Reviews

The Many Faces of Van Helsing by F. Paul Wilson, Christopher Golden, Steve Rasnic Tem, Katherine Dunn, Kathe Koja, Brian Hodge, Gregory Maguire, Jeanne Cavelos, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Thomas Tessier, Tanith Lee, Elizabeth Hand, Graham Joyce, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Melanie Tem

breebers's review

4.0

A collection of stories that all revolve in some way around Van Helsing. Naturally, I was apprehensive and excited to read this - knowing there would likely be stories that made me cringe with their lack of understanding not just of the character, but the entire world created in Dracula. And there were stories like that, but not nearly as many as I feared. Overall this was an intriguing, engaging, interesting selection of stories. Some told very disparate accounts of Van Helsing's life prior to the novel. Some were set in a future where somehow Van Helsing had far outlived all his compatriots. Some only included Van Helsing as a periphery character. Most were very well-written, creative, strong fiction. Only a handful, perhaps three, made me scoff, laugh or roll my eyes. And only one in the entire collection brought me to such offense that I almost hurled the book across a cafe in disgust. There's nothing in these stories that brought me more 'information' on Van Helsing as a character, but the varied interpretations of what other authors thought of him, his past, his future, his beliefs, gave me more to ponder about our modern perceptions of his motives and actions.