Hideyuki Kikuchi – författare

A mixed band of travelers from an inn, spared by seeming chance from a bizarre landslide that rushed and receded like a wave, find shelter in an ancient village older even than the most forsaken settlements on the Frontier! Indeed, for fearful rumor has it that once long ago the village was a testing ground of the Sacred Ancestor...that sought to twist the genes of aliens, humans, and Nobles into a new form of life! What was formed here in the distant past seeks to nourish itself on the travelers and rise again.Can D save them and destroy the evil legacy--or is his arrival exactly what the village requires for its nightmare to awaken at last?

D is a vampire hunter--and he''s just been paid ten times his asking price to do exactly that, an assignment to destroy Duke Van Doren, administrator of the northern Frontier.Among the complications are that no less than three other groups, each with their own agenda, are headed for the Duke themselves...and D''s supposed to hang back from striking until his target has eliminated all three! The question is, will the Duke oblige the terms of the contract--or does he actually want to be destroyed?

Out on the Frontier, the killers called the "Nameless" have no wanted posters--because everyone they go after winds up dead. Now D must measure his sword against these grotesque and deadly freaks!Hired by the mayor of Schwartzen to stop a corrupt political ploy that would sacrifice human lives to appease the local Noble, Grand Duke Bergenzy, the vampire hunter arrives in town to find his client has himself dropped dead under suspicious circumstances. His widow, wanting no more bloodshed, begs D to simply forget the job--but D''s interest in the job is just beginning...

12,090 A.D. It is a dark time for the world. Humanity is just crawling out from under three hundred years of domination by the race of vampires known as the Nobility. The war against the vampires has taken its toll; cities lie in ruin, the countryside is fragmented into small villages and fiefdoms that still struggle against nightly raids by the fallen vampires-and the remnants of their genetically manufactured demons and werewolves. Every village wants a Hunter-one of the warriors who have pledged their laser guns and their swords to the eradication of the Nobility. But some Hunters are better than others, and some bring their own kind of danger with them... From creator Hideyuki Kikuchi, one of Japan''s leading horror authors with illustrations by renowned Japanese artist, Yoshitaka Amano, best known for his illustrations in Neil Gaiman''s Sandman: The Dream Hunters and the Final Fantasy games.

The adventures of Vampire Hunter D continue!Vampires: murderous creatures in the shape of humans, they stalk the night feeding on the blood of innocents. Seemingly immortal, they can be destroyed only by the use of a stake through the heart, severing of their heads, or exposure to sunlight. By the year 12, 090 A.D. vampires have ruled the Earth for almost 300 years, and it is only these weaknesses that have kept these foul monsters from totally overrunning the world.But what happens when those rules no longer apply? The village of Tsepesh sits in the eternal shadow of an abandoned castle, a onetime stronghold of the Nobility, the vampire lords who rule the devastated wasteland of the future. Ten years ago four children disappeared while playing near the castle, only to mysteriously reappear a month later. Now vampires have begun to hunt in the daylight. Are the two events connected? The villagers turn to the vampire hunter known only as D, but as he follows the children, now adults, the answers he finds may be more terrifying than anything he could ever imagine. FOR MATURE READERS

The novel that was the basis for the hit motion picture Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlustis available in English for the first time! The third volume of the popular Japanese series Vampire Hunter D comes to America in Vampire Hunter D: Demon Deathchase. The vampire hunter known only as D has been hired by a wealthy, dying man to find his daughter, who was kidnapped by the powerful vampire Lord Meierlink. Though humans speak well of Meierlink, the price on his head is too high for D to ignore and he sets out to save her before she can be turned into an undead creature of the night. In the nightmare world of 12090 A.D., finding Meierlink before he reaches the spaceport in the Clayborn States and gets off the planet will be hard enough, but D has more than just Meierlink to worry about. The dying man is taking no chances, and has also enlisted the Marcus family, a renegade clan of four brothers and a sister who don''t care who they kill as long as they get paid. Beautiful illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano complement the post-apocalyptic plot, filled with chilling twists.FOR MATURE READERS

When a floating city becomes the target of a rash of vampire attacks, only one man can restore the oasis."The City," a tiny metropolis of a few hundred sheltered citizens floating serenely on a seemingly random course a few feet above the ground, has long been thought safe from the predation of marauding monsters. It seemed like a paradise.A paradise shattered when an invasion of apparent vampires threatens the small haven. While the Vampire Hunter known only as "D" struggles to exterminate the scourge, a former denizen of the city, the attractive Raleigh Knight, and the brash John M. Brassalli Pluto VIII seize control of the city lurching it onto a new and deadly course. D''s travails are just beginning.* The Vampire Hunter D films are two of the most-popular Japanese anime films released in the United States consistently ranking among the top DVDs sold on amazon.com!FOR MATURE READERS

In a world where even the smallest and most remote village is being terrorized by the monsters that stalk the night, there is a hamlet, prosperous and peaceful, where mortals and vampires have lived in harmony for years. It is there that seventeen-year-old Sheavil Schmidt has slept, neither waking nor aging, for thirty years since first receiving the vampire''s immortal kiss. The mysterious Vampire Hunter D is lured to the tranquil oasis by recurrent dreams of the beautiful, undying girl bathed in an eerie blue light and dancing in a ghostly chateau.* Over 100,000 copies of the Vampire Hunter D novels have been sold.* The Stuff of Dreams is volume 5 in a seventeen volume series.FOR MATURE READERS

Granny Viper is a "people finder," a searcher for lost souls along the roads of a forbidding wasteland. Her latest mission: the safe return of a young woman named Tae, kidnapped eight years ago by vampire Nobility and held in Castle Gradinia on the Frontier''s far border. But rescuing Tae is only half the battle—Viper knows she and the girl can''t cross the formidable expanse to the town of Barnabas alone. After making the fatal mistake of hiring the mercenary Bullow Brothers to help her, Granny turns to the legendary Vampire Hunter D for salvation. As they traverse the bleak desert between the Inner and Outer Frontier, the two women and D find themselves in a race for their lives. And they soon discover how cruel the desert is—and how very ruthless the Bullow Brothers are . . .* Features six illustrations by the renowned Yoshitaka Amano, illustrator of Neil Gaiman''s Sandman: The Dream Hunters.