Necroscope
Necroscope is the title of a series of horror novels by British author Brian Lumley.
The term necroscope, as defined in the series, describes someone who can communicate with the dead. Unlike necromancers, who here extract the knowledge they seek by brutal eviscerations of corpses, a necroscope can communicate with them as equals: peacefully and without any physical interference. The abilities of a necroscope are defined as a type of extrasensory perception.
Plot summary
Harry Keogh, the Necroscope, is born with the ability to speak to the dead. As he grows up and his power manifests itself, he befriends the dead, known as the Great Majority, and learns from them that death is not the end. He believes that although the body dies, the mind goes on and the dead continue to improve and expand in death what they loved in life. From him, they learn to communicate amongst themselves, and love Harry for it. In turn, the Great Majority offer him their knowledge. While Harry is at school, a deceased math teacher helps him with his developing mathematics talent and an ex-army sergeant teacher imparts self-defense skills.As the years go by, he has recurring dreams about his mother, dead after an apparent ice-skating accident but in reality murdered by her husband – Harry's stepfather Victor Shukshin. Shukshin is a psychic sensitive, a defector sleeper agent planted in England by the Soviet E-Branch. In his self-appointed mission to avenge his mother's death, Harry is dragged into a web of espionage involving British and Soviet ESP agencies.
This leads to Harry learning to use the Möbius Continuum, which allows him to instantaneously transport himself anywhere in the multi-dimensional universe.
From that point on, Keogh, backed by the British E-Branch, works to rid the human world of a vampire menace, a mission that will eventually lead him to a parallel world called Sunside/Starside. This vampire-dominated world is connected to Earth via two portals, one in Romania and a second, recent one in the Soviet-run Pechorsk Project in the Urals. It is on Sunside/Starside that Harry Keogh's final death eventually meets up with him, after he has lost his family, his friends, even his deadspeak and numeracy, but not his humanity.
In the Möbius Continuum, Harry's essence explodes in a burst of golden light, and from that explosion a myriad of golden darts, each a part of Harry, come forth.
Each of those golden darts carry a part of Keogh, and can join with hosts to grant them some of the abilities of the original Necroscope. Later books in the series tell the stories of individuals touched by these darts: Nathan Kiklu, Jake Cutter and Scott St. John. The darts seek to continue their mission in life, and so bond to individuals who will come up against the Necroscope's old foes, the Wamphyri, and menaces of diabolic nature.
Harry's physical remains, infected by the spores of the vampire Faethor Ferenczy, were sent back in time by the Möbius Continuum and ended up in the marshes of Sunside/Starside, making him the source of the vampire plague when his own spores infected the exiled Shaitan who becomes the first Wamphyri Lord.
Books in the series
| # | Title | 1st Edition | Series |
| 1. | Necroscope | 1986 | Necroscope |
| 2. | Necroscope II: Wamphyri | 1988 | Necroscope |
| 3. | Necroscope III: The Source | 1989 | Necroscope |
| 4. | Necroscope IV: Deadspeak | 1990 | Necroscope |
| 5. | Necroscope V: Deadspawn | 1991 | Necroscope |
| 6. | Blood Brothers | 1992 | Vampire World |
| 7. | The Last Aerie | 1993 | Vampire World |
| 8. | Bloodwars | 1994 | Vampire World |
| 9. | Necroscope: The Lost Years | 1995 | The Lost Years |
| 10. | Necroscope: Resurgence, The Lost Years | 1996 | The Lost Years |
| 11. | Necroscope: Invaders | 1999 | E-Branch |
| 12. | Necroscope: Defilers | 2000 | E-Branch |
| 13. | Necroscope: Avengers | 2001 | E-Branch |
| 14. | Harry Keogh: Necroscope and Other Weird Heroes | 2003 | Supplemental |
| 15. | Necroscope: The Touch | 2006 | New Adventures of the Necroscope |
| 16. | Necroscope: Harry and the Pirates | 2009 | Supplemental |
| 17. | Necroscope: The Plague-Bearer | 2010 | The Lost Years |
| 18. | Necroscope: The Möbius Murders | 2013 | The Lost Years |
Main characters
Harry Keogh, Necroscope
The main protagonist of the series. Harry's grandmother was a Russian immigrant who settled in Great Britain. His father died when he was very young. His mother later remarried and was eventually killed by Harry's stepfather. During his early childhood, Keogh lived with an aunt and uncle in County Durham in North East England. Keogh would eventually return to exact vengeance on his Russian stepfather.While at school, being not particularly popular or academically inclined, Harry discovers his ability to speak to people who have died. He also, in most part due to this ability, shows great aptitude in the fields of mathematics and creative writing.
The author also puts forward the idea that death is not the end, and that whatever someone was or wished to be in life, he or she continues to be in death, within the restraints that death imposes. For example, a mathematician would continue perfecting his math, an inventor would keep inventing new things, and a psychic would continue to practice using their powers.
Not only can Harry speak to the dead, but he can also form a bond with them which allows them a degree of control over him when he permits. For example, when faced with a dangerous situation, Harry hands his mind over to the control of a former gym teacher who was an army sergeant, and learns martial arts skills. He does not forget what he learns, and continues to use this skill and many others throughout the series. In addition, if the dead are nearby and the physical situation permits, they will literally raise themselves up out of the ground and fight for him. This gives him powerful allies as, being dead already, they have nothing to lose and almost nothing to fear.
Harry is also able to teleport anywhere in the world via the Möbius continuum, which he learned from August Ferdinand Möbius. By employing advanced equations learned through his dead tutor and his intuitive mathematical mind, Harry can conjure a door in space and enter the Möbius continuum, he can then create another door to exit. There is no time in the continuum, so teleportation is instant. Harry is also able to open a past or future time door and observe what may be, but he cannot appear there physically.
Powers
In total, Harry Keogh has six different ESP talents by the end of the first series of five books:- Deadspeak: an evolution of his mother's talent as a psychic medium.
- Teleportation: technically space-time manipulation, learned from August Ferdinand Möbius.
- A 'mind-blanket': gifted by the deceased Norman Wellesly which completely blanks his mind out.
- Telepathy: learned from the E-Branch telepath Trevor Jordan.
- Locator: by connecting with another mind, Harry can locate and appear near them.
- Resurrection-type Necromancy: by means of a spoken incantation, learned during a battle against the vampire Janos Ferenczy, Harry can bring the dead back to full animation. Readers of H. P. Lovecraft's works will note that the same incantation from his works appears here. Lumley is well known for his extension of the Cthulhu mythos, and this to some extent acts as a tie-in to Titus Crow universe and to the Mythos in general.
Harry Jr./The Dweller
Choosing to flee from Earth after an attack by the vampire Yulian Bodescu, the baby Harry Jr., showing even greater mastery over the Möbius continuum than his father, transports himself and his mother to the parallel universe of Starside/Sunside and also back in time by twenty years.
Living on Starside with his mother, Harry Jr. is vampirised by an 'infected' wolf and becomes Wamphyri and is named 'The Dweller in His Garden in the West' by the world's fearful inhabitants. Hiding his Wamphyri features behind a golden mask and black cloak – he shuns the Wamphyri lifestyle, instead using his immense willpower to hold his vampire at bay.
The Dweller forms an alliance with the Szgany Lidesci but becomes infamous among the Wamphyri of Starside because of his mysterious powers. Fearing him, they form an alliance to attack him at his garden in the mountains.
Severely injured during the battle, his vampire leech re-shapes his damaged body into that of a more simple entity, a wolf, to save both their lives. His injuries were immense, and with much less mass, rebuilding damaged tissue and bone was easier. The exception to this transformation was his hands, which he willed remain, so that the Szgany may know him, and so that he too would have a reminder of the man he once was.
The change removes his ability to use the Möbius continuum, leaving him with just Deadspeak and telepathy. His mind soon wanes and he loses touch with his humanity, preferring to take the company of his Starside/Sunside wolf brethren.