Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2022: Week 27

Memnoch the Spec (full title "Memnoch: the Devil (A Speculation Story)") by Mick C. and Susie K. was the very first fanfic posted on the alt.books.anne-rice archive. Within The Vampire Chronicles fandom, it is sometimes just called "Memnoch", "the Memnoch Spec" or "MtS." It is notable for popularizing the term spec (speculative fiction) to refer to fanfiction in VC fandom.

Memnoch the Spec starts off where many post-Tale of the Body Thief specs start; with Lestat having joined Louis and David in Rio de Janeiro. Louis is attacked by another vampire, and taken to the temple of Memnoch the Devil. Meanwhile Lestat and his vampire allies, including Marius and Armand, search for Louis. In this story Memnoch is actually a vampire who has taken the name of the Devil and leads a cult. This is very different to the biblical direction Rice's novel eventually took.

This spec also illustrates the fannish norms of early Vampire Chronicles spec writers. In an early post of this story, possibly at the Black Rose archive, the full names and email addresses of both authors were included, and the authors note contained a very informal disclaimer. It simply stated that, "this is a work of speculative fiction and is not in any way related to the Anne Rice novel "Memnoch the Devil" due to be released later this year. It is purely hypothetical and not intended for publication or release outside of the alt.books.anne-rice newsgroup."