Vampires come to Avonmouth in new novel

It’s 2087, and in Avonmouth a traumatised detective must save the woman he loves from a mind-consuming vampire, without exposing her to his own monster inside.

The landscape of Tim Kindberg’s latest novel, Vampires of Avonmouth, is one of fast-paced action and oppression from all sides.

The tale follows David as he struggles to protect his lover after a ship arrives from West Africa, carrying a vampire who hungers not for blood but mental energy.

Tim, who works at Matter II Media in research and development of digital technologies and making software in the Pervasive Media Studio at Watershed, spent seven years writing the novel, which is inspired by environmental emergencies and technological advancements.

“2087 happens to be the centenary of my son’s birth,” says Tim. “It’s not too far in the future, but far enough for the environmental emergencies to have changed the landscape, and for technologies to have developed in two respects.

“First, our minds are directly connected to one another via the internet, enabling telepathic communication; second, artificial intelligence has been widely deployed.

“I don’t believe in either of those things as bona fide technological possibilities within that timeframe, but I wanted to explore what they would mean for our humanity in a way that we could relate to now.”

Vampires of Avonmouth reimagines the north Bristol area. Photo: Martin Booth

The author, who lives in St Anne’s and Montpelier, based reimagined Avonmouth for his novel.

“I dimly remembered someone telling me about a story in which a vampire arrived on a ship at Avonmouth (instead of Whitby).

“I searched everywhere and couldn’t find it, so I thought I’d write such a story myself. Plus I visited Avonmouth in the snow, and saw the Spillers grain silo, and the wind turbines, and the gantries and conveyors, and my imagination took hold. I conjured up a weird mega city that had grown there.”

The tale is inspired by the adrinkra symbols of Ghana, which have different meanings, such as “the twisted pattern, changing one’s self, playing many parts”.

“I did some research about West African spirits and imagined that the ship carrying a vampire to Avonmouth had come from there,” Tim says. “The rest of the book followed, with one of the main characters, Pempamsie, bearing the name of an adinkra.”

Image: Nsoroma Press

While the story features vampires, they differ to the classic creatures, with Tim saying: “Vampires are of course a classic part of gothic fiction, but mine aren’t quite like any that you have come across before.

“First of all they’re psychic vampires, which means they consume minds instead of blood. I also wove them in to this future prospect of our minds being connected via the internet.

“These vampires are part not only of the supernatural, but also the digital occult, the ‘supervirtual’: weird phenomena within the virtual world.”

This story of enslavement, the digital scape and a future Avonmouth is a tale of caution and adventure in an increasingly virtual world.

Main image: Alex Rankin

Read more: Author from St Paul’s to have debut novel published