I remember how Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden got on my reading list. I was watching a panel discussion with editor Anne Groell at Worldcon 2020 (via Zoom; Worldcon was remote that year due to COVID), and she talked about editing this and having the idea of structuring it “like a mass”. Like a Catholic Mass.
So of course I was interested. I looked into the book, and sure enough the chapter titles are “Arrival: Kyrie”, “The Surgeon’s Tale: Offertorio”, “The Sailor’s Tale: Sanctus”, and onward.
I find Mike Mignola interesting, too, but I haven’t followed through on that interest with any actual reading. I love the Ron Perlman/Guillermo del Toro Hellboy movies, so his Hellboy graphic novels are probably my kind of thing. And I love the art!
But instead, I have Baltimore and today I read the prelude on my Kindle. “Prelude: Requiem” opens with a quote from Hans Christian Anderson’s The Steadfast Tin Soldier:
There were once five and twenty tin soldiers, all brothers, for they were the offspring of the same old tin spoon.
In this Prelude, there is, “on a cold autumn night”, a battle from World War I happening and our man Captain Henry Baltimore is in the thick of it. The folks on the other side of this battle are the Hessians. So we’re definitely in some kind of fantasy or alternate world here, but the battle is very recognizable World War I style; two armies in trenches facing each other across a field strewn with barbed wire and corpses.
The title of the book has the word “vampire” in it, so it’s no surprise to state that those vampires make an appearance right here in the beginning. So far this book is grim, but I’m intrigued and will continue. I need to take a look of a hardcopy of this one because I’m interested what the layout looks like with Mignola’s art. In the Kindle version, there are small pieces of black and white artwork here and there. I bet the hardcopy is a thing of grim beauty.
Another book I’ve got going right now is the next book for the Good Story podcast: Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather. I’m embarrassed to admit that I was as wrong as could be about the plot of this book. I thought it was going to be a murder mystery! Some crossed wires in my head for sure. This book is about a bishop and a priest establishing a diocese in New Mexico in the 1800’s. No murder mysteries here! No vampires, either. At least in the first part.
Hahahaha! It never would have occurred to me that Death Comes for the Archbishop would be a mystery but, of course, that name just screams murder! Except when it doesn’t. :-D
No murders, no vampires… what am I supposed to make of this book? haha
In my head, I think the title of this book and the author P. D. James were soldered together. I’ve put in a work order for repair. :)
You can be the novel repairman!