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Okay, I’ve finished The First Vampire so now time for thoughts
First off, I definitely think it could’ve benefited from being a full novel over a novella. The story was complete, but I think a real deep dive into some of the worldbuilding aspects, namely the magic and how it works and the dynamics of the family, could’ve been excellent.
I felt the plot was fairly standard for a type of vampire origin story, nothing particularly groundbreaking but enjoyable nonetheless.
I will say there were a few typos at least in my copy that threw me off, but I’m also someone who worked in writing centers so my brain zeroes in on those.
Overall, I think it was a good intro to Andy’s fiction writing and I’m excited to see where he goes with the other stories in the collection, especially once we get to the original stories.
If I had to boil it down to a rating, I’d said 7.5/10.
I’ve also read The First Vampire and I have some thoughts of my own
First of all, I was intrigued by the vampiric elements of the book and the supernatural/magical aspect as well. I think the book had a solid but standard plotline that was still interesting to read.
I do wish some of the story could’ve been fleshed out more but, given that it was a novella rather than a complete novel, I understand why Andy wanted to save time. Unfortunately due to this format, the chapters felt kind of short.
Secondly, my copy of the book also had a few typos and the writing was a bit clunky at times. To be fair, I am kind of a nerd about writing and grammar but Andy’s copy editor should have caught these errors.
Lastly, I think the book did what it set out to do which made for a quick and interesting read. Overall, I would say that I don’t hate the book but there is a bit more to be desired. Hopefully the other three books in the series will improve on this one.
What's BVB7 going to be about? Hard to say (beyond that there will likely be some relation to fallen angels/demons, based on something Andy said on Patreon - more on that later). However, I think the story of Saint Sebastian may have something to do with it.
1 - The Saint
Back in June, Andy got this tattoo on his leg. While the horns and wings have been added, giving it more of a demonic look, the basis for the tattoo is actually this statue of Saint Sebastian (which to my knowledge resides in a museum in León, Mexico):
(It's worth noting that Saint Sebastian is widely considered a gay icon, but that's not what I'm getting at here. Still interesting though.)
On its own, it's easy to just assume that it's nothing more than a cool tattoo - but this is Andy Biersack we're talking about here, he is insane and methodical with these things. And he likes using Catholic imagery.
Saint Sebastian is the patron saint of, among other things, soldiers and those who wish to die a saintly death. The most famous depictions of him (including in the statue above) show the incident of him being tied to a tree and shot full of arrows during a Roman persecution of Christians - but, importantly, he *did not die*.
Tradition has it that he miraculously survived what should've been certain death, and he was nursed back to health..... only to die shortly afterwards, bludgeoned to death after speaking out and directly criticising the emperor who had sentenced him to death.
Miraculous survival and severe consequences for speaking up against those who wronged you. I sure wonder why Andy's so interested in the guy.
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2 - Saviour II and the "Exemplary Sufferer"
You know how I said the link between Saint Sebastian and the gay community didn't really have anything to do with this? Well that's still basically true, but I would like to draw your attention to this passage from an article detailing that relationship:
You won't know about this if you aren't subscribed to the TAS Patreon, but the original music video concept for Saviour II was quite a bit more complex than the final product (damn you, Sumerian). Out of respect for the fact it's paid content I won't be posting photos directly from there here, but here's the Sparknotes summary:
- The video was supposed to have Andy's body falling apart more and more over the course of the song, until by the end he's stripped practically bare and covered in blood.
- The sketch he posted has him wearing nothing but a cloth that, funnily enough, looks pretty similar to the loincloth Saint Sebastian is often depicted wearing.
- He uses like 5 different brushes to draw the blood/bruising, but notably there are circular splotches of blood on his torso that correspond basically perfectly to the positioning of the arrows on that statue.
- You can actually see these in the music video itself, he's wearing rather thick chain bracelets on both wrists. Saint Sebastian is pretty much invariably depicted tied to a post/tree by his arms, usually his wrists.
Additionally, certain lyrics of Saviour II seem to play into the idea of the "exemplary sufferer" described in the article excerpt - accepting the pain given to him quietly, not allowing it to affect his art:
Given all of this, I suspect that Andy had hoped to tackle this theme in that music video, but due to constraints placed on the band (DAMN YOU SUMERIAN) was unable to do so. However, as we've seen with Bleeders, the band clearly have more budget and freedom under their new label.... and given Andy got that tattoo quite a while after Saviour II's release, he clearly hasn't stopped thinking about it yet.
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