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Music of the Night [Secure]
eBook by Suzy McKee Charnas
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eBook Category: Fantasy
eBook Description: The vampire, the werewolf, the witch, the Phantom of the Opera--Suzy McKee Charnas brings together four monster-movie archetypes as you've never encountered them before, along with an original Afterword. The rage of a tormented adolescent is poignantly expressed in the Hugo-winning "Boobs." A vampire's sessions with a psychiatrist become a contest of wills in the Nebula-winning "Unicorn Tapestry." Dark magic puts a woman's ugly insecurities on public display in "Evil Thoughts." And a beautiful woman exerts an uneasy control over the tempers of a monster in the critically acclaimed "Beauty and the Opéra or The Phantom Beast." Suspenseful and thought-provoking, MUSIC OF THE NIGHT affirms the vitality of these classic demons of our cultural imagination, at once nightmarish and seductive.
eBook Publisher: Electricstory.com, Published: 2001
Fictionwise Release Date: July 2002
27 Reader Ratings:
Available eBook Formats [Secure - What's this?]:
Mobipocket Reader ISBN: 1930815247
 
" 'The Unicorn Tapestry' . . . uses the vampire legend to speculate ingeniously on the nature of psychotherapy and female sexuality." -- Steven Lehman, Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Review, Jan/Feb 1983
"'Boobs' (is) a riotous and truly gruesome re-writing of the (werewolf) myth from a female angle." -- Julie Bertagna, Scotland on Sunday, May 27, 1990 " 'Boobs' is a gem, if one can thus describe a tale so repulsive." -- Mary Scott, The Listener, May 1990 "A fascinating exploration of domesticity and power and literary roles. Even though she's the heroine of a romance, Christine is no fainting, yielding, pliable victim. She's a hard-headed business woman who knows how to negotiate with managers and directors and monsters, too. Erik, on the other hand, is governed completely by his passions. In most Romances, the heroine must teach the hero to feel and to express his feelings. In "Beauty," it's the other way around." -- Delia Sherman "In this gorgeous re-imagining of The Phantom of the Opera, Christine strikes a bargain with the Phantom and lives with him for five years. Much of the story has to do with the precarious balance of power between the two. Christine has a moral hold over the Phantom, but she doesn't take it upon herself to absolve him, to reform him in any absolute sense, or to sacrifice herself to him. He remains a monster, and not always a sympathetic one. Their passion is based on this tension, and of course it's one that can't endure indefinitely, as Christine knows. The moral and psychological complexity of this story can't be easily summarized. Think of it as an antidote to the fable of the evil man redeemed by the love of a good woman, but don't stop there; it's many other things as well." -- Justine Larbalestier
"Hold on," Floria said. "I know what you're going to say: I agreed not to take any new clients for a while. But wait till I tell you -- you're not going to believe this -- first phone call, setting up an initial appointment, he comes out with what his problem is: 'I seem to have fallen victim to a delusion of being a vampire.' "
"Christ H. God!" cried Lucille delightedly. "Just like that, over the telephone?"
"When I recovered my aplomb, so to speak, I told him that I prefer to wait with the details until our first meeting, which is tomorrow."
They were sitting on the tiny terrace outside the staff room of the clinic, a converted town house on the upper West Side. Floria spent three days a week here and the remaining two in her office on Central Park South where she saw private clients like this new one. Lucille, always gratifyingly responsive, was Floria's most valued professional friend. Clearly enchanted with Floria's news, she sat eagerly forward in her chair, eyes wide behind Coke-bottle lenses.
She said, "Do you suppose he thinks he's a revivified corpse?"
Below, down at the end of the street, Floria could see two kids skidding their skateboards near a man who wore a woolen cap and a heavy coat despite the May warmth. He was leaning against a wall. He had been there when Floria had arrived at the clinic this morning. If corpses walked, some, not nearly revivified enough, stood in plain view in New York.
"I'll have to think of a delicate way to ask," she said.
"How did he come to you, this 'vampire'?"
"He was working in an upstate college, teaching and doing research, and all of a sudden he just disappeared -- vanished, literally, without a trace. A month later he turned up here in the city. The faculty dean at the school knows me and sent him to see me."
Lucille gave her a sly look. "So you thought, aha, do a little favor for a friend, this looks classic and easy to transfer if need be: repressed intellectual blows stack and runs off with spacey chick, something like that."
"You know me too well," Floria said with a rueful smile.
"Huh," grunted Lucille. She sipped ginger ale from a chipped white mug. "I don't take panicky middle-aged men anymore; they're too depressing. And you shouldn't be taking this one, intriguing as he sounds."
Here comes the lecture, Floria told herself.
Lucille got up. She was short, heavy, prone to wearing loose garments that swung about her like ceremonial robes. As she paced, her hem brushed at the flowers starting up in the planting boxes that rimmed the little terrace. "You know damn well this is just more overwork you're loading on. Don't take this guy; refer him."
Floria sighed. "I know, I know. I promised everybody I'd slow down. But you said it yourself just a minute ago -- it looked like a simple favor. So what do I get? Count Dracula, for God's sake! Would you give that up?"
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