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Desmodus is the genus of vampire bats, including the extinct giant vampire bat Desmodus draculae. The novel Desmodus is about a group of humanoids descended from vampire bats who live secretly on the fringes of society in modern times, and retain much of the habits and social structures of bats.
They can fly, they eat fruit and drink blood (mostly from animals, usually without harming them), they sense heat and echolocate, and they have tails. They live in a colony well outside of town, where they have a house designed for themselves with features like roosting areas and doors twenty feet up. Their young hang from the walls and ceiling in a communal nursery. Only a few of them can pass for human, even in baggy clothes and wearing hoods. They are matriarchal, with only the women hibernating, and in the winter they have to make a complicated migration to a secondary colony with the men driving huge refrigerated trucks with women hanging upside down in them.
The lives of the bat people are fascinating, weird, and often gross. There's a scene where the narrator, Joel, a depressed middle-aged bat guy, goes out to gather apples from the orchard for their annual journey. He's very annoyed that he's the only one actually working, while the other men are in the trees gobbling apples and pooping down on him.
This odd novel is either anthropological science fiction with strong elements of horror, or horror with strong elements of anthropological science fiction. There is a plot but most of the book is about what it's like to be a humanoid bat and have your whole life circumscribed by being a male humanoid bat in a world run by female humanoid bats. The gender issues are really interesting and I'm surprised this book wasn't nominated for a Tiptree Award.
There's a horrifying dark secret, a lot of bat family drama, and a strange, surreal conclusion. But mostly it's about being a bat person in a bat culture, and how much you like it probably depends on how interested you are in that premise. (Leaning into premise rating: A).
Content notes: bat child and infant death, a bat person who's racist and homophobic, gendered ableism among bat people (many of the male bat people have disabilities), murder of a disabled bat person, rape, incest.
Melanie Tem's books are all available on Kindle!
They can fly, they eat fruit and drink blood (mostly from animals, usually without harming them), they sense heat and echolocate, and they have tails. They live in a colony well outside of town, where they have a house designed for themselves with features like roosting areas and doors twenty feet up. Their young hang from the walls and ceiling in a communal nursery. Only a few of them can pass for human, even in baggy clothes and wearing hoods. They are matriarchal, with only the women hibernating, and in the winter they have to make a complicated migration to a secondary colony with the men driving huge refrigerated trucks with women hanging upside down in them.
The lives of the bat people are fascinating, weird, and often gross. There's a scene where the narrator, Joel, a depressed middle-aged bat guy, goes out to gather apples from the orchard for their annual journey. He's very annoyed that he's the only one actually working, while the other men are in the trees gobbling apples and pooping down on him.
This odd novel is either anthropological science fiction with strong elements of horror, or horror with strong elements of anthropological science fiction. There is a plot but most of the book is about what it's like to be a humanoid bat and have your whole life circumscribed by being a male humanoid bat in a world run by female humanoid bats. The gender issues are really interesting and I'm surprised this book wasn't nominated for a Tiptree Award.
There's a horrifying dark secret, a lot of bat family drama, and a strange, surreal conclusion. But mostly it's about being a bat person in a bat culture, and how much you like it probably depends on how interested you are in that premise. (Leaning into premise rating: A).
Content notes: bat child and infant death, a bat person who's racist and homophobic, gendered ableism among bat people (many of the male bat people have disabilities), murder of a disabled bat person, rape, incest.
Melanie Tem's books are all available on Kindle!
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Oh, hell no
(To clarify, I have no ill will towards bats and support their existence outside of my apartment, but I am slightly twitchy about them. In October I have to mute most of the nature-themed Facebook pages I subscribe to because they are all “It’s Bat Month! Here’s all these cool pictures of bats because they are ecologically important!” and I’m all, “No, stay out of my feed thanks”.)
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Re: Oh, hell no
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The third time the bat was in my kitchen, during daylight hours. This one I caught and it tested positive for rabies. Animal Control thought that my previous vaccines should be enough protection but advised me to consult my doctor for more expert advice. My doctor (and I, for that matter) was in the You Can’t Be Too Safe camp and wrote a prescription for the booster series.
A positive upshot of all this is that I can now say with absolute certainty that no matter what they were like in the past, modern rabies vaccine shots are no more painful and inconvenient than any other vaccine. I have been able to reassure several friends on this issue.
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I'm laughing, but also loving the attention to detail on the world building.
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I don't think anyone really knew how to market her weird books.