Well, for those of you keeping tabs, I'm quite stoked about the release of Christopher Pike's Thirst: No. 3 (Thirst 1 and 2 are repackaged compilations of the original Last Vampire series). October 5th, can't wait for you to get here!
I posted a link a while back about the film version being released of the first novel (undoubtedly inspired by the Twilight phenomenon). I've been peeking around online, and I found a fellow fan's commentary on a message board. Moonvoid is his or her name, and I must say, Moonvoid, I have these same questions, curiosities, fears, and hopes about how the story will translate from page to screen. Here's what our moon pal wrote:****
Wow! As much as I would love to see
The Last Vampire go to the big screen, I have no idea how this will be pulled off and made for a PG-13 rating. Even though I did find myself enjoying the
Twilight series on some level,
The Last Vampire blows
Twilight out of the water. It seems this story will be more difficult to pitch to the masses as there are no "sparkly vampires" here. Here are just some of the things
TLV, now called the
Thirst series, deals with:
Religion - Hinduism plays a major role in this series; as those who have read know, the main character Sita refers to "Krishna's grace" and calls him her Lord several times through the book. The book also delves heavily into Christianity, The Temple of Set, general Mysticism and Satanism. This here should tell you right off the bat that this series is far deeper than any ground
Twilight touches.
Sex - Though Pike never gets too detailed, there is plenty of times where Sita has sex or refers to having sex throughout the book.
Bisexuality - Sita refers to herself as having a few female lovers in her lifetime as well as countless men.
Violence - There is VERY descriptive violence in these books, ie: Sita: "Leaping toward her, giving her almost no time to react, I thrust my left hand deep into her chest, smashing through her white gown and her pale ribs. Yet for a fraction of a second, she knows what I am going to do. She feels the absolute horror of the ritual execution. That is what Landulf wants, what he needs, to activate his black sorcery. The battery of the bastard is tied to perversity and pain. The girl's heart is in my hand. I feel its life and still I yank it from her chest and leap towards the circle. Out of the corner of my eye I see her staring at me, and understand the betrayal she is feeling deep in my soul. Her eyes are as blue as mine. Even in death, they could be mine."
Action - So much action in this book. It will take a large budget to pull this off. Everything from hand combat to helicopters and nuclear plant explosions, etc.
Character development - Sita, as well as others, are VERY developed characters. No blank slate Bella for audiences to insert themselves into. Sita is a complex character and throughout the book her character is very contemplative. I do not use this word lightly.
Some other themes include: Diseases such as AIDS and leprosy, time travel, reincarnation, and pregnancy, to name a few.
It is truly surprising to me that so much of this went on in a teen novel. Pike was and still is way ahead of his time with his teen writing. Whereas the
Twilight saga is a good fun story, the
Thirst series (aka
The Last Vampire series) is moving and has high potential to get audiences (both young and older) to actively engage themselves in a story that will undoubtedly invite them to open their eyes and minds to some type of soul searching and self reflection.
I can only hope that the movie maintains some of the essence of the books.
****
So there you have it! Thanks, Moonvoid!
