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bookiesanta's review against another edition
4.0
This was my Halloween book this year, and I can honestly say this is the best vampire book I've ever read. Which is to say...better than Dracula or Twilight. Or the Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter piece of crap.
No, the bar was not set high.
But I did really like Anno Dracula, the storyline of which is basically: Imagine if Dracula beat Van Helsing, started turning Londoners willy-nilly, then decided to marry Queen Victoria and usher in a vampire-friendly version of the British Empire. And then imagine Jack-The-Ripper was there, killing vampires. I couldn't recognize many of the various fictional characters who popped up, but the few I did (Dr Jekyll, Mycroft Holmes, Count Orlok) were well presented and ultimately fun. Newman's take on Vampires was smart, and I even (shock!) liked the love story. (Because there is some law that you can't write vampires without it ultimately being a love story)
No, the bar was not set high.
But I did really like Anno Dracula, the storyline of which is basically: Imagine if Dracula beat Van Helsing, started turning Londoners willy-nilly, then decided to marry Queen Victoria and usher in a vampire-friendly version of the British Empire. And then imagine Jack-The-Ripper was there, killing vampires. I couldn't recognize many of the various fictional characters who popped up, but the few I did (Dr Jekyll, Mycroft Holmes, Count Orlok) were well presented and ultimately fun. Newman's take on Vampires was smart, and I even (shock!) liked the love story. (Because there is some law that you can't write vampires without it ultimately being a love story)
dantastic's review against another edition
5.0
It's 1888, Dracula hooked up with Queen Victoria, London is crawling with vampires, and a killer called the Silver Knife is preying on vampire prostitutes...
People have been recommending this for years. I should have caved in 20 years ago because this is right in my wheelhouse.
The closest thing I can liken this to is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, although this is prose and not in comic form, although it would make a kick ass comic. Kim Newman weaves in all sorts of references to Victorian characters, both real and imagined, in Charles Beauregard's quest to find the Silver Knife killer that is soon dubbed Jack the Ripper.
Anno Dracula supposes that Bram Stoker was in cahoots with Van Helsing and company and Dracula did not in fact die at the end of Dracula and instead married Queen Victoria. It makes 1880s London seem pretty bleak with starving vampires and whatnot lurking in the alleys. The setting is inventive enough but the two strong leads, Beauregard and Genevieve, elevate this above most genre fiction. Newman creates a rich culture of humans and vampires coexisting in a world quickly going down the crapper and Beauregard and Genevieve are two beacons in the dark.
I don't really want to reveal anything else for fear of spoilage. I haven't been this wrapped up in a book in ages and I was disappointed to find out the last 20% was annotations, which I skipped since I plan on rereading this every few years. Easy five out of five stars.
People have been recommending this for years. I should have caved in 20 years ago because this is right in my wheelhouse.
The closest thing I can liken this to is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, although this is prose and not in comic form, although it would make a kick ass comic. Kim Newman weaves in all sorts of references to Victorian characters, both real and imagined, in Charles Beauregard's quest to find the Silver Knife killer that is soon dubbed Jack the Ripper.
Anno Dracula supposes that Bram Stoker was in cahoots with Van Helsing and company and Dracula did not in fact die at the end of Dracula and instead married Queen Victoria. It makes 1880s London seem pretty bleak with starving vampires and whatnot lurking in the alleys. The setting is inventive enough but the two strong leads, Beauregard and Genevieve, elevate this above most genre fiction. Newman creates a rich culture of humans and vampires coexisting in a world quickly going down the crapper and Beauregard and Genevieve are two beacons in the dark.
I don't really want to reveal anything else for fear of spoilage. I haven't been this wrapped up in a book in ages and I was disappointed to find out the last 20% was annotations, which I skipped since I plan on rereading this every few years. Easy five out of five stars.
michaelcattigan's review
4.0
I have a confession.
I love Dracula. Both the character and Stoker's novel.
And I love vampires.
Not the sparkly, fairy, effete version populating Meyer's asinine attempts at fiction ("Dear Dracula, do you remember that one night seventeen years ago? Well, we need to talk. Sincerely, Tinkerbell") but full blown raging bloodlust sensual sexual visceral vampires. Buffy's Angel and werewolves may be a tortured soul trapped in a bestial form struggling to contain their animal appetites (which has its own appeal) but a real true dyed-in-the-wool vampire revels in and relishes their evil.
The concept for this book, then, had an automatic appeal: Dracula had arrived in England; he seduced and turned Lucy Westenra who is dispatched by the forces of light comprising Arthur Holmwood, John Seward and Quincey Morris. As the forces of light attempt to track down Dracula, he turns his attention to Mina Harker. At this point, Newman's narrative departs from Stoker's: Dracula kills Jonathan Harker and Quincey Morris; he seduces Queen Victoria and becomes Prince Consort; a world of vampires flocks to England to make a stab at (or to take a bite at) an openly vampiric life.
History and fiction mingle in Newman's tale: Stoker and Van Helsing are both characters; Inspectors Lestrade and Abberline work side by side; Sherlock Holmes has been incarcerated in a 'warm' concentration camp; doctors Moreau and Jekyll investigate vampire physiology. Vampires from fiction abound from Lord Rothven (appropriately for the first literary vampire in Polidori's The Vampyre now Prime Minister to less familiar names such as Kostaki, von Klatka and Count Vardalek.
As a self confessed geek, there is an undeniable delight in recognising the various recreations and re-imaginings of famous and less famous characters.
Had that been the only pleasure, though, this would have been a thin, poor novel. Fortunately, it is not the only pleasure: Newman's story remains rooted in the final years of the nineteenth century and focusses on the Jack the Ripper murders. The Ripper's victims, Nichols, Chapman, Stride, Eddowes and Kelly remain prostitutes in Whitechapel but are now vampire prostitutes and their murders attract the attention of Scotland Yard; Queen Victoria herself; the shadowy Diogenes Club headed by Mycroft Holmes (which exists somewhere between diplomacy and warfare on behalf of the Queen); the criminal spider's web headed by Fu Manchu, the Lord of Strange Deaths, and Professor Moriarty; and the philanthropic hospital and charity of Toynbee Hall.
Our main characters are Geneviève Dieudonné and Charles Beauregard. Geneviève is a four hundred year old Vampire elder who works as assistant director of the Hall under Dracula's Jack Seward; Charles is an agent of the Diogenes Club and, through them, the Queen. Geneviève in particular is a quite compelling character: turned at the age of sixteen and remaining in a sixteen year old body, she remains a strong moral anchor in the world. Enough of her history and powers are hinted at that she comes across as indomitable throughout the novel even though we never truly see her unleash that power. Charles Beauregard by contrast is a lesser character: mired in duty and obligation to his Queen, his fiancée and his deceased wife he is so much less confident and compelling than Geneviève.
The novel conjures up all the expected cliches of Victorian London with Hanson cabs, fogs and gas lamps yet manages to remain fresh and convincing. The addition of the vampires into the social sink of Whitechapel, where a threepenny could buy you both a roll in the hay and a blood letting, deepens the griminess of the area. One woman in a particularly unpleasant image trails the streets of Whitechapel with two children in tow (which may or may not be her own) to pimp their blood to passing vampires.
The vampires themselves are not quite the full blooded bloodsuckers I had hoped for. The magic and superstition of Dracula is stripped away, as is their antipathy to crosses and holy water and garlic. These vampires are more natural than Stoker's: they're still preternaturally strong, heal almost instantly from most injuries, have a various abilities depending on their bloodlines including almost psychic sensitivity to others' thoughts or shapeshifting; sunlight can burn newly turned vampires and silver can prevent wounds from closing. It is from this silver that Jack the Ripper is dubbed Silverknife before the Ripper moniker is attached to him.
There is a wider larger plot behind the efforts to track down the Ripper but in fear of spoilers I shall not dwell on that. It did manage to take me by surprise in the final hour of the audiobook!
joelkarpowitz's review against another edition
4.0
Well, it's about time I admitted that I am something of a nerd. After reading something so weighty (in every sense of the word) as Moby Dick, I needed something light and frothy to enjoy and ended up with Anno Dracula in my hand after a trip to the bookstore. It was a Neil Gaiman comment on the cover that first drew me to it, because Gaiman's American Gods and Anansi Boys are two of my favorite fantasy novels. I didn't learn (until several chapters in) that Anno Dracula was actually first published a couple of decades ago. In fact, it already has two sequels and a third on the way.
That's actually good news, because I really ended up enjoying it.
Set in an alternate world in which both vampires and the events of Dracula are real--except that Dracula did not lose at the end of the novel, but in fact went on to mesmerize and marry Queen Victoria. Thus vampires are now free to come out of hiding and converge in Victorian England, where politics, love, and Jack the Ripper all come to get mingled together.
So, clearly, this is not for everyone. In fact, you probably already know whether or not you would ever pick up.
I really appreciated the fun the author had with the novel. Do you know your famous vampires from movies or literature? They probably make an appearance here. How about Victorian lit? Do the names Jekyll, Moreau, or Lestrade mean anything to you? Look for cameos by them as well. Newman hit the idea of the gothic mash-up out of the park years before the genre reached the public consciousness with books like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and he creates compelling original characters to boot.
As I said, I have no delusions that this is a book anyone else would enjoy besides me, but if you like supernatural fiction, and "spot-the-reference" games, and like a grown-up take on vampires, the book is a lot of fun. I'll pick up the next two in the series sight unseen--in fact, I'm looking forward to them even more, since one is set in World War I and one is set in the world of James Bond. Good times.
That's actually good news, because I really ended up enjoying it.
Set in an alternate world in which both vampires and the events of Dracula are real--except that Dracula did not lose at the end of the novel, but in fact went on to mesmerize and marry Queen Victoria. Thus vampires are now free to come out of hiding and converge in Victorian England, where politics, love, and Jack the Ripper all come to get mingled together.
So, clearly, this is not for everyone. In fact, you probably already know whether or not you would ever pick up.
I really appreciated the fun the author had with the novel. Do you know your famous vampires from movies or literature? They probably make an appearance here. How about Victorian lit? Do the names Jekyll, Moreau, or Lestrade mean anything to you? Look for cameos by them as well. Newman hit the idea of the gothic mash-up out of the park years before the genre reached the public consciousness with books like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and he creates compelling original characters to boot.
As I said, I have no delusions that this is a book anyone else would enjoy besides me, but if you like supernatural fiction, and "spot-the-reference" games, and like a grown-up take on vampires, the book is a lot of fun. I'll pick up the next two in the series sight unseen--in fact, I'm looking forward to them even more, since one is set in World War I and one is set in the world of James Bond. Good times.
dontpanic42's review
2.0
The basic concept of this book is genius: we're in Victorian London, in an alternate reality where Count Dracula was not fended off but survived to become the prince consort to Queen Victoria. His move leads to vampires becoming commonplace, and so we see a society where vampires are not only interspersed with the "warm", but social advancement almost demands turning into a vampire. Elder vampires emerge from the shadows, and Newman's knowledge of vampire lore is apparently limitless--he depicts vampires from different traditions and distinct bloodlines, each with their own attributes. These elder vampires conflict with the new-borns, and they all conflict with the warm.
With this concept in mind, Newman also starts to paint the picture of how the emergence of vampires into power has affected the whole of English society. Dissidents, and anyone else perceived to be a threat, are sent off to concentration camps. Dracula (known as Vlad Tepes) is a ruthless ruler who periodically sends out his Carpathian Guard to violently enforce his laws. The English aristocracy is depicted as using the opportunity to turn into a vampire as just another step to move up the social chain. And one angry Christian dissident, John Jago, leads protesting mobs against the vampires.
In the midst of all of this, a serial killer is on the loose: Jack the Ripper. The twist is that he's killing vampire prostitutes. Now, there is never any mystery about who Jack is, so the plot of the book focuses on the pursuit of Jack by Charles Beauregard, a warm agent of the mysterious Diogenes Club, and Genevieve Dieudonne, a centuries-old vampire who is permanently in the body of a 16-year-old. There is also some involvement by a cabal of criminals, along with some newspaper folks. We also see cameos by people real and fictional, including Oscar Wilde and Drs. Jekyll and Moreau.
There's a lot going on here, and I think that's precisely the reason the book didn't live up to its promise. Newman has all of these great ideas, but in putting them all together, he sacrifices in-depth exploration of any particular area. The concentration camps are only vaguely hinted at, the social upheaval is seen but the foundations are not well-developed, and the machinations of government (particularly in the police force) are hard to follow. The mysterious criminal cabal shows up early on and then mostly disappears. The characters are also poorly-developed, and as a result it's hard to believe in the motivations of any individual character to take the steps they choose. And the plot doesn't work all that well as a straight thriller, because the reader knows the solution to the mystery, and at moments the reader cannot help but feel that the folks investigating are simply being stupid in not recognizing the answer. And the plot takes a very strange turn in the last chapter, which attempts to tie everything up far too quickly and neatly.
As I said, there are a lot of great ideas here, and I give the author an A+ for imagination. I can tell that he has a full picture in mind of this society that he's trying to depict, and there is a great deal of potential for interesting exploration of politics and society in this world he creates. Unfortunately, Newman tries to cram it all into an average-length novel while also plotting a mystery/thriller, and the result is that every individual aspect comes up short. I understand that more books are planned in this series: I'll be interested to see whether Newman can use those opportunities to go in a bit more depth and create something more satisfying as a whole.
With this concept in mind, Newman also starts to paint the picture of how the emergence of vampires into power has affected the whole of English society. Dissidents, and anyone else perceived to be a threat, are sent off to concentration camps. Dracula (known as Vlad Tepes) is a ruthless ruler who periodically sends out his Carpathian Guard to violently enforce his laws. The English aristocracy is depicted as using the opportunity to turn into a vampire as just another step to move up the social chain. And one angry Christian dissident, John Jago, leads protesting mobs against the vampires.
In the midst of all of this, a serial killer is on the loose: Jack the Ripper. The twist is that he's killing vampire prostitutes. Now, there is never any mystery about who Jack is, so the plot of the book focuses on the pursuit of Jack by Charles Beauregard, a warm agent of the mysterious Diogenes Club, and Genevieve Dieudonne, a centuries-old vampire who is permanently in the body of a 16-year-old. There is also some involvement by a cabal of criminals, along with some newspaper folks. We also see cameos by people real and fictional, including Oscar Wilde and Drs. Jekyll and Moreau.
There's a lot going on here, and I think that's precisely the reason the book didn't live up to its promise. Newman has all of these great ideas, but in putting them all together, he sacrifices in-depth exploration of any particular area. The concentration camps are only vaguely hinted at, the social upheaval is seen but the foundations are not well-developed, and the machinations of government (particularly in the police force) are hard to follow. The mysterious criminal cabal shows up early on and then mostly disappears. The characters are also poorly-developed, and as a result it's hard to believe in the motivations of any individual character to take the steps they choose. And the plot doesn't work all that well as a straight thriller, because the reader knows the solution to the mystery, and at moments the reader cannot help but feel that the folks investigating are simply being stupid in not recognizing the answer. And the plot takes a very strange turn in the last chapter, which attempts to tie everything up far too quickly and neatly.
As I said, there are a lot of great ideas here, and I give the author an A+ for imagination. I can tell that he has a full picture in mind of this society that he's trying to depict, and there is a great deal of potential for interesting exploration of politics and society in this world he creates. Unfortunately, Newman tries to cram it all into an average-length novel while also plotting a mystery/thriller, and the result is that every individual aspect comes up short. I understand that more books are planned in this series: I'll be interested to see whether Newman can use those opportunities to go in a bit more depth and create something more satisfying as a whole.
kenmooney's review against another edition
4.0
As if alternate history wasn't enough, now there's vampires too; Anno Dracula proposes that Dracula wasn't defeated at the end of Bram Stoker's novel, but instead rose through the ranks of the British court, marrying Queen Victoria. On top of this, someone's going around Whitechapel killing wenches. Could that be Jack The Ripper?
Anno Dracula is an enjoyable read, even a romp through the late 19th century, with more than a few nods and winks to other contemporary characters and fictions; you don't need to be familiar with Stoker's text to appreciate the book, but you'll get a lot more out of it if you have.
There's a few things I didn't like: the identity of the ripper is there from the first chapter, leaving us instead with a story that focuses on the characters (and their interactions) and the city of London itself. So why is it that the book's ending feels so flat, like so much of it is cheating us out of an epilogue and closure?
Anno Dracula is an enjoyable read, even a romp through the late 19th century, with more than a few nods and winks to other contemporary characters and fictions; you don't need to be familiar with Stoker's text to appreciate the book, but you'll get a lot more out of it if you have.
There's a few things I didn't like: the identity of the ripper is there from the first chapter, leaving us instead with a story that focuses on the characters (and their interactions) and the city of London itself. So why is it that the book's ending feels so flat, like so much of it is cheating us out of an epilogue and closure?
read2create's review against another edition
5.0
A vampire story set in Victorian England, written in the gothic style with diction to match. It’s a spin on a classic tale of gothic horror with added elements of spycraft, political intrigue, and a tale of manners. Whole you know the main villains from the onset, how our heroes accomplish their goal (or are set on paths by higher powers) and face off against the minor villains is the meat of the story.
All in all, beautifully written with delicious descriptions and filled with Easter eggs for the well read reader. A perfect rompy, slightly sexy gothic tale.
All in all, beautifully written with delicious descriptions and filled with Easter eggs for the well read reader. A perfect rompy, slightly sexy gothic tale.
branch_c's review against another edition
3.0
This is certainly not one of those vampire books of the type that's become so popular these days, which ought to be a good thing. And Beauregard and Genevieve are certainly interesting characters. I was less interested in the retold Ripper story though, and that of vampiric London. This seems like the type of book I should like - I do enjoy historical fantasy, even dark fantasy - but the dark stuff here goes over the edge into horror. I'm sure it's tame for those who like that sort of thing, and I give Newman credit for some good parts, but overall I just didn't like it as much as I wanted to.
mgnraisin's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
loonyboi's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book, an alternative history novel in which Dracula marries Queen Victoria, thus becoming the Prince Consort. But the book isn't really about that. It's actually about the hunt for Jack the Ripper (this is Victorian England) who in a nice twist, is actually a Vampire hunter, killing bloodsucking (but legal) ladies-of-the-night. It's clever, and well-written, and includes a smattering of both real (Oscar Wilde!) and fictional (Doctors Moreau and Jekyll!). And that's just the first layer. As shown in the welcome annotations at the end, this book is loaded with references to a staggering number of Vampire movies, from classics like Nosferatu to the less-fondly remembered Blacula.
In any event, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, and heartily recommend it to others.
In any event, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, and heartily recommend it to others.