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A review by dontpanic42
Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
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.