Dracula: The Undead (2009)
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Fiction Review by The Undertaker
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10.10.09
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By Dacre Stoker & Ian Holt
As you buried.com readers know, I don't post many fiction reviews (or movie reviews lately as far as that goes hehehehe!), so this will be a surprise for all of us. Surprising in the fact that I can actually read and that I'd review a "vampire" book at that. Personally, I've been over the whole vampire genre for years. Bloodsuckers are the most prolific and over-hyped monsters of all. There's just too much and too many movies, books, plastic fangs, Goth kids walking around the mall with their own "vampire" covens, and now the whole Twilight thing....eeeegahh! Done with it.
Of all the Vampire crap around, the only thing that interests me anymore is Dracula, the original films, books, and legends. So when Dutton Publishing got in touch about a new book they had, a direct sequel to Bram Stokers Dracula written by a Stoker (Dacre Stoker, a great-grand nephew) and Ian Holt a die-hard Dracula fan & historian, I was honestly interested to see what was up. Now, I wouldn't go buy a vampire book if Obama gave me bail-out money to go get it, but I would buy this, even though, thankfully, now I don't have to. This book is worth the cash and the effort to own!
Here's why. It picks up around 25 years after Dracula's death with the same characters and how their taste of the Count as affected their lives. The Harkers' have a son who's clueless about his parents past and their fight with Dracula. Van Helsing is a shadow of his former self; the years and events of his life have taken an obvious toll. Dr. Seward has really fallen in life. Drugs and memories are crushing the man, but does he have something left in him? Arthur Holmwood has become a bitter, regretful man. The Harkers' marriage is not a happy one, and is falling apart as the years go by. Their son Quincey, a would-be actor, is enjoying life in France, though not doing quite what his father would like. Things go downhill fast for all soon enough. Who or what is the cause? Was Dracula truly defeated? Who is hunting down those responsible for the Counts' death? Why is Countess Elizabeth Bathory rearing her head? Interested yet?? Hell..of course you are, so you have to get this book and read it fast to find out. Trust me ...it's worth it.
This book is fast-paced, action-packed, takes many twists and turns, and will leave you satisfied in the end. I'd call Dracula : The Undead a great sequel to Dracula and a worthy sequel... not just some shit thrown together to make a quick buck off the Stoker name, Dracula mythos, and Halloween month. If I took time to read it and wrote this, you know it must be cool. You'll have your claws around this thing from 1st page to the end and won't wanna let go! I loved the inner dust jacket which has a letter from Mina Harker to her son that is only to be opened in the event of her untimely, unnatural death. In it, She tells her son some of her past and warns him of the future, of Dracula, and vampires, and how he will need to be strong...and not run, but to FIGHT! That letter on the jacket will pull you in as nothing else could...great touch and marketing hahaha.
The places the story goes, the historical aspects, the characterizations all add up to a classic you need to read and have in your library. So what exactly transpires here? Details? Who did what to whom? Sorry, I won't give up or bring out our dead. You'll have to read it for yourself; not too much to ask is it? Let's just say you'll be in for a few surprises and you won't figure things out quite as easily as you may think. What better to have in October, just before Halloween, than a sequel to Dracula? Nothing!
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Rating: nan out of 10.0 - votes cast total
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