A review by mschlat
Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
4.0
I'm of two minds on this book. I was interested because of the similarities to Alan Moore's _League of Extraordinary Gentlemen --- the turn of the nineteenth century setting with a host of fictional characters. And the book definitely delivers on both. This is a world where Bram Stoker exists along with all of his creations, where Mycroft Holmes is pulling strings, and where all the great Victorian villains make appearances. I was even jolted out of the book by the appearance of a TV vampire.
But our protagonists are original to the book, very unlike Alan Moore's use of Mina Harker and Alan Quatermain. And while the early part of the novel almost rejoices in bringing in characters from other works, after about 2/3rds in, they fall off precipitously.
I think the real focus of the book is the alternative ending of Bram Stoker's Dracula --- what if Dracula married Queen Victoria, took over the British government, and made being a vampire fashionable? What if the poor took to vampirism and yet stayed poor? How would a society adjust to a new class of human being (or more accurately, non-human being) throughout all economic classes? Newman handles this portion of the book (as dark as it becomes) in a detailed and moving fashion. If you treat this as a book that only needs the cast of Dracula, I think it works wonderfully. The rest of the fictional characters felt more like distractions to me than anything else.
But our protagonists are original to the book, very unlike Alan Moore's use of Mina Harker and Alan Quatermain. And while the early part of the novel almost rejoices in bringing in characters from other works, after about 2/3rds in, they fall off precipitously.
I think the real focus of the book is the alternative ending of Bram Stoker's Dracula --- what if Dracula married Queen Victoria, took over the British government, and made being a vampire fashionable? What if the poor took to vampirism and yet stayed poor? How would a society adjust to a new class of human being (or more accurately, non-human being) throughout all economic classes? Newman handles this portion of the book (as dark as it becomes) in a detailed and moving fashion. If you treat this as a book that only needs the cast of Dracula, I think it works wonderfully. The rest of the fictional characters felt more like distractions to me than anything else.