THEY THIRST by Robert McCammon - SIGNED LIMITED EDITION BOOK
See all titles by Robert McCammon.
Dust jacket and full-color interior illustrations by Les Edwards.
First published in 1981, They Thirst was Robert McCammon’s
fourth novel, and it remains one of the major milestones of an
ambitious, constantly evolving career. Like its predecessors—Baal, Bethany’s Sin, and The Night Boat—They Thirst
made its initial appearance as a paperback original. In the years
since, it has acquired an intensely devoted following, and is now widely
regarded as one of the significant vampire novels of the 20th century.
The story begins in the tiny Hungarian hamlet of Krajeck, where
nine-year-old Andre Palatazin awaits the return of his father from an
unspecified—but clearly dangerous—mission. The man who finally returns
is no longer Andre’s father—is no longer, in fact, a man. Pursued by
this undead entity, Andre and his mother barely escape with their lives.
Decades later, Andre—now Andy—Palatazin is a homicide detective in the
Los Angeles Police Department, and spends his days dealing with the
quotidian terrors of a large metropolis. His life takes a darker turn
when the demonic forces he first encountered in Krajeck arrive in L.A.,
led by an ancient vampire known as The Master. The Master’s plan: to
overrun the city and use it as a stepping-stone toward wider, ultimately
global, domination.
They Thirst marks the earliest appearance of McCammon’s
penchant for epic, wide-angled narratives. With the unobtrusive ease of a
natural storyteller, the author propels a wide assortment of vividly
created characters through an apocalyptic scenario that combines gritty
urban realism with a powerful portrait of supernatural forces at large
in the modern world. The result is a genuine classic of the genre, a
novel that is as fresh and absorbing today as it was more than thirty
years ago.
