The Empire of Fear by Brian Stableford

This alternate universe tale is set in the 17th century of an England that is much changed from the England we knew. During the Crusades, King Richard of England did more than bring home debts with him, he also brought home a case of vampirism, and being homosexual, quickly passed it around to his circle of lovers, who passed it on to still more nobles. Now, 500 years later, the lives of ordinary humans are worth little, and Europe has come to a virtual standstill in progress, since the vampires who rule the countries don't like or want things to change.

Into this world comes Edmund Cordery, a scholar who is part of a cabal of ordinary humans who want to overthrow the vampires and return humans to their former equal and superior state. But when his tainted blood kills King Edward's mistress, he is put to death, and he passes on his mission to his son, Noell. To complete this mission, he and his compatriots, including a monk named Quintus, a pirate named Langoisse and his mistress Leilah, must track down the source of the vampires and learn their secrets, a trip that will take them through Europe, the Holy Land, and finally to darkest Africa. Because in this world, where both Attila the Hun and the Pope are vampires, the condition is not passed on through a bite on the neck. In fact, its manner of transmission is one of the very secrets that Edmund and his party must uncover.

But the story doesn't end there. Once they have discovered the source of vampirism, the question becomes, can the companions keep from seizing the information and power for themselves, and thereby become the very thing they hate and tried to fight in the first place? But Noell Cordery gets both more and less out of the trip than he was searching for... he cannot become a vampire because he is somehow immune to the condition and therefore becomes no more than a powerless adjunct to his companions, who have no such immunities, whereas before he was the one leading the expedition.

The epilogue of the book carries us forward another three hundred years, to modern times, where the fight against the vampires continues, and a member of the expedition takes on another role to a crippled human who has a surprising link to Noell Cordery...

This is not a sparkling, gripping, fast-paced tale that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It's slow. It grinds. It's academic and scholarly in the worst of ways, with all that implies. It's not even really about Vampirism, but about ideas, and their transmission and how it is blocked by the people in power. Vampirism is only the framing device that sets the tale on its way.

Even though lots of action-y things are happening in the story, like wars and sieges and conflict and duels, the writer writes them all in the same slow, pedantic, boring way. I mean some of the battles are actually turgid! The story is not only set in the 17th century, it seems to be written in the same literary style as that era, which is very creaking and ponderous to modern sensibilites. However, if you can stick with it past the boring and dull parts, and god knows they abound in this book, a light goes on in your mind as the impact of the story comes to you.

I recommend this book despite the fact that it can easily be used in lieu of sleeping pills for wired caffeine drinkers, but for the ideas rather than the story and framing device (Vampires). Anne Rice lovers need not apply, and you will not find these vampires to be typical vampires. So, be warned.