Rating: 
Summary: a classic
Review: A truly excellent book made up of three related novellas from the 'life' of Dr Edward Weyland. Entertaining, intelligent, flawless - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Surprisingly this author has also written a light vampire romance under the name 'Brand' - called 'The Ruby Tear' (which I have yet to read)...
Rating:
Summary: a classic
Review: A truly excellent book made up of three related novellas from the 'life' of Dr Edward Weyland. Entertaining, intelligent, flawless - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Surprisingly this author has also written a light vampire romance under the name 'Brand' - called 'The Ruby Tear' (which I have yet to read)...
Rating: 
Summary: How did this book get published?
Review: Does anyone think that Dr. Weyland is a whiney, clumsy and sometimes bratty vampire? I just couldn't get into this book. I would read it, put it down, not come back to it for weeks, until I finally got through it all. I can't explain it, I just wasn't interested in him, or any of the other people in this book. Above anything, I love vampire books, and this book just didn't cut it for me. About the only thing I found interesting was how he fed. Not in the the traditional fang in throat method, but a clever "tongue stinger" type device. Other than that, the rest just faded away.
Rating: 
Summary: hannibal lecter was an amateur
Review: first read about dr. weyland in omni magazine and always hoped there'd be more. weyland is vividly drawn - not a pouting, self-absorbed poofter like the other popular fiction vampires of late, but a lion in human clothes. the differing moralities of weyland and those he comes into contact with say as much about human beings as they do about him. i'm currently reading 'hannibal', and it's amazing how much less sympathetic a character weyland is - yet one can't help admiring him from a safe distance, just as one does the lion in the zoo. highly recommended. i even like the episodic nature of the work - keeps it fresh. ms. charnas, please tell us that a film of this remarkable character is being bargained for (imagine whom would play the lead) or - at the very least - treat us to weyland before his last awakening, or after his next. he is too good to leave cold, underground.
Rating:
Summary: One of the genre's best.
Review: Humans are cattle. There is no other reality for vampire Edward Weyland. That is, until two wounding bullets at the hands of vampire huntress Katje de Groot leave him vulnerable to a greedy third-rate Satanist named Reese, and his existence is changed forever by a frantic, knee-jerk act of compassion by a sensitive teenager named Mark. Further affected by the love of a disturbed psychiatrist named Floria and the friendship of a kindly but troubled professor named Irv, Weyland must discover if these three humans have given him a great gift - or a terrible curse... This is a novel that doesn't allow you to leave your brain at the door. Charnas is delightfully subtle - there's no one big moment where you can point out that Weyland has changed, and it is sometimes a whole chapter later before you find out what effect the human "guest stars" have had on him, all of them affecting him in very different ways. And she never lets you forget what he is - this is not someone you would ever want to have a cup of tea with. This is probably the best depiction of the vampire as a predator, neither good nor evil. We remain rather detached from Weyland as he almost clinically self-examines himself. Weyland's relationships with the humans he encounters are so different that each chapter varies wildly in tone. I personally found Mark's chapter the most powerful, with a wonderful picture of the terror and aching conscience of a truly good boy, and Floria's curiously anticlimatic considering her obvious significance. Everyone will have a favorite. Though not quite perfect, a welcome addition to any vampire fiction collection.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite vampire book
Review: I LOVE this book! I've read hundreds of vampire stories, and this is my favorite. The Vampire Tapestry isn't just any vampire story, it's literature. It's well-written, intelligent, and entertaining. If you like good literature, you'll like this book. And if you like vampires as well, you'll enjoy The Vampire Tapestry all the more. Dr. Weyland is such a detailed character, he's real. He's the arrogant, sexually attractive vampire we're used to encountering in vampire novels, but he's also different. He's real. He has a reason for existing.
I think that's what I find most enjoyable about this book. The author goes into the why's and how's of the condition of her vampire, without diminishing the mystery of his character or the topic. It's nearly impossible to pull that off. Often, it seems that as soon as an author lets science walk in and explain that, for example, "vampires are sexually appealing because that's the means by which they attract their prey," the subject loses its fantasy appeal and becomes boring. That's not the case with this book, though. The author does find ways to explain vampirism in a scientifically believable way, but, in the way that she handles it, it makes Dr. Weyland and vampires even more fascinating (not to mention believable). In that respect, this book is an anomaly.
This is the best vampire book I've ever read. If you like vampires or great literature, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: THE vampire novel.
Review: I treasure my copy of The Vampire Tapestry. People that I have lent it to always say, "You were right - it's amazing. It's so real. It could be a real person. The part where..." Alongside Mendal W. Johnson's Let's Go Play At The Adams', H.F.Saint's Memoirs Of An Invisible Man, and Erskine Childers' classic Riddle Of The Sands, The Vampire Tapestry stands as a totally believable narrative. Respectively you are thinking, "This really happened - these kids kidnapped and tortured the babysitter," and, "This guy really is invisible, and yes, it really would be that hard to survive," and, "Germany could have invaded England that way," and so too Dr Edward Wayland absolutely IS a living 20th century vampire, confronted with the very real problems of surviving in very changed times. Whenever I lend The Vampire Tapestry, or any of the other titles mentioned, I always lend a spare copy, with the stipulation that if the reader enjoys it they can keep it, provided they then track down a spare copy themselves, so they can then lend it under the same proviso. It's a good system that keeps some precious books in circulation - a little like the forest community in Farenheit 451 keeping their books alive. I can not recommend The Vampire Tapestry enough. (And it would have made a much better film than that other piece of rubbish!) Read it and become a convert.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good!
Review: If you are looking for romance or compassion, this book is not for you. This is a compelling story of the vampire known as Dr. Weyland. Forget what you have learned. Vampires do not have fangs. There is some sort of puncturing device in the tongue. It secretes an anticlotting substance. The vampire then seals his lips around a minimal wound and draws the blood freely. This book tells of five different parts of Dr. Weyland's existence. All are in present day. The first has Dr. Weyland on a campus. The second has him caged like an animal. The third is an encounter with a therapist.The forth takes place during an opera. The last puts him into hybernation. In some stories the vampire wins. In some the prey escapes. This make it impossible to guess the ending. ***Now THIS, I believe, is what being a vampire would REALLY be like. No glamour. Pure survival.***
Rating: 
Summary: Unusual, but readable.
Review: The premise of _The Vampire Tapestry_ is interesting enough, and makes the book worth reading - a presentation of the vampire not as a supernatural creature but instead some high-order product of evolution. I also appreciated the doing-away-with on Charnas' part of some the genre's more tired cliches such as nocturnalism and the self-pitying introspection that plagues certain other popular vampire characters. The book apparently grew out of a short story once published in _Omni_ magazine. Unfortunately, the work doesn't seem to shake of that feeling. The five chapters are rather disjointed in segue from one to the next. It feels less like a cohesive novel and more like an anthology centered around a single character. Our vampire protagonist, Dr. Weyland, starts off as an intriguing enigma, but towards the climax of the book, it seems Weyland is more bored than anything. However, this malaise may have been intentional, and it does serve to explain his actions at the end of the story. In the course of plot development, Weyland's confidence and amorality are slowly replaced with suggestions of human-like frailty and compassion. These characteristics are brought about by a series of encounters between Weyland and a psychiatrist. Having read this 1979 work for the first time in 1999, I found the author's underlying implication that psychotherapy can take care of any emotional problem to be a bit dated. One final note; As a citizen of Albuquerque, I was initially drawn to this book because the back cover indicated that it was a vampire story set in New Mexico. In actuality, three of the five chapters take place in New York. If you're looking at purchasing this book for the southwestern setting, consider yourself warned.
Rating:
Summary: It Takes Time...
Review: The story in a nutshell:
Dr. Weyland, a vampire, makes a very stupid mistake that threatens to expose what he is to the masses. With his existence threatened, Dr. Weyland tries to regain control and slip back into a stable and unsuspecting life.
There is no doubt that The Vampire Tapestry is a realistic and conceptually powerful story about a vampire. However, it is mostly boring to read. TVT (The Vampire Tapestry) is broken down in five stages of life for Dr. Edward Lewis Weyland. It is not an epic tale spanning thousands or hundreds of years; it's a compact story in terms of time lapse, only covering a few years of his life. So do not expect the kind of time lapse that you get with Interview with a Vampire (IWAV), for example. TVT actually succeeds in making a heartbreaking revelation about what it would *really* be like to be a vampire. Unlike IWAV, which tells its story by attracting you with blatant emotion and drama, TVT tells its story with a lack thereof. TVT is a very emotionally distance story, which makes it very difficult to read and, as previously mentioned, boring. The writing style is very academic and that adds to the emotional distance, so do not expect ornate and dramatic writing here.
While I was reading TVT, I was very upset at how slow and boring the book was and I was convinced that I would hate it no matter how it ended. But when I finished it, I set it aside and really thought about the story in its entirety. I have decided that the end justifies the means. It's a very heartrending story and, even though I disliked Weyland throughout the book, I couldn't help but to feel tremendously despondent for him.
So is this book for you? If you want to read an action packed vampire novel, skip this one. Also skip it if you are looking for a romanticized or dramatic vampire novel. TVT is rooted in this world and there are no genre gimmicks, no supernatural displays, no excessive violence, and no gore. It takes time to appreciate TVT, but it is ultimately a realistic "Vampire Tapestry" and I have a feeling that this one will stick with me over time.
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