Necroscope and the "paranormal romance" novels

[topol_sheap]

You may need to bare with me here, this is a bit stream of consciousy...

So I was in Waterstones the other day and I saw this new wall devoted to paranormal romance and it got me thinking... when I used to browse bookshops this area of fiction was housed in horror (e.g your Laurell K Hammilton schtuff). Then I thought, hey, isn't this all new vampire fiction not aimed at myself, but women (the covers give it away :) ) and emos... so I start to think vampire fiction is having a massive comeback in the UK.

My next thought is - what the f*ck are the bookshops and publishers doing not pushing Mr Lumley and his Necroscope saga? I looked at the horror section and saw the excellent Mr King suitably adorning multiple shelves as he tends to, followed by a small amount of Lovecraft and then by a couple of books by Mr Lumley.... this isn't a phenonema that's localised either, I've seen it all over the UK and I think someone is missing a massive opportunity here.

What do you guys on the board think? Also what do the Lumleys think?

[ShadoeWolfe]

All I can do is throw my 2 cents in (which is worth jack about now unless it is gold shavings) and I can tell you this:

American bookstores (meaning Barnes and Noble since they seem to dominate over here) don't have horror sections anymore, but they do have the vampire romance areas, which are almost all located in the 'teen' sections. Lovecraft gets lumped into the sci-fi category (I suppose rightly so but it is more horror in my opinion) and Lumley has one or two books in the general 'fiction' category. Funny enough, Laurell hammilton is in the sci-fi category too.

now, with Tor re-releasing the first four necro books with their new covers, they do have those in stock, but I think it is garbage when you can't even carry the first five books, old covers or not. Problem is from what i understand - most of the Necro series along with most of Brian's other books are out of print right now. Gee, makes sense to have a multi-million seller book not in print, doesn't it?

Gets me thinking about something else that i will post since it is related but off-topic...

[Silver]

Totally right guys, in my local Waterstones there is NO Lumley on the shelf at all, for the first time in many years I've there wasn't even one!

I was shocked and appalled.

[Helmet Head]

For a change Tom you have great point vampire fiction and other vampiry stuff is in deed making a comeback, and yes I beleive lumley's missing a trick, somebody should pick up Necro especially in the UK and run with it give it some major promo and I guarentee it'll take off once people relalise how brillaiant and quite frankly superior Brian's books are in this particular field!

Do you like vampires, well my friend you'll F**K*NG LOVE THIS!

[topol_sheap]

"Do you like vampires, well my friend you'll F**K*NG LOVE THIS! "

Aint that the truth.

I wonder if we could petition his UK publisher and point out they have something that would do well against all this "paranormal romance" crap out there :)

And think about it, if stuff like Legend of the Seeker (my fave telly right now - thanks Bridget Regan) can make it on the small screen so could the Necroscope - screw the movies - the small screen could work very, very well for this.

[Helmet Head]

I've always thought Necro would make a great TV series, as it would allow the audience to be slowly immersed in the world of the necroscope, instead of being bombarded for 120mins in a cinema.

[james1984]

With a TV series you can do so much more, anything is open for TV and really their is no limitations...

[Silver]

TV would be great. I'd be happy to see it in any media format to be honest!

[topol_sheap]

you already have it in book format. You must be happy :D

[Silver]

I am happy - I'd be more happy if it was on TV, or was a film or something

[Dark Cyder]

I've always thought Necro would make a great TV series, as it would allow the audience to be slowly immersed in the world of the necroscope, instead of being bombarded for 120mins in a cinema.

I agree. Necroscope would make a smashing TV show. Having caught the first two eps of True Blood on UK television (my only must-watch show at the moment), I reckon they wouldn't have to rein in the sex and violence too much either.

Necropaedia (http://members.lycos.co.uk/jordandesign/necropaedia/)