Epic Publishing

A special guest post by Ayee C.

A man-turned-vampire’s quest for love and redemption of the soul: a timeless tale well-narrated. Tony-Paul de Vissage’s book, The Nightman’s Odyssey, is a Gothic romantic journey, laced with horror elements. At its core, the protagonist is driven by a desperate longing to experience human love. Underlying this narrative is a philosophical exploration, as Damién’s struggles begin with a crisis of faith. This is particularly unfathomable in the context of 1249 rural France, where the story begins.

How do I know if I’ll enjoy this story and where can I buy it?

If you like dark, vampire romances and historical fantasy -as I do-, this book is for you. It presents a witty blend of a classic vampire, being the monster it’s supposed to be, and a hopeless romantic searching for a woman who will accept him for what he is. So, if you enjoy tension, melancholy, gore moments, or romance in a story you will be able to find all those topics within this read.

You can purchase it here as an eBook or in the traditional Paperback format.

About the book

In 1249, Damién LaCroix is a twenty-four-year-old French Marquis, betrothed to his beloved Antoinette, the Viscount’s daughter, whose father is also a friend and ally of Damién’s parents. The Plague is in full force, and when the most devastating thing happens, he loses the last remnants of his declining faith. When a chance encounter faces him with a sans mort, a vampire, he decides to be turned into one of the dark kind to try to save his Antoinette from the claws of Death. Or so he tells himself…

And just like that, he embarks on a grim quest for love which involves lots of blood, lust, and violence, especially in the beginning of his unfortunate journey. Having lost his beloved at an ironic twist of Fate, he wanders through the centuries, and the European and New World lands, in search of the pure love he once felt when he was merely a young boy…

About the Author

Tony-Paul de Vissage is a writer of French Huguenot extraction. He’s been a regular finalist in the Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewer’s Choice Awards and Preditors and Editors Readers Polls — which now is called the Annual Critters Readers’ Poll. In this last poll, The Nightman’s Odyssey was selected as the third ‘Best Horror Novel’ of 2023.

The author is a voracious reader with dozens of titles published; most of them involve his favorite subjects: vampires, werewolves, or ghosts. He learned to love supernatural creatures when he was noticeably young. In fact, his first memory of watching a movie involves being six years old and feeling terrified by the old horror film Dracula’s Daughter. He likes to humorously add that he is now paying back his parents by writing about the Undead.

Elements of the Gothic genre that can be found in The Nightman’s Odyssey

Have you ever played Bingo? The game where the host or banker will call a number and you’ll check if you have it on your card, and mark it if you do, until you, or someone else if you aren’t lucky, collect them all and enthusiastically shout ‘Bingo!’ Well, something like this happened to me while reading this book and analyzing the different elements of the Gothic genre that composed it. Therefore, it seemed interesting to show how said elements play a part in this narration and some of my favorite scenes that go along with them.

The Castle

Being the son of a marquis, at the beginning of the book, Damién lived in a grand château with many servants and more rooms than they would ever use. A big place for a small family tends to give the reader some chills, not knowing what may lurk in those dark corridors.

As the bodies burned, those under them, already reduced to human charcoal and cinders, would burn again, transformed into even finer ashes rising with the smoke to float away on the winds. When the pit could hold no more, it would be covered over by that waiting dirt. Sometimes the flames would leap so high, they could see them at the château, tinting the sky a lurid red. Like the flames of Hell, Maman would murmur and cross herself.

As this poetic image the author created indicates, the human lives lost to The Plague that was hitting France and the resultant pyres they could witness from their castle created a sense of foreboding that anticipated the destiny of all who lived in it, and, in a sense, of the mansion itself.

The Wild Nature

This was represented in many different moments of the book, two that stood out for me were the one where Damién met the sans mort for the first time in the Plague pits:

His mind was so befuddled with his blasphemous thoughts, Damién hadn’t paid attention to where he rode. He’d simply let the horse have its head. They broke from the forest and found themselves in a man-made clearing, butts and limbless poles of trees stacked clumsily about. As his horse stopped, the wind shifted, bringing a scent of decay and burnt flesh . . . telling Damién their location. The plague pits.

I appreciated that first line which, in a sense, mirrors the wildness inside Damién -instilled by his decaying Faith-, and how he would let it take over his rational mind when deciding to turn, as he let the horse be the one commanding the way.

Another significant moment where the wild nature was beautifully portrayed -and of great importance- was towards the end:

With a gasp, Damién lowered his arms, looking around wildly. It was moonlight, not sunshine, shining around him, reflecting off the snow and giving a pallid imitation of daytime.

Where in hell am I?

Not in Hell, surely— unless it was true the center of that place was frozen solid, as Dante claimed.

I’ll not be adding much regarding that quote not to spoil anything, but if you read it, you’ll find yourself enjoying the wittiness behind that turn, and how much the change of scenery adds to it.

The Sublime

The term has been used in many scenarios and with different meanings. There seems to be some point of agreement around naming the sublime, in the Gothic genre, as that feeling the author slowly creates around the events, things, descriptions, characters, and the entirety of his work, which envelopes the reader in a heightened sense of worry, anxiety, mystery, melancholy, awe, and terror, all the while exploring the darkest parts of human nature itself.

In this novel, you’ll find the more explicit ways of terror and horror, graphic violent scenes, especially in the first half of the book, involving not only the protagonist and his friends but also humans many times. And opening the usual debate as to whether animals -monsters in this case- or humans are more savage.

There were unnatural monsters like himself and his men, and natural ones, like the man sitting before him, and he wasn’t certain which was worse.

And you’ll perceive, at the same time, how the slow narration builds the less explicit sense of terror and doom, you’ll fear for Damién each time he finds a glimpse of happiness, for it’ll be often crushed very fast. As this character grows through the centuries the moral side of his damnation becomes heavier and more suffocating with each disappointment he faces:

Perhaps this was intended all along, no matter how much he fought it. That he should always be cursed to walk the corridors of Eternity in solitary damnation. Possibly that was his punishment for thinking he could escape the death Heaven had assigned him.

“So be it,” he whispered.

The Supernatural and a heroic villain

Being Damién and his friends vampires, plus some other surprises you’ll find along the way, the supernatural is pretty much self-explanatory in this book. Which adds up to the always subjacent plot of God’s existence or the lack of it.

Damién didn’t care who died as long as it wasn’t himself. As far as he was concerned, Heaven was a lie fed to ignorant peasants to hide a stark reality discovered only too late . . . that death was Oblivion . . . a fall into bottomless darkness with no resurrection in sight, a snuffing of breath, heartbeat, and thought.

The protagonist will be portrayed as an antihero. There’s something malevolent about him when he starts his journey; he’s very individualistic, an untamed character, even before turning. It’s believed the change only enhances what already was feeding their souls.

The Confinement

There are several aspects of confinement throughout the novel. Some are self-inflicted, through fears or regrets. And there’s also a turning point and a great moment of isolation and reflection that transpires in the future, against his will, and molds his character in a rather different manner.

“Sins of omission are sometimes worse than sins of commission.”

The Past and a Damsel in Distress

As it’s been mentioned before, the ultimate motive for Damién that justifies the things he’s done, or at least that’s how he convinces himself, is his search for true, pure love, or his idea of it.

“You said you wanted a woman who’d accept you in spite of what you are.”

Young and betrothed to the daughter of his father’s best friend, the only love he had known was that of Antoinette -his fiancé-, and through his many lives his romantic adventures tie back to that first attempt at love, and the precious human memories that accompanied it, alongside his vampire’s regrets.

Damién falls in love with damsels in distress throughout much of the story. He usually meets his love interests in terrible situations where he acts questionably but ultimately saves them. As if those women, somehow, reflected the vulnerability he first saw and loved in his Antoinette. And you’ll be able, at some point, to witness a moment where he’s presented with a decision of the same nature as the one he had made when it all started. One could say that Fate, or God, gave him another chance, another trial to see how much wisdom his many years had granted him. History coming full circle.

Bingo!

The Odyssey of Damién involves tragedy and redemption, it’s a voyage followed by a return filled with change and wisdom. He faces and commits many horrors along his journey. Shedding the naiveté of his selfish youth, he begins to find hope again, seeking, in a way, to reconcile with the God he can no longer name:

“Do you know why I really come here to pray each day? Would you like to know a real truth? My prayers for our survival are a test to God. If we are saved, I’ll believe, if not . . .” He laughed, and the sound was so bitter, Père Gervais felt his heart break. Damién raised the fist higher, looking upward as if he’d threaten Heaven. “Well, we aren’t saved, are we?”

“If you’re going to destroy me, go ahead. Oblivion is better than the existence I now suffer.”

“Perhaps it’s true we have to suffer to deserve what we receive. They say all things come to he who waits.”

I greatly enjoyed the beauty of Tony-Paul’s writing to reflect such a deep matter. With some resemblance to the old vampiric novels and the contemporary ones, his descriptions are very poetic and mystic at times, as well as raw and carnal in some others, just like the story itself. The pace of the book is slow, mirroring the protagonist’s changes over the centuries. It’s told in the third person and uses the inner monologue resource, providing a more in-depth narration that gives the reader a different perspective on the events.

If you are a Gothic lover — who enjoys romance and some terror — don’t miss the chance to read this beautifully written tale!

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About Ayee C.

Bookworm since 1995, turned blogger in her teen years. Followed the quest by studying literature in college, and taking Creative Narrative and Poetry courses to appease the Muses who chanted incessantly if not listened to. After a decade of supporting Indie Authors and having the honor of reading their novels in advance, she developed an eye and a taste for spotting typos and plot holes, which led her to start offering various Literary Services. She sometimes wishes she could pause time to read more — and she’s still waiting for her Hogwarts letter. For her social media, go to: https://linktr.ee/alaluzdelalunablog.