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conversations.value: Give me a description for a book titled Traveling with the Dead about Farren's, Europe, Lydia with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction.
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conversations.value: The vampire subculture of 19th-century Europe serves as a vehicle for ruminations on love and honor in the author's follow-up to Those Who Hunt the Night. The time is 1908, and biologist Lydia Asher is hot on the trail of her husband, James, a former spy and Oxford don who in turn is shadowing Charles Farren, the vampire Earl of Ernchester, and Farren's mortal traveling companion, the nefarious mercenary Ignace Karolyi. Lydia's pursuit of James parallels a similar trek made by Farren's wife, Anthea, who travels in James's company and is as passionately concerned about Farren's welfare as Lydia is about James's. International adventures take these characters from London to Vienna and ultimately to Constantinople, where they become enmeshed in the byzantine political power struggle that has lured Farren there against his will. Although the author invests these vampire and mortal personages with the traditional values being threatened by an evolving modern Europe, her vivid portraits allow them to emerge as memorable personalities distinct from the viewpoints they represent. Believable and sympathetic, pursuer and pursued carry the story over its occasional plot muddles and gothic contrivances to a spectacular finale. the author covers no ground that hasn't been explored in the historical vampire sagas of Anne Rice and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, but once again she uses familiar elements skillfully to tell an engrossing tale. 50,000 first printing; author tour. <BR>Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The vampire subculture of 19th-century Europe serves as a vehicle for ruminations on love and honor in the author's follow-up to Those Who Hunt the Night. The time is 1908, and biologist Lydia Asher is hot on the trail of her husband, James, a former spy and Oxford don who in turn is shadowing Charles Farren, the vampire Earl of Ernchester, and Farren's mortal traveling companion, the nefarious mercenary Ignace Karolyi. Lydia's pursuit of James parallels a similar trek made by Farren's wife, Anthea, who travels in James's company and is as passionately concerned about Farren's welfare as Lydia is about James's. International adventures take these characters from London to Vienna and ultimately to Constantinople, where they become enmeshed in the byzantine political power struggle that has lured Farren there against his will. Although the author invests these vampire and mortal personages with the traditional values being threatened by an evolving modern Europe, her vivid portraits allow them to emerge as memorable personalities distinct from the viewpoints they represent. Believable and sympathetic, pursuer and pursued carry the story over its occasional plot muddles and gothic contrivances to a spectacular finale. the author covers no ground that hasn't been explored in the historical vampire sagas of Anne Rice and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, but once again she uses familiar elements skillfully to tell an engrossing tale. 50,000 first printing; author tour.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a plot for a book about Farren's, Europe, Lydia with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Traveling with the Dead: In this sequel to Those Who Hunt the Night, professor James Asher and his young wife, Lydia, are again swept up in the dangerous world of the undead.\nIt is 1908, and a weary Asher, traveling home from his tiresome duties as executor of a relative's estate, spots Charles Farren, vampire Earl of Ernchester, clearly involved in some intrigue with mercenary and enemy spy Ignace Karolyi.\nAsher, who had left the secret service years ago to wed Lydia, reluctantly trails the pair to Paris, wiring Lydia to alert her to the danger.\nBut Lydia is aware of something Asher does not know: an obscure footnote in one of her medical journals clues her into the fact that the safe house Asher is planning to use is in the hands of a double agent, actually in league with Karolyi.\nTo save her husband, Lydia seeks the assistance of the oldest of the London vampires: the enigmatic and haughty Simon Ysidro.\nYsidro agrees to help, to keep Farren from forming an alliance with humans, but on one condition: over Lydia's strenuous objections, he recruits a drab but romantic-minded governess, Margaret Potton, to travel with them as Lydia's chaperon.\nThe three of them trail Asher across Europe to Constantinople, as he joins forces with Farren's strong-willed and alluring vampire-wife, Anthea.\nIn Constantinople, the trail dies, as Asher has been kidnapped by the vampire lord of the city, who is struggling to keep control as a rival seeks to destroy him.\nAsher tries to uncover his own role in the power struggle, for this may hold the key to his survival.\nMeanwhile, Lydia and Ysidro explore the city, Lydia through Asher's diplomatic connections, Ysidro through his nocturnal prowlings, seeking any clue as to where Asher and Charles have disappeared to, even as Margaret's obsession with Ysidro and jealousy of Lydia endanger them all.\nOnly by unwinding the threads of money trails, strange business transactions, and a series of increasingly gruesome murders can Ysidro and Lydia find Charles and Asher, and escape the city alive.