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Victor Pelevin, Empire V: The Prince of Hamlet (Gollancz, 2016, 387pp, £14.99)
Following in the footsteps of the critically acclaimed books of Omon Ra, Babylon/Generation P and The Sacred Book of the Werewolf, Victor Pelevin's Empire V is now available in English (translated by Anthony Phillips). UK readers might be used to Pelevin's signature style: the merger of satirized criticism of the post-Soviet society with the transcendental and supernatural through clever puns and sharp insights. Pelevin previously revisited the theme of the werewolf, in an allegorical love story between a werewolf and a magical womanfox hybrid, exploring social norms and behaviours in a decaying society built on corruption and surveillance. This time Pelevin chose to focus on vampires.
Vampires have always been with us as terrifying monsters of folklore, or, after Bram Stoker's Dracula, as extravagant characters of popular culture. The countless variations of vampires all share the same function - we tend to project our fears and desires upon them - and while each vampire story attempts to add something to their depiction, Pelevin's Empire V definitely stands out. It manages an intriguing balance between romance clichés and literary references. The result is not only an entertaining, deeply philosophical and politically loaded re-appropriation of the vampire theme, as well as (quite surprisingly) Shakespeare's Hamlet, but also an attempt to grant a cosmic origin story to...