Stephen Mark Rainey's Novels

Dreams of the Dark takes place shortly after the 1795 storyline, a period Big Finish hasn't done much with. By the end of the story things are pretty much where they were at the start (something necessary with a new story set between previously established ones). It still works with the TV and Big Finish continuities. The only audio I can think of that'd be in any way relevant to that period is Echoes of Insanity, which takes place during the Cure storyline (shortly before the Cassandra storyline in terms of the timeline, with Willie being treated by Julia Hoffman at Windcliff after he was shot outside Maggie's cottage).

I think I figured that Dreams of the Dark has to take place between episodes 462 and 463 somewhere, ie: Barnabas mucking with Vicki's memories at the end of 462 (she seems to think that her time in the past was a strange dream in the novel) and Vicki coming home with the painting of Angelique (the epilogue seems to be about Angelique coming up with the idea to seduce Roger).

I'm only a handful of chapters in, but I'm enjoying it so far. I've moved into the period of the show that has pretty much ceased to focus on Victoria, basically relegating her to a background plot in what has quickly become The Barney and Angey Show, so having a novel with her as the main focus is quite nice. I've only got a couple hundred more episodes before she gets written out, and god I'm going to miss her.

I wonder if they could talk Moltke or Going into doing an audiobook reading of this.

Am now a little under halfway through Dreams of the Dark. It's good so far. Only like two days have passed, story-wise, and we've spent a good half the book just getting Rathburn into town and introducing him to everybody. So, very much like the show in that regard. I could easily see this being four or five episodes in length, depending on what happens in the latter half of the novel, filling up about a week. Definitely comes between episodes 462 and 463. Vicki no longer knows she's traveled in time, Barnabas having smoothed over her memories at the end of 462. This is also the only period of the show where Barnabas, briefly, feigns romantic interest in Vicki, more concerned with her revealing his secrets than actual romance, and briefly plans to elope with and whisk her away.

Burke and Peter have both been mentioned, when talking about Victoria's past loves, or what she thinks of as loves, but isn't sure at the moment, in her confused state.

Rathburn is... idk. I'm not super enamored with vampires to be honest, so having another moody elegant stranger with a thick accent and vampire powers roaming around Collinsport doesn't really do much for me. I understand that they wanted to push boundaries with the novels, and do stuff they couldn't on the show, but I don't think we really needed to see the scene of his wife's rape and murder played out in flashback.

Angelique is a presence in the book, if not really seen in person as of yet. She was in the prologue, and is obviously driving events, but isn't taking much of an active roll at the moment.

In an imaginary reading / dramatization of this, who would play Rathburn? If id had been part of the show proper, I'd almost be tempted to suppose this as the final showing of Anthony George, across five episodes. As far as the audios go.... I propose Alex Mallinson. He played a dying civil war soldier in The Carrion Queen, and an unnamed vampire in Operation Victor. Getting him to play the roll of Thomas Rathburn, soldier turned vampire during the civil war, could allow one to suppose that that all three of those rolls are one in the same character!

Anyway, onwards, to the latter half of the book!

Well, I hadn't intended to sit down and finish this all in one go, but that seems to be what I've done.

So...

notes.

Hmm.

The latter half of the book is a bit of a rush. The whole story takes place over the course of not even a week. Maybe four days. Five? I may have lost track a bit. A week's worth of episodes, let's say.

Rathburn ignores Barnabas' warnings to stay the hell away from Victoria, and instead gets closer than one probably should, at least until the third date. He then, of course, finds out that his strong attraction to her is most likely Angelique's doing, and feels kind of horrid about it, offering to help Barnabas stick it to her on Halloween night.

Victoria spends a lot of time having Angelique-induced more-than-hallucinations about her time in the past, and we get a nice little spectral cameo from The Reverend Orville Viloris Trask (I will never stop using his full name, now that we know it )

We find that one Andrew Collins, cousin to Edward Collins and son to Gordon Collins, was the one responsible for the deaths of Rathburn's wife and son.

The fire that Trace remembers at the end of the book is in Eagle Hill, and is confined to the summoning circle Barney and Rathburn have whipped up to teach Angelique a lesson.

By the end, Rathburn's dead and he's smoothed out the hatchet job Barnabas did on Victoria's memories, so she'll be well and happy again, just in time for the next episode (463! Just in time to go buy a painting!).

And at the very end, Vicki is also, most surprisingly, tacitly let known by Elizabeth about some of her parentage, under the auspices that "some things must never be spoken aloud", for fear of curses and consequences, the implication being that Paul was not happy about the baby, with all that that entails. So, Victoria knows, but is also determined to never actually say anything about it out loud, as per Liz's wishes. For all the good it did her.

For an audio reading, I'd want Going and Ben Cross, just to thoroughly confuse matters.

For an adaption... well, shit. First of all, it's 23 chapters, but you'd probably only need like five or six episodes to get through everything that happens. Maybe four forty-five minute episodes, similar to Blood & Fire. You'd have Angelique, you'd need someone to play "classic" Barnabas, someone to play Rathburn, Liz, Roger, young David, Carolyn, Sheriff Patterson, Mrs Johnson, and Roger's man Stiles. Curiously, Julia's nowhere to be seen, or even so much as mentioned. Oh, I guess you've the short scene with The Reverend Orville Viloris Trask as well. And, of course, someone to play Victoria Winters.

But yeah, I enjoyed it. A little tired of everything being about Barnabas and Angelique, but that's just part and parcel with the series at this point I guess. Was nice to get more Victoria, and Rathburn was a fun diversion (for Vicki as well ), even if he only lasts for a week.

Now... what's next on the list? Ah, I see it's Labyrinth of Souls. Cool.

Have started reading Labyrinth of Souls while I wait for other physical books to arrive. Presently a couple chapters in. So far nothing egregious that wouldn't work with BF continuity. Assuming we use a date of mid to early 1970 for Quentin's sudden disappearance (ala The Original Series), this takes place Christmas time, 1972, which would put it between The Ghost Watcher and Curse of the Pharaoh on my lists (I know Trace's are a little different as far as specific years go).

At present time, I would use David Selby and Nancy Barrett for a hypothetical Dramatic Reading adaption of the novel, as was apparently the plan at one point.

Am enjoying it thus far. The writing's decent, and I can hear in my head the actors reading their lines. We'll see how things go as I get further into it.

Am currently about a third of the way through Labyrinth of Souls. Quentin is home, suddenly aging. Carolyn has been attacked by some weird spider thing. And a very old very scarred man has moved into the next estate over. I... think that's probably all the setup out of the way, if this follows the same format as Dreams of the Dark. Let's see where this all goes, shall we?

I'm wondering if this and Dreams are structured like the show on purpose. The middle third of the book seems to be repeating a lot of the stuff from the beginning third. Carolyn exhibits occasional symptoms of her attack. Quentin has stuff happen that shouldn't and wonders if the painting is failing. Julia does research but continues to find nothing wrong with Carolyn or Quentin, even though something obviously is. Etc. Repeat for a couple chapters. I could easily see the novel thus far playing out over a week or two, if not more, as a side plot while something else dominated the main stage. Has the feel of an extended story arc, rather than Dreams' feel of being something that would have taken up five or so episodes over the course of the whole book.

You know, it's a good thing I happen to have read Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House" recently, or I wouldn't get this reference.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the show merely pastiches Lovecraft, coming up with their own names for stuff, right? Hence why it's "The Leviathans" rather than the Great Old Ones or Elder Things and such, yes? I'll admit to being a little bothered by the audios and novels (Dreams of the Dark also had a passing reference to the Necronomicon being on someone's shelf) just wholesale referencing and borrowing, rather than at the very least renaming things or better yet creating their own twist on things as the show did.

I don't know. It always kind of bothers me when authors do this and I'm not sure why. I did a lot of research on Lovecraft in school and read pretty much everything he and his circle wrote, and then moved on to the next generation and the next, and it really bothered me that, with a few exceptions in the modern day, most of the stuff that came after him completely missed the point and was just jump scares and tentacles, not really grasping what made his stuff creepily caress the nerves the way it does. I know it's not the intent of (most) authors to disrespect the source material, but I sometimes can't help but feel that it is anyway.

Just a personal gripe that really takes me out of stories :/

Anyway, creepy burn victim doctor has managed to pull spider things (presumably what attacked Carolyn) through the void, using techniques from Dreams in the Witch House (literally, they reference the events of that story, and characters from it.) but assures Julia that he's closed the gateway and nothing living could possibly get through without him knowing about it. So either we're going the "He isn't as knowledgeable as he thought and shit did get through, and now we have an infestation of alien spiders in Collinsport" or "He's evil and lying". Not sure which of those options I prefer.

I suppose it could always be his butler behind the incident, but that seems even more cliche

Bonus note: Chapter 9 begins with a quote from Rappacini’s Daughter, which is awesome.

So I finally got around to finishing the latter third of Labyrinth of Souls (apparently I was further in than I thought). Thanks to somebody sharing their print-ready files I was able to arrange for a paperback copy of the book and was able to read at my leisure. Some interesting stuff. The book gives the most detailed account of count Petofi I've yet come across. I had no idea some of the particulars, as I'm not that far into the show yet, and have thus been piecing him together from references and the the occasional cameo in the audios. From my perspective so far, he seems almost like an Anthony Ainley situation, a major presence in the show, but, due to unfortunate casting circumstances, not really able to appear in the audios unless he's borrowing somebody else's body.

Anyway, the creepy crawlies and the mysterious burn victim and the trouble with Quentin's portrait and stuff end up all being part of Petofi's plan, which backfires when he is suddenly faced with a very angry and very uncontrollable werewolf in the form of Quentin deprived of his painting and fiddlesticksed around for a few weeks. Yeah, that doesn't end well for the count. The book ends with Quentin back to being at the mercy of his curse, and leaving Collinwood once again.

I can see why BF were hesitant to adapt it, considering the direction they were already going at the time.

I'd still love them to come back to it at some point though. With some minor adjustments I think it could work quite well. Not sure how they'd get around the fact that Quentin doesn't have his painting anymore though. It certainly doesn't mesh well with the Parker novels, but, as an unpublished work, I can forgive it for not exactly fitting with the stuff that actually made it to print.