Vampire scholar, science fiction studies editor, and ARB co-founder Sean Guynes joins to discuss Kostova’s 2005 historical vampire thriller. We both have fairly negative opinions of the book, but it did lead us to talk about what historical thrillers are (or are not) theorizing, vampire novels we like more, and much else besides.

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• Guest: Sean Guynes
• Title: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• Host: Jake Casella Brookins
• Music by Giselle Gabrielle Garcia
• Artwork by Rob Patterson
• Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough
• Transcribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM Thompson

References:

• David Linday’s Voyage to Arcturus
• Sean's series on the Ballantine Adult Fantasy books
• Thomas Burnett Swann
• E.R. Eddison
• Gibson's Bridge trilogy
• Stephen Norrington’s film Blade
• Bram Stoker's Dracula
• Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code
• R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis
• Sarah Perry's Melmoth and our episode with Jon Greenaway about it
• Ilana Masad’s “Holocaust Beach Reads”
• Machiavelli's The Prince
• Radu Florescu & Raymond McNally's In Search of Dracula
• The Turkey City Lexicon
• Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, including Memnoch the Devil
• Fred Saberhagen’s The Dracula Tape
• Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s St. Germaine cycle
• E. Elias Merhige’s film Shadow of the Vampire
• Claire Kohda's Woman, Eating
• Indrapramit Das's The Devourers
• Stephen Graham Jones' The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
• Peter S. Beagle's A Fine and Private Place
• Eddison's the The Mezentian Gate

And be sure to check out Sean’s essay on The Historian!