A review by tregina
Carpathia by Matt Forbeck
2.0
Conceptually, I liked this—combining vampire mythos with the Titanic mythos. I like offbeat clashes and combinations like that, and it had the potential to be dark and claustrophobic and interesting. But something (or some things) about it just didn't work. I think the main problem was that the three protagonists, Quin, Abe and Lucy, didn't have a lot of personality and despite being told how much history they had together and how close they were, I never really saw it. Add to that a lack of dynamic action and pacing and the whole thing just falls flat.
There were also a couple of specific things that stuck in my mind. Early on, we're introduced to Dale who describes himself as "the only black man aboard the ship". We're given some interesting backstory and I start to become invested, and then he's immediately killed. Really? Was that necessary? It's explained at the end that the real Dale won a contest, the prize for which was "a role in Carpathia as a character to meet a grisly death", but narratively it does not really come off well and there must have been another way to handle it. (And as to the difficulties the author describes, surely that was a foreseeable result of the contest?)
Also, the protagonists all share a connection to Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is implied to have some truth to it, but the connection doesn't really add anything to the story. In fact, it might even take something away because it allowed the author to take some shortcuts when it came to the characters' understanding what was happening, and to other people believing their incredible story.
It was certainly a readable book, and there were good moments, but it could have been so much more than this.
There were also a couple of specific things that stuck in my mind. Early on, we're introduced to Dale who describes himself as "the only black man aboard the ship". We're given some interesting backstory and I start to become invested, and then he's immediately killed. Really? Was that necessary? It's explained at the end that the real Dale won a contest, the prize for which was "a role in Carpathia as a character to meet a grisly death", but narratively it does not really come off well and there must have been another way to handle it. (And as to the difficulties the author describes, surely that was a foreseeable result of the contest?)
Also, the protagonists all share a connection to Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is implied to have some truth to it, but the connection doesn't really add anything to the story. In fact, it might even take something away because it allowed the author to take some shortcuts when it came to the characters' understanding what was happening, and to other people believing their incredible story.
It was certainly a readable book, and there were good moments, but it could have been so much more than this.