Blood Oath (Farnsworth novel)

Blood Oath is a novel published in 2010 by Christopher Farnsworth. It centers on three main characters: Nathaniel Cade, a vampire more than 160 years old, currently bound by a blood oath to serve and protect the President of the United States; former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Agent William Griffin, or "Griff," Cade's handler for more than 30 years, and Zach Barrows, a former White House staffer that is Griff's replacement. The novel focuses on a deadly new threat to the United States from a horrible biological attack.

Development

Farnsworth has stated that the idea behind this book came from the strange story of President Andrew Johnson's pardon of a man accused of being a vampire,^[1] as related by Robert Damon Schneck and Charles Fort. He reasoned that if this story was true, how powerful of an agent for the United States could that vampire become, and how much good would he be able to do?

Plot summary

"Blood Oath" opens with an Army Ranger task force in Kosovo, conducting surveillance on a group of Serbians as night falls. The Rangers watch as a mysterious figure attempts to bargain with the Serbs, trading a bag of cash for a mysterious case with US Army markings. However the deal goes bad and the Serbs attack the figure. As the fight progresses, one of the soldiers sees the fight between the figure and a Serb up close, and realizes what he is seeing: a werewolf and a vampire, in a fight to the death.

Twenty hours later, Griff is escorting Zach Barrows to the Smithsonian Institution. There, Zach meets the mysterious figure: Nathaniel Cade, a vampire bound by a blood oath to serve the President of the United States. Agent Griff is retiring, and brings in Zach to take over after Zach is found fooling around with the president's daughter.

Through various flash-backs, we find out about Cade's past: as a young man, he served on a whale hunting vessel in 1867. His ship was attacked by a vampire, killing all on board but leaving Cade, who turned to a vampire himself. He was captured and sentenced to death, but spared by President Andrew Johnson, who in turn had him bound by voodoo to the Office of the President.

As Zach begins his first day, he and Cade are dispatched to the Port of Baltimore. ICE agents have found a shipping container holding a horrible discovery: various body parts all from deceased U.S. servicemen, all hanging on hooks in a grim meat locker. After interrogating the driver, Cade tells Zach that they are on their way to find Johann Konrad Dippel, the real-life inspiration for Dr. Frankenstein, as Cade suspects someone is trying to duplicate Konrad's research on bringing the dead back to life.

Konrad is an alchemist from Germany, and is currently over 350 years old, due to having discovered the Elixir of Life. His Elixir can bring dead tissue to life, and make it so strong just one of his creations killed dozens of people before being stopped. Konrad has previously been encountered by Cade developing bio-weapons for the Nazis and had been arrested in Nigeria by Cade in 1970; however, Konrad performs a service to the United States in 1981 and as a result is set free, as long as he does not practice his evil medicine again.

Cade and Zach confront Konrad at his office in Las Vegas, where he is operating as a plastic surgeon, who denies any involvement with the dead body parts. However, after Cade and Zach leave, Konrad moves to a secret lab and proceeds to demonstrate that he has not given up his diabolical work at all.

Cade leaves Zach to tail Konrad while he finds an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to attend. At the A.A. meetings, Cade is able to draw strength from the humans, as they all struggle with desire for the drink, even if they have different thirsts. As Cade leaves, he is stopped by Tania, a female vampire he failed to help in the past. While neither will admit it, their shared history gives them both the closest thing to feelings for each other that vampires can feel.

As Zach is tailing Konrad, he is followed by a mysterious black car. With Cade's assistance, they ambush the black car and find Helen Holt, a former CIA agent who now works for a dark organization referred to as the Shadow Company. The Shadow Company began during the Cold War, and has since delved into darkness so deep that the conspiracy theories about President John F. Kennedy and Roswell are nothing compared to the truth of what they truly do.

As Cade and Zach dig deeper and deeper into the truth behind the body parts and their connection to Konrad, they find back-stabbing and double-crosses waiting for them at every turn, with their search finally ending in a terrifying showdown with the Other Side that takes place in the heart of the nation's capital.

Themes

Self-control/sacrifice: Cade is unique in vampires in that he refuses, in spite of agonizing pain and wild desire, to drink human blood. This stems from his traumatic conversion from human to vampire. He subsists on animal blood, and in a unique twist, he helps fight his thirst for blood by attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, drawing strength from alcoholics who fight their thirst every day of their lives.^[1]

Religion: Cade's constant self-damnation contrasts with his fanatical fight to serve and protect, rather than feed on, humans. This constant struggle has been described by Farnsworth as stemming from Cade being raised Calvinist, with a strong belief in predestination and the damnation of most of humanity.,^[1] He also objects when those around him blaspheme by using the Lord's name in vain, and wears a worn cross around his neck, despite its physical discomfort.

Fear of unknown: Besides the obvious "cool" factor to vampires, Farnsworth describes much of the story reflecting society's current fears. He states that "Whenever we have trouble facing our fears head-on, we call out the monsters. In the 50s, it was the alien invasion movie. In the 80s, it was the relentless, unstoppable serial killer. And now, we're dealing with the War on Terror with vampires and zombies."^[1]

Literary reviews

Reviews have generally been very positive for the first time novelist. Elizabeth Hand of the Washington Post called Blood Oath an "irresistible page-turner... a 21st-century riff on themes explored in such classics from America’s first Paranoid Age as “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”^[2] The New York Times has Blood Oath topping their summer reading list.^[3] Billy Heller with the New York Post has Blood Oath on its required reading list.^[4] Jim at Reelzchannel.com states that "After all the deep sighs, long stares, and sparkling skin, this kind of action-oriented supernatural story is just what the genre needs to expand the audience."^[5] The Wall Street Journal seems to enjoy the fun of the book, calling it "silly but better than Twilight."^[6]

Beevers from sandwichjohnfilms.com calls this "not just another vampire novel" and perfect for anyone tired of the Twilight series vampires.^[7] Joseph McCabe of Fearnet.com stated in an online interview that with so many different takes on vampires in various media outlets, it is hard to come up with something unique. His impression, however, is that Farnsworth has managed to create just that.^[8] And Litfestmagazine.com has placed it in both their "Great Books" and "Best Books of the Year" categories.^[9]

References and inspirations

Farnsworth admits to being a fan of many other vampire novels, though he claims to stay away from them while writing.^[1] He has described Zach as the type of person that he might have become had he stayed the political path instead of reporting.^[1] He is also reportedly a big fan of Jack Kirby and Grant Morrison, two successful comic book creators.

Film adaptation

According to Fangoria.com, Blood Oath has been optioned by producer Lucas Foster,^[10] the man behind Man on Fire, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Equilibrium and Law Abiding Citizen, among many others.^[11] Farnsworth, who will have an executive producer credit for the film, has not had much to say about the production other than his great desire to have Christian Bale in the title role of Cade and Justin Long filling in for Zach.

"For Cade, I would love to see Christian Bale. He's a chameleonic actor who can portray the best and worst in people. For Zach, I always saw Justin Long (The "Mac" in the "Mac and PC" commercials from Apple.)"^[1]

Future works

Farnsworth has recently released book three, titled Red, White and Blood, and states that he would like to continue Cade's adventures for quite some time. "I've got ideas and outlines for 10 books in the series. I'm not sure how much further I'll go after that, but as long as people keep buying them, we'll get at least to number 10."^[1]

^[12]

Tour

Farnsworth is currently finishing a cross country book reading and signing tour. He has visited various cities in California, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Texas, and will finish in Bakersfield, California at the end of June, with a Halloween Night event in Irvine, CA.^[13]

References