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mxsallybend's review against another edition
3.0
THE FACTS: The Titanic struck an iceberg late on the night of April 14, 1912. The unsinkable ship actually sank rather quickly, taking only about 3 hours to send more than 1,500 passengers and crew to a cold, watery grave. While the Carpathia did come to its rescue, picking up over 700 survivors from the lifeboats, they didn't arrive until almost 2 hours after the Titanic slipped beneath the waves.
THE FICTION: No significant departure from the facts, except for the fact that Carpathia does receive the distress call directly from Titanic, rather than the much later relay message from Newfoundland, and are able to arrive a bit more quickly. Oh, yeah, and there are vampires on board. Kind of important, that little detail.
Matt Forbeck's Carpathia wasn't quite what I was expecting, which is both good and bad. On the positive side, he wastes no time in getting to the iceberg, and does an amazing job detailing the actual sinking of Titanic. Some readers may feel the sinking is drawn out a bit too long, but I thought the pacing was perfect, really allowing him to create some tension and establish the all-too-real horrors the survivors were forced to endure. Having the characters spend so much time in the water also allows for the supernatural horror to make an early appearance, with a small group of vampires slipping out of Carpathia's hold to menace the survivors, a la Peter Benchley's Jaws. In reality, I doubt the survivors would have really been worried about sharks in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, but it's a fun scene that works well, so I'm willing to ignore the discrepancy.
It's once we get on board Carpathia that the story crashed headlong into my expectations, the pace slowed, and things began to flounder a bit. Instead of capitalizing on the claustrophobic confines of a ship and the sense of isolation at sea, allowing the overpowering scent of blood and death in the air to inflame the hunger and lust of the stowaways, Forbeck seems content to fill space with a little mystery and romance. That's not to say the mystery angle doesn't work - it does, and quite well - but I really wanted to see some carnage, with battles and bodies strewn throughout the ship. As for the romance, I had a harder time swallowing it than I did anything supernatural, but as awkward as the love triangle is, it does set up a rather satisfying conclusion a lot further on.
There is, of course, a somewhat forced connection to the Dracula mythos here, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Forbeck drops some rather suggestive names on us early on in Quin Harker, Abe Holmword and Lucy Seward, but takes far too long to clarify their connection to the Harker, Holmwood, and Seward we know so well, confusing rather than intriguing the reader. He eventually does make the connection, alluding to the fact that Bram's novel was more fact than fiction, but he fails to establish any sort of link between the vampires of Dracula and those of Carpathia. While I'm glad he didn't use the tired old son/daughter/sire of Dracula angle that has been used in so many pseudo-sequels, you can't just make the connection and then let it hang there, with no resolution.
The last part of the story certainly offers up some surprises, especially following the discovery of the vampires' lair deep within the cargo hold, and Forbeck finally offers us some of the carnage we were waiting for. After such a long lull, a lot of significant activity happens very quickly, and there's a 'twist' to the love triangle that I definitely saw coming for a while, but it all makes for a satisfying conclusion. One final note, I have to give him full credit for sticking so well to the conventions, language, and dialogue of the Victorian era - it really does feel like and 'old' story, and there are no jarring incongruities to remind you that it's not.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
THE FICTION: No significant departure from the facts, except for the fact that Carpathia does receive the distress call directly from Titanic, rather than the much later relay message from Newfoundland, and are able to arrive a bit more quickly. Oh, yeah, and there are vampires on board. Kind of important, that little detail.
Matt Forbeck's Carpathia wasn't quite what I was expecting, which is both good and bad. On the positive side, he wastes no time in getting to the iceberg, and does an amazing job detailing the actual sinking of Titanic. Some readers may feel the sinking is drawn out a bit too long, but I thought the pacing was perfect, really allowing him to create some tension and establish the all-too-real horrors the survivors were forced to endure. Having the characters spend so much time in the water also allows for the supernatural horror to make an early appearance, with a small group of vampires slipping out of Carpathia's hold to menace the survivors, a la Peter Benchley's Jaws. In reality, I doubt the survivors would have really been worried about sharks in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, but it's a fun scene that works well, so I'm willing to ignore the discrepancy.
It's once we get on board Carpathia that the story crashed headlong into my expectations, the pace slowed, and things began to flounder a bit. Instead of capitalizing on the claustrophobic confines of a ship and the sense of isolation at sea, allowing the overpowering scent of blood and death in the air to inflame the hunger and lust of the stowaways, Forbeck seems content to fill space with a little mystery and romance. That's not to say the mystery angle doesn't work - it does, and quite well - but I really wanted to see some carnage, with battles and bodies strewn throughout the ship. As for the romance, I had a harder time swallowing it than I did anything supernatural, but as awkward as the love triangle is, it does set up a rather satisfying conclusion a lot further on.
There is, of course, a somewhat forced connection to the Dracula mythos here, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Forbeck drops some rather suggestive names on us early on in Quin Harker, Abe Holmword and Lucy Seward, but takes far too long to clarify their connection to the Harker, Holmwood, and Seward we know so well, confusing rather than intriguing the reader. He eventually does make the connection, alluding to the fact that Bram's novel was more fact than fiction, but he fails to establish any sort of link between the vampires of Dracula and those of Carpathia. While I'm glad he didn't use the tired old son/daughter/sire of Dracula angle that has been used in so many pseudo-sequels, you can't just make the connection and then let it hang there, with no resolution.
The last part of the story certainly offers up some surprises, especially following the discovery of the vampires' lair deep within the cargo hold, and Forbeck finally offers us some of the carnage we were waiting for. After such a long lull, a lot of significant activity happens very quickly, and there's a 'twist' to the love triangle that I definitely saw coming for a while, but it all makes for a satisfying conclusion. One final note, I have to give him full credit for sticking so well to the conventions, language, and dialogue of the Victorian era - it really does feel like and 'old' story, and there are no jarring incongruities to remind you that it's not.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
merrysociopath's review against another edition
2.0
Trama a grandi linee sennò non si capisce di cosa sto parlando: il Titanic affonda, i passeggeri vengono salvati dal Carpathia, il Carpathia sta trasportando dei vampiri, i vampiri sono affamati.
Non lo so. Sono combattuto.
Da una parte è un romanzo che si prende troppo sul serio. Tratta l'affondamento del Titanic come una tragedia - e, difatti, quello è stato -, ma poi tratta nello stesso modo l'attacco dei vampiri sul Carpathia. Non sono due eventi della stessa gravità, uno è storia, l'altro è fantasia, non si può. D'altra parte, però, è vero che è richiesto un minimo di serietà quando si tratta, nel bene o nel male, di una tragedia storica come l'affondamento del Titanic, e dividere il libro in una prima parte "seriosa" a bordo del Titanic e in una "cazzona" a bordo del Carpathia sarebbe forse stato di cattivo gusto. Insomma, è un libro che parla di una delle più grandi tragedie della storia moderna ma lo fa rileggendola in chiave horror, e forse avrebbe potuto assumersi qualche rischio in più.
Poi ci sono i protagonisti. Sono detestabili, tutti e tre. Lucy è la classica strong and independent woman who needs no man, totalmente anacronistica persino per una che, ci viene detto, è una suffragetta; Quin è un maschio beta, e quindi mi viene veramente difficile simpatizzare per lui; Abe non si capisce da che parte tiri, dice una cosa, poi fa l'esatto opposto, e ogni tre per due ci infila in gola la sua bromance con Quin. Insomma, i protagonisti sono bocciati. Così come lo è lo pseuditriangolo amoroso, prevedibile e, in ultima analisi, suprefluo. D'altra parte, però, i vampiri sono veramente fighi, e fanno tutte quelle cose che uno si aspetta che i vampiri facessero prima che la Meyer e lo stuolo di bimbeminkia scrittevoli che l'hanno seguita li demascolinizzassero.
In buona sostanza Carpathia è la versione letteraria di un b-movie. C'è della goffaggine narrativa, e i protagonisti non sono il massimo, ma si fa leggere e, ogni tanto, si incrocia qualche scena splatter che risolleva una narrazione altrimenti piatta e poco ispirata.
Non lo so. Sono combattuto.
Da una parte è un romanzo che si prende troppo sul serio. Tratta l'affondamento del Titanic come una tragedia - e, difatti, quello è stato -, ma poi tratta nello stesso modo l'attacco dei vampiri sul Carpathia. Non sono due eventi della stessa gravità, uno è storia, l'altro è fantasia, non si può. D'altra parte, però, è vero che è richiesto un minimo di serietà quando si tratta, nel bene o nel male, di una tragedia storica come l'affondamento del Titanic, e dividere il libro in una prima parte "seriosa" a bordo del Titanic e in una "cazzona" a bordo del Carpathia sarebbe forse stato di cattivo gusto. Insomma, è un libro che parla di una delle più grandi tragedie della storia moderna ma lo fa rileggendola in chiave horror, e forse avrebbe potuto assumersi qualche rischio in più.
Poi ci sono i protagonisti. Sono detestabili, tutti e tre. Lucy è la classica strong and independent woman who needs no man, totalmente anacronistica persino per una che, ci viene detto, è una suffragetta; Quin è un maschio beta, e quindi mi viene veramente difficile simpatizzare per lui; Abe non si capisce da che parte tiri, dice una cosa, poi fa l'esatto opposto, e ogni tre per due ci infila in gola la sua bromance con Quin. Insomma, i protagonisti sono bocciati. Così come lo è lo pseuditriangolo amoroso, prevedibile e, in ultima analisi, suprefluo. D'altra parte, però, i vampiri sono veramente fighi, e fanno tutte quelle cose che uno si aspetta che i vampiri facessero prima che la Meyer e lo stuolo di bimbeminkia scrittevoli che l'hanno seguita li demascolinizzassero.
In buona sostanza Carpathia è la versione letteraria di un b-movie. C'è della goffaggine narrativa, e i protagonisti non sono il massimo, ma si fa leggere e, ogni tanto, si incrocia qualche scena splatter che risolleva una narrazione altrimenti piatta e poco ispirata.
jamiezaccaria's review against another edition
3.0
This is the ultimate guilty pleasure read for fans of Dracula. A good form of escapism!
martydah's review against another edition
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.
dunktdunk's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of the better books I have read in the past few months. I really enjoyed the historical aspects to the story coupled with the new vampire craze. An easy, fun, and fast read that kept me entertained till the end. My only complaint follows that of another reviewer, it ended to soon and without really fulfilling the readers expectations and or questions.
tregina's review against another edition
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.
dragonmyste's review against another edition
2.0
1.5
Not unbearable, but not the best. Just glad to have finished. Great concept, poor execution. The storyline wasn't really there to begin with.
Not unbearable, but not the best. Just glad to have finished. Great concept, poor execution. The storyline wasn't really there to begin with.
missuskisses's review against another edition
4.0
Recall Seth Grahame-Smith’s literary mashup Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and his follow-up, the historical mashup, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Matt Forbeck one-ups Mr. Grahame-Smith by combining both literature (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) and history (the Titanic disaster) in Carpathia.
The mashup is fitting: the real rescue ship for the Titanic was named Carpathia, and Dracula himself resided in a castle in the Carpathian Mountains. The timeline works, too: the children of the vampire-slaying heroes in Dracula are approaching college age, just old enough to set sail for America by themselves in 1912.
There’s Quincy “Quin” Harker, son of Jonathan and Mina Murray Harker. There’s Abraham “Abe” Holmwood, son of Arthur Holmwood, who by the end of Dracula becomes Lord Godalming. And then there’s Lucy Seward, daughter of asylum-keeper Dr. John Seward, and likely namesake of Lucy Westenra, the woman-turned-vampire Dr. Seward once wooed.
Quin, Abe, and Lucy were all raised by their parents to believe Dracula a work of fiction. They discover otherwise once they survive the sinking Titanic and board the Carpathia.
Carpathia the book is somewhat hampered by its misleading, though catchy back-cover blurb:
This description led me to believe that this would be a horror novel where survivors are picked off one-by-one by vampires in a claustrophobic setting. It is not. Though Carpathia shares one significant plot-point with 30 Days of Night, readers would be better served if they knew this book was less horror and more camp.
There’s simply no real sense of dread: not when the Titanic sinks, not when the protagonists struggle to survive the icy waters, not when they finally discover that vampires are real. Instead, the book embraces the campiness inherent in the premise; it doesn’t get bogged down by faux-seriousness of the Grahame-Smith books (neither of which I could finish).
My main criticism of Carpathia, then, is that it doesn’t go far enough. Given the pacing, I had thought this would be a “secret history” book. That is, the embarking of the Titanic and the disembarking of the Carpathia would largely conform with history, with only what happens in between being fantasy, albeit a fantasy discreet enough to be known only by a few. When this theory is debunked, I wondered why more liberties weren’t taken earlier. If we were going to go “all-out” in the end, why not start the party sooner?
Still, fans enticed by the premise behind Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter but felt let down by Grahame-Smith’s dry execution can take solace in the wickedly gleeful Carpathia.
I won a copy of the book as part of Angry Robot’s 5-year anniversary celebration.
The mashup is fitting: the real rescue ship for the Titanic was named Carpathia, and Dracula himself resided in a castle in the Carpathian Mountains. The timeline works, too: the children of the vampire-slaying heroes in Dracula are approaching college age, just old enough to set sail for America by themselves in 1912.
There’s Quincy “Quin” Harker, son of Jonathan and Mina Murray Harker. There’s Abraham “Abe” Holmwood, son of Arthur Holmwood, who by the end of Dracula becomes Lord Godalming. And then there’s Lucy Seward, daughter of asylum-keeper Dr. John Seward, and likely namesake of Lucy Westenra, the woman-turned-vampire Dr. Seward once wooed.
Quin, Abe, and Lucy were all raised by their parents to believe Dracula a work of fiction. They discover otherwise once they survive the sinking Titanic and board the Carpathia.
Carpathia the book is somewhat hampered by its misleading, though catchy back-cover blurb:
It’s Titanic meets 30 Days of Night in the most original novel for 100 years.
When the lucky survivors of the world’s most infamous maritime disaster were plucked out of the freezing ocean by the passenger steamship Carpathia, they thought their problems were over.
But something was sleeping in the darkest recesses of their rescue ship. Something old. Something hungry.
This description led me to believe that this would be a horror novel where survivors are picked off one-by-one by vampires in a claustrophobic setting. It is not. Though Carpathia shares one significant plot-point with 30 Days of Night, readers would be better served if they knew this book was less horror and more camp.
There’s simply no real sense of dread: not when the Titanic sinks, not when the protagonists struggle to survive the icy waters, not when they finally discover that vampires are real. Instead, the book embraces the campiness inherent in the premise; it doesn’t get bogged down by faux-seriousness of the Grahame-Smith books (neither of which I could finish).
My main criticism of Carpathia, then, is that it doesn’t go far enough. Given the pacing, I had thought this would be a “secret history” book. That is, the embarking of the Titanic and the disembarking of the Carpathia would largely conform with history, with only what happens in between being fantasy, albeit a fantasy discreet enough to be known only by a few. When this theory is debunked, I wondered why more liberties weren’t taken earlier. If we were going to go “all-out” in the end, why not start the party sooner?
Still, fans enticed by the premise behind Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter but felt let down by Grahame-Smith’s dry execution can take solace in the wickedly gleeful Carpathia.
I won a copy of the book as part of Angry Robot’s 5-year anniversary celebration.