I Read Books: Dracula Cha Cha Cha
Kim Newman’s Dracula victorious alternate history reaches 1959. After being Prince Consort of Britain and then kicked out, Commander In Chief of the Central Powers, then exiled to an Arctic island, Dracula had a final moment of triumph when the allies brought him back to lead a vampire uprising in WW2. Afterwards he retired to Rome where he now intends to marry Princess Asa Vajda, an influential vampire. There are those who fear that this might portent another Dracula conquest. Meanwhile there is a vampire killer on the loose in Rome, one who will kill even elders, and behind it an immortal power of the eternal city.
But that’s just the backdrop and plot. We’re here for the returning characters, and others from fiction of the 50s. So we get Hamish Bond, the vampire super-spy (turned by Sergeant Dravot and a similarity to him is noted; a sly joke as both characters have been played by Sean Connery on screen), the American Tom (Ripley, from Patricia Highsmith’s novels) and a bunch of others. They’re deep into the Italian film scene which I freely admit I am not as familiar with as the WW1 and Victorian fiction of the previous books; nevertheless the vast numbers of American, British and other non-Italian actors over there rings true and gives Newman the excuse for having all the celebrities of the era in play, even if they aren’t welcome at Dracula’s abode.
There are plots within plots, everyone is concerned about Dracula and the fallout of the various events surrounding him, Russians try to murder Bond, the three central vampire women of the series find themselves united and divided as Charles Beauregard, hero of Anno Dracula, éminence grise of The Bloody Red Baron, now approaches the end of his long life and must decided if he will embrace vampirism.
Anyway, a lot of fun, quite a bit of gore and other body parts, and a few new-ish twists on vampires and their powers.
Read This: For more Vampire cross-over action
Don’t Read This: If you’re not into characters from other fictions wandering through to do a smirking cameo.
In addition: This edition includes the novella Aquarius in which Kate Reed investigates a murder in 1968 during a hot summer in which vampire-human tensions are on the rise; I very much enjoyed seeing all the 60s TV coppers in one squad.
Comments