The Vampire Tapestry (Charnas, Suzy McKee) 1980

This has the best disclaimer I can remember reading: "All characters in this book are fictitious.  Any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead, or undead, is purely coincidental -- barring a brief appearance by the author's mother-in-law, with the gracious permission of the same."  The novel itself is structured as a stitching together of five related stories to make the whole "Vampire Tapestry", with Charnas's Nebula-winning novella "the Unicorn Tapestry" as the center story, and Professor Weyland starring throughout.  "The Unicorn Tapestry" is the strongest story in the book, but I have to admit that my favorite character (after Weyland) is Katje de Groot, who is introduced in the first story and then never seen again.  I was first sad and then very sad (because the second story is the weakest of all) and then finally resigned (once I began to enjoy "the Unicorn Tapestry" and then "A Musical Interlude") that Katje wasn't going to reappear, because Charnas is too good a storyteller to bring her back when it doesn't make sense to do so.  The ending leaves wide open the possibility for more stories about Weyland, and fast-forwarding to today would be perfect; dare we hope for a sequel?

[reading completed  9/13/9]