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patchworkbunny's review against another edition
3.0
Dracula lives! He has infiltrated his way into court and taken his place beside Queen Victoria. Those who tried to destroy him are nothing more than shrivelled heads on the pikes outside the palace. Vampires are flooding London society. But in Whitechapel, someone is brutally slaying female vampires and it falls to ancient vampire Geneviève Dieudonné and Charles Beauregard of the infamous Diogenes Club to rid the streets of the killer.
I read Anno Dracula after signing up for a book club with the author, so the impending deadline may have affected my overall enjoyment. However it did take me a long time to get into the story; there are so many characters, even if many are familiar. I wouldn’t suggest reading this without having read Dracula, and quite recently (unless you are an uber fan). The characters aren’t just from Dracula, but other novels, either its contemporaries or set in the same timeline. The result is a rather interesting take on historical fiction, with the exception of Jack the Ripper, it’s a fiction based on fictional characters, rather than using persons of interest from history.
The book club discussion with Kim Newman was still interesting despite me not falling in love with the book. The piecing together of others’ fictional characters is clearly at the heart of this series and something Newman really enjoys. I asked about the decision to use Jack the Ripper, whether it was an interest in him or just the convenience of his place in history. The serial killer provides the backbone to the novel and also a timeline that allows the story to take place over several weeks.
I liked Geneviève’s story most of all and I wish she had more page space. She’s older than Dracula but hasn’t turned into a monster. She’s been hiding from humans most her long life (or death) but hasn’t turned against them. The relationship between her and Beauregard gives the novel a bit more of an emotional touch. My main quibble is that there’s just too much going on for anyone one thing to really shine.
Anno Dracula has turned into a series, but one where each book takes place in a different moment in time; something that can be done with vampires of course. There’s no need to keep within the lifetime of an average human. Newman did say that he would find it hard to set the next book in recent history; we don't have the same distance that allows a certain freedom in stories set further away. He has pondered a far future setting as well as moving East; perhaps bringing back that scary Chinese vampire assassin!
I read Anno Dracula after signing up for a book club with the author, so the impending deadline may have affected my overall enjoyment. However it did take me a long time to get into the story; there are so many characters, even if many are familiar. I wouldn’t suggest reading this without having read Dracula, and quite recently (unless you are an uber fan). The characters aren’t just from Dracula, but other novels, either its contemporaries or set in the same timeline. The result is a rather interesting take on historical fiction, with the exception of Jack the Ripper, it’s a fiction based on fictional characters, rather than using persons of interest from history.
The book club discussion with Kim Newman was still interesting despite me not falling in love with the book. The piecing together of others’ fictional characters is clearly at the heart of this series and something Newman really enjoys. I asked about the decision to use Jack the Ripper, whether it was an interest in him or just the convenience of his place in history. The serial killer provides the backbone to the novel and also a timeline that allows the story to take place over several weeks.
I liked Geneviève’s story most of all and I wish she had more page space. She’s older than Dracula but hasn’t turned into a monster. She’s been hiding from humans most her long life (or death) but hasn’t turned against them. The relationship between her and Beauregard gives the novel a bit more of an emotional touch. My main quibble is that there’s just too much going on for anyone one thing to really shine.
Anno Dracula has turned into a series, but one where each book takes place in a different moment in time; something that can be done with vampires of course. There’s no need to keep within the lifetime of an average human. Newman did say that he would find it hard to set the next book in recent history; we don't have the same distance that allows a certain freedom in stories set further away. He has pondered a far future setting as well as moving East; perhaps bringing back that scary Chinese vampire assassin!
emmahayward's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
sgarland990's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
sgarland990's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
picklebread's review
5.0
What if Queen Victoria married Dracula? In this case, an awful lot of murders. Unfortunately Sherlock Holmes has been shipped off to a concentration camp in the South Downs so the lads are on their own for this one.
This was a great book with some funny moments and good twists. Initially it was quite slow going but I definitely got into it and got invested in the characters further into the book.
This was a great book with some funny moments and good twists. Initially it was quite slow going but I definitely got into it and got invested in the characters further into the book.
mattbowes's review against another edition
4.0
Anno Dracula is another work of alternate history from Newman, one that provides a lot of the same pleasures as Back in the U.S.S.A., where part of the fun was figuring out who was a real person and who was fictional. In the 1888 of the novel, Victorian England is in the throes of becoming a vampire-run state after the wedding of the Queen to Vlad Tepes, aka. Dracula, a couple of years earlier. As Prince Consort, Dracula has made vampirism fashionable amongst the upper classes, and the more physical advantages of increased longevity and strength have also filtered down to London’s poorest in an example of trickle-down necronomics.
Charles Beauregard, a still-”warm” spy working for an organization known as the Diogenes Club, is brought into an investigation into the murders of vampire prostitutes in Whitechapel by a maniac known only by the nom de guerre of Silver Knife. During the course of his investigation Beauregard meets Genevieve Dieudonne, a French vampire from a different bloodline than Dracula’s, who runs a halfway house/hospital for newly-turned vampires and joins forces with him to crack the case.
Check out the rest of my review at This Nerding Life: http://thisnerdinglife.com/2014/03/19/late-to-the-party-anno-dracula-by-kim-newman-1992/
Charles Beauregard, a still-”warm” spy working for an organization known as the Diogenes Club, is brought into an investigation into the murders of vampire prostitutes in Whitechapel by a maniac known only by the nom de guerre of Silver Knife. During the course of his investigation Beauregard meets Genevieve Dieudonne, a French vampire from a different bloodline than Dracula’s, who runs a halfway house/hospital for newly-turned vampires and joins forces with him to crack the case.
Check out the rest of my review at This Nerding Life: http://thisnerdinglife.com/2014/03/19/late-to-the-party-anno-dracula-by-kim-newman-1992/
kerry2046's review
3.0
It was good but once again my heart wasn't in the story until the freaking last chapter
wildfaeriecaps's review against another edition
4.0
I haven't read very many novels that make me stop and gasp at how well the author uses words. While the story was compelling (and all the famous side characters kept me smiling), it was the masterful use of language that really drew me in.
lindseysparks's review
3.0
Ryan spotted this in a used bookstore and showed it to me because of the blurb by Neil Gaiman. This was a fun read that asks what would have happened if Van Helsing's group didn't defeat Dracula and he was able to take over England like he planned. Dracula marries Queen Victoria and now vampires can live in the open. But not everyone is happy with this.
The book includes numerous characters from other works such as Mycroft Holmes, Lestrade, Jekyll/Hyde, Dr. Moreau, and the rest of the Van Helsing gang. Reading this right after reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a bit odd because many of the same characters appear in both. It made it all feel a bit more real.
The plot centers around the Jack the Ripper murders and had a bizarre fun twist - what if the murderer was killing vampires? It messes with your mind when you start rooting for him but then remember he was real and these are real women and then you feel awful.
This is the first in a series and I'll read the others at some point. The edition I have is a reprint (with a much better cover) and has a bunch of stuff at the end about alternate endings, a screen play and supplemental stories that were quite fun and clarified a few things I felt like were a little muddled in the actual novel. Because the story switches perspectives quite a bit there were a few times I got a little confused or wondered if something was was what we the reader were supposed to think of just what that character was thinking. Some of the character's motives got a bit muddled and the end was a little jumbled for me but I did enjoy it and recommend to fans of Dracula. I'm not sure how enjoyable it would be if you haven't read that first.
The book includes numerous characters from other works such as Mycroft Holmes, Lestrade, Jekyll/Hyde, Dr. Moreau, and the rest of the Van Helsing gang. Reading this right after reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a bit odd because many of the same characters appear in both. It made it all feel a bit more real.
The plot centers around the Jack the Ripper murders and had a bizarre fun twist - what if the murderer was killing vampires? It messes with your mind when you start rooting for him but then remember he was real and these are real women and then you feel awful.
This is the first in a series and I'll read the others at some point. The edition I have is a reprint (with a much better cover) and has a bunch of stuff at the end about alternate endings, a screen play and supplemental stories that were quite fun and clarified a few things I felt like were a little muddled in the actual novel. Because the story switches perspectives quite a bit there were a few times I got a little confused or wondered if something was was what we the reader were supposed to think of just what that character was thinking. Some of the character's motives got a bit muddled and the end was a little jumbled for me but I did enjoy it and recommend to fans of Dracula. I'm not sure how enjoyable it would be if you haven't read that first.