A review by martydah
Carpathia by Matt Forbeck
1.0
Really? Vampires on the Titanic and the Carpathia? Okay, I really thought that, when I read the back cover, this could be interesting horror story - before I knew it was a vampire tale/alternative history. It turned out to be dull and predictable and campy. Fortunately, it was a very fast read.
Plot: When the Titanic sinks and the Carpathia comes to the rescue, neither ship's crew knows it's carrying more than human passengers. Turns out that the head vampire, Drushko, is the secret owner of both shipping lines. He's using the ships to transport his coven of vampires back to the Old Country after nearly being discovered by the human populace of New York. Meanwhile, Abe Holmword, Lucy Seward and Quinn Harker (those last names should ring a bell if you're a classic horror fan), three friends, survive the Titanic sinking only to end up with their lives threatened again on the Carpathia.
The characters are basically 21st century individuals dressed up as those from an earlier time. The language doesn't sound 1912, no one acts like they're from 1912, which is a huge black mark in my book. Worse yet, there's a direct tie to Bram Stoker's "Dracula" with the three main characters. Of course they're the only three people who find the vampires, of course they're the three who fight with them, of course they're the only three to survive. And of course one of them ends up as a vampire. The part about Rostron blowing up the ship to save the world was completely unbelievable too - it seemed tacked on at the last minute.
The whole mess ends up being just a little too much in the 'I saw that coming' department and not enough in the horror/surprise department. This book received a lot of rave reviews. I really can't see why, myself. I've read children's ghost stories that stood my hair on end much more than this did. I'm not saying that Forbeck's a bad writer. I'm saying this is a forgettable piece of fiction. However, if you like fast reading vampire stories and don't care anything about historical realism or real horror, you might like this novel just fine. Anyone who prefers something that shows attention to detail and really scares you, stick with Stoker, Le Fanu and some of the better 20th century vampire tales.
Plot: When the Titanic sinks and the Carpathia comes to the rescue, neither ship's crew knows it's carrying more than human passengers. Turns out that the head vampire, Drushko, is the secret owner of both shipping lines. He's using the ships to transport his coven of vampires back to the Old Country after nearly being discovered by the human populace of New York. Meanwhile, Abe Holmword, Lucy Seward and Quinn Harker (those last names should ring a bell if you're a classic horror fan), three friends, survive the Titanic sinking only to end up with their lives threatened again on the Carpathia.
The characters are basically 21st century individuals dressed up as those from an earlier time. The language doesn't sound 1912, no one acts like they're from 1912, which is a huge black mark in my book. Worse yet, there's a direct tie to Bram Stoker's "Dracula" with the three main characters. Of course they're the only three people who find the vampires, of course they're the three who fight with them, of course they're the only three to survive. And of course one of them ends up as a vampire. The part about Rostron blowing up the ship to save the world was completely unbelievable too - it seemed tacked on at the last minute.
The whole mess ends up being just a little too much in the 'I saw that coming' department and not enough in the horror/surprise department. This book received a lot of rave reviews. I really can't see why, myself. I've read children's ghost stories that stood my hair on end much more than this did. I'm not saying that Forbeck's a bad writer. I'm saying this is a forgettable piece of fiction. However, if you like fast reading vampire stories and don't care anything about historical realism or real horror, you might like this novel just fine. Anyone who prefers something that shows attention to detail and really scares you, stick with Stoker, Le Fanu and some of the better 20th century vampire tales.