down the vampires in London, their leader having possessed the body of the Prime Minister; but their confrontation is averted when representatives from the Nioth-Korghai, the vampires' original race, appear and offer the vampires (the Ubbo-Sathla, as they call themselves) the chance to regain their original nature as higher-dimension energy-beings. The vampires accept joyfully, but destroy themselves upon regaining the ability to see themselves for what they had become.
An epilogue, set nearly a century later, reveals that Carlsen has used the techniques of benevolent energy transference he learned via his encounters with the vampires to live an extraordinarily long life, and possibly (it is implied) to have achieved a kind of transcendence upon his death.
Reception
The Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
acceptably regraded the novel as "Thoroughly intriguing", while the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
simply called it a "new slant on horror...unique rendering of the age-old enigma of the kiss of death".
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
In 1985, the book was adapted to film as LifeforceLifeforce (film)
Lifeforce is a 1985 science fiction film directed by Tobe Hooper from a screenplay by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby, from the novel The Space Vampires, published in 1976, by Colin Wilson.-Plot:...
, directed by Tobe Hooper
Tobe Hooper
Tobe Hooper is an American film director and screenwriter, best known for his work in the horror film genre. His works include the cult classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , along with its first sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 ; the three-time Emmy-nominated Stephen King film adaptation...
. Later, in June 1985, the original novel was reissued as a movie tie-in
Tie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...
to accompany the film's original theatrical release, under the same title as its movie counterpart.
The movie differs in many respects from the novel; it is set in the modern day (using the 1986 flyby of Halley's comet as a plot element), and the character of Carlsen (an American colonel named Tom) is much weaker, with a more obsessive relationship to the female vampire. The character of Colonel Caine of the SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
is given a much more prominent place, and the story's vampirism is more evocative of traditional vampire legends in its details, most specifically in how the vampires can be killed (a leaded iron shaft through the "energy centre two inches below the heart", a possible allusion to Eastern-mysticism chakras) and in the process by which vampire victims become vampires themselves, a much deadlier and more prolific contagion in the film.