THE KEEP

Nazis meet vampires--in a sometimes creepy, mostly clichÉd occult novel by sf writer Wilson. Major Erich Kaempffer of the SS is ordered to the Keep at Dinu Pass, a mysterious fortress-like building on a Transylvanian crag where six German soldiers have been killed by savage throat wounds. Dracula at work? That's the question for Kaempffer--and for local Jewish historian Prof. Theodore Cuza, who's brought to the Keep along with virginal daughter Magda. And soon Cuza knows the answer: Viscount Radu Molasar visits Cuza (stepping out of an evil black cloud), details his Dracula-like history (back to 1476), and persuades Cuza to join him in opposing the Nazis and their local death-camp plans. But meanwhile another occult visitor has appeared on the scene: blaze-haired Glenn--who kills two Germans, deflowers Magda, and reveals to her that he himself built the Keep centuries ago to imprison his arch-enemy Rasalom (a.k.a. Molasar), a necromancer of the First Age, a champion of Chaos. So eventually, of course, there's going to be a cosmic duel between Glenn (with shining sword of Light) and Rasalom/Molasar--but not before the vampire/hero/villain has made zombies out of all the German troops and officers. . . . A neat Nazi/vampire gimmick? Yes, indeed. And it generates an initial interest. Unfortunately, however, the novelty wears off about halfway through, and what then remains is a basically routine blend of vampire lore and Good/Evil fantasy-duel--passable for devotees of the genre, but without the distinctiveness of such recent vampire efforts as Whitley Strieber's The Hunger.