The third volume of Keisuke Makino’s Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut light novel series was released just before Christmas. This volume takes us beyond the story of the anime and literally around the world to introduce us to a new set of characters on their own quest for space. In the world of Irina: Vampire Cosmonaut, vampires are simply another hominid species that evolved parallel to humans. They have fangs, pointed ears, sensitivity to sunlight, and blood strengthens them. Most of the old legends about vampires being monsters are simply propaganda. The first two volumes of the series are set in the fictional Republic of Zirnitra – basically the Soviet Union – where our title subject is recruited and used as a test subject before humans are sent into space.
Volume 3 takes us to the United Kingdom of Arnack – basically the United States – where engineers are desperately trying to catch up to the Zirnitrans. Long ago, vampires crossed the ocean from the old world to the new. Many of them married humans and had children. Their offspring, who retain many of the vampire traits are known as dhampirs. In the early days of the United Kingdom, human settlers began using the dhampirs as slave labor. Dhampirs finally achieved freedom from slavery during a civil war, but by the time of the space race, they haven’t really achieved equality in pay or rights with humans. Seeing the metaphors here doesn’t take a lot of work.
Volume 3 opens at the headquarters of the United Kingdom’s space agency, ANSA, located in the crescent city of New Marseilles. Bart Fifield, younger brother of the United Kingdom’s first astronaut has just been assigned to work in the computer division, which is mostly run by young dhampir women because they aren’t as expensive to employ as humans. The leader of the computer division is a dhampir named Kaye Scarlet, whose mother had encouraged her love of space and engineering. Unfortunately, Kaye’s mother had also been a murder victim and the police never really investigated precisely because she was a dhampir.
ANSA leadership decide to make Kaye and Bart part of a public relations campaign to highlight the role of computers in developing space flight. Neither one is really comfortable in this role, but they do their best while also doing their best to support an upcoming orbital flight. Now, in this world, dhampirs don’t drink blood like their vampire cousins unless they have something called Nosferatu Syndrome. Unfortunately, Kaye suffers from the syndrome and when it’s discovered she’s booted out of ANSA. Horrified by the injustice of this, Bart finds his most heroic self and must find a way to make ANSA recognize the contributions of Kaye and the dhampir computer operators.
This story clearly parallels many of the events recounted in the novel and film, Hidden Figures. The first two volumes of Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut highlighted both reprehensible and noble traits in the people of the Zinitra Republic. Now, we get to see the United Kingdom get the same scrutiny. It can be uncomfortable to see the darker side of your own history brought to light, but we do need to face it, even while recognizing the great things we’ve done as a people.
One interesting element of the book was the New Marseilles setting. Clearly it’s inspired by New Orleans, right down to the bars on Bourbon Street, jazz funerals, and hurricanes. Having spent time in New Orleans, I enjoyed seeing the story set there and it was easy to picture both the upper class neighborhoods populated by humans and the lower class neighborhood populated by dhampirs. Although my older brothers weren’t astronauts, I found I related to Bart as a younger brother who often felt he had to live up to his older brothers’ accomplishments. I liked that when Bart does have a conversation with his older brother, the older brother is likeable and helps point Bart in the direction that helps him make good decisions at the end of the novel.
Although this is a novel about the involvement of vampires and their descendants in the space race, the book mostly made me think of my own novel The Solar Sea about the construction of a solar sail to investigate mysterious particles discovered near Saturn. Both books try to look at both the noble and foolish things humans do to achieve big dreams. You can find the Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut light novels at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever you shop for manga and light novels. You can learn more about The Solar Sea at: http://davidleesummers.com/solar_sea.html
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has discovered thousands of new planets.
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