Brokeula

James  Sugre is a vampire. He has lived for centuries, but has made some questionable choices. Bad choices, when it comes to investments. Now, he is broke. He has no money and is deep in debt. He can’t even afford his own reflection (they are available for a fee from Vampire Nation, an international conglomerate that both governs and provides for the world’s vampire population).

One evening, wandering the streets, he finds himself in the midst of a crowd of New York Comic-Con attendees who mistake him for a convention attendee dressed as a video game character. In talking with them, he gets the idea that video games may be a way to restore his fortune and decides to set up a studio to design and market a new video game. How hard could it be?

He interviews an experienced game designer named Lauren. She’s worked in the industry for a number of years in different roles, and she questions the viability of the idea of opening a video game studio at this time. She explains how the timing is off (like many of James’ previous investments gone wrong), the industry is in flux, and the market is flooded. During the interview, Lauren discovers that James is a vampire. As a long-time lover of vampire lore, James being an actual vampire gives her an idea. And, if she’s right, it could make them both incredibly rich. . .

In Brokeula, Michael J. Seidlinger uses a destitute vampire to comment on contemporary America economically and culturally. James is a person drowning in debt, with little to no income because he invested in companies that were mismanaged or fraudulent. Vampire Nation is clearly the 1% of the vampire community. They are wealthy, hoarding all of the resources, and doing nothing to benefit those outside of their tight-knit community.

Lauren’s idea to make James and herself rich is a variation on the multi-level marketing schemes that have preyed on middle and lower-class citizens for decades (think Amway or Herbalife) with promises of how much money you can make if you work hard enough. Seidlinger also works in comments about those who are obscenely rich and how unsatisfying obscene wealth can be, and how it is its own trap.

Brokeula is a fun and interesting read. It’s a novella, so it’s very short. After finishing, it’s hard not to hope that Seidlinger will come back to these ideas at some point in the future and expand them into a novel.